Oliver House

Victoria Park, just southeast of and across the tracks from downtown Calgary was for much of its history a working class neighbourhood. One of the city’s earlier communities, almost all the many homes that once stood within its borders are long gone, replaced by endless parking lots in support of nearby Stampede Park, and tall condo towers. Nevertheless, here and there, a few old dwellings remain, some lived in, others empty, the fate of most, an upcoming date with the wrecking ball.

Plans are to completely redevelop the area, already set into motion, and ratty old homes just don’t fit into the equation.

In one corner, down a lonely dead-end street, off by itself, forgotten, is the century plus old Oliver House. That’s what we’ve come for. That’s our subject today. An exception to what we just spoke of, it’s not threatened and has been set aside to be saved. It has a rather unique feature which makes it stand out…that being what it’s made of. Not of wood, not of brick, not of stone, its walls are from cast concrete blocks. Not something you see every day! (It’s our second “cement” house.)

Oliver House: unique in construction and one of the very last dwellings in Victoria Park. Researched, written and photographed by Chris Doering and Connie Biggart (BIGDoer/Synd/Calgary Heritage Initiative )

The building dates from 1906, so fairly early on in the city’s history. At the time, Calgary was a couple decades old and had a population of some twelve thousand people (compare that with over a million today) and was going through a boom of sorts – the town’s no stranger to those. The Victoria Park neighbourhood was one of many communities quickly filling up at the time. While there were a few fairly opulent homes here, mostly towards its western border, the area overall was filled with dwellings that were fairly modest in nature.

↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ Scroll down for photos and to comment ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓

Victoria Park borders the railway to the north, the warehouse district to the west, the Exhibition Grounds (later Stampede Park) to the south and the Elbow River in the east.

Up until the 1990s, even into the 2000s, the community was reasonably well populated. By that point things had changed and it was rather run down and home to many low income residents, the beaten, the forgotten, the damned, many residing in numerous flop houses that dotted the area. It could be a rough place…lots of drugs, booze that sort of stuff. It’s natural for inner-city neighbourhoods to fall from grace like this – once nice, later, well, not so much. Not a Calgary thing, no city is immune.

The Stampede by then wasn’t a fan of the area, I can say that with certainty. Far too close to their grounds, all those tourists seeing that ugly “slum” must have been a big concern. With that, they put forth an effort to acquire much of Eastern Victoria Park bulldozing most of the structures here in the process. They said so they could expand the grounds, but little work has been done to that end, but maybe it was just to rid the area of what they saw as an eyesore. In the meantime, the many parking lots come in handy. The venue often has a shortage of parking.

But back to the house…

The Oliver Residence is named after it’s first owner, one Ernest Oliver, whose family occupied the building for many decades. The concrete blocks used to construct the walls, it’s said, were cast on site using a special mould purchased just for that purpose (we’ve seen some of these described in old catalogues). This form of construction sure makes the home seem overbuilt. That Mr Oliver was said to be an engineer perhaps explains it – those guys don’t do it half baked. Over a century old, it looks perfectly solid and square today.

The building is rather plain in form, with a simple square footprint. While the concrete makes it imposing, it’s actually quite modest in size. The blocks on the back wall are plain and smooth, no doubt put in place as a budgetary measure, while those on the other three sides, the sides visible from the street, are more elaborate and textured (corner ones red) and looking much like sandstone blocks. If not for its rather unique construction it’s quite unremarkable otherwise – simple, angular, hardly elaborate. It has no official historic designation.

The dwelling it continued to be lived in until fairly recently (the last occupied home in this part of Victoria Park). The building was then sold to the Stampede. It won’t be torn down. Exactly what plans they have for it, they’re not saying, but we’ve heard a few rumours. The many trees and shrubs that surrounded the structure have been cut back affording one a clear view that wasn’t possible before.

Until recently, a modest sized apartment building used to stand right next door – it’s now an empty lot. Across and down the road a bit is an old folk’s home, still standing but empty. Otherwise, the whole area is mostly vacant lots or parking lots and little else. Most everything that was once here is gone. It’s very ghost town like. The Saddledome in back and condo towers off in the west provide an interesting backdrop to the lonely old house. What a contrast.

The land the Oliver House stands upon on and all those nearby parking lots, recall, is owned by the Stampede Venue. They’re being a bit hush-hush of late when it come to their plans, but some sort of eventual expansion is in the works. We touched on that. Perhaps they’re waiting for the economy to recover. The other areas of Victoria Park down towards those condo towers is not on the Stampede’s radar. Expect more condo towers to go up there as time passes.

BIGDoer.com made a request to view the inside of the Oliver Home but were turned down. Rather bluntly. Ouch! It happens sometimes. At least they said knock yourself out in regards to the exterior. There had a friendly tone until I said inside. What, EXACTLY, are they hiding? Cue the X-Files music!

