My father purchased the property I live on in 1950 and I have lived here ever since, with short absences for university.
When we moved in here in the spring of 1951 there were few horses and as I recall nothing in Briar Hill except Moddie’s Motel which was on 16th Ave west of 19th St. Lots of people kept horses around with so much vacant property. My father, J.W. Randall, was an original shareholder of the community. I think Dr. Willard Allen was the President of the community when the hall was built. He was a chemistry professor at the University of Calgary which as part of the SAIT campus. I turned the debenture in when they were asked for in the late 1060’s, I think.
My children attended Briar Hill School but I don’t really remember it being built.. I do have an interesting aerial photo taken pre North Hill Shopping Center when the Jubilee Auditorium was under construction. It shows the original community building which as really just a shack for us to put our skates on and get war. It was about 16th St just north of 13th Ave in the gully which flooded nearly every spring. We had great fun on that rink and every year we had a winter carnival with costumes and all. We tobogganed and skied behind Cockerton’s house, trapped gophers where the shopping center is, collected wild flowers in the field. In fact, my parent’s friends wondered why they would move so far out.
I was active in the school as a volunteer, treasurer of the community kindergarten, committee chair for the cubs, volunteered with Brownies and Guides. I recall the campaign, led by Mary Cockerton I believe, to get the Louis Riley Library. I was part of the group that worked to get Lion’s Park to buffer us from the shopping center. The site of the hopping center was originally earmarked for a university I think. Another interesting piece of trivia I picked up when we were working to get land dedicated, Hounsfield Heights has more institutional use than any other area of comparable size in the city. The nursing home on 14th St and 8th Ave, known as The Bethany, the former detention center, now AADAC, and the former Children’s Aid Center. They were built on the site of one of the original Riley homes which was used as a Children’s Aid home before the house was torn down. The apartments on 8th Ave west of 15th St were the site of a large greenhouse when I moved here. Because that was commercial property originally we couldn’t stop the apartments.
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