| Architect: Hodgson, Bates and Beattie of Calgary.
Contractor:
McDougall and Forster
Limited and R.A. Brocklebank.
Original
cost: $500,000
Construction materials: Brick.
Architectural style:
Commercial/mercantile
with classical features.
Original interior
details:
A local newspaper
reported, "It is fully modern throughout, all the
interior being finished in leather wainscotting, and is
semi-fireproof. The main entrance is elaborately
decorated with marble and highly expensive cornice work,
and the floors right through are tiled. There are three
Otis elevators. Every room in the block is also installed
with the vacuum system for clearing."
Historical highlights:
- Building was
originally the idea of Judge Jeremiah Travis who
died April 27, 1911 before construction began.
The day before he died, Travis signed a contract
with local builder R.A.Brocklebank for the
erection of the "Judge Travis Block."
Because of an earlier verbal agreement with the
Judge, Brocklebank had already ordered some of
the building supplies.
- Local real estate
developers Stephen and Francis Beveridge and the
Alberta Loan and Investment Company financed the
completion of the project.
- Construction began
on the "Beveridge, Travis and Alberta Loan
and Investment Block" in May 1911.
- Travis was a
stipendiary magistrate appointed for the North
West Territories in 1885 and located in Calgary.
Known as the "teetotaller" judge, he
became famous for an incident in which he jailed
most of town council. Travis retired in 1887 and
by his death in 1911 had accumulated extensive
real estate holdings in Calgary.
- The Beveridge
brothers were Calgary real estate developers,
partners in the Southeast Land Company which
owned 7,000 acres of suburban property in Calgary
including Harvetta Heights and Fairmont, owners
of the Mount Pleasant subdivision and investors
in the Alberta Suburban Railway Company. The
Beveridges were involved in a number of Calgary's
commercial buildings including the Flat Iron Building,
Harvetta Block and the South East Land Company
Building.
- The six storey
Beveridge (five storeys and a basement) was built
on a large corner lot with a frontage of 175 feet
on Seventh Avenue and 135 feet on First Street
East.
- When it opened in
February 1912 it housed small businesses,
lawyers, physicians, real estate and mortgage
companies, the Allan Line Steamship Company,
Western Supply and Equipment Limited, Canadian
Western Natural Gas, the Canadian Importing and
Distributing Company and Riley and McCormick Ltd.
Topley, Davidson and Company of Calgary were the
rental agents.
- Calgary's first
self-serve cafe opened in the basement in 1912. A
local newspaper published a lengthy article
explaining the foreign concept of a self service
eatery. "This new style cafe has been much
in vogue in the large cities along the coast from
Los Angeles to Vancouver."
- Street level
storefronts sported awnings unfurled over huge
plate glass display windows.
- The exterior area
under the sidewalk was fitted with prismatic
lights and the entire perimeter of the building
was lit.
- By the 1970s stores
occupied the main floor. The upper floors were
converted to low cost rental rooms called the
Beveridge Apartments.
- In the early hours
of March 27, 1983, two tons of brick, metal and
stone from the parapet of the aging building
crashed onto the 7th Avenue, snapping wires on
the LRT line and disrupting service.
- 1985 a $500,000
fire in the Beveridge Building forced residents
out of their living quarters.
- December 7, 1986, a
$3 million fire broke out on the second floor of
the Commercial Block above the Saan Department
store and spread east to the Beveridge Block,
destroying both buildings which were empty at the
time except for the Saan store.
- In 1987, following
a lengthy dialogue with city officials, the
Beveridge Block was demolished.
- A parking lot and a
building which houses the Calgary Urban Project
Society now occupy the corner property where the
Beveridge Building once stood.
|
Beveridge Building