Imagine, as you stand on the bluff, known by local school children as ‘Grasshopper Hill, looking south east towards the skyscrapers that mark Calgary’s downtown, how the valley looked 145 years ago. There were no trees, except for the willows along the river, no roads or bridges; just endless prairie, grasslands spreading from the eastern horizon to the foothills to the west.
The arrival of the detachment of the North West Mounted Police in 1875 and the subsequent building of Ft. Calgary at the confluence of the Elbow and Bow rivers marked the beginning of the settlement of the area by Europeans. Hitherto, the area had been associated with lawlessness; whisky traders preying on the native people but, gradually, more farmers and ranchers came to homestead. The construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway station in 1884 on the west side of the Elbow River established Calgary as an urban centre. Soon, the railway was to bring settlers from the east; streets were laid out, houses built, stores and businesses opened and, by 1900, the population had grown to just over 4,000. The town had been incorporated in 1884, the mainstay of the economy being the cattle industry.
Our story begins about this time with the arrival of Thomas E. Riley (1842 – 1909) in Calgary in 1887. Thomas Riley was born in Derbyshire in England and immigrated to Canada in 1862. He was married to Georgina Jane Hounsfield (1843 – 1907) and lived in Montreal prior to moving west. Although he gave his occupation as ‘merchant’ when he arrived, he soon acquired land on the north shore of the Bow, across from the rapidly growing commercial district. Thomas and Georgina had ten children and built a two-storey home (shown above) located on the west side of what is now Crowchild Trail. The ranch was called the Hounsfield Lodge Farm. Thomas kept detailed records, including a diary, of his life on the farm, which are now stored at the Glenbow Archives. His property extended from what is now Sunnyside to Parkdale in the west, and from the Bow River to 16 Ave. to the north.
The years from 1900 to 1910 saw the population of Calgary grow by almost 40,000. The demand for land was acute and the Riley family was under pressure to subdivide and to sell. Ezra Hounsfield Riley (1866 -1937), Thomas’s second son, had a large home located just east of the Agape Manor. In 1906 he sold land to the City of Calgary; the land was subsequently divided and became the subdivisions of Hillhurst, West Hillhurst and Hounsfield Heights. The house remained in the possession of the Riley family until the 1940’s when it was acquired by the Lutheran Welfare Society of Alberta. In 1946 it became a home for the aged known as Bethany Home.
Ezra Riley had married Harriet Waterhouse in 1897 and had five children, four of whom survived; Thomas, Arthur, Margaret Louise and Dorothy Elizabeth.* Ezra served as an MLA for Gleichen from 1906 to 1910. In 1910, he donated land to the City of Calgary to be designated a park, henceforth known as Riley Park. In 1919, he obtained permission from the City Parks Superintendent, William Reader,” to prepare a cricket pitch and arrange for the playing of cricket matches throughout the summer season”. To date, cricket is still being played in Riley Park and the Calgary Cricket League boasts no less than 45 teams! Ezra Riley also provided a generous endowment for St. Barnabas Anglican Church in 1912. His daughter, Margaret Louise, became a children’s librarian and author and is remembered for her story hours at the public library. The Louise Riley Library, which opened in 1959 in Hounsfield Heights, is named for her. His son, Thomas Riley, was killed at Vimy Ridge by a sniper the day after it was captured by Canadian soldiers. His grandson, the Rev. John Gishler, lives in Briar Hill with his wife, Lucille, and daughter, Mary.
On June 10, 1910, ‘The Morning Albertan’ featured the following headline, “Hounsfield Heights; all view lots – an Ideal Location for an Ideal home”, accompanied by a view of the subdivision of Hillhurst from the top of the bluff. Instructions on how to get there “..through the park donated by Mr. E. Riley..” were also included, along with quoted prices of $800 to $1000 per 50 foot lot, a lofty sum for that time. Hounsfield Heights was to be the “Mount Royal of the North”. However, the period of dramatic growth and prosperity in Calgary was about to come to an end, at least for the time being. Speculators had been attracted by the lenient land-use bylaws and the economy had become overheated. “At this time, Calgary could hardly be classed as a financial or metropolitan centre, and the city had made little impact at the national level; but the initiative and formulae for growth and change had come from local sources. This self-determination, like the accompanying economic prosperity, was not to last. By 1913, Calgary was awash with depression, threats of war and unemployment.” (Max Foran, “Calgary: An Illustrated History”, Jas. Lorimer & Co. Publishers, 1978, p.82) Despite the City Land Superintendent’s boast that “almost 50% of the lots had been sold”, the subdivision of Hounsfield Heights was to languish for the next three decades.
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