This is an excerpt from the Hillhurst Sunnyside Historical Context paper, ‘Urban Development: Pre-war boom and First World War development (1904-1918)’ section (pp.40-63). For more on the history of our neighborhood, check out the full paper: https://www.hsca.ca/historical-context-paper.
From 1904, the year the Hillhurst subdivision was registered, until just prior to the outbreak of war in 1914, Calgary and her communities experienced a significant construction boom. Calgary had been advancing as a city, and Alberta had been established as a province in 1905. The boom was reflected early on in land costs: in 1905, lot prices were $25, but in 1906, the year before the major annexation, lot prices soared to between $200 and $400. By 1911, both Sunnyside and Hillhurst were over fifty per cent built out on average, although some streets in both neighbourhoods developed more quickly than others, typically due to lot location - especially those with river view - and price. The southwest part of Sunnyside, in particular, was almost fully developed by that time.
Construction peaked in 1912 and by the end of the boom Hillhurst-Sunnyside was almost fully developed east of 14th Street, with build-out well underway between 14th and 16th streets.
Although some realtors attempted to market the area as exclusive, the reality was that much of the land in the two communities was a slough, reclaimed slough or subject to regular flooding. As a result, residential lots were affordable, which in turn was reflected in the main buyers, working-class residents, and in their choice of housing types. The most popular housing types by far during the boom were one-storey and one and one-half storey cottages, with twice as many one- storey homes being built. This is not surprising since cottages were affordable and especially appealed to first-time working-class and lower middle-class buyers. Approximately one third of the one and one-half storey houses (houses where the entire upper storey is contained within the roofline) were constructed with undeveloped upper storeys. This further reduced the initial cost of the home, while permitting owners to develop the attic space in the future to accommodate their growing families.
Two-storey homes were less common, especially in Sunnyside where a relatively small number were built 64; their first owners had a wide variety of occupations. Most buildings were wooden-frame with bevelled wood siding with notable exceptions in Sunnyside. By 1911 a little over one per cent of houses in Alberta were brick, and by 1921 just over two per cent were brick. The use of stone as a building material was even more uncommon; Hillhurst School, constructed with rough- cut yellow Paskapoo sandstone 65, is a rare instance.
The overwhelming majority of Hillhurst-Sunnyside’s working-class and lower middle-class new home owners were trades persons employed in the construction industry, reflecting the demands of the boom for a complete range of services: carpenters (by far the most common occupation in the community), builders, stone masons and cutters, brick-layers, steam-fitters, tinsmiths and blacksmiths, steel and iron workers, millwrights, plasterers, painters and electricians. There were also many labourers, many of whom would have been employed in the construction sector. Transportation was also a sector where many early residents worked, their roles identified as teamsters, drivers, warehousemen, shippers, and liverymen. Most residents did not identify an employer, and there were no employers who employed more than five per cent of the residents, but three employers appeared more frequently than others and represented these two sectors: the railway, most commonly the CPR, the streetcar and Riverside Lumber.
64 Housing typologies 1908-1918 listed in Green (1996); note that this study does not cover buildings west of 11th Street.
65 From the Oliver Quarry.