Located on 28 Ave between Centre Street and 1 Street NE, the 1920 original school building and the 1956 annex have been in the City of Calgary’s possession for several years after purchasing the buildings and land from the CBE. Both buildings have not been used in years and are in extremely poor condition.
TPCA has been pressuring the City to better maintain the buildings and move forward with decision making for the property for years. TPCA has been told that the City has a 10-to-20-year facility strategy and that this property was in a “holding” phase. However, the City has now decided to demolish the annex (the newer 1956 building) starting in the spring of 2025 and finishing at the end of summer 2025, while continuing to hold the 1920 original building.
The 1920 building is on Heritage Calgary’s watchlist. The City states “The City respects Calgary’s heritage buildings and wants to save the historic 1920 school… Right now, the heritage school is being kept in cold storage until we make a conservation plan and find funding to fix it”.
Once the annex building comes down, the City plans to gravel the area, although TPCA is pressuring the City to place grass as an alternative. Unfortunately, the basketball hoop on the North side of the school will likely be removed with the annex. TPCA is also pressuring the City to retain or rebuild a basketball hoop, although it’s a derelict area, the hoop is greatly used and we feel strongly about keeping public, accessible assets in our community for residents. TPCA has obtained a letter of support from Sport Calgary to maintain a basketball asset in the area. We will continue to ask the City to work on a solution.
It is important to advocate for your community needs, it makes a difference and makes our community better. Ways to advocate:
1. Use 3-1-1 to report any vandalism, issues, dereliction, bylaw infractions – we need 3-1-1 calls to make the City take action!
2. Write your Councillor Terry Wong: [email protected].
3. Send TPCA your thoughts: [email protected].
For questions regarding the future use of the school site, please email [email protected].
1920 Building
1956 Annex
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