Last links to Calgary's second Chinatown to be demolished

The last remaining buildings from Calgary's second Chinatown will soon be demolished.

The two buildings are on 10th Avenue S.W., an area that was home to the city's Chinatown back in the early 1900s.

Both buildings also have other historical Calgary links.

The brick and sandstone Western Block was built in 1905 and owned by Thomas Underwood. He served as Calgary's mayor from 1902 to 1904.

The two-storey building features a ground floor of shops and businesses with a second floor used for apartments.

The neighbouring Calgary Gas Company workshop was built in 1907. After serving as an office, the wooden structure has been home to The Backlot since the mid-1990s, a bar that is an important social venue for Calgary's queer community.

Unprotected heritage

Following an approval by the Calgary Planning Commission, both buildings are slated for demolition to make way for a new 18-storey residential tower that's planned by Truman Homes.

The end of the buildings will sever the last physical reminders of Calgary's second Chinatown.

The city's first Chinatown was located in the vicinity of what is now city hall and Olympic Plaza. 

But anti-Chinese sentiments and development pressures prompted the formation of a second Chinatown on the other side of the then-CPR tracks, along 10th Avenue S.W., starting in 1901.

With the arrival of the Canadian Northern Railway, increasing property values in the Beltline resulted in Chinese businesses and residences moving after 1910 to Calgary's third (and current) Chinatown, near the southern end of the Centre Street bridge.

The head of Heritage Calgary, Josh Traptow, said the end of the two buildings is significant because they're jointly connected to slices of Calgary's political, ethnic and social history.

"Buildings are not just significant because they're old. They're significant because of the intangible people and stories that are connected to them," said Traptow.

"In the case of The Backlot, being one of Calgary's oldest queer establishments that is still in its original location." 

Neither building has heritage designation and there is no legal obligation to preserve them.

Heritage Calgary had discussions with the owner of the buildings about preservation. However, it was learned that the poor condition of both buildings would require significant spending to preserve them, even just the facades.

Traptow said some elements of the buildings will be saved, including stained glass windows and some sandstone. The plan is to display them in or around the new building.

"When you go up close to the building and you look up above either the doorways or the windows of the commercial bays, you can see the stained glass windows that are there. You can see the 1905 year on the corner there and then on the First Street side, you can see where it says Western Block."

Markers planned

There will be some commemoration at the site of both the buildings and of Calgary's second Chinatown. 

However, it's not clear yet how that will happen.

The Calgary Planning Commission heard in October that there were plans for a wall feature on the south side of the new building. However, that faces the alley.

Coun. Terry Wong isn't happy with that plan.

"Yes, you can put some way-finding in and say 'you can go to the alley and take a look.'  But I'm sorry — and I used the quotation at planning commission — no," said Wong. 

"Nobody should be sent to the back of the bus. Right? That was my concern."

Discussions between the building's owner and the city about plans for commemoration of the second Chinatown and the soon-to-be demolished structures are ongoing.

CBC News asked a representative for Truman Homes about the timeline for demolition of the existing buildings and construction of the new tower. However, no response has been received.