Lougheed House, or as it was originally known Beaulieu, (French meaning "beautiful place") is a National Historic Site located in the Beltline district of

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, maki ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest T ...

. Originally constructed in 1891 as a home for

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

James Alexander Lougheed Sir James Alexander Lougheed, ( or ; 1 September 1854 – 2 November 1925) was a businessman, lawyer and politician from Alberta, Canada. He served as a senator for 35 years, and held a number of Cabinet positions. Early life Lougheed was bor ...

KCMG KCMG may refer to * KC Motorgroup, based in Hong Kong, China * Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George, British honour * KCMG-LP, radio station in New Mexico, USA * KCMG, callsign 1997-2001 of Los Angeles radio station KKLQ (FM) ...

PC KC and his spouse Isabella Clarke Hardisty, the structure has since become an iconic heritage building in Calgary. Lougheed House is operated by Lougheed House Conservation Society, an independent, non-profit society devoted to the restoration and public enjoyment of the historic house and its Gardens. Over its long history, Lougheed House served many roles, has been a family residence, a training centre for young women, a women's

military barracks Barracks are usually a group of long buildings built to house military personnel or laborers. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word "barraca" ("soldier's tent"), but today barracks are u ...

and a

Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...

blood donor clinic. Then, for many years, it sat empty — cared for, but unused until its restoration started in 2000.

Description

Sandstone Building Lougheed House Calgary

Lougheed House is a 1,300 square metre (14,000 square foot)

mansion A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word '' manse'' originally defined a property l ...

High Victorian High Victorian Gothic was an eclectic architectural style and movement during the mid-late 19th century. It is seen by architectural historians as either a sub-style of the broader Gothic Revival style, or a separate style in its own right. Promo ...

aesthetics and is influenced by Queen Anne Revival style. This is evident through the rough-faced

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicat ...

exterior, asymmetrical massing, and corner towers. Influences of

Romanesque Revival Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended to ...

is found with the steep roof, and the cone shaped towers emanate French Chateau architecture. The mansion was constructed with what was considered at the time "modern luxuries" including running hot water and electricity. The interior of the 48-room house is decorated with Spanish

mahogany Mahogany is a straight- grained, reddish-brown timber of three tropical hardwood species of the genus '' Swietenia'', indigenous to the AmericasBridgewater, Samuel (2012). ''A Natural History of Belize: Inside the Maya Forest''. Austin: U ...

, Italian marble, stained glass windows and doors, and hand-painted images of Alberta flora and fauna. The mansion was built of sandstone per the municipal

building code A building code (also building control or building regulations) is a set of rules that specify the standards for constructed objects such as buildings and non-building structures. Buildings must conform to the code to obtain planning permissi ...

as a result of the

Calgary Fire of 1886 The Calgary Fire of 1886, also known as the Great Calgary Fire of 1886, was a conflagration that burned in the Canadian city of Calgary on Sunday November 7, 1886. The fire began at the rear wall of the local flour and feed store, and spread thro ...

. Upon the homes completion it included a

billiards Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as . There are three major subdivisions ...

room,

smoking room A smoking room (or smoking lounge) is a room which is specifically provided and furnished for smoking, generally in buildings where smoking is otherwise prohibited. Locations and facilities Smoking rooms can be found in public buildings suc ...

drawing room A drawing room is a room in a house where visitors may be entertained, and an alternative name for a living room. The name is derived from the 16th-century terms withdrawing room and withdrawing chamber, which remained in use through the 17th cen ...

, four large bedrooms on the second floor, and six large rooms on the third floor. Following completion of construction the

Calgary Herald The ''Calgary Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Publication began in 1883 as ''The Calgary Herald, Mining and Ranche Advocate, and General Advertiser''. It is owned by the Postmedia Network. History ''The C ...

described the Lougheed House as ''"In design, solidity, accommodation and furnishings it leaves nothing to be desired."''

Beaulieu Gardens

The Beaulieu Gardens which surround Lougheed House and were part of the original formal garden of the mansion are operated as a

municipal park An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a municipal park (North America) or a public park, public open space, or municipal gardens ( UK), is a park in cities and other incorporated places that offer recreation and green space to re ...

by the City of Calgary Parks Department.

