Saturday Morning Flaneur: Mount Pleasant, Tuxedo Park Fun!
One of the things we love to do on the weekend is to pick a neighbourhood and just park the car and wander for an hour or two and see what we find.
Note: Even though we are retired our “together flaneuring” is limited to the weekends in the summer as I golf several days a week, so going for a walk on a day off is not that appealing to me. Yes, sometimes if feels like I am still working.
On a recent Saturday we decided to wander in the Mount Pleasant/Balmoral/Tuxedo Park neighbourhoods as it has a grand sandstone school and a circus. Yep, a circus.. I bet I have your attention now. There is even a funky main street with a garden centre, cafes and a Turkish breakfast/lunch spot.
Let’s go flaneuring….
Our first fun flaneur find was this painted sidewalk icon. Not sure what the meaning is, anybody know? Any guesses?
Soon after we found this great sidewalk stamp from 1913. At first we wondered if it was a replica, but the tiny dots are indicative of old sidewalks. Always fun to find one of these.
St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church, Gothic Rival, opened in 1914 was our next find.
There is a lovely courtyard tucked away in the back that we found on our way back.
Loved this garden arch entrance to cottage home.
Calgary’s established neighbourhoods are known for their amazing tree canopy.
We loved how this older modest bungalow had been updated with a modern addition and facade.
This was perhaps our favourite century home.
They don’t build schools like this anymore. The Balmoral school is just one of 19 sandstone schools built in Calgary from 1894 to 1914. The Balmoral School was the last and most expensive at $246,871, which would e about $7 million in today’s dollars.
The school opened in 1914 but was officially dedicated in 1915.. The tower clock, initially delayed by wartime shortages, was never purchased. For a time around 1917, a clock face with hands pointing to 4 p.m. was painted on the tower in place of the missing clock. Among the many wild stories surrounding the empty clock tower was one that claimed that the clock sank with the Titanic in April 1912.
Fun Fact: The time is permanently set at 4:05, the time the school day ended in 1913.
The school was named for the city’s Balmoral District which was named after Balmoral Castle, the Royal Family’s ancestral Scottish home
Behind the grand sandstone school is this heritage bungalow school that currently sits empty. I am thinking it would make for a great daycare, like the Wee Wild Ones daycare in the Riverside’s heritage bungalow school.
Like all of Calgary’s established neighbourhoods, new infill homes are beginning to dominate the streets.
While many object to these monster homes, they bring families back to aging neighbourhoods who help rejuvenate the ‘hood.
Old vs new duplex homes.
The new infills come is all shapes and sizes, often creating strange juxtapositions with older homes that have a very different design sensibility.
The Card House was a fun flaneur find.
I think all Fire Stations should be bright red and shout out, “this is a fire station.”
Subtle design feature. I am thinking this is an outdoor patio.
The North Mount Pleasant Arts Centre combines the old with the new. The heritage North Mount Pleasant bungalow school (1913) became an arts centre in 1985, with a modern ceramics wing addition in 1995.
The modern addition with its round and angular shapes creates a very modern statement, but there is a traditional reference its kiln-like shape, that is fitting with it being the ceramic wing.
Ed Drahanchuk’s ceramic mural at the entrance to the North Mount Pleasant Arts Centre is 11 ft wide and 16 ft tall. Study it carefully and you realize its a bird’s eye view of the Alberta foothills depicting wheat, cattle, and oil and bathed in sunshine and gentle rain.
Funny story: The mural was originally located on a building at 209 - 16th Ave NE and was moved to its current site when the 2006 16th Ave aka Trans Canada Highway redevelopment started as the building was being demolished. It was a complicated move as it weighs 17,700 lbs and is very fragile.
Is it fun to wonder inside as there are lot of displays of ceramics and other artworks.
Found this intriguing piece all by itself on a high shelf.
Found this strange structure behind the Centre, not sure what its purpose is. Is it a sculpture? Shade feature? Strange sense of place? No place to really sit?
Time for lunch so we thought we’d try a Turish lunch at Turca. Very busy, very friendly and very good.
Turca Fun….
Heading home we found a street of infills where several front sidewalks had “Welcome” etched in the sideway. What a great idea!
I bet you have been wondering, “What about the circus?” Balmoral Circus is a historic, unique intersection in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, designed in the 1930s as part of the City Beautiful Movement to create formal beauty and social order through extensive floral plantings. Originally a roundabout with a decorative centerpiece, it became a symbol of civic pride under Parks Superintendent William Reader. In 2020, the City of Calgary transformed the intersection back into a park by closing it to vehicle traffic, creating a space for passive recreation and community gathering, and preserving its unique heritage.
Why circus? The term comes from the Latin word for "circle" and refers to architecturally planned circular public spaces. In urban design history, a Circus is an older term for a grand, open, circular urban space where streets converge, like in Bath, England, and is not designed for traffic control.
Last Word
If you are not a regular “Everyday Tourist” reader, you might be wondering “what is flaneuring?” It is the act of strolling or wandering leisurely without a specific purpose, taking pleasure in observing and absorbing your surroundings. Originating in 18th-century France, the concept, and the figure of the flâneur (the one who practices it), became associated with the modern urban experience, symbolizing an observant, curious, yet idle wanderer.