Ogden residents fight to keep historic building intact as Green Line construction looms

This old building is important to Ogden residents In the southeast Calgary community of Ogden, there is concern a piece of the city's history is about to be lost to Green Line construction.

Residents living in the community of Ogden are fighting for the preservation of a building slated to be demolished to make way for the Green Line LRT.

Supported by Ward 9 Coun. Gian Carlo Carra, the community group is hoping to find a partner to get Ogden Block habitable, floating the idea of a rent-free lease until 2030.

"We can take this off the Green Line's hands until 2030, get a good use in there and then post-2030 have a thoughtful conversation about what comes next," Carra said.

The building, located at 7044 Ogden Road S.E., was stripped of anything of value in 2021 in preparation for demolition, but its destruction was halted as the building's past came to light.

Constructed in 1914, the building used to house the Hong Lee laundry, a rare Chinese business outside of the three established Chinatowns that existed in Calgary at the time.

In 1915, it was a polling station for Alberta's prohibition vote, but it's location between the Canada Pacific Railway tracks and the First World War Convalescent Hospital started moving the use towards residences.

"It was a Chinese laundry originally, but at the same time it was a laundry there were also 18 rooms for rent upstairs," said Bonny Warbeck, chair of the Millican Ogden Heritage Group.

As broken soldiers came home from the trenches of Europe, the nearby hospital often reached capacity.

"There was not always enough space in that building, so the building here was used as an extension of that hospital," says Warbeck.

Community advocates say the building was not included in the city's heritage index because Ogden was never surveyed, saying they are in the process of designation now.

The two-storey brick structure has space behind it for the much anticipated Green Line to pass through, and the group says it will ideally be incorporated into the plans for the Ogden station.

"Either this building continues to stand or it gets amalgamated into an adaptive re-use into a larger building lot, and that is something that we can solve in 2030 - but right now we need to save a beautiful building and we need a good partner – or partners – to do that," says Carra.

The inside is currently divided into eight residential units and the roof appears to be intact.

One idea being proposed is to take on the liability from the Green Line Project, open housing units with no cost leasing to the developer.

For some residents of Ogden, the building is seen as a last chance to preserve some of the main street's character.

"This is our last saveable commercial building, and it's important to the history to honour those that came before us," said Ogden resident April Muraski.

Muraski has lived in the community for 40 years, and married into a family that is now in its fourth generation in the neighbourhood.