The age of the automobile was unfortunately accompanied by wrecking balls. Pre-war structures across the city were demolished to make way for car infrastructure, including notorious surface parking lots, which are finally being supplanted by development more aligned with the needs and desired image of the downtown core. At the northwest corner of 7th Avenue and 1st Street SE, one such parking lot unpropitiously occupies a prominent property. What came before it was completed in 1912 and met its untimely end in 1986, when a fire destroyed the block and forced its demolition.

Beveridge Block, image via Calgary Public Library

More than a century ago, Judge Jeremiah Travis would sign a contract with local builder R.A. Brocklebank to erect a building bearing his name. Real estate developers and brothers Stephen and Francis Beveridge, along with the Alberta Loan and Investment Company, provided the necessary funds to finance the project's completion. The "Beveridge, Travis and Alberta Loan and Investment Block" began construction in May 1911, one month after the death of Judge Travis. At the time of his passing, Travis had acquired an expansive portfolio of real estate holdings in the city.

Beveridge Block, image via Calgary Public Library

The six-storey Beveridge Building at 138 7th Avenue SE housed small businesses, lawyers, physicians, real estate and mortgage companies, in addition to offices for the Allan Line Steamship Company, Western Supply and Equipment Limited, Canadian Western Natural Gas, the Canadian Importing and Distributing Company, and Riley and McCormick Ltd. The basement offered a quaint space for Calgary's first self-serve cafe in 1912. At the street, storefronts were outfitted with awnings and large plate glass display windows, while the perimeter of the building was illuminated.

The upper levels of the building would be converted to residences, the Beveridge Apartments, by the 1970s. The building was showing its age by the 1980s, and became a serious safety hazard when in 1983, bricks and stone from the parapet fell onto 7th Avenue, cutting LRT wires in the process. Two years later, a fire would force residents out of their homes. Before rehabilitation work could be conducted, a second fire broke out at the neighbouring Saan Department store, which would spread east and gut both buildings.

Current state of the site, image retrieved from Google Street View

The Beveridge Block was demolished in 1987 and eventually replaced by a parking lot and another structure, originally a nightclub called the Calgarian, and most recently, the former location of the Calgary Urban Project Society. The building is now occupied by the Cityscape Crossfit gym. One of the only remaining buildings of the era, as pictured in the 'now' image above, is Calgary Fire Hall No. 1, which has been leased by Budget Rent-a-Car since 1983.

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