HERITAGE GUIDELINES
Heritage Guidelines are intended to ensure that new development fits into the historic character of Heritage Guidelines Areas. They are part of the North Hill Communities Local Area Plan, meant to guide development, and are enforced by the City as part of the land-use bylaw.
If you are redeveloping a property in a Heritage Guideline Area, do review the Heritage Guidelines Implementation Guide, and incorporate these guidelines into your design!
Here is the Heritage Guidelines Implementation Guide.
Click here for background and further information.
Heritage Guideline Area Map
In Mount Pleasant, these are our Heritage Guideline Areas:
Pink = historic West Mount Pleasant
Red = historic Balmoral
Click here for more maps.
Heritage Guideline Area Lawn Signs
These lawn signs will help people learn how Heritage Guidelines impact redevelopment in our neighbourhood and help maintain the historic character of our community.
Click here for more details.
Some simple ways to learn more:
Discover heritage assets in our neighbourhood:
MyProperty Calgary
Learn when a home was built at MyProperty Calgary
- Enter address of property
- Scroll to the bottom of the left pane to find the build year
Note: the ‘speckled’ areas on the map denote Heritage Guideline Areas!
Mount Pleasant's Heritage
What we now know as Mount Pleasant, was historically made up of smaller communities, including West Mount Pleasant plus a portion of Balmoral.
Historic West Mount Pleasant:
A plan for the Mount Pleasant Subdivision (between 18th and 26th Avenues, 4th and 9th Streets) was registered in 1906. By 1910, the year that Mount Pleasant was annexed by the City, there were only 9 households in this subdivision, with 51 households a year later – the year the Upshall (Corson) Residence is thought to have been built.
The early houses were a mix of one-storey bungalows and more-substantial two-storey houses, being predominantly Foursquare in style. Until the mid-1940s, the neighbourhood was largely undeveloped with much open space and a semi-rural character. The neighbourhood experienced rapid growth after the Second World War.
Historic Balmoral:
John Mitchell, who was an investor in the Bow River Bridge Company, filed a plan in Oct. 1906 to create the community of “Balmoral”, on land he owned just north of Crescent Heights. At least during 1909 and 1910, Balmoral was under Crescent Heights’ taxing authority but retained its own identity. Both areas were annexed by the City in Jan. 1911.
Early development of Balmoral was sparse. Lots were about ¼ full in July 1913. However, the grand sandstone Balmoral School was built starting in 1913 to serve the growing population north of the river. Growth stalled throughout Calgary at the start of the First World War. With surges of city growth in the late 1920s and after World War II, Balmoral was fully developed by 1954.
Current Mount Pleasant:
As Calgary grew to 100,000 by 1947 and 200,000 by 1955, suburban Mount Pleasant experienced an influx of new amenities, with a major one being the opening in 1958 of Calgary’s first shopping mall, North Hill Centre. The Mount Pleasant community hall, Sportsplex and community swimming pool, form a triangle around a popular playground. A prime asset to the community is Confederation Park, which opened in 1967. Once known as the North Hill Coulee, the 160-acre park was designed to celebrate Canada’s 100th birthday.
Sources:
Mount Pleasant Featured Heritage Home
We’ll be showcasing ‘new’ homes regularly, so come back to see more
Upshall (Corson) Residence, 602 18 Ave NW
This Queen Anne Revival-style dwelling was constructed and first owned by carpenter Benjamin Upshall who occupied the house upon completion. The property was most likely developed for speculative purposes and was subsequently sold numerous times while being rented out by the various owners. John and Mary Corson owned and occupied the house the longest – together from 1933 until John’s death (c.1955), then by Mary until 1976. There they raised five sons and a daughter and also housed other relatives. The Corson children’s walk from this house to Crescent Heights High School (1019 1st Street NW) was almost entirely through vacant lots. In the winter, the empty lot west of this house was used as a community skating rink, and the Upshall (Corson) Residence basement served as a ‘club house’ for neighbourhood children, who entered through the side door.
Read more about the history, and the style of the home, here.
More about Heritage Guidelines
To celebrate the history of the North Hill Communities and respect the area’s heritage, the City
- identified areas that have concentrated groups of heritage assets
- developed Heritage Guidelines, intended to ensure that new development fits into the historic character.
These Heritage Guidelines are part of the North Hill Communities Local Area Plan (Section 2.6: “Heritage”).
The NHCLAP was initially published in 2021. The Heritage Guidelines were added in December 2022 after a public engagement process (visit NHC Heritage Guideline’s Engage for background info and useful links).
If you are redeveloping a property in a Heritage Guideline Area, do review the Heritage Guidelines Implementation Guide, and incorporate these guidelines into your design!
You can also find more useful tips about Heritage Guidelines, and development in general, at these community associations websites:
- Crescent Heights Planning Website (within North Hill Communities)
- Elbow Park Heritage Guidelines Website (part of West Elbow Communities)
More Heritage Guideline Area Maps
This bylaw document includes a detailed map, as well as addresses, of all North Hill Communities Heritage Guidelines Area properties
More about Heritage Guideline Area Lawn Signs
Our Heritage Guideline Area Lawn Sign design is based on the Crescent Heights Community Association lawn signs. This design has also been adopted by Rosedale and Elbow Park, and could become a standard for historic communities across the city to provide a focus on Heritage Guideline Areas.
We’d like to place 1 – 2 signs per Heritage-Guideline-Area block, in strategic locations (i.e. in front of heritage homes, in visible locations).
If you are interested in supporting this initiative and getting a lawn sign for your block, please contact us at MPCAHeritage@gmail.com
