The Hunt House at 806 9 Avenue SE is a one-storey log building near the confluence of the Bow and Elbow rivers. The Canadian Register of Historic Places lists it as built in 1876, though the description says it was probably built between 1876 and 1881. It is Calgary’s oldest building on its original site.
A Hudson’s Bay Company building with no named builder
The register does not record who built it. It says the cabin likely served as a residence for a freighter or interpreter working for the Hudson’s Bay Company, and it is one of only three Hudson’s Bay Company buildings still standing in Alberta.
One of fewer than 25
Fewer than 25 Alberta buildings built before 1882 survive, and the Hunt House is one of them. Its dovetail corners, rather than post-on-sill construction, reflect American cultural influences in the way the frontier built.
Protected in 1978
Alberta designated the Hunt House a Provincial Historic Resource on January 18, 1978. It sits on its original ground, which is rare for a building of its age in a city that has rebuilt itself several times over.
Why a small cabin matters
Downtown Calgary is remembered through the railway, the sandstone era and the towers that followed. The Hunt House is older than all of that, and the logs are still where they were laid. It is worth a short detour for anyone interested in how Calgary began.
Correction. An earlier version said the building was moved in the 1980s, named a family that occupied it and gave an exact construction year and builder. The register says it has not been moved and records no builder.
Related reading from the series. Fort Calgary and how a Mounted Police post became the city of Calgary. Stephen Avenue and how Calgary built its sandstone spine.
