At the Place Matters! Municipal Heritage Forum back in November 2012, we heard about a highly successful community program called “Century Homes Calgary.” This initiative engaged hundreds of Calgarians in showcasing the unique heritage of their 100-year old homes, with over 500 homes participating.
In June 2012, the Alberta Historical Resources Foundation awarded a Heritage Awareness Grant for this creative initiative.
Recently, the Century Homes Calgary project, and its parent organization the Calgary Heritage Initiative Society, received recognition as the 2012 English winner of the prestigious Governor General’s Award for Community Programming.
Here are the two presentations made at the Forum about the Century Homes Calgary project:
The group’s presentation at our Forum generated a lot of interest from other communities to learn how they could develop similar events.
Congratulations on your award and thank you for being an inspiration!
Written by: Matthew Francis, Manager of Municipal Heritage Services
RETROactive 
I missed Place Matters in November 2012 – too much snow at our “place”. So, I am looking forward to the next meeting – do we have the dates yet?
Hi Jane,
We are looking at having the Forum mid to late September 2013, in the Edmonton area. Once we have dates confirmed we will post on the blog!
Cheers,
Brenda
On another note, and to inform: Association for Life-wide Living (ALL) of Alberta teemed up for a conference last October with people and groups across Battle River region.
The conference theme was “Culture, Creativity & Place”.
From our conference site at Lone Prairie Camp on Red Deer Lake, we heard from First People, Settler People and New People. I’m happy to say that Friends of Fridhem (Swedish for Peaceful Home) Society presented the historic stories of their church which became a designated Municipal Heritage Site on October 24, 2012.
It took the society 20 years to bring the church to this status. Swedish settlers to what is now Meeting Creek, Edberg, Ferintosh, Bashaw and New Norway started coming to the area in the 1890s, some directly from Sweden, others by way of Kansas.
The congregation marked its 100th anniversary in 2000. The church and Fridhem Cemetery are situated on virgin land next to a 14-acre growth of virgin aspen.
The church looks forward to expanding its use, continuing to use the sanctuary for sacred purposes, but opening the downstairs for appropriate events such as music, writing, nature and historic interpretation.
Thank you for sharing, Jane. It is great to hear about a historic place being used and celebrated by its community.