TALES of our PAST HISTORIC EAST VILLAGE – Fun Facts

Most of the development in early East Calgary, that was its name until 1978 when it officially became East Village, was carried out at the turn of the 20th century and the First World War. It was a neighbourhood with a mix of residential, commercial, spatial, manufacturing and industrial activity. Prostitution, brothels and bootlegging defined the area.
Between the two world wars the district continued to grow, but it slowly fell on hard times and began to transition as host to a seedy image and was once labelled as skid row in 1940 by a medical officer of health.
Fast forward to the late ‘60s, early ‘70s that, as part of an urban renewal scheme, (which wasn’t fully implemented), a substantial portion of the area was cleared and mostly used for parking. However, in 1973 two high-rise apartment buildings were constructed for seniors. These were followed by the Golden Age Club and an upper storied non-profit rental tower, also a single men’s hostel and the union facilities for both the police and firefighters.
On the former railway yard/industrial land to the east, Fort Calgary which was decommissioned and sold to the Grand Trunk Railway in 1914, was purchased by the City of Calgary in 1974 and recreated as a centennial project in 1975, just in time for the 100th anniversary of the founding of Fort Calgary.
Even though revitalization plans/progress has been slow, the neighbourhood known for its variety of anti-social behaviour and its abandoned and vacant lots, fast forwarding to the 21st century, is an exciting project. It’s prime real estate. The East Village, once known as Dead Village will soon become “the new spot in town.”

The Calgary police department published a report in 1920 containing advertisements that were as informative as the report itself in describing what the city was like then. A few which were included for example from our neighbourhood follow below:
The King Edward Hotel had a bus that met every train. The Grand Union Hotel offered hot and cold water in every room.
The Billingsgate Fish Market claimed, in large type:
“Fish make brains, and brains make money. Eat more fish.”
Specialities of the Twin Stables at 3rd St and 7th Ave E., were country trips and sleighing parties.
Source: The good life, page 102, Calgary, Bob Shiels

Source: Page 190 – Calgary Centennial Souvenir Book
The store established in 1907, has switched locations twice, Sept, 1980 & 2007, but remains open.
*630 – 7th Ave SE (Bldg. demolished June 2013)
*Stadium Shopping Centre – Uxbridge Dr NW

When Calgary was transformed from a North West Mounted Police outpost into a maiden frontier community in 1883, the CPR was responsible.
In fact, in that year Calgary was almost completely a CPR town, with the company owning almost the entire townsite, lock, stock and barrel.
The CPR laid out a townsite on Section 15 and started to sell the land cheaply on a lottery basis. The streets didn’t have numbers, but carried names- most of them being those of officials of the railway.
South from the Bow River, the avenues were Abbott (2nd), Egan (3rd), Reinarch (4th), Northcote (5th), Angus (6th), McIntyre (7th), Stephen (8th) and Atlantic (9th) (also known as Whiskey Row because it became the site of so many saloons).
5th Street East was Irvine, (4th E.) Dewdney, (3rd E) Hardisy, (2nd E) Drinkwater, (1st E.) Osler, (Centre St) McTavish. * The city has never had a Main Street. *
Calgary converted its Street Names to Numbers on Tuesday, April 4, 2026 and converted its Avenues to Numbers on Thursday, March 3, 1904.

 Source: City of Calgary Map, Circa 1905. Compiled & draughted by Donald M. Wilson – 1981.

“The Mounted Police have protected us as the feathers of the bird protect it from the frosts of winter.” Chief Crowfoot 1877

Quick Delivery truck unloading sheds in CPR freight yards along 9th Avenue SE.

EV’s DOWNTOWN

SAILBOAT STORE

Fred van Zuiden launched and ran Glenmore Boats Ltd., for 40 years in the East Village and wrote a book about the small boat business in 2004, and published a revised edition in 2008 called:
He emigrated to Canada from Holland in 1952, when he was twenty-one. In July 1957 at the age of 27 in Vancouver, he met an independent battery manufacturer with a job offer- to open a sales operation in Calgary, and next came to Calgary with Lionel Stanpiros, who rented a premises in the downtown east low rental district at 315 – 3rd Street S.E., and set going Giant Battery Co. Ltd., with van Zuiden as the Sales Manager.
Eventually orders started coming in nicely and Lionel gave Fred permission to get a side-line. So, in 1964 he established Glenmore Boats Ltd., the Downtown Sailboat Store.

