Bearded 'hipster-like' visionary needed to revive Calgary's sandstone quarries
Danielle Nerman | CBC News | Posted: September 14, 2016 5:28 PM | Last Updated: September 14, 2016
Digging up an historic industry will take a niche entrepreneur, suspects Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra
Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra suspects it will take a certain type of entrepreneur to revive Calgary's sandstone industry.
"Is there someone out there with a beard and hipster-like who wants to get into the quarry business like we have people getting into the local farming business?"
The Ward 9 councillor believes that there are interested investors out there, but they're not going to bite until the city takes the first step.
And that began with council passing his notice of motion on Wednesday to investigate the economic viability of reopening two of Calgary's quarries.
Only Coun. Sean Chu voted against the motion.
"There are a lot of heritage buildings in this city made out of sandstone and they're going to need refurbishment," Carra told the Calgary Eyeopener on Wednesday.
That includes the crumbling walls of old Calgary city hall, which is closed for restoration for the next four years.
"And the sad thing to me is we're buying sandstone from Europe and the United States, rather than out of our own quarries."
Digging up the past
It was the devastating Great Fire of 1886 that sparked the sandstone boom in Calgary.
Many of the city's civic and religious buildings constructed in the early 1900's were made with Paskapoo sandstone instead of wood.
At one point, 16 quarries operated around the city — but did not survive against the rising costs of stonecutters and masons, and the invention of cheap building materials.
Carra's motion floats the idea of reactivating two old sites in Calgary — the J.A. Lewis Quarry in Nose Hill and another in Edworthy Park.
However, the challenge with the latter is that the city does not own the mineral rights.
Carra said that was a conscious decision made by the Edworthy family when they dedicated the park to the City of Calgary
"It was a strategy to maintain the park that they were granting to the city that they worried might get, you know, crossed by a road or whatever, so they need to be involved."
With files from the Calgary Eyeopener