Shamrock Hotel demolition begins in southeast Calgary
Originally built as East Calgary Harness, the building was converted into the Shamrock Hotel in 1924
Nearly two years after the Shamrock Hotel closed its doors for good in southeast Calgary, city crews began the process of demolishing it Sunday.
The building has sat on the corner of 21st Avenue and 11th Street S.E. for nearly a century, making it one of the oldest hotels in Calgary.
In 2015, the owners approached the city looking to sell. It closed — somewhat suddenly — in December of that year.
"So I think there was a little bit of angst when it happened," said Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra, who represents the area.
"I know the Shamrock looms much, much larger in a lot of other people's lives than it did for me, but it was always an institution in the neighbourhood, later in its life, long after its viable function as a hotel serving the stockyard and [agriculture] businesses."
Plans call for that stretch of 11th Street to be turned into a main street of sorts, said Carra, connecting Inglewood with development at the Crossroads Market.
It's also where the new C-Train Green Line will pass through the community of Ramsay.
Fitting name
Calgary historian Harry Sanders said the Shamrock Hotel's name was a fitting one.
The hotel was built by Bill Cummins, who was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1890 and moved to Calgary in 1910. Cummins constructed the buildings — originally as the East Calgary Harness Shop — while working as a harness maker at the nearby P. Burns and Company, a slaughterhouse and stockyard,.
"Then when prohibition ended in 1924 he got a liquor licence, expanded the building and turned it into the Shamrock Hotel," said Sanders.
The hotel was expanded and modernized in the 1940s by Cummins's family.
"His widow ran it until her death in the early 1940s and it remained in his family's hands for many years after that."
It became known over the years as a hotspot for live music and was renovated and partially rebuilt after a fire in 2012.
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With files from Sarah Lawrynuik