Editor: Town council in Banff will soon receive and consider a report on new plans for the recreation grounds on Cave Avenue.
The meeting will be held on March 29. The commemoration of the Banff Pavilion, the picnic shelter on those grounds that was demolished in 1938, is included in the report. Since 1981 I have been involved with efforts to rebuild the pavilion. I write now with conviction that a plaque will not do justice to a building that in its origins, and even now, has high relevance to the Town of Banff and the national park.
In practical terms the building will be a gift to the Town from Mr. Michael Miner, of Florida, and a group of Frank Lloyd Wright devotees who propose to restore and/or rebuild a number of Wright’s works that have been damaged or lost due to natural or human causes.
Miner proposes that the pavilion is not intended to be privately owned, but rather a multi-purpose building for use by Banff citizens and Park visitors. I am a retired architect, and currently an advisor to Mr. Miner. I agree with the objective of honouring the work of Mr. Wright.
As a former resident of Banff, 1932 -1950, I add my own desire to see the pavilion rebuilt due to its little known but profound relevance to the history of the town and the national park.
It is clear the Banff-Calgary highway and the Banff Pavilion were built in response to complaints in parliament by citizens of Calgary and Southern Alberta in the late 1890s. They objected that Banff had become a resort for wealthy people who could afford the luxury of travel by CP Rail.
In 1907 the provincial government started construction of the Banff-Calgary Highway with no federal help. In 1911, drawings of the building were ready. In the same year a cavalcade of 30 cars with 130 drivers from the Calgary Auto Club stormed the park gates and drove around the town. The pavilion soon followed; by 1914 it was ready to receive visitors arriving by automobile.
In 1915, cars were allowed in the park, and after the Second World War the pavilion became a site well used by thousands of people from urban and rural Alberta, to the delight of retail merchants and cabin renters in Banff. Tennis courts and recreation equipment soon appeared, to serve townspeople and visitors.
Sources; Banff – Canada’s First National Park, by Eleanor Luxton, pps 70-71, 95, (106-109). See also Crag and Canyon, 21 Jan. 1938, regarding protest at demolition.
The Banff Pavilion was not built as a showcase for the upper class as recently reported by the Outlook. (March 2). It was built for hard working people whose taxes were then and now helping to build the national park for all people. It merits reconstruction for community and regional functions, and as a not-to-be-forgotten symbol of the democratization of Canada’s national parks.
Arthur Allen, retired architect AIBC,
West Vancouver
