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Originally Posted by rgalston
I don't think Notre Dame ran across Main st. either. By the time they surveyed Notre Dame, there were buildings at the SW corner of Portage and Main. It would be interesting to think of what it'd be like if it did.
Frontenac Hotel was built in 1881, and if I'm correct, it was home to St. Mary's Academy before they moved to Academy Road. I also had heard that Notre Dame was named thusly because of St. Mary's.
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You're right...it is the old St. Mary's Academy.
I didn't really realize that there were so many buildings in this part of the Exchange at one time. It seems as though this was sort of a second-tier commercial district, featuring plainer buildings that lacked the prestigious lead tenants that the buildings closer to Portage and Main had. Maybe they were thrown up pretty quickly on spec during the boom period when office space would have been as short as it is in Calgary today. Aside from the Nutty Club buildings, the Keewayden is the only major survivor of the district...now I understand what it's doing there.
Recognizing Tokyo Joe's as a weird survival from the area's short-lived residential period is neat as well. You never know what you're going to find. I guess that Tokyo Joe's is actually a combination of 151 Water and 132 Notre Dame East? I can't really remember what it looks like.
I am not sure what the large building on the south (or east) side of Victoria (Westbrook) was. I have only a 1922 Henderson Directory to work with and it doesn't seem to list this structure, so maybe it had been erected between then and 1928.