Flood-damaged heritage homes recognized with new award

Last year's flood has prompted the Calgary Heritage Authority to create a new category for its Lion Awards.

The awards recognize citizens or groups who support heritage conservation. The new category will be for flood recovery.

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Scott Jolliffe, the chairman of the heritage authority, announced the move Tuesday morning outside the Baird/Miller residence — a 1912 heritage designated home in Elbow Park which was extensively damaged by the flood.

He says many heritage properties need extra care after the flood, and that's something the authority wants to recognize.

“This home, as an example, has sat here for almost a year now just drying out because the sandstone foundation is actually saturated with water so to come in here with fans and heaters and things like that and try and dry it out quickly could have irreversibly damaged the foundation.”

Jolliffe says heritage building owners have gone to extra lengths to help save some of the city's oldest buildings.

“The flood because of obviously where it hit, in along the rivers, that is where some of the oldest inventory of properties and houses is in the city so there was a disproportionate share of heritage homes that were affected by the flood.”

Nominations for the Lion Awards are due by next week and the winners will be announced in late July.