Description of Historic Place

Fairey Terrace is a two-storey, rectangular red-brick building from the pre-First World War period, located on one city lot in Victoria Park, two blocks north of Stampede Park in downtown Calgary.

Heritage Value

The Fairey Terrace is significant as an example of the style of apartment block that appeared in Calgary's growth as a major urban centre in the early part of the twentieth century.

Fairey Terrace is located in Victoria Park, one of Calgary's oldest neighbourhoods, a subdivision created in 1888 by the Canadian Pacific Railway as an addition to its original townsite. Fairey Terrace and Dafoe Terrace were among two of the more than 50 apartment blocks erected to meet the demand for housing in the decade before the First World War when their proximity to downtown Calgary and the railyards made their location attractive. Fairey Terrace originally consisted of twelve separate apartments. With the growth of middle-class subdivisions after the war the majority of the higher income renters moved elsewhere, which consolidated the working class character of one of Calgary's inner city neighbourhoods. Fairey Terrace is therefore associated with the rise and transformation of one of Calgary's inner city neighbourhoods at the time of Calgary's first major growth.

With Dafoe Terrace, Fairey Terrace contributes to the historic and architectural character of its locality, and is an example of the terrace style, or row-housing, apartment block typical of North American cities at the time but now relatively rare in Alberta. It also reflects the trend of the day of incorporating popular, late nineteenth century Georgian and Jacobethan motifs with little regard for historical accuracy.

Source: Alberta Culture and Community Spirit, Historic Resources Management Branch (File: Des. 1348)

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of Fairey Terrace's eclectic revivalist architectural style include:
- location north of the Stampede Park near downtown Calgary;
- three bays;
- entrance porticos;
- parapeted flat roof with pediments;
- half-turrets on each end of building;
- modillions;
- decorative corbelled red brick facade with sandstone foundation and trim;
- fenestration pattern, including mutilstored bay windows in both sides of the central entryway separating end bays from centre bay;
- steel and glazed doors.