Rallying Point: Blairmore Bandstand designated a Provincial Historic Resource

Editor’s note: The banner image above, awarding of a Dominion Day track trophy at the Blairmore Bandstand, is courtesy of the Crowsnest Museum and Archives.

Written by: Ronald Kelland, Historic Places Research Officer

A well-known landmark in the Crowsnest Pass has recently been designated as a Provincial Historic resource and is now listed on the Alberta Register of Historic Places.

On your drive through the Crowsnest Pass, if you were to pull off Highway 3 and travel down the streets of the communities that make up the municipality you will see historic buildings that harken back to the boom periods of these coal mining towns. One structure that you may miss is a small bandstand in the community of Blairmore situated in a green space between 20^th Avenue and the Canadian Pacific Railway line. It may be an unassuming structure, but the Blairmore Bandstand is one of the most significant sites in the Crowsnest Pass – a community landmark and a symbol of hard-won workers’ rights and the labour movement of the 1920s and 1930s.

The Blairmore Bandstand is typical of such structures. Built of wood, the bandstand consists of a raised, circular platform with railings and interior benches under an eight-sided, peaked roof with flagpole. Bandstands were once a common and important fixture in many Alberta communities. Associated with Victorian and Edwardian Age beliefs about the healing and restful benefits of urban green spaces, education and wholesome entertainment, bandstands were often the centrepiece of urban parks, where they were used for public events such as concerts and speeches. Being situated in publicly accessible spaces also leant their use as rallying points for social movements and protests.

In 1911, a town band was organized in Blairmore and people began asking the town council to build a bandstand at a prominent place in the community. However, it took 10 years for the town to build one. In June 1921, local newspaper the Blairmore Enterprise, reported that the Blairmore town council had unanimously voted to invite tenders for the construction of a bandstand at Victoria Street (now 20 Avenue) and Sixth Avenue (now 130 Street), across from the Cosmopolitan Hotel. Once built, the bandstand quickly became a focal point in the community, being used for concerts, as the starting and finishing point for the running races and as a center of festivities for holidays and celebrations such as Dominion Day.

The role of the Blairmore Bandstand in public celebrations and concerts is a significant one that it shares with dozens of other bandstands that once existed across Alberta, but the Blairmore Bandstand also has a larger significance very particular to the labour movement in the Crowsnest Pass. Blairmore was a mining town and the site of many notable strikes. During those strikes, labour leaders used the bandstand’s central location and raised platform to address the crowds of striking workers, their families and supporters. Notable moments were the 1923 May Day (International Day of Labour) celebrations, frequent addresses by union leaders during the 1932 strike and a protest in August 1934 over the imprisonment of Canadian Communist Party leader Tim Buck. The Blairmore bandstand was a rallying point for the Crowsnest Pass, a starting and ending point for marches and parades, a place for rallies and protests and a place to share in the solidarity of fellow workers. It became a symbol of labour in the Crowsnest Pass.

Over time, entertainment and recreation preferences changed and the Blairmore Bandstand gradually fell out of frequent use. However, while bandstands in most communities were neglected and removed, the Blairmore Bandstand survived. It received a substantial restoration in the 1980s through the Alberta Main Street Program and it has been maintained ever since, a sentinel on Blairmore’s main street that harkens back to the days when it was filled with music and speeches of both protest and celebration.

The Blairmore Bandstand was designated as a Provincial Historic Resource on February 7, 2023, and the designation was formally announced during a presentation on August 6, 2023, during the Crowsnest Pass Doors Open & Heritage Festival. Provincial Historic Resources embody the diversity of our province’s history and include medicine wheels, tipi rings, fur trading and mounted police posts, coal mines, farmsteads, ranches, railway stations, grain elevators, churches, schools, government offices, commercial blocks and private residences. There are currently 393 places in Alberta designated as Provincial Historic Resources, 12 of which are in the Crowsnest Pass. Along with helping to provide economic, social and cultural benefits, designation of Provincial Historic Resources helps to ensure that local landmarks will continue to help connect Albertans with their rich heritage.

More information on the Provincial Historic Resource Designation program.

Sources

Bellevue Times – available from Peel’s Prairie Provinces, University of Alberta Libraries, http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/newspapers/BVT/

Blairmore Enterprise – available from Peel’s Prairie Provinces, University of Alberta Libraries, http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/newspapers/BME/  

Chambers, Allan. Spirit of the Crowsnest: The Story of Unions in the Coal Towns of the Crowsnest Pass. (Edmonton: Alberta Federation of Labour and the Labour History Institute, 2012), available from https://albertalabourhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/D4109-Booklet-Spirit-of-the-Crowsnest.pdf  

Franz, Kyle Randolph, “Alberta’s Red Democrats: The Challenge and Legacy of Blairmore Communism, 1921-1936.” PhD diss. Queen’s University, 2013, available from https://qspace.library.queensu.ca/bitstream/handle/1974/8231/Franz_Kyle_R_201308_PhD.pdf?sequence=1

McKenzie, Ian. “The Blairmore Bandstand,” Heritage News: Discover Crowsnest Heritage, No. 28 (December 2012), available from https://www.crowsnestheritage.ca/archives.

Stace, Trevor I.E., “A Community in Conflict: The Crowsnest Pass’ 1932 Coal Strike.” Master’s thesis, University of Alberta, 2015