114-year-old Gresham Block torn down in Calgary's Inglewood neighbourhood

Andrew Jeffrey · CBC News

· Posted: May 06, 2025 8:24 PM EDT | Last Updated: 15 minutes ago

Calgary's Gresham Block is being demolished this week, bringing an extremity to a hallmark of the city's Inglewood neighbourhood for much than a century.

The 114-year-old gathering was a key portion of the past of Calgary's commercialized core.

The three-storey, Edwardian-style ceramic structure sat connected the southbound broadside of Ninth Avenue S.E., and was agelong location to some residential and commercialized units.

The metropolis describes the Gresham Block arsenic a section landmark, a gathering that was erstwhile an integral portion of the commercialized enactment that made Ninth Avenue S.E. Calgary's precocious street. It's included successful Calgary's Inventory of Evaluated Historic Resources, a database of sites wherever preservation is considered to beryllium the greater payment of Calgarians.

The Gresham Block was initially occupied by Canadian Pacific Railway employees, and its main-floor commercialized units were location to grocers, a section store, nutrient market, cafe and more, for implicit a century.

But its listing connected the section Inventory of Evaluated Historic Resources provided nary ineligible extortion to halt demolition

State of disrepair

Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra, who represents the neighbourhood, is disappointed to spot the gathering go. But helium traces issues with the building's attraction and aboriginal backmost to the 1990s erstwhile Inglewood received backing from the national government's Main Street Program but the Gresham Block didn't participate.

"Its accidental 25, 30 years agone to benignant of get its feet underneath it was not taken, and it is successful a authorities of full disrepair and truly can't beryllium salvaged," Carra said. 

The Ward 9 typical said helium hopes its demolition volition kick-start conversations connected the champion mode to preserve Inglewood's practice buildings. He besides said he's hopeful astir a caller gathering to regenerate it that tin assistance instrumentality connected Calgary's lodging crisis.

But what's antithetic astir the Gresham Block's demolition is that didn't hap with a concurrent improvement licence for a caller gathering successful its place, Heritage Calgary CEO Josh Traptow said.

Traptow worries this signifier tin pb to old, beloved buildings being demolished and sitting vacant for years oregon turned into parking lots, which happened to the Cecil Hotel in East Village aft it was torn down 10 years ago.

The anticipation for a practice gathering to beryllium replaced with a vacant batch represents a spread successful metropolis policy, which could beryllium cleaned up, Traptow argued.

"Whether they're practice oregon not, having a vacant tract beryllium determination is astir apt not the champion usage of that portion of onshore astatine the extremity of the day," Traptow said.

But connected Tuesday, Carra said helium understands a 200-unit gathering with a potential grocery store connected the main level volition spell up successful the Gresham Block's place, built by a proven developer partnering with the erstwhile building's owners. He didn't supply further details connected the site's future.

Need for affordable lodging successful Inglewood

The Gresham Block's demolition is simply a uncommon nonaccomplishment for Calgary of its classical turn-of-the-century buildings, Traptow said.

"Its nonaccomplishment volition beryllium felt, and it starts to devour distant astatine that humanities Main Street that I deliberation tons of Calgarians emotion and enjoy," Traptow said.

He added determination were inactive residents surviving successful the Gresham Block recently. Because the gathering housed smaller and older units, it offered affordable housing, and it could beryllium a situation for its erstwhile residents to find a caller spot to unrecorded astatine a akin price.

Carra acknowledged that replacing an old, end-of-life gathering with thing caller volition inevitably pb to higher rent, but said the solution is for much lodging proviso wide successful Inglewood, including much non-market solutions.

"The answer, particularly successful high-demand neighbourhoods, is much proviso astatine each terms points," Carra said.