Suburbs Satellites& CALGARY’S NEIGHBOURING COMMUNITIES JUNE 2011 FOREVER YOUNG AS STRATHMORE CELEBRATES ITS CENTENNIAL, TWO COUPLES REFLECT ON THEIR SHARED PAST ALSO INSIDE: Saddlery a way of life for High River craftsmen • Airdrie readies for future boom PLUS: Advantages of life in High River • Okotoks • Airdrie • Cochrane • and more . SUBURBS + SATELLITES JUNE 2011 1 2 SUBURBS + SATELLITES JUNE 2011 Suburbs Satellites& 2A CALGARY’S NEIGHBOURING COMMUNITIES JUNE 2011 DIDSBURY 582 FOREVER YOUNG CARSTAIRS AS STRATHMORE CELEBRATES ITS CENTENNIAL, TWO COUPLES LOOK BACK ON THEIR SHARED PAST 2 ALSO INSIDE: Okotoks sports fans have reason to cheer • Rocky View growth just the beginning PLUS: Advantages of life in High River • Okotoks • Airdrie • Cochrane • and more . SUBURBS + SATELLITES JUNE 2011 1 AIRDRIE SUBURBS + SATELLITES COCHRANE in this issue is a special advertising 1 1A CHESTERMERE STRATHMORE 04 Strathmore 14 Okotoks publication of the Calgary Herald 1 Special Projects Manager: 560 History runs deep through town Golfers don’t have to venture far 22 LANGDON as it celebrates its centennial. for a sampling of quality links. Barb Livingstone, 403-235-7339 22X [email protected] 22 Project Co-ordinator: 07 Cochrane 16 High River OKOTOKS 7 Town’s housing options open it Craftsmen carry on town’s Jamie Zachary, 403-235-7552 2 [email protected] BLACK up to a new type of homebuyer. local saddle-making legacy. DIAMOND Contributors: HIGH RIVER Wil Andruschak, Estelle Besserer, CAYLEY 10 Cochrane 18 Airdrie Alex Frazer-Harrison, Shawn Hoult, NANTON Revitalization levy could pay off Business is good in growing city, Jacquline Louie, Carl Patzel and for proposed arts and culture. say Airdrie business owners. Gerald Vander Pyl STAVELY Cover photo: Estelle Besserer, 12 Okotoks 20 Airdrie www.stellarimagery.ca CLARESHOLM Multipurpose sports facility a Land annexation poses possible potential boon for active families. solution to population boom. ADVERTISING FEATURE Affordable northwest Calgary living is closer than you think f you’ve always dreamed of owning a home With the addition of five ponds in the in northwest Calgary, now is the time to visit community, there is so much to see and do Ithe new show home parade in EvansRidge. right in your community’s backyard. The latest community by Dundee Develop- All the shopping you could want is also ments and the company’s first in northwest available in several nearby major shopping Calgary, EvansRidge has something for districts, including Creekside Shopping Centre, everyone, including beautiful starter homes which boasts a Calgary Co-op, Shoppers Drug in the low $300,000s and breathtaking estate Mart and Rona; Beddington Towne Centre homes. with Safeway, and London Drugs; and Beacon While many nearby northwest communi- Hill Centre with a Costco and Home Depot. ties might cater to just a few types of buyers, The first show home parade in EvansRidge EvansRidge was purposefully designed to opened May 28 with nine homes by Birch- allow more people to own property in the wood Homes, Genesis Builders Group, Homes northwest, and be near to family or friends By Avi/Avi Concept, Innovations by Jay- who already call the area home. man, Landmark Homes, Morrison/Discovery To create EvansRidge’s wide range of home Homes and WestView Builders. choices, Dundee has gathered eight of In addition, Calbridge Homes will have Calgary’s most notable homebuilders, two show homes on The Ridge, EvansRidge’s including Birchwood Homes, Calbridge exclusive estate home neighbourhood. Homes, Genesis Builders Group, Homes by some innovative designs and floor plans for EvansRidge is also built with northwest Show home hours are Monday to Thursday Avi/Avi Concept, Innovations by Jayman, EvansRidge. Calgary’s wide-open spaces in mind. Home- from 2 to 8 p.m.; weekends and holidays from Landmark Homes, Morrison/Discovery The initial phase in EvansRidge will cater to owners are never more than a few footsteps noon to 5 p.m., or Fridays by appointment. Homes and WestView Builders. different price points and lifestyles, with 200 away from a number of recreation areas, To reach EvansRidge from Stoney Trail, The builders were chosen by Dundee front-drive homes, 98 lane homes, 69 zero- water features and more. go north on Symons Valley Road, east on because of their experience and reputation lot-line homes and 40 townhomes. The community was designed to allow for Symons Valley Parkway, north on Evanspark in constructing homes of the finest design, At final buildout, EvansRidge is expected personal and family growth, with a balance Boulevard to the show homes on Evanston materials and construction. to include 710 single-family homes and 140 between the city’s convenience and the close- Drive. All have responded by coming