Historic site status

On November 29, 1977, Lougheed House was designated the "Senator Lougheed Residence", an Alberta Provincial Historic Resource, due in part to the mansion's association with James Lougheed, and its representation of upper-class sandstone architecture from the period. On June 10, 1992, Lougheed House was designated "Beaulieu National Historic Site of Canada", a National Historic Site. This was due in part to the mansion being a rare example of an upper-middle class eclectic mansion on the

Canadian Prairies The Canadian Prairies (usually referred to as simply the Prairies in Canada) is a region in Western Canada. It includes the Canadian portion of the Great Plains and the Prairie Provinces, namely Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. These provin ...

History

James Lougheed was appointed to the Senate of Canada in 1889 by Sir John A. Macdonald, Lougheed was appointed to replace the deceased Richard Charles Hardisty, Lougheed's wife's uncle, James Alexander Lougheed commissioned a new mansion on the outskirts of Calgary for his wife, Isabella Hardisty Lougheed, and their two sons, Clarence and Norman. Following the move to the large mansion, the Lougheeds had four more children: Edgar, Dorothy, Douglas and Marjorie and the house was enlarged in 1907 to accommodate the family and their large social calendar. The mansion quickly became the center of the Calgary social scene, hosting a number of parties and galas. The Lougheeds hosted

Governor General Governor-general (plural ''governors-general''), or governor general (plural ''governors general''), is the title of an office-holder. In the context of governors-general and former British colonies, governors-general are appointed as viceroy ...

Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn (Arthur William Patrick Albert; 1 May 185016 January 1942), was the seventh child and third son of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He served as G ...

, his wife

Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia (Louise Margaret Alexandra Victoria Agnes; 25 July 1860 – 14 March 1917), later Duchess of Connaught and Strathearn VA CI RRC DStJ, was a member of the House of Hohenzollern and of the British royal fa ...

and daughter

Princess Patricia Lady Victoria Patricia Helena Elizabeth Ramsay, (born Princess Patricia of Connaught; 17 March 1886 – 12 January 1974) was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. Upon her marriage to Alexander Ramsay, she relinquished her title of a British prin ...

; and in 1919 Edward, Prince of Wales was the guest of honour at garden party held in the mansion.

Post-Lougheed era

The Lougheed estate continued to own the property following James Lougheed's death in 1925 until 1934 when the estate was unable to pay the municipal

property taxes A property tax or millage rate is an ad valorem tax on the value of a property.In the OECD classification scheme, tax on property includes "taxes on immovable property or net wealth, taxes on the change of ownership of property through inherit ...

and the City of Calgary took possession of the home. The City allowed Lougheed's widow and children to continue to live in the house until Isabella's death in 1936, and finally Norman A. Lougheed moved his family out in 1938. Lougheed House was used during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, the upper floors were as a barracks for the

Canadian Women's Army Corps The Canadian Women's Army Corps was a non-combatant branch of the Canadian Army for women, established during the Second World War, with the purpose of releasing men from those non-combatant roles in the Canadian armed forces as part of expanding ...

and basement was used by the Canadian Red Cross as a blood donor clinic. Following the war, Lougheed House was used as an annex for the YMCA. In 1978, following the Alberta Provincial Historic Resource designation, the Province of Alberta took possession of the house and began restoring the property. The provincial government designation and purchase occurred during the Premiership of

Peter Lougheed Edgar Peter Lougheed ( ; July 26, 1928 – September 13, 2012) was a Canadian lawyer and Progressive Conservative politician who served as the tenth premier of Alberta from 1971 to 1985, presiding over a period of reform and economic growth. Bo ...

, James Lougheed's grandson. Despite the purchase, Peter Lougheed was reluctant to see public funds spent on restoring the house while he was premier. The Lougheed House Conservation Society was created in 1995 after local lobbying began to see the mansion and grounds restored to their former glory. The City of Calgary purchased surrounding areas in the early 1990s with the intention of creating an outdoor public space, and construction began in 1997 to rebuild the Beaulieu Gardens, and restore the mansion.

References

Bibliography

* Cook Bobrovitz, Jennifer and Cowan, Trudy (2006). Lougheed House: More than a century of stories....Calgary: McCallum Printing Group Inc.

External links

Official Website of Lougheed House
* (Federal ''Historic Sites and Monuments Act'' Designation) * - (Provincial ''Historical Resources Act'' Designation) Buildings and structures in Calgary National Historic Sites in Alberta Houses in Alberta Historic house museums in Alberta Museums in Calgary Provincial Historic Resources of Alberta Historic buildings in Calgary {{Calgary landmarks