Ogden Block – Hong Lee Laundry Calgary

We’re in Calgary’s Ogden community and looking at the Hong Lee Laundry building. Dating back to the 1910s, it’s under threat from construction of the Green Line Light Rail Transit extension and unless things change, might have little time left. The Ogden Block, as it’s also known, functioned as rental housing pretty much from the beginning and did so until recently. Now it stands deserted and seemingly forgotten.

There’s call to preserve the structure and it’s been sparred for the time being, where as the house beside got torn down soon after our visit. The latter’s from the late-1950s and a typical plain shoe-box with a roof structure of the era. Buildings from mid-century are generally seen as worthless historically, and not revered like older structures. Wait, BIGDoer HQ is housed in something similar looking and of that age. Oh yeah and it has few redeeming qualities too.

Ogden goes back in the early 1910s and from the beginning home to the Canadian Pacific Railway’s sprawling Ogden Shops. It’s still there, but dramatically scaled back and not busy like it used to be. The town sprung up to the west and while part of Calgary from the beginning, it was still quite some distance from downtown at the time. A streetcar would get you from one to the other. Always a working class neighbourhood, it’s kind of small town in feel, even if surrounded by Calgary.

Entrepreneurs established a business district near the entrance to the shops and the building we see here sat at its edge. There’s not much left from this earlier era and beside this structure, there’s the old Ogden Hotel just up the street and not much else. See: A Few Minutes in Ogden.

The Hong Lee Laundry opened with completion of the Ogden Block and said to mainly be in service of workers at the railway shops. Home laundries were something from the future and businesses like this not uncommon. Hong Lee makes mention in old directories early on, but seems to vanish only a few years later. Even today it lends it name to the block, although it’s time here was quite brief. If Hong Lee ever had a phone number we didn’t find it but it wasn’t essential to operations back then, like it is today.

It’s not clear the significance of the Hong Lee name and appears it had no connection with the owners (Eng Hon Quan and Eng Shon Yun). Interestingly, a Hong Lee Laundry operated in Chinatown about this same time, in the city’s core, and it’s hinted there many have been a connection.

If subsequent businesses operated here, we didn’t find mention (although there’s missing data), so it’s assumed Ogden Block took on the roll of boarding house and apartment block exclusively after that point. The road out front used to be called 26th Street, but also locally known as Ogden Road and that’s the name used today. 26th/Ogden Road was and is the main artery though the community.

The southeast leg of Green Line LRT is under construction as we speak and Ogden Block in the way. So was everything else nearby on this section of street and while all other buildings have been demolished as of the writing of this piece, this one remains standing.

Can it be saved or is it even worth being saved? Is it historically significant enough? Who’s going to foot the bill and then where will it go? It can’t stay here and is in the way! These and many other talking points have been hotly debated, but to what end? There’s the usual keyboard warriors chiming in, plenty of virtue signalling, name calling, the loud and misinformed, a few voices of reasons and nothing ever comes of of the melee. Sure enough “Let’s blame Trudeau!” found its way into one conversation. We read the Facebook discussion on this and there’s more than a few face-palm moments.

The Ogden Block is old, so a magnet to people like us, and no doubt has a super interesting backstory (but then anything a century old likely does), but now what? Many suggest it should find a home at Heritage Park, but they already have a Chinese Laundry, so again, what to do? Historic building preservation is a costly game, especially for one needing to be moved, and funds near impossible to come by.

This:

On December 17, 2021 the Heritage Calgary board approved the Ogden Block be “Evaluated as a Community Historic Resource”. “The Ogden Block has activity value as the original venue of the Hong Lee Laundry, representative of the Chinese laundries that were ubiquitous in early 20th-century Calgary. (Activity Value—Community-Wide Significance.)”

What does this mean? Historic designation can carry some weight, if granted, but assures nothing otherwise.

For now it sits and no one’s really sure what to do next. Time’s ticking and one day the powers that be will be forced to act. The Green Line infrastructure is going to be built, a costly endeavour by the way, and we suspect this outcome: one day we’ll pass by and there will be an empty lot here. Will it be a positive scenario (IE, it gets saved and moved) or a sad ending marked by a pile of bricks? Time will tell.

It’s a sobering reality that not everything old can be preserved and progress can’t be stopped (said begrudgingly).

There’s mention of a fire taking place in the building sometime in recent memory, but we’re not sure how much it impacted it structurally. It still looks square and level. It’s better than our house, but the bar ain’t set too high in our hood.

Ogden Block is a pretty typical structure from Calgary’s pre-WW1 boom era, simple in form, but functional. It’s of brick and while some of it has been stuccoed over, other sections remain exposed. There’s something about a brick building and they have a certain majesty.

At one time theme were were two plaques of some sort above the doorways, but these are gone. Salvaged or destroyed? We scoured old photos of the building (including some of our own going back 10 years), when they were in place, but pics were of the wrong angle or shot too far away to make them out. Why didn’t we notice them before and get detail shots? Only God knows. You can see the square patches on the exterior where they were mounted.

While these photos are from late 2021, the Ogden Block/Hong Lee Laundry Building remains in limbo present day. It’s all boarded up and in a rather sorry state while waiting an uncertain fate. It created quite the buzz during the summer of last year, when they announced its demise, but there’s been talk little since. Everyone’s moved on I guess and perhaps it’s no longer the flavour of the day.

While not a broad sentiment, there’s more than a few saying something like this. “It’s a derelict and abandoned building. At what point is the line drawn between genuine historical significance, and what is essentially hoarding buildings just because they’re old?” CBC Facebook Page comment.

Know more (new tabs): Ogden Block Hong Lee Laundry Building Calgary and Calgary Green Line LRT.

We love presenting these articles and hope you enjoyed your stay.

They’re saying…

”Great photos and research of abandoned buildings and sites.” Micheal Laschowski.

More Calgary…
Zigzag & Wave Roofs Calgary (Part 1) and Wave & Zigzag Roofs Calgary (Part 2).
Nobody’s Home: Ramsay – also impacted by the Green Line.
Ranchman’s Cookhouse & Dancehall.

If you wish more information on what’s seen here, don’t hesitate to: contact us!

Date of Adventure: September, 2021.
Location(s): Calgary, AB.
Article references and thanks: City of Calgary, The Peel Library at the University of Alberta, plus Medicine Hat and District Genealogical Society.

The Hong Lee Laundry/Ogden Block building Calgary.

We’re in Ogden, in the city’s SE quadrant.

It’s under threat from the new Green Line LRT.

This 1950s era house has since been demolished.

It functioned as an apartment block until recently.