BANFF – Another century-old heritage home in Banff is facing possible demolition – a home owned by a longtime Banff resident and descendant of the original owner, high-ranking Canadian Pacific Railway engineer and surveyor Alfred Sidney McKay.
The Town of Banff has received a demolition permit application for the McKay House, a 1.5-storey folk-Victorian residence on a double lot at 216 Muskrat Street, which, according to the homeowner, was built as a summer home and cottage for McKay in the late 1880s or 1890s.
The McKay House – located in a neighbourhood where high density residential development is permitted under the land use bylaw – is listed on the municipality’s inventory of heritage properties, but doesn't offer homes legal protection.
“We received an application and have begun the formal process of required notification and communication,” said Dave Michaels, manager of development services for the Town of Banff. “That includes communication with the Banff Heritage Corporation.”
The Town of Banff also continues to review an application to demolish the Kidney Residence, a 1910 Bankhead home built around 1910 by the Canadian Pacific Railway and moved 10 kilometres to its current corner lot location at 328 Muskrat Street in 1927.
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 the Kidney Kabins for a number of years as tourist accommodation.
Deborah Cameron, a public member of the Banff Heritage Corporation and longtime Banff resident, said Banff is losing heritage properties at an alarming rate and feels both the Kidney Residence and McKay House are ‘doomed'.
“We were all fairly frustrated because there’s not a lot we can do,” she said of a meeting in which the corporation condemned the demolition of the Kidney Residence. “As a heritage corporation, we can just advise.”
The Town of Banff offers financial incentives for heritage property owners seeking to legally designate properties as municipal historic resources: a grant in aid of municipal property taxes capped at $45,000, or a matching restoration or rehabilitation grant limited to $25,000 for residential and $50,000 for non-residential.
The municipality is moving ahead with a long-awaited heritage master plan, which is intended to consider best practices and provide a set of new tactics or tools with which to explore new incentives to preserve and protect heritage resources.
A heritage master plan would cover a range of options to preserve and protect heritage, and could include mechanisms used in other communities such as a density transfer program, a heritage district analysis, options for financial incentives and bylaw amendments.
The Banff Heritage Corporation will work alongside an expert consultant being hired to work on the master plan.
Cameron said more heritage properties will continue to be lost, with the exception of those with a legal municipal designation, in the absence of a strong framework for heritage.
“We need to come up with more strategies to save heritage,” she said.
According to the Town of Banff’s statement of significance for the McKay House, the home holds great cultural importance due to its association with the original owner, Alfred Sidney McKay (1860-1940), who according to the homeowner was a Scotland-born CPR surveyor and engineer in the late 19th century.
“McKay is an important figure in Alberta’s history for his high ranking among the earliest CPR surveyors,” it reads.
Although he worked under A.B. Rogers, the man who led the discovery of Rogers Pass, the statement of significance indicates records suggest that McKay was the primary land surveyor through Calgary and could very well have played a central role in mapping the rail route through Banff.
“His work in Banff with the CPR would have led him to his home on Muskrat Street, which is still owned and used today by the descendants of McKay,” according to the statement.
The McKay House is located in the RCM (Central Muskrat District), which includes the 100 and 200 blocks of Muskrat Street and the east side of Beaver Street south of Wolf Street. This area is immediately east of the downtown core and abuts lower density residential areas.
The purpose of this district under Banff’s land use bylaw is to provide higher density residential uses "in a manner that is transitional with adjacent development.” Permitted uses include apartment housing, fourplex housing, public parks and stacked row housing.
According to the Town of Banff’s statement of significance for the McKay House, the home remains an excellent example of picturesque cottage development in the townsite prior to the wider residential settlement period.
“The residence retains a strong connection to Muskrat Street and through its orientation, façade ornamentation, and distinctive porch verandah, it continues to contribute to the character of the street,” indicates the statement.
CLARIFICATION: The original article quoted historical information from the statement of significance on the home from the Banff Heritage Corporation. According to the homeowner, who declined on the record comment to the Outlook or to reach out to the Banff Heritage Corporation, McKay was born in Scotland and the home was built in the late 1880s or early 1890s, per family records. It's unknown if the home was constructed by Donald Gunn, a local builder at the time, but the Banff Heritage Corporation is consulting historical information. The homeowner declined to provide historical documentation to the Outlook and it is being reviewed by the Banff Heritage Corporation. The story will be updated if new information is provided.
The homeowner of 216 Muskrat St. declined to comment on the record for the story after subsequent attempts by both the publisher and editor of the Rocky Mountain Outlook. The homeowner expressed that with the demolition permit being submitted, the intent is ultimately to begin construction of a 12-unit townhouse complex by Aug. 1, 2022.
