PRESERVE OUR PAST
Hindsight, as they say, is 20/20. It’s often only when it’s too late to take action that we realize we’ve made an error or let an opportunity slip through our hands. That’s why it’s encouraging to see Lorna Cordeiro pushing to secure heritage designation for her 1911 Edwardian gable-front house in Hillhurst. The Calgarian has grown tired of seeing such residences knocked down to make room for new construction, so she wants her home to be protected in perpetuity.
“I’m putting my money where my mouth is,” Cordeiro told city councillors earlier this month. “I want to preserve some heritage for future generations and I’m willing to incur a loss on market value potentially by doing so.”
Cordeiro is making a sacrifice. Future owners won’t be able to demolish the house or make extensive renovations, so it’s not as likely to fetch as high a price as similar homes. The city’s planning and urban development committee supports designating the house a municipal historic resource, and the proposal will go to council at the end of the month.
The red home is named the William J. Gray Residence, after a grocery store owner who bought the house in 1912 and sold it less than a year later. Such homes were common decades ago in Hillhurst, which was one of the city’s first communities north of the Bow River.
Coun. Andre Chabot, who chairs the committee, initially wondered if protection was appropriate, given there’s nothing unique about the home.
“When it’s run of the mill, is it worth preserving?” Chabot, who now supports awarding the home heritage designation, said after the May 10 committee meeting.
“In the future, single-family bungalows might be considered a historic resource, but there’s literally hundreds of thousands of them today ... Is that something that’s worthy of preservation?”
There may be plenty of such homes today, but as Cordeiro has pointed out, they are quickly disappearing.
If proud, conscientious homeowners such as Cordeiro don’t make efforts to preserve them, gems such as these will be lost, leaving the city a little more drab.
It’s important such designation is sought voluntarily. It isn’t up to the city to impose restrictions on what people can do with their property, but when homeowners are forward-thinking, the city should provide the support citizens need to ensure heritage homes don’t fall prey to the wrecking ball.
Century-old homes may not be scarce, but they will be if Calgarians don’t have the foresight to not only maintain them, but cherish them for future generations. We need more people like Lorna Cordeiro.