Concrete Mosaic

A testament to historical salvage

Dianne Wilson is well known in the Saskatoon historical community. She is a member of the Heritage Society Board and contributes to their Saskatoon History Review magazine. She’s a font of information about the city’s earliest development, notable community builders and fascinating details about countless circa-1900s properties, particularly in the Nutana area. She’s also a bit of a pack rat archeologist. That shows in the back yard of her 1912 home on 11th Street East where she has salvaged and repurposed materials from demolition sites around the city.

Taking Stock

Dianne bought the house in 1998. It was built by Robert McIntosh, who lived just across the street at 516. For a short time, Alvin Fletcher resided there; he was a relative of Grace Fletcher for whom Grace Westminster Church is named. The Oliver family called it home from 1917 to 1940. That was when Mrs. Elizabeth Kinch and her third husband Richard

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Dianne Wilson at home on 11th Street East.

by: KArin Melberg sChwier Photos: lilliAn lAne

bought the house. When he died just a year later, Mrs. Kinch had to make ends meet for herself and her daughter, so she ran a boarding house until the 1970s.

“That’s why there were seven rhubarb plants in the back yard. To help feed the boarders. Thankfully,” Dianne says, “very little was done to the original house. Interior and exterior details and seven beautiful leaded glass transom windows remain.”

Dianne sat on the back steps that first summer after moving in, surveying

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the unkempt back yard and garden area.

“I sat down and asked the yard what it wanted to be.” Dianne, who grew up on a farm near Craven, heard a distinct answer. “It said it wanted to be a farmyard in the city. My English grandmother was a gardener, so there was a decorative area around the house with flowers, and the working part—the vegetable garden and compost—was further back. That’s what we did here.”

Another distinct voice came to Dianne. It was that of Mrs. Kinch, whose spirit was still present enough that Dianne started calling her Granny.

The Past is Present

Dianne has led workshops to help others curious about the origins of their homes. She’s led guided walking tours of the area. Her own home became a history project and she knows just about every owner of all the feet that have trod the original wood floors and climbed the fir staircase.

Dianne quickly learned what she could about Granny Kinch. She tracked down Granny’s granddaughter, who was able to describe what the 11th Street East house and yard were like when she was a child.

Given Dianne’s own knack for finding treasures and preserving history, there was going to be a strong undertone of salvaged and repurposed material as she took on the back yard.

The Art of Salvage

When she got serious about the hardscaping, she knew a little sweat equity would be involved. Not one to let artifacts end up in the

Bits and pieces of historical artifacts can be found throughout the yard. landfill, neither is Dianne one to go buy new landscaping materials at Home Depot.

“Granny had a little corner by the porch and a path of crazy paving where she had used old broken concrete,” says Dianne. “I thought what she had done was a great idea. So I collected broken concrete for two years.”

When the old concrete garage pad next to the Marr Residence was jackhammered up to make way for the park area, Dianne—who knew the contractor—asked him to dump the pieces in her driveway when he hauled away the debris. It was a short distance, so he was happy to oblige.

A walk with the dog down an alley revealed a pile of concrete chunks with a reddish hue. With the blessing of the property owner, Dianne made several trips back and forth with her station wagon and added these to her stash.

The mosaic Project

How does one turn piles of salvaged rubble into a peaceful backyard refuge? Daydreaming and planning are important, as is a good level.

Together with her thenhusband David, the

project started in 2000 with a measured map on graph paper. They paid attention to changes in elevation and existing trees and structures. The patio and pathways were measured, and staked with string. Topsoil was removed with spades, set aside for the vegetable garden and perennial beds that were still floating in Dianne’s daydreams. First laying down sand on levelled subsoil, the couple turned their attention to Dianne’s collection of broken concrete.

“We started choosing and laying out pieces, shifting them around,” says Dianne. They were careful to slope away from the house, and to make sure they created an even surface. Most concrete pieces were fit as is, a few

had to be broken to fill in odd spaces. It was like an archaeological dig in reverse.

“It was like doing a mixture of three or four jigsaw puzzles with no pictures to guide you. Spaces between pieces were filled with sand and topsoil. At one point my ex-husband, also an archaeologist, commented, “Only archaeologists would do this.”

Diane and David placed, replaced, tried different pieces and adjusted to ensure no tripping hazards. They ultimately created a circular mosaic patio area to the east of the back step. Pathways tie in a small seating area on the west side and the back gate at the north end of the lot. The hardscaping didn’t stop with just the mosaic.

After a nearby road upgrade, pieces of original curbing were left behind. Dianne hauled them home uphill – one by one – in a handcart.

When the City had to reconstruct the hillside after a riverbank slide near Peace Park beside the Broadway Bridge, some chunks of old curbing were left behind.

“A friend and I wheeled them, one at a time on a handcart, up the East Lake Hill,” Dianne remembers.

PreServInG THe PAST

Saskatoon’s Heritage Resource Materials Strategy guides acquisitions, storage and reuse of heritage materials. Catherine Kambeitz, Senior Planner, Planning and Development, says that the City does not regulate heritage materials use by homeowners, but “encourages conservation by private property owners.” The strategy describes ‘heritage resources’ as “tangible connections to the past by providing the community with an opportunity to interact with its local history in their day-to-day lives. Materials and artifacts with heritage value play a significant role in telling the story of Saskatoon’s past when the original heritage resource no longer remains due to alteration, demolition, dismantling, relocation or irrevocable damage.”

“Then it was like grade three science as I worked with levers, fulcrums and whatnot to move the curbing pieces into place as garden steps.”

In an english Country Garden

No English garden worth its salt would be without bits and bobs. Dennis, Dianne’s partner, has done his share of salvaging and his pieces dot the landscape. When the 1912 Ross Building downtown on Third Avenue was demolished, he acquired blocks of cast concrete from the façade. Each block is stackable to form a lattice of grapevines.

Dennis also brought along a collection of cobblestones used in 1912 street construction.

“Cobblestones were used for traction so horses could get a better grip as they pulled wagons and carried riders down to and up from the bridge crossing.”

Bricks used for edging have been collected “here and there, some from a friend redoing her back yard.” Some are Claybank bricks made at a factory in southern Saskatchewan, now a National Historic Site. “People don’t call with offers any more because they know the yard is very full now.”

mission Accomplished

Because of the design plan and attention to detail, Dianne’s backyard looks wild but not in disarray. She thinks her own grandmother—and Granny Kinch—would be pleased. Cranesbill geranium, Bergenia and lily of the valley line the concrete puzzle pathways and seating areas. Canadian hardy roses, peonies, delphiniums and Lady's mantle soften the hardscape.

The path to the “more wild part” near the 1940-era garage leads to U of S-bred cherries, Missouri currants, Nanking cherries and asparagus. Some original lilacs still stand near the rhubarb. Dianne keeps the compost in a place near where she suspects Granny shelled many peas to feed her boarders.

“That little patch of Granny’s broken concrete was my inspiration,” Dianne says. “I wanted it all to look like it could have been here in 1912 and I think we’ve done it.”

Karin Melberg Schwier