On winter evenings, with bundles of the Calgary Herald weighing him down, Bill McNamee would wander up to the Devenish apartments eager to rid himself of some weight and slowly make his way through the building, hiding from the biting cold.

No longer a home for Calgary’s urban middle class, the Devenish is still a looming presence on 17th Ave. S.W., both in terms of its historical significance and physical stature. It has been a home and a place of business, but its big brick character is constant.

Named after its first owner, Oscar Grant Devenish, a prominent oil and real estate tycoon in Calgary’s early boom, the Devenish was one of 13 large apartment buildings to spring up in 1911 in order to cater to a population that swelled by 33 per cent in one year.

McNamee delivered papers to the building in 1952, when it still housed 57 apartments. It was an after-school job when the Herald was an evening paper, far outselling its morning rival, The Albertan.

With about 185 papers to deliver, the teenager looked forward to dropping 40 papers off at one spot. “The other thing was that it was nice in the winter to get inside,” says McNamee. “I was dropping them at the doors; I got inside and walked the three floors, so if I wanted to walk slowly and warm up I could.”

The building was deemed a historical resource by the province in 1981, a year after the Devenish was purchased for $2.5 million and converted into a commercial building. The city followed suit almost 30 years later in 2008.

Bob Van Wegen of the Calgary Heritage Initiative, an organization that lobbies for the protection and productive use of architecturally and historical significant sites in the city, says the Devenish is important. “It’s the main landmark on the avenue, it’s the landmark that really defines 17th Ave. and has done so for almost 100 years now,” he says.

“There’s very little of that architecture left in Calgary and on 17th Ave. Certainly it was one of the largest and most impressive and most ornate apartment buildings when it was built, so it was a standout in its time.”

In 1911, however, the building wasn’t a historic standout, it was a high-tech showpiece, featuring steam laundry, garbage chutes, central hot water heating and even Murphy beds.

“Alexander Pirie, the architect, designed many interesting buildings in Calgary,” says Van Wegen. “Just the quality of the architecture, the longevity of the building, its landmark presence, its historical associations — these are all reasons why it’s an important building.”

 

- Drew Anderson (FFWD Weekly)