| Architect: Dowler and Michie
Original
owner:
Louis Henry Doll moved
to Calgary from Toronto in 1889 and opened a jewellery
store on the site of the present day Clarence Block,
subsequently moving to the Lougheed Building. The 1906
Calgary Henderson's Directory listed L.H.Doll as a
manufacturing jeweller, diamond importer and optician.
Shortly after Doll opened his new jewellery store in the
Doll Block in 1907 his ten year old daughter Florence
died. It was reported that his disinterest in his affairs
following the tragedy of her death led ultimately to the
loss of his business.
Construction materials:
Medicine Hat brick and
sandstone. Brick bearing wall frame with wooden structure
on interior.
Architectural style:
"Boomtown
Romanesque". " The third storey half-round
oriel window has a lovely seashell-patterned faux stone
lunette above and below. Originally the first and second
storeys sparkled with bevelled glass. This delightful
building culminates in an intricate parapet of stone and
brick suggestive of lace and framed by small
turrets."
Original interior
details: Wooden
floors, pressed metal ceiling.
Historical highlights:
- 1906 Louis Henry
Doll purchased the property from the Thomson
Brothers.
- Doll built and
opened "Doll's Diamond Palace" in 1907.
- Doll's daughter
died in 1907 and the millionaire became
despondent and disinterested in his business. The
Doll family owned the building until 1912 when it
was taken over by the Royal Bank.
- David Ernest Black,
born in Westport Ontario in 1880 arrived in
Calgary in 1903. He joined Doll's jewellery
business but within a year opened his own store.
In 1910 when Doll gave up the business, Black set
up shop in the Doll Block where he remained until
1913 when he moved to the new Herald Building. In
1920 Black's Jewellers was sold to Birk's. Black
became Birk's Managing Director and then
President of Birk's (Western).Black was also a
city alderman, President of the Board of Trade
and the downtown Rotary Club.
- 1913 to 1946 - H.R.
Chauncey, formerly a clerk at Black's store,
opened his own jewellery store in the Doll Block.
- The building had
numerous owners between 1912 and 1928 when it was
finally purchased by Hedley Robert Chauncey
(Calgary alderman 1936 -1945) and his wife Gladys
Burdett Chauncey.
- 1946 - Doll Block
acquired by the Belzberg family.
- In 1946, a fourth
jeweller, Harold Raymond established his business
in the building.
- Numerous
renovations over the years significantly altered
the interior.
- Block has been home
to various retail outlets and offices over the
years including; Calgary Business College (1907),
the Liberal Association (1915), Dr. Bartlett
(optometrist), Vogue Uniforms (70s - 80s).
- Building
extensively restored in 1994 through a joint
agreement between the owners (Balboa Land
Investments Inc.) and the Stephen Avenue Heritage
Area Society.
- June 1994 - Mayor
Al Duerr officially re-opened the Doll Block at a
ribbon cutting ceremony. The third floor of the
Doll Block became the permanent home of the
Esther Honens International Piano Competition and
the Calgary International Organ Festival.
- In September 1997
the Doll Block was awarded a Community Heritage
Plaque.
- The Heritage Plaque
program was initiated in 1991 by the City of
Calgary's Heritage Advisory Board to commemorate
and raise awareness of heritage in Calgary. The
sites recognized each year are nominated by the
Calgary Community Associations and selected in
consultation with the Historical Society of
Alberta for their importance to Calgary's
historical evolution.
- The Plaque is
mounted on the Doll Block's 8th Avenue exterior
for public viewing.
|
Doll
Block