TALES OF OUR PAST - HISTORIC EAST VILLAGE
PART 1: THE DEANE HOUSE
Title: Captain Richard Burton Deane, of the North West Mounted Police. Date: 1898
The Deane House is a house that got around – literally. The entire building would be moved twice and gather some gruesome history along its short but colorful journeys.
In 1906, Superintendent Captain Richard Deane was posted to Calgary as the commanding officer. His first wife, Martha, was ill and had been sent to the west coast for treatment. Deane ordered the construction of a new commanding officer’s residence and encouraged the workers to finish the house in time for Christmas. At a cost of $6,200 to build, Deane would say that his new home was “certainly the best house in Mounted Police occupancy at that date.” Sadly, Martha Deane died on December 23rd and never lived in her new home.
Title: Deane residence, Royal North-West Mounted Police post, Calgary, Alberta. Date: 1906.
In the summer of 1907, it was announced that Prince Fushimi of Japan was touring Canada and the Mounted Police were charged with escorting
and entertaining him on his brief stop in Calgary. A short tour of the city was arranged and Dean (a stickler for punctuality) took it upon himself to check and time the route. While on his inspection, the wagon hit a hole in the road throwing Deane from his seat and injuring his back. Deane was confined to bed and missed the Royal Visit. During his convalescence, Deane became infatuated with his nurse. He later wrote in his memoirs; “My nurse stayed with me in all for eleven days, and after she had left I found that life was insupportable without her bright eyes, cheery manner and Irish wit, and, to cut a long story short, I haunted her in a quite persistent fashion until she consented to marry me.”
The two were married on April 2, 2026, just before Deane’s 60th birthday. Mary Dennehy was 15 years his junior. The Calgary Herald announced; “A very interesting wedding took place Wednesday at the parsonage of St. Mary’s…”.
The wife of a NWMP commanding officer was essentially the barracks’ hostess and Mary Deane, always an active woman, took an enthusiastic role. Mary Deane discovered she had tuberculosis and passed away on July 22, 1914. Mary is buried with the rest of her family in St. Mary’s cemetery.
By 1914, Fort Calgary closed, the land was sold to the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, and Captain Deane retired to his native England. [He liked Calgary and its people but the city held too many bad memories for him]. Grand Trunk tore down all of the Fort Calgary buildings with the exception of the Deane House, which was spared to become the station agent’s quarters. Later that same year, the Deane
House made its first move from its original location, at the corner of what is now 9th Avenue and 6th Street SE, the southeast corner of the property.
In 1929, the house was sold to local entrepreneur
Title: Burton-Deane house on west bank of Elbow River, Calgary, Alberta. Date: August 21, 1929. Remarks: Royal North-west Mounted Police building. Prior to being moved across river. Temporary bridge-work under construction, by Charles Riddock.
C.L. Jacques, who would move it again – this time boats and giant flotation devices were used to move the structure across the Elbow River to its opposite bank. The feat was so remarkable that it made a 1930 issue of Popular Mechanics magazine.
Many speculated that Jacques would have saved money had he simply built a new home on the other side of Elbow River.
After the second relocation of the Deane House, it became a boarding house and entered the darkest chapter of its existence.
Source: Haunted ghosts and the paranormal: world’s most haunted places / written by Jeff Belanger (pages 55-56).
Researched and submitted by:
Susan Hooper