Exploring Alberta's Past
Editor’s note: You can read more of Fraser Shaw’s series on heritage conservation on RETROactive. Written by: Fraser Shaw, Heritage Conservation Advisor Gunshots shattered the stillness of 18 Avenue in Coleman on the afternoon of September 21, 1922. Local bootlegger Emilio Picariello and his accomplice Florence Lassandro sped off in a cloud of dust as Constable … Read more Revival of a Prohibition-Era Landmark in the Crowsnest Pass
Editor’s note: If you’re interested in other restoration projects by the government’s Heritage Conservation Advisers, read about the conservation of Circle L Ranch. Written by: Fraser Shaw, Heritage Conservation Adviser Designated a Provincial Historic Resource in 2013, the Taber Courthouse presides over a quiet park just off Taber’s main street. The building’s stately arched entryway speaks … Read more Restoration of the Taber Courthouse
Written by: Fraser Shaw, Heritage Conservation Advisor If you’ve ever driven down the beautiful Cowboy Trail, chances are you’ve driven by at least a few historic ranches. Some of these ranches, like Bar U and E.P., have been operating for over a hundred years. Another of those ranches is the Circle L Ranch, started by a … Read more The conservation of Circle L Ranch
Located on a quiet residential street in Redcliff, Alberta, St. Ambrose Anglican Church is distinguished by its buttressed brick masonry exterior, steeply-pitched gable roof and pointed arch windows. These characteristics strongly identify the 1914 church with the Gothic Revival style popular in the Victorian era for ecclesiastical architecture in England, a style also eagerly adopted … Read more A New Roof for St. Ambrose Church
Historic places are unfortunately fair game for graffiti attacks – sometimes especially so when these places are visible and widely recognized landmarks. Defined as writing or drawings scribbled, scratched, or painted illicitly onto walls and other surfaces, graffiti from a heritage conservation perspective is an intervention to be removed or reversed. It clearly differs from … Read more Dealing with Graffiti at Historic Places
The historic downtown of Fort Macleod, one of two Provincial Historic Areas in the province, is well known for its impressive commercial buildings of brick and sandstone masonry. Collectively, these Classical Revival buildings exemplify an Edwardian commercial streetscape just prior to the First World War. One of the main street’s crown jewels is the Empress … Read more In Search of Historic Colours: The Empress Theatre Marquee
Peeling paint and powdering plaster were the first indications something was amiss at the Blairmore Courthouse, a Provincial Historic Resource in the Crowsnest Pass. A leak in the cedar shingle roof, replaced just the previous year, was immediately suspected. Detailing around the dormers in particular, part of the 1922 building’s distinctive Spanish Colonial Revival design … Read more The Butterfly Effect
E.P. (Prince Edward) Ranch, established by the Bedingfeld family in 1886, is located in the foothills southwest of Calgary near the Bar U Ranch National Historic Site. In 1919, during a cross-Canada tour, the Bedingfeld’s ranch captured the fancy of His Royal Highness Edward, Prince of Wales, upon his visit to the area. Prince Edward … Read more Conservation at the E.P. Ranch
The first steps out onto the dome of the beehive kiln are a bit unnerving, with only a thin shell of tightly-fitted bricks supporting a small group of us above the void below. Domes structurally similar to this have been around since antiquity – many notable examples still survive – but it’s reassuring to know … Read more Rebuilding the Beehive Kiln
A massive brick chimney at Medalta Potteries towers six metres above the roof of “Building 10” and extends roughly the same distance from the roof to the dusty factory floor below. Two meters wide at its base, the chimney and accompanying boiler were vital in the production of clay products from the early decades of … Read more Floods, Bricks, and POWs: Rebuilding Medalta’s Historic Chimney
