Take a tour of Calgary's sandstone legacy with Lougheed House

A city's history is often defined through people,eventsor conflicts.

But Calgary's LougheedHouse has created a new exhibit, calledFormed by Sand,that tells how Calgary's cultural identity was shaped through sandstone. It includesa map to help visitors take a self-directed walking tour.

"LougheedHouseis not the only sandstonebuildingin the city. There's dozens of them around," LougheedHouse curator Caroline Loewen toldThe HomestretchWednesday.

Old City Hall reno about heritage preservation

6 years ago

Duration 2:33

Old City Hall reno about heritage preservation

"We wanted people to expand what they're thinking about and actually get people out walking, get their feet on the ground to see some of these sites."

The tour includes a few of Calgary's classic sandstone schools,including Connaught School which is still operating as well as King Edward School, which has been repurposed into thecSPACEarts incubator.

Those are only a couple of what were approximately 70 buildings built of sandstone, following a traumatizing 1886 fire in downtown that resulted in a new city regulation requiringnew buildings in the fire zonebe made of brick or stone.

"There have been about 15 knocked down so Calgaryhas done a pretty good job of maintaining its sandstone heritage. That leaves about 50-odd buildings throughout the city and they really are scattered throughout the city," said Loewen.

Plentiful access to the sedimentary rock

Why sandstone? It turns out Calgary was awash in the stuff.

"Sandstonewas incredibly plentiful and still is in Alberta," Loewen said.

"We're underlain by the Paskapooformation, which is a large sandstoneformation laid down about 60 million years ago. There's outcroppings of it along river valleys and coulees and so quarries started opening up, and the boom began," Loewen said.

"Some of earliest quarries were in Edworthy Park ... whichopened in 1885."

Another was Butland Quarryon the Elbow Riverclose to the Calgary Golf and Country Club, which is where the sandstone that built the LougheedHouse came from.

From boom to bust

Sandstone didn't lose its lustre. The economy did.

The outbreak of the First World War caused a huge surge of enlisted men to ship off to Europe. Industry slowed down.

And according to Loewen, there were problems between two unions who were essential to the sandstone building business: stone cutters and stone masons.

"A lot of people probably think they do the same thing, but actually there was a real division of labour between the twounions, and there was disagreements and strikes and arguments between the unions that led to just unrest in the labour market and instability."

Quarries closed

Today there's a genuine reverence for Calgary's sandstone heritage. King Edward School's sandstone exteriorwas preserved when cSPACE was built, even as the interior was gutted. Old City Hallis undergoinga costly renovationto preserve its sandstone facade.

So why aren't people building with sandstone any more?

"Now, it's almost impossible to source," Loewen said.

"All of the quarries were closed. We're still underlain by that huge Paskapoo Formation sandstone is still everywhere but there are no active quarries open. So if you want to source sandstonein the city, you can't. We actually import sandstone from overseas and the U.S.for restoration of buildings, including City Hall."

The exhibition

Loewensays Formed by Sand is a combination of historical documents, historical photos, sandstone samplesand images of quarries, as well as a collection of contemporary artworks. The exhibit runs atLougheedHouse until Sept. 30.

"We invited 15 artists to give their interpretations of sandstone. And so their work, and the way they've interpreted Calgary's cultural identityas it relates to sand, is throughout the house."

Soif LougheedHouse needs a little sandstone patchwork, who do they call?

"Good question," Loewen said.

"We have a list of masons who know how to work with stone, and know how to remove pieces, or do patchwork on stone. But several times over the past decade we've had to [call them] [in part] becausesandstone is only meant to last about 100 years. It wears down quite quickly."

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With files from The Homestretch