A farm house made of the same material…
1915 Cement House.

Historic stuff in the area…
The (Big Yellow) Enoch Sales house
Deutsch-Canadier (Eastern) Block

If you wish more information on what you’ve seen here, by all means contact us!

Date: October, 2016.
Location: Calgary, AB.
Article references: Calgary Heritage Authority, Calgary Heritage Initiative.
The building can be viewed (for the time being anyway) from the street.

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Oliver House Victoria Park

The Oliver House Victoria Park. this day a gathering place for Go Cars.

Oliver House Calgary

Over a century old it’s (uniquely) made of cement blocks.

Oliver Residence Calgary

Calgary Saddledome in back.

Victoria Park Oliver House

This dwelling, unlike most others in the neighbourhood, has been saved.

Victoria Park Oliver Residence

People still live in Victoria Park, but in tall condo towers.

Oliver Residence Victoria Park

The back wall blocks are less ornate and smooth.

29 responses

  1. Brayden Britton says:

    My family lived in this house when i was a baby, so no recollection, explained to me as a neat little house, big backyard, and there was a little 6 car lot or something that was part of the property they would make decent money in the summer parking cars. Also was told there was a female spirit that roamed the house. Dont know if that has relation to the history or peoples that lived there. It would be interesting to know..

    • Wow, what an awesome connection! I recall a lot of properties and lawns in the area being turning into parking lots come Stampede Week. We looked into the history of the place, but didn’t turn up much and nothing in regard to any odd paranormal-like activity. Still, who knows?

  2. Larry Olson says:

    That house was my grandmas, my mother was born there. I never knew my grandfather as he passed before I was born. I was told he was a steam engineer and worked at the Lethbridge jail. That window facing the front was my room when I stayed there. Originally there was a wooden glassed in veranda on the front side and around the east side to the door. My uncle lived there until he died a few years ago. I stopped in there about 5 years ago and there were 2 guys living there. They were kind enough to let me take my daughter in and show her around. The stampede tried to buy that house from my uncle many times but he refused to sell till he passed then his brother inherited it and sold to the Stampede.

    • Thanks so much for adding to the story! So love to hear from those connected to the places we document. Not surprised the Stampede had been eyeing up the place for some time – we all know they’re always eyeing up expansion plans.

    • Ernie says:

      Vern didn’t sell it to the Stampede. It was sold to someone. It was later that it sold to the Stampede.

  3. Barry Ross says:

    (via Facebook)
    I did a couple of visits thought Vic Park in 05 – 06 taking photographs and missed this house. Neat to know how popular this 110 year old house is now.

  4. Bill Brauer says:

    Many years ago I worked with Vern Oliver. He grew up in the house. His brother still lived there in the late 70s.

  5. Robert B. Campbell says:

    (via Facebook)
    Calgary had so many beautiful old homes and neighbourhoods in the downtown core–all torn down in the 70s and 80s to make way for what?

  6. Carla Gattinger says:

    Great read! Thank you sharing this!

  7. Leonard Oliver says:

    (via Facebook)
    This was built by my Great Grandfather. It’s really great to find ties like this to the past, really makes you feel a part of something bigger.

  8. Ellen Nielsen says:

    Interesting. And great photos.

  9. Bill Brauer says:

    I worked with Vern Oliver who grew up in that house. His brother still lived there in the early 80s.

  10. Deirdre El Camino Pasztor says:

    (via Facebook)
    This is funny as hell I just looked at that house last night.

  11. Matt Tait says:

    Yes, thank you for sharing. I’ve seen several of these sorts of concrete houses in BC and have been curious about them. there used to be one across from Richie Bros auction in Chilliwack by the freeway until it was knocked down recently. Grand Forks has at least a couple. Castlegar as well. there’s one along hwy 3 just west of Keremeos. I can’t remember where I’ve seen the rest, but they’re scattered around the province. Thank you for sharing.

  12. Cody Kapcsos says:

    Chris, we have one in Lethbridge. Almost identical but with pillars.

  13. Ted V. says:

    Chris, thank you for all the bits of Alberta (&SK, BC) history that you show us on this site. It seems all the Canadian history we were taught in school …30+ years ago… was eastern history. This is a breath of fresh air, thanks, Ted V.

    • Happy to share the knowledge. We’d cover these subjects all over Canada, if we could find a way to make it work. The stuff we document is “little history”, lesser known subjects no else really bothers to touch. In school, you’re only given the big picture and since Eastern Canada was longer established…well, it means the things we’re taught seems focus more on that area than this. Seems skewed, but really isn’t. Anyway, thanks for commenting Ted and keep coming back to learn new things.

  14. 00fxd says:

    Nice work as usual Big Doer 🙂

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