Glenbow: Brief glory along the Bow River

When American businessman Chester Rhodes de la Vergne arrived in Calgary from New York in 1909 he set his entrepreneurial sights about 25 kilometres northwest of the Alberta city.
He soon purchased land owned by Stephen Christopher Lay Moore and Frank R. Houghton near a Canadian Pacific Railway siding known as Glenbow.
It was here de la Vergne would realize a dream of operating a horse and sheep ranch in partnership with horse rancher Leonard H. Kennerley. But there was an even bigger dream for the American, one leading to the construction of the young province’s grand and beautiful Legislature Building in the capital city of Edmonton.

Aerial view of rail spur and old brickworks at Glenbow in 1922. 1922 air photograph, University of Calgary Air Photographs Collection.

Glenbow was situated at the foot of a valley on the north side of the Bow River. A few years earlier Moore noted there was sandstone in the outcrops on the steep hillsides of his property.
In 1906 and 1907, Calgary businessman John Gillespie, a stone contractor and Scottish stone mason, had checked out the sandstone at Glenbow with two other entrepreneurs and came away impressed. Sandstone was gaining popularity at the time, particularly in Calgary, for use in building construction.
Gillespie’s visit would become more important later as he became Chief Inspector of Masonry for the provincial department of public works, and was in charge of the construction of Edmonton’s Legislature Building.
At the time of Gillespie’s visit, a sandstone quarry was in operation, and became known as the Glenbow Quarry Company in 1907. However, it went out of business the following year and was sold to the Alberta government.