Inglewood: The Street That Was Forgotten on Purpose
Calgary's oldest street survived because the city's restless money kept moving on without it, while the confluence that gave the city its birth, a few hundred metres west, has been abandoned, flooded, and rebuilt over and over.
4.20|96 minutes|4.9 km|8 Stops
Start
The Confluence (Fort Calgary)
1
The Confluence (Fort Calgary)
The birthplace the city kept trying to leave. A log fort of 1875 at the seam of the Bow and the Elbow, and a gathering place for thousands of years before that.
2
Hunt House (1876)
The oldest building in Calgary still on its original patch of dirt. A one-room log cabin that survived by being too small and too plain to bother demolishing.
3
Deane House (1906 / moved 1929)
Even the fort's own memory had to be dragged across a river to survive. Built 1906 for the last NWMP superintendent here, hauled across the Elbow in 1929.
4
9th Avenue SE (Atlantic Avenue / Whiskey Row)
Probably the first main street in Calgary, and the only stretch that still looks the way the whole city once did. Saved by being abandoned.
5
Haskins Block (1908) & the heritage row
A near-continuous wall of pre-1914 brick that survived for the least romantic reason imaginable: nobody had a profitable reason to tear it down.
6
Garry Theatre / Ironwood Stage & Grill
Forgotten buildings do not die here, they get reused. A Depression-era movie house became a theatre, then a live-music room anchoring the Music Mile.
7
Studio Bell / National Music Centre (King Eddy)
The opposite survival strategy. East Village, the same age as Inglewood, was branded skid row, then erased and rebuilt on a raised floodplain with public money.
8
Calgary Central Library (2018)
The closing bookend. A free, open public room lifted over a live train on ground raised against the flood, everything the shut wooden palisade of 1875 was not.
Best Time to Visit
Late morning to mid-afternoon, spring through fall. Inglewood's shops and the Ironwood along Ninth Avenue Southeast read best in daylight, and the confluence pathways at Fort Calgary, now The Confluence, are open riverside parkland that is most legible when it is dry underfoot. The two houses, Hunt and Deane, sit on the east bank of the Elbow and are easiest to find in good light. The walk finishes downtown at Studio Bell and the Central Library, both of which are livelier and warmer to end in during afternoon opening hours. Avoid the shoulder of a snowmelt or heavy-rain week: this is a river-junction walk, and the pathways closest to the water can be muddy or closed when the Bow and Elbow run high.
Pro Tips
- •The Confluence, formerly Fort Calgary, is a paid historic site with a visitor centre, but the surrounding parkland and the riverside pathways at Stop 1 are free and open. The audio anchors on the outdoor confluence view, so you do not need to buy admission to do this stop.
- •Hunt House and Deane House sit close together on the east bank of the Elbow behind the Fort Calgary grounds. Hunt House is a tiny one-room cabin and easy to walk past; look low and small, not for a grand facade.
- •Deane House is a working restaurant. Stop 3 is written from the exterior and its veranda, so it works at any hour without a reservation.
- •The middle of the walk runs east along Ninth Avenue Southeast through the Inglewood shops and the Music Mile. It is a long commercial stretch; the Haskins Block and the heritage row at Stop 5 are read from the sidewalk, so take your time along the brick.
- •The Ironwood Stage and Grill at Stop 6 is a live-music venue with evening programming. The audio reads the building from the street, but if you want to see it working, check its schedule first.
- •Stops 7 and 8, Studio Bell and the Central Library, are back downtown in East Village, a walk of several hundred metres west from Inglewood across the river. Both are indoor public buildings, and the Central Library is free to enter and a good warm place to finish.
Safety & Precautions
- This is a river-junction walk. The pathways nearest the Bow and Elbow at the confluence can be wet, muddy, or closed after heavy rain or spring melt. Check conditions before walking the riverside sections.
- The route is about five kilometres and crosses the Elbow River between the Inglewood side and East Village. Wear comfortable shoes and allow time for the downtown leg back toward Studio Bell and the library.
- Ninth Avenue Southeast is a live traffic street through Inglewood. Cross at marked crossings, especially where the sidewalk narrows between shopfronts.
- The final stops are in downtown East Village, where you will cross busy streets and, at the Central Library, walk above an active CTrain line. Follow posted signals and keep to pedestrian areas near the tracks.
Gallery
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