| Architect: C.O. Wickenden (also designed Christ
Church Cathedral in Vancouver)
Original
owner:
William Pearce was a
land surveyor and civil engineer who came west to
Winnipeg from Ontario in 1874. He was one of the first 10
surveyors employed in the initial survey of the North
West Territories and was involved in the survey of the
49th parallel. Pearce worked as Inspector of Dominion
Land Agencies, was a member of the Dominion Lands Board
(1882) and later Superintendent of Mines. He moved to
Calgary in 1887. In 1904 he left government service for a
position with Canadian Pacific Railway, which he held
until his retirement in 1924, as an advisor on land
management and natural resources. Pearce was instrumental
in establishing Canada's national parks system. In 1885
he helped draft the legislation for the Rocky Mountain
Park, forerunner of Banff National Park. Pearce and his
wife were married in 1881 and raised five children
together. The Pearce's participated in the founding of
Calgary General Hospital, collecting donations and
lobbying for a hospital site. In 1893 Pearce formed the
Calgary Irrigation Company. Pearce, a pioneer
conservationist, died in 1930 at the age of 80. He is
buried in Union cemetery and his grave is marked by a
fragment from a glacial deposit.
Construction materials:
sandstone hauled from a
nearby quarry owned by a man named MacIntosh. Outer walls
were two feet thick. Inner partitions were brick.
Original interior
details:
Fifteen rooms. Extensive
use of wood; hardwood floors, bird's eye maple stair
bannister, alder wall panelling, black walnut pillars
(the wood was from his father's Lake Erie, Ontario
property). Mrs. Pearce reportedly made her own furniture
polish from beeswax. Bow Bend had three fireplaces, steam
heat, natural gas, two pantries. There was a full
basement (finished with plaster walls and baseboards)
that included a "billiard room with a pink wash
bowl", wine / beer cellar, milk room, servants
quarters, furnace and coal room.
Historical highlights:
- Pearce's sense of
humour was evident in his naming the mansion Bow
Bend Shack. Contemporary accounts described the
house as the "finest west of Winnipeg."
- Pearce carefully
chose a hilltop location to take advantage of the
mountain view and avoid spring flooding. At his
insistence the windows remained without curtains
because he didn't want the view obscured.
- Early city
directory gave the address as "17th Avenue
East beyond the CPR crossing."
- The 197 acre
property was a showplace and included tennis
courts, stable and coach house, corral, tool
house, ice house, hennery, vegetable and flower
gardens, playhouse for the children. Groves of
spruce trees lined the curved driveway leading to
the front door. The trees were dug up at
Shagganappi Point west of Calgary and planted on
the Pearce estate by Andy Nelson. Pearce
irrigated the entire property to demonstrate the
benefits of irrigation. Trees, flower and
vegetable gardens thrived, creating a haven of
foliage on the banks of the Bow.
- Bow Bend was one of
the first Calgary homes with indoor plumbing and
hot and cold running water. The wind mill located
on the property pumped water into an attic tank
and gravity did the rest.
- The home had all
the modern conveniences including an enormous ice
box (refrigerator). Ice was cut from the river
during the winter months and stored in saw dust
until needed.
- There was an
enormous flag pole on the top of the house. The
Pearce's entertained frequently and on these
social occasions (square dances, picnics, the
1918 armistice) the flag was raised.
- In 1953 Pearce's
daughter said, " our house was a big barn of
a place... the rooms were all big and square. You
walked a mile to the kitchen. The windows were
very large and the panes came from Montreal. Some
of the rooms were kept closed because we didn't
have enough furniture for them."
- In 1957 Bow Bend
Shack was demolished to make way for a 50,000
square foot warehouse for Simpson Sears.
- In 1975 the
province dedicated a small park on the south bank
of the Bow River below the irrigation weir to
Pearce. Senator Hastings unveiled a plaque in
memory of William Pearce "Czar of the
West."
|
Pearce
House 