Some of the constants that got us through the booms and busts were the churches, synagogues and mosques.
We kids born in the late 1940s were numerous. We lined up in droves for baptisms and startled the Sunday school by our sheer numbers. In Calgary many new places of worship were built and older ones were renovated and expanded.
1885 – St. Paul’s Anglican church is built in Midnapore
1889 – St. Mary’s Cathedral is built on Elbow Drive
1905 – the Cathedral Church of the Redeemer is built downtown
1905 – Central Methodist church is built downtown (later Central United)
1906 – St. Stephen’s Anglican church serves the new community
1907 – Hillhurst Baptist church is built on Gladstone Road NW
1911 – Calgary gets is first Jewish synagogue
1912 – Knox United church is built downtown
1930 – House of Israel synagogue is built on 18 avenue SE
Then we came along. Churches provided classes for kids, choirs, even social events for teens
1950 – Calvin Hungarian Reformed church was built
1951 – Central United Church downtown gets a new wing
1956 – Calgary Mennonite Brethen church was built
1957 – First Mennonite Church was built
1959 – Knox United Church downtown was expanded
1960 – Calgary Islamic Centre opens on 17 avenue SE
1960 – St. Matthews United Church was built
1962 – Central United church was renovated again
1964 – St. Luke’s Catholic church was built
1967 – Canadian Martyrs Catholic church was built
1969 – St. Andrew’s United was built in the NW
Funeral homes, cemeteries
The churches served us through the weddings, baptisms and yes the deaths of family members.
Calgary already had funeral parlors and cemeteries but those also grew in the years of my cohort’s massive arrival on scene.
1876 – St. Mary’s Pioneer cemetery is built for Roman Catholic mission
1885 – a cemetery is built at Shaganappi for non-Catholics. It is later moved to Union Cemetry
1890 – Union Cemetery is at Spiller Road SE
1897 – St. Mary’s cemetery now on Erlton Street has 15,000 burials
1903 – McInnis and Hollway funeral parlors open
1908 – A Chinese cemetery is built at Erlton with over 1000 bodies of pioneers to the city
1914 – Jewish Chevra Kedisha Cemetery is at Erlton
1923 – Burnsland cemetery on Spiller Road SE is for world war two soldiers
1930 – Leyden’s funeral home
1930 – The Little Chapel on the Corner on Macleod Trail South
1933 – Cy Foster Gooder funeral services
1936 – Jacques Funeral Parlor
1940 – Queen’s Park cemetery is at 4 street NW
1952 – Mountain View Memorial Gardens
1954- William Switzer and Associates funeral parlor
1956 – Foster’s Garden Chapel on 4 street NW
1963 – the Catholic church now permits cremation
1970 – Queen’s Park cemetery got a columbarium
These places are very moving and most of my cohort has been to funerals in them and visited graves of loved ones. My sister and friends working with the history society and genealogy groups even helped photograph and record all the graves for Calgary in the 2000s. Many of the records are now online. We value our past.
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