Writers aim to preserve lore of Eamon’s Garage
When her brother, Jeff, asked her to write a book about Eamon’s Garage to raise funds and awareness for the restoration of the historical building, Kimberley Langford began brainstorming story ideas.
Eamon’s Garage is known as one of Calgary’s first drive-in restaurants and roadside service stations. It opened in 1949 on the old Highway 1 and its location on the way to Banff made it popular with tourists and locals.
Although Eamon’s closed in the 1960s, the building was still admired by history enthusiasts and ’80s Canadian heartthrob Corey Hart, who featured the building in a music video. During construction of the Tuscany CTrain station in 2012, Eamon’s was moved into storage until River City Classics Car Club purchased the building for $10 in 2016 and relocated it to High River. The iconic Eamon’s sign was restored and built into the Tuscany station.
“We’ve got a lot of the history written already, we have photos from the past and from what is being done now, as far as renovating the garage,” said Kimberley Langford. “Now I’m looking for contributors who remember the garage when it was there during its heyday.”
She’s already heard some heartwarming stories, including a couple’s engagement proposal in the restaurant after a long-distance relationship in the ’50s.
Jeff Langford, president of River City Classics Car Club, said the renovations could cost more than $200,000 and the building will be used as a museum when it’s finished.
“The vision of the Car Club is to have it basically replicated inside and out of how it was in the 1950s,” he said. Two old-fashioned gas pumps have also been donated to decorate the front.
Kimberley Langford hopes Eamon’s will bring people together like it once did. “We’re trying to bring it back to life so people can step back in time and remember what it was like ... It was a simpler life back then.”
The car club is preserving Eamon’s by forming a society to care for its upkeep, holding a 100year lease on the land where the building is located and writing the book to tell its history.
For more information, visit the group’s Facebook page, Friends of Eamon’s Garage.