BANFF – A 112-year heritage home in Banff linked to the former coal mining town of Bankhead is facing the wrecking ball.
The new owners of the Kidney Residence at 328 Muskrat Street, which is listed on the Town of Banff’s heritage inventory, are not interested in preserving the home and have applied to the municipality for a demolition permit to make way for a new residential development.
The large Victorian-style home, built around 1910, was once located in the nearby coal mining town of Bankhead at the base of Cascade Mountain and was later moved to Banff. After the mine’s closure in 1922, houses were sold for $50 a room and moved to Banff, Canmore and Calgary.
The Banff Heritage Corporation has condemned the demolition of the home, which is part of the tourist town’s heritage walking tour. A movement to save the home is also circulating on the Banff Buy and Sell Facebook site.
Town of Banff planners say they are required to circulate any application for demolition of buildings on the municipality’s heritage inventory to the heritage corporation.
“It’s on the list of properties of interest to the heritage corporation; however, it is not legally designated so there’s no legal protection for the property,” said Dave Michaels, manager of development services for the Town of Banff.
“We have received an application for a demolition permit and we need to make a decision on the permit application. We believe they are also working on a proposed development for the site which we anticipate in the coming months.”
The Town of Banff has a statement of significance associated with the Kidney Residence.
The three-storey building is one of six larger Bankhead homes originally constructed in 1910 by the Canadian Pacific Railway.
It was moved 10 kilometres in 1927 from Bankhead to its current location on a large lot on the corner of Muskrat and Wolf streets.
The residence is named after Maude and Forrest Kidney, the first Banff residents of the home. The Kidneys were community figures who owned several local businesses and ran a bed and breakfast called “Kidney Kabins” for a number of years as tourist accommodation.
According to the statement of significance, the Kidney Residence retains a high level of heritage integrity as an especially large, ornate and intact Bankhead home. The architecture of the home is primarily in the popular Queen Anne Style, complete with Eastlake style spindle and stick detailing.
The lot itself still has a distinct Victorian quality with several mature hedges and trees, and a century-old concrete and iron fence along the perimeter of the property. The exterior of the home is virtually unaltered from its original form.
“Both architecturally and culturally significant, the home is a rare heritage resource for its Victorian architecture, status as one of the few larger homes from Bankhead, and history as an early form of tourist accommodation within the Town of Banff,” notes the statement of significance.
In the push to save the Kidney Residence, the author of the Facebook post on Banff Buy and Sell is encouraging people to voice their thoughts to the Town of Banff.
“This house was originally from Bankhead and it would truly suck to see another beautiful house disappear from Banff,” wrote the author, a local who graduated from Banff Community High School in 2020. “Don’t get me wrong. I agree with updating and renovating the town but it shouldn’t happen with houses with such historic value like this one.”
While there are several heritage properties legally protected by municipal designation bylaws in the Banff townsite, including both private and municipally owned, the Town of Banff is embarking on a long-awaited heritage master plan to come up with a set of new tactics or tools to preserve heritage resources.
A heritage master plan would cover a range of options and could include mechanisms used in other communities such as density a transfer program, a heritage district analysis, options for financial incentives and bylaw amendments.
“When we lose heritage, we lose it forever,” said Darren Enns, the director of planning and development for the Town of Banff when updating council on the plan at a recent meeting