up with multi-family units. ness to nature. For more information, visit lifeontheridge.ca. SUBURBS + SATELLITES JUNE 2011 3 t was a cold spring. Snow still covered patches of the prairie. There were no roads other than a muddy trail that led to a small one-room farmhouse. The sky was overcast. It had been a damp and cold journey for the two Scheer brothers who had made the long trip from Illinois in the spring of on 1909 to start a new life about 15 kilometres east of Strathmore. heritage “No light looked better than the one they saw that day in the window of the tiny, one-room home,” says John Scheer, 84, about his grandfather John Henry Gustavas Scheer and great uncle Ed as they arrived to homestead in the iarea more than a century ago. Originally from Hanover, Germany, the Scheers had immigrated to the United the prairies States in the mid-19th century. They farmed in Edwardsville, Ill., but soon found the region too crowded for a growing farm family. Convinced by a CPR land promoter that the region — with its newly constructed As Strathmore celebrates its centennial this irrigation system — was a land of promise and prosperity, they packed up their family belongings in three boxcars and rode the rails to the Strathmore region. year, a landmark home stands east of this Freedom, opportunity and, of course, land truly did await them. “My dad wrote you could ride from Strathmore to Drumheller without hitting a town of 12,000, symbolizing just how much barbed wire fence,” he says. “It was all unbroken prairie grass.” At the time, Strathmore was just beginning to flex its civic muscle as a hub for the the community has grown over the years outlying farming and ranching community. It had grocery stores, a livery, bank, two hotels, a blacksmith, two hardware stores Story by Joel Schlesinger. Photos by Estelle Besserer and a doctor’s office — not bad for a community that had picked up stakes in 1905 Pictured top: John and Anne Scheer, left. and moved a few kilometres to where it is today, straddling both sides of the Trans- Canada Highway, 40 kilometres east of Calgary. Winston and Carrie Sproule, right. “The CPR mainline came through Strathmore on its way to Calgary in 1883,” 4 SUBURBS + SATELLITES JUNE 2011 It certainly represents an important era in the opening up of this country. Scheer says. “But the town that was proposed to be called Strathmore was about four miles south of where it’s presently located.” Today, Strathmore still reflects that same original optimism that drew early families to the area 100 years ago. As the town of more than 12,000 celebrates its 100th anniversary this year after incorporation in 1911, many of the original families still call the community home, including the Scheers. John Scheer and his wife Anne, 73, continued in the tradition of his grandfather and father, working the land. Today, they live in central Strathmore in a walk-up, two-storey condominium. They say it’s a path that many farming families follow as they pass the torch to the younger generations, retiring to a comfortable life in town. “We have lots of grandchildren who seem to find their way here as a spot to hang out until they have a job to go to or a sporting event,” says Anne, a former schoolteacher and historian who edited a book on the history of schoolhouses in the district. The Scheers moved to Strathmore after retiring from the family farm in 2003. Today, the youngest of their four daughters, Beth, and her husband Rod Vergouwen, live Today, the old Scheer home is called the Sproule Heritage in the house that John and Anne built in the 1980s, and still farm the House, and it’s found new life as a bed and breakfast — and same land their ancestors did when they arrived in the community more as the setting for commercials by Hallmark and the Alberta a century ago. government. Much of the region’s history — from unfenced prairie to a vibrant Run by Winston and his second wife Carrie, the Sproule agricultural community — is evident in Anne and John’s choice of décor Heritage B&B attracts tourists from around the world who in their condo. want to experience some of Western Canada’s rich history. Many old photos hang on walls and rest on end tables and mantels. While its TV past helps add to the colourful past, it’s the They have the clock that commemorates John’s grandparents’ wedding. old home’s construction that makes it a true jewel of prairie One of their prize possessions is an antique settee — a hand-made history, Sproule says. wooden chair for two — that was lovingly restored by a local, former When John Scheer’s grandparents began construction at pastor Winston Sproule. the end of the First World War, it was meant to be their In fact, Sproule’s connection to the family runs much more deeply than dream home.