This is probably going to be the last of the north hangars demolished. The Calgary Farmer's Market has been an excellent social component for Calgary since it opened here. The Farmer's Market will be relocating to a new premise in the fall of 2010. Gone will be a very community focused building where people in surrounding neighborhoods could walk to and enjoy live music, fresh produce, meat, and homemade food items.
And here is what the future holds in store for the Calgary Farmer's Market, the rest of the former hangars from the once proud BCATP and RCAF station among other buildings. I arrived here a little late as the great majority of the destruction was essentially complete. The white shingles on the sides of the hangars were apparently composed of asbestos so they had to be very carefully removed long before the wholesale demolition could begin. I met a very interesting fellow named Luc who had worked in this very hangar from 1985-1989 when it was part of Canadian Forces Base Calgary. He told me that he used to work as a mechanic on 5 ton trucks and other vehicles in this building and that he had memorized every single crack in the floor. He came to witness the destruction to part of what he said was, "the best time of my life."
This hangar had most recently been a very busy building, home to indoor soccer, ball hockey and indoor lacrosse. We found the evidence of its most recent tenants as there were ball hockey and lacrosse balls here and there in the debris and Luc told me that he found a completely unscathed soccer ball. We had a nice chat with one of the fellows from the environmental company who is handling the demolition. He said that the timbers are very dry (70 years of southern Alberta's dry climate would do that to a wooden structure) and that they splinter really easily. Anyone who has ever seen the inside of one of these hangars will have been impressed by the extensive system of wires, metal plates and bolts that held the massive wooden beams together. I was told that they believe the wood for the massive beams were old growth fir. Apparently, a craftsman is interested in some of the wood in an attempt to make flooring from it. Nice to know that not every last scrap of these once mighty buildings is going to spend eternity in a landfill somewhere.
It is nice to see that there does seem to be a recycling effort being made with some of the materials. The metal is all being selected out of the rubble. The way the buildings are being dismantled doesn't lend itself to preserving a whole lot of the wood but at least they are saving what they can. One must give a tip of the hat to the original workers and the architects who designed and built these impressive structures as the Second World War began. These buildings were only designed to last for 10 years, the amount of time that the powers that be felt the conflict would last. Obviously, these were very well crafted buildings and even though they have been showing quite a lot of wear, 70 years seems like a pretty good life span for something expected to be functional for 1/7th the amount of time.
Both Luc and I thought of the history that these timbers could tell if only they could speak. If you look earlier in this blog, you will see photos I acquired from an Australian who trained at #3 S.F.T.S. during the war. They range from photos of the aerodrome from the air, some of the buildings and hangars and even snowball fights between the wannabe aircrew, most of whom were from places where snowball fights were the stuff of fiction.
The plan for this area is for a high end residential development. I wonder if the new residents will have even the slightest notion of the history of their new neighborhoods? I guess time marches on and progress keeps us supposedly moving forward but this destruction leaves me feeling sad that we are erasing so much of our once proud past.
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