SEASONAL DECOR
Commercial Feature
Tips on how to balance festivities, curb appeal
Suburban office landlords get creative
INDUSTRY A2
Bob Jablonski
2012 CREB® President
A5
A4
FREE oct 28 to nov 3 2016 issue 06-42 editorial 403-781-1324 advertising 403-263-4940 crebnow@creb.ca
GHOULS RULE A stroll down haunted lane with Calgary’s paranormal experts KATHLEEN RENNE for creb®now
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ring out yer dead! It’s Halloween in the city, which means spooks and specters will soon intertwine with sugar and sweets. It’s also a chance for many Calgarians to explore the city’s haunted past. CREB®Now recently took a walk down “Elm Street” with local officials, who detailed the paranormal, the unexplained and everything in-between. THE DEANE HOUSE “The Deane House is the most haunted location in the City,” asserts Colin Bengert, executive director of the Calgary Association of Paranormal Investigations (CAPI). Several suicides are rumoured to have happened in the Deane House – which was built in 1906 – including the murder/suicide of Irma and Roderick Umperville. Staff and guests have reported mysterious happenings over the years, from disembodied laughter and ghostly footsteps to sightings of a First Nations elder and a man in period dress. There is also an upstairs closet that bears an unexplained red stain on its floor. Staff members have tried to lock that closet, but the closet always unlocks itself. Bengert said CAPI has gathered evidence of paranormal activity in the Deane House. On one occasion, Bengert said a CAPI member was even “slapped across the face” by an unseen hand after opening a maintenance hatch.
12TH ST. S.E. BRIDGE Just down the road from the Deane House is the 12th St. S.E. Bridge, now under re-construction. Johanna Lane, who founded Calgary Ghost Tours 10 years ago, said the bridge is home to the spirit of six-year-old Donny Goss, who was stabbed to death there in 1946. “People crossing the bridge will hear a young boy calling out for help,” said Lane, adding Calgary EMS personnel visit the bridge several times a year because of the 911 calls they receive, only to find no one. HILLHURST SCHOOL Built in 1912, Hillhurst School housed one of its first janitors, Stevie, in a suite upstairs. One of Stevie’s favourite tricks was to make the school’s doors swing in opposite directions. Stevie died from a heart attack when he was 34. “He really did love the kids, and he still shows up,” said Lane, noting students and staff still witness the school doors swinging in opposite directions for no apparent reason. PUMPHOUSE THEATRE Within Calgary’s theatre community, the Pumphouse Theatre is renowned for its haunted status. Built in 1913 along the banks of the Bow River as a water-pumping station, Pumphouse became a performing-arts facility in the early 1970s. “Lots of people were hopping onand-off the rails at the edge of the City during the Depression. There’s the belief that some people may have participated in frontier justice and that folks were thrown into one of the vats of water here,” said Pumphouse execu-
CITY OF CALGARY
CREB®NOW FILE PHOTOS
tive director Scott McTavish. Today, the cemented-over cisterns sit beneath the facility’s smaller theatre space – the Joyce Doolittle. “I’ve heard footsteps of people walking across the floor of the Joyce at 2 a.m. when I know no one is there,” said McTavish. McTavish recalls another story that involved one of the Pumphouse’s former technical directors, Bill Rathwell,
and his wife, Sherry, who was picking him up after work. “As Bill was locking up, Sherry heard music. When Bill returned, she asked if anyone was playing music in the theatre. He replied, ‘No.’ What Sherry didn’t know is that the Pumphouse had owned a player piano that sat in the lobby of the Joyce Theatre, where she was waiting. But we had sold it six months earlier,” said McTavish.
Three of Calgary’s most haunted houses. Clockwise from top: the Dean House, Bow Valley Ranche Restaurant and the Rose & Crown.
HAUNTED A3
PROVINCE CONTENTS UPDATES INDUSTRY BUILDING CODES NEWS BRIEFS
MLS® NEW LISTINGS* SEP ‘14 – SEP ‘16
Curb appeal
1,491
SEP14 OCT14 NOV14 DEC14 JAN15 FEB15 MAR15 APR15 MAY15 JUN15 JUL15 AUG15 SEP15 OCT15 NOV15 DEC15 JAN16 FEB16 MAR16 APR16 MAY16 JUN16 JUL16 AUG16 SEP16
1,381
2,093
2,182
3,147 3,259 2,919
3,288 2,950 3,136 3,064 3,161 3,122 2,733 3,081 2,678
2,741 2,906 3,227 3,217 3,319 3,078 2,683 2,759 2,976
CREB® STAFF
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MORTGAGE RATES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A4
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he Alberta government has updated or adopted seven new building codes in an effort to increase energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gasses in the province. The code changes – which take effect Nov. 1, and include energyefficiency requirements for windows, lighting, building envelope, insulation, heating, service-water heating, ventilation and air-conditioning – support the province’s climate leadership plan by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and creating more modern and efficient homes and businesses.
*All statistics based on monthly data compiled by CREB® via MLS® activity. Includes detached, attached and apartment.
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INDUSTRY A3
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