Historic McDougall Centre thrives under many transformations

While you may not believe it today, Calgary was once known as the "Sandstone City" for its prevalent sandstone buildings constructed during the late 1800s.

As time passed, old was replaced with new and few of those elegant sandstone structures remain as evidence of the Sandstone City that was. One of those historical markers is the McDougall School building covering an entire block on 4th Avenue and 7th Street in downtown Calgary.

Calgary is a young city but its rich and fascinating history can be seen in its historic homes. And now your home can be part of the narrative.

The grassroots initiative Century Homes Calgary has put the call out to Calgarians with homes built in 1915 or earlier to be archived and featured as part of Historic Calgary Week 2012 starting July 27. Century homeowners research their home and create a sign both sharing the information and making it easily identifiable.

Heading west on Highway 1A, travellers descending into Cochrane down the 'Big Hill' are greeted with a stunning mountain vista slightly marred by a very large gravel lot right in the middle of town.

Between 1964 and 1988, the area was home to Domtar, a wood treatment facility who, according to the Cochrane Eagle newspaper, used a tar/creosote mixture consisting of semi-volatile polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and pentachlorophenol to treat to railway ties leading to the contamination of the soil.