The Story of Inglewood’s White Barn
The old white livery stable in Inglewood is an interesting link to the past.
Photograph by Andrew Guilbert
Often considered the lesser of Inglewood’s two barns, with the red Livery Stable on 10th Avenue getting the lion’s share of attention, the structure on 14th Street and 9th Avenue is still a significant piece of Calgary’s history.
Built in 1909 by James A. Stewart, one of the proprietors of the Grand Livery Stable, the two-storey, gambrel-roofed barn originally housed the horses of travellers and out-of-towners arriving in Calgary. Often referred to as simply the white barn, it is one of the few remaining examples of the “Ontario Barn” style popular in the 19th century, and one of the last examples of a livery stable in the city.
Since the decline of equine transportation, the barn has been primarily used for storage, most notably housing a motorized fleet of mail trucks in the 1940s. After changing hands a number of times, George E. Cinnamon purchased the barn in 1976. He owned it long enough that it became informally known as the Cinnamon barn.
After being interested in the space for several years, Calgary lawyer Corinna Lee purchased the Barn from the late Cinnamon’s estate in 2005. Lee says she has a few ideas for what she might want to do with it, but nothing concrete as of yet. “At one point I was thinking of converting it to commercial use,” she says. “But once you convert to commercial use, everything gets more expensive, so cost is the main factor.”
As it stands, the barn is “basically a frame” says Lee. “There was originally a toilet in the middle of the barn. Plumbing is probably about 100 years old. There’s electricity but there’s no heat, so it’s not usable at the moment.” Lee believes the best use of the property would be a residence that would make use of the extra land for another property, but says she’s still open to other options. In the meantime, she continues the tradition of using the barn for “junk” storage.