This is an excerpt from the Hillhurst Sunnyside Historical Context paper, ‘Building Social and Community Life: Social, Intellectual and Ethnic Cultural Life (pp. 76-92). For more on the history of our neighborhood, check out the full paper: https://www.hsca.ca/historical-context-paper.
The threads of ethnic English and Scottish traditions that ran through the early cultural life of Hillhurst-Sunnyside began with the area’s pioneers and developers whose families had roots in those two homelands and brought the customs of those countries to their new home.
The Englishness of Hillhurst was clearly shaped by the vision of its pioneer landowner and developer, Ezra Riley, whose father Thomas came from Derbyshire, England and whose mother Georgiana from the small town of Kirton in Lindsey, in North Lincolnshire, England. Both Ezra’s original 1904 subdivision and its 1906 addition employed street names that referenced English place names including Oxford, Gladstone, Buckingham, Norfolk and Essex. When his mother, Georgiana Riley, registered Upper Hillhurst in 1906 she also used street names with English references like Marlborough and Wellington streets and others named for the British Royal family.
English roots are also evident in Col Lawrence Herchmer’s 1907 Westmont subdivision which had original street names like Cambridge, Devenish and Beveridge. Herchmer descended from a prominent Kingston, Ontario family of United Empire Loyalists whose arrival in North America dates to the 18th century. As a result he was born and received most of his education in England.
The Church of England (Anglican Church) also featured conspicuously in Hillhurst, with Morleyville Road named for the Anglican Mission at Morley, and after 1906, with St Barnabas Church and churchyard. In 1912 Ezra gifted a new brick-clad St Barnabas Church to the parish. As well, an Anglican boy’s school, the Bishop Pinkham College (the site that would be used for health care), was built just north of Hillhurst School. The architect responsible for these ecclesiastical buildings was Leo Dowler (1876-1921), an Anglican himself as well as a Sunnyside resident.
One of Calgary’s most prolific early architects, Dowler was born in Kingston, Ontario where he trained in architecture, arriving in Calgary in 1899. He first worked in carpentry before establishing his architecture practice in 1905. He worked with a variety of partners before returning to independent practice, during which time he also served as the Dominion Government’s resident architect in Calgary. Leo married pioneer Samuel Livingston’s daughter Mary in 1904, and designed and built their 1911 home88 where they raised their large, growing family. His other works in and near the community include Hillhurst School, Ezra Riley’s Hillhurst estate home, Alfred’s Riley’s Lodge in Parkdale, landowner AJ McArthur’s Crescent Heights residence and - just across today’s Mewata Bridge - the Mewata Armory. Although he is responsible for numerous historic resources in the city, only Hillhurst School and St Barnabas Church tower remain of his Hillhurst-Sunnyside works.
Perhaps the most unusual English influence to find in a North American community is the cricket field, also a legacy of Ezra. He donated the land for a City park, Riley Park, in 1910 and in 1919 he asked parks superintendent William Reader to install cricket pitches in the park. He also requested that cricket be the only team sport to be played in Riley Park. Another English custom - ‘afternoon tea’ - played out every Sunday at Riley Park, when it was served at the cricket club house.
The game of cricket in Riley Park where the Calgary and District Cricket League are currently based, and worship in St Barnabas Church of England, are enduring examples of intangible cultural heritage that have been practiced for over a century.
88 428 Boulevard (now Memorial Drive, home non-extant or significantly altered).