1912 Canada Calgary photo postcard real estate speculation!

$75.00 CAD

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Postcard photo of  chauffeur sitting in his parked vehicle in downtown Calgary. On the running board ‘LAKE VIEW PARK’. Parked in front of office with window sign LAKE VIEW HEIGHTS A. Owen Jennings owners E.J. Foster

Inside window large framed image of the planned residential development,

Lake View Heights was a fanciful subdivision, an imaginary suburb existing only on maps but never built.

Postmarked ’CALGARY JUN 24 1912’ mailed to Hood River Oregon.

 

Speculative ventures for land purchase were not uncommon in Calgary. In 1884 when the CPR surveyors were laying out streets and avenues, real estate activity became feverish as speculators bid on prime lots in the downtown core in the hope of making a substantial profit through resale. The city grew and spread out; land values continued to increase over the next couple of decades. 1912 was an impressive year for the city. It witnessed the first Stampede, the building of the CPR station and Palliser Hotel, the new Hudson’s Bay Company store and the Memorial Park Library. Realtors were prospering. Numerous dealers were buying up land for resale all around the city.

There were numerous advertisements published in the Calgary Herald at the time, indicating that Lake View Heights was destined to be “Calgary’s Highest Class Residential Section” (Calgary Herald, May 4, 1912); and “We do guarantee to complete by October 1, 1913 and before this summer is over we will be boating there” (Calgary Herald, May 13, 1912);  along with other glowing commentary for a place that didn’t exist.

A promotional blurb appeared in the Calgary Herald on Aug 19, 1912, stating “A firm worthy of especial mention among the big realty dealers in Calgary is that of A.O. Jennings and E. J. Foster, owners of Lake View Heights...Every lot is high, dry and level and a perfect view lot...There will be a grand circular cement stairway leading down to the boat house at the water’s edge; then around the lake is a concrete wall with lighting columns every hundred feet. The lake is being dredged and from an artesian well will be filled or raised about two feet, making when finished, practically 30 acres of water from 2 to 12 feet in depth.”

Not long afterwards, following the idealistic and idyllic sounding promotional information, some controversial news surfaced. As numerous oil companies and oil speculators were emerging on the scene, there were concerns of the tactics of these companies. In a somewhat scathing review, the Calgary Herald states: “Mr. Jennings is the man who is floating ‘Standard Oil Fields of Alberta Limited’ and giving lots in his subdivision of Lake View Heights as a side attraction to the oil shares. Mr. Jennings’ stock selling scheme is the most ingenious yet produced on the local market, and there is one consolation about buying shares in this company: namely, that even though he never bores for oil THE BUYER CAN GO SIT UNDER THE BLADES OF GRASS THAT LOOK DOWN ON HIS SEMI-ARTIFICIAL LAKE.”

The article goes on to point out that “none of the wild statements made by oil promoters in the last month or more have been justified. It considers that these men have been ready to deceive the public in order to sell their stock.”

www.heritagecalgary.ca/heritage-calgary-blog/subdivisions

 


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