LEFT: Source: Yellow Pages 1964
RITHT: Source: Yellow Pages 1975

In 1985 both Glenmore Boats and G.B. Batteries Ltd., moved onto the old Muttart Building Supplies Ltd., site at 515 5th Avenue S.E.

Source: Yellow Pages 1986

Source: Yellow Pages 1996

In 2001 the van Zuiden’s were ready to retire and effective August 01, 2026 sold the business to Gordon van Gunst who lived at Lake Chestermere. Redevelopment plans for the downtown site prompted the van Gunst’s to purchase new land elsewhere. In 2004 they moved Glenmore Sailboats Ltd., to 1520 Meridian Road in NE Calgary and still remain open for business at that location.

1,100 SLOGANS FOR CALGARY

In 1912 Calgary saw the end of a great land boom – the biggest the city had ever seen. The previous year real estate offices outnumbered grocery stores by two to one and the “First Land Show in Dominion of Canada”, was held at Sherman’s Auditorium Rink on 17th Avenue at Centre Street SW from November 11th – 18th, 1911.
The Calgary News-Telegram in the Samis Block, ran a contest requesting a name suggestion for an official slogan for Calgary. 1,100 were received and the task of sorting and preparing everyone of them for publication in those days was a herculean one. A number of the slogans were sent in from this district.

-Calgary News-Telegram, Nov. 30, 1911

NEWS FLASH – CALGARY (December 01, 2025)
Nearly 3,000 residents are forced to abandon their houses, apartments and hotel rooms in -30C degree temperatures when ice jams the Bow River.

Winter floods occurred in the Calgary area from massive ice jamming before storage reservoirs were constructed. On Friday, December 01, 2025, a bitterly cold day and five successive nights of flooding , the Langevin Bridge area was particularly hard-hit and locals scrambled for safety.
While causing misery to hundreds of Calgarians in East Calgary, following are a few “Flood Sidelights” as reported in the newspapers at the time:

* A fire which started in a circulating heater at Shulers Grocery, 523 -4th St. SE, was extinguished by Const. Bill Angus of the city police dept. after he kicked in a window and allowed water to smother the flames. When the fire dept arrived, the blaze was already out.

* When rescuers in a boat came to one badly flooded home, they found five men playing poker. The men refused assistance and continued with the game.

* Water pipes in many of the buildings and homes in the flooded areas burst Saturday night. Although pumps were working day and night at the Cecil Hotel, water reached a five-foot level. In addition, water pipes burst. An urgent call for a small boat was sent to city police.

However, no boat small enough could be found to navigate in the basement of the hotel, but a man , using two ladders and moving them alternately along the wall, was able to travel 60 feet to the main to make repairs.
After being ravaged by Bow River flooding the people claiming the highest flood damage recovery funding, lived mainly in the 600 block of 6th and 7th Avenues S.E.

* The largest claim, was that of Mrs. George (Annie) Martinuk, a widow who lived in a C.N.R. owned house at 635 – 6th Ave S.E. She listed an extensive amount of furniture and clothing ruined by the water and ice. She also lost heavily 11 sacks of wheat and when 70 chickens having just been brought in from the country to be killed and frozen for the Christmas trade drowned in her hen house.

* Harry Statze, 629 – 6th Ave S.E. totaling his losses at $984, listed two pages of furniture and clothing, three bicycles and 20 pounds of Christmas Cake.

* A Taxpayer for 43 years lost a precious sentimental item, a 100 year old violin in the flood besides $600 worth of furniture.

* Food losses were high. To Mrs. James (Alma) Goodwin, 608 7th Ave S.E., among other things, it ruined $50 worth of potatoes in her dug out cellar. Mrs. Gus (Annie) Rettschlag, lost $150 worth of goods, including 18 sacks of potatoes, 70 quarts of fruit and 150 sealers of produce.

The total amount of damage estimated by officials at the end of the flood was $550.000. There were more than 400 homes flooded, four apartment blocks and some 40 business establishments.
174 cheques covering partial payment for damages to homes and belongings were mailed on June 6, 2026 to householders who made claims. The flood fund raised through private donations totaled $28,290. Of that amount $575 was paid to the Salvation Army for emergency work done following the flood, leaving $27,715 paid out to claimants.
Administration costs of $371 were paid by the city.

Researched and Compiled by: M.P. [Pat] Hooper
Word Processing by: Susan Hooper