Live in Parkdale
A small 1948 community on the Bow's north bank: pathway at the door, the province's largest hospital up the hill, infill everywhere.
Parkdale was established in 1948 on the Bow's north bank, on land Calgary annexed in 1910: 2,300 residents in 1,015 private households at the 2021 census, on 1.0 km². The river pathway runs its southern edge, Foothills Medical Centre and the Alberta Children's Hospital sit on the hill above, and the original cottages are giving way to infill: 45% of the occupied stock now dates from 2001 or later, against 28% built in 1960 or before. Nineteen per cent of employed residents walk to work and 6% cycle, against 4% and 1% citywide.
Riverside streets between two hospitals
Bounded south by the Bow River, east by 28 Street NW, west by Shaganappi Trail NW and north by 16 Avenue, with the Foothills Hospital site on the northern hill. Ward 7.
Parkdale was established in 1948 on the Bow's north bank, on land Calgary annexed in 1910: 1.0 km² by the City's own boundary polygon, 2,300 residents in 1,015 private households at the 2021 census, with the river pathway running its southern edge. Ezra Riley's ranch house of 1910 still stands here.
Its economics are hospital-driven: Foothills Medical Centre, the largest hospital in Alberta at more than 1,100 beds, and the Alberta Children's Hospital sit on the hill directly above. The walk-to-work premium shows in the census: 19% of employed residents walk and 6% cycle, against 4% and 1% across Calgary, and only 66% drive against 77% citywide.
The rebuild is real and it is measurable. Twenty-eight per cent of the occupied stock dates from 1960 or before and 45% from 2001 or later, with 11% of it built between 2016 and 2021. Only 35% of the dwellings are single-detached houses now; 22% are flats in duplexes and 19% are semi-detached. Median household income was $114,000 in 2020, against $98,000 citywide.
- Check flood risk street by street: this is a river flat
- Cottage originals and new infill sit side by side. 28% of the stock predates 1961 and 45% is from 2001 or later, so inspections have to match the house
- Hospital traffic and parking pressure reach several blocks in
- 16 Avenue borders the north: listen from a specific street
- No Calgary Board of Education school sits inside the community. The old Parkdale Elementary building is Westmount Charter's elementary campus
How Parkdale got here
- 1910The land is annexed by the City of Calgary. Ezra Riley's ranch house of that year still stands in the community.
- 1948Parkdale is established on the river flat, between West Hillhurst and Point McKay.
- 1952Parkdale Elementary School opens.
- 1953The Parkdale Community Association is registered on 29 December. Its hall is at 3512 5 Avenue NW, with an outdoor rink.
- 2002Parkdale Elementary closes.
- 2011The school building reopens as Westmount Charter School, not as a Calgary Board of Education community school.
- 2001–2021Forty-five per cent of the community's occupied dwellings are built in these twenty years, as cottage bungalows give way to infill.
Pathway at the door, forest across the water
The pathway runs the community's river edge, and Edworthy Park, 169 hectares at 5050 Spruce Drive SW, sits across the water with the Douglas Fir Trail in its natural area. The City is running a slope repair and safety study on that trail.
What the map does not show: Parkdale cycles downtown faster than it drives. The pathway commute is the community's actual transit system.
Elsewhere in Calgary, not Parkdale
11 places, with real drive times
Road-adjusted distance and drive time from the centre of the community to each destination, nearest first. Filter by category.
Showing 1–11 of 11 places, nearest first.
Method: distances and drive times are estimated from the centre of the community to each destination using Calgary's road grid, and are rounded to honest ranges rather than presented as precise figures. Short list, shorter distances: the hospitals above and the river below define it.
Every gym within reach
West Hillhurst's centre, the campus and Shouldice triangulate it. Confirm hours before you count on anything.
- Its own site lists a fitness centre, ice arena, squash courts and a gymnasium. The Federation of Calgary Communities lists only rinks, tennis and playfields, and neither lists a pool
- University of Calgary Active Living, up the hill, is open to the general public: fitness centres, an aquatic centre, climbing walls and the Olympic Oval
- Shouldice Aquatic Centre, 5303 Bowness Road NW, has a pool, dive tank and steam room
- The pathway is the free option and the daily habit
| Facility | What it is | Drive |
|---|---|---|
| West Hillhurst Community Fitness open | The association's own site lists a fitness centre, ice arena, squash courts, gymnasium and outdoor tennis and pickleball at 1940 6 Ave NW. The Federation of Calgary Communities lists only the rinks, tennis and playfields. Neither lists a pool. | 3–6 min |
| University of Calgary Active Living open | Fitness centres, gymnasiums, an aquatic centre, climbing and bouldering walls, a racquet centre and the Olympic Oval, open to the general public and communities. | 6–8 min |
| Shouldice Aquatic Centre open | City pool, dive tank and steam room at 5303 Bowness Rd. N.W. | 6–10 min |
| The river pathway open | Free option: the Bow pathway at the door, downtown one way and Edworthy the other. | 1–2 min |
The pathway is the membership most residents actually use. Everything else is a supplement.
A charter school in the old building, and no board school inside
Parkdale Elementary opened in 1952, closed in 2002, and the building reopened in 2011 as Westmount Charter School's elementary campus at 728 32 Street NW: kindergarten to grade 4, and the only K-12 congregated setting in Alberta for gifted students. No Calgary Board of Education school sits inside Parkdale.
| School | Board | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Westmount Charter School, Elementary Campus | Charter school | At 728 32 Street NW, in the building Parkdale Elementary occupied from 1952 to 2002. Kindergarten to grade 4, a congregated setting for gifted students, not a Calgary Board of Education community school. |
| Calgary Board of Education designations | Calgary Board of Education | No Calgary Board of Education school sits inside Parkdale, and the board publishes no attendance area we could read. Confirm the designation for a specific address before you buy. |
| Catholic designations | Calgary Catholic | The Calgary Catholic School District's site refuses automated clients, and nothing else we opened names a Catholic school serving Parkdale. |
Alberta funds Catholic education the same way it funds public education, so there is no tuition for a resident student at either board. Confirm the designation for a specific address before you buy: neither board publishes an attendance area we could read, and the Calgary Catholic School District's site refuses automated clients.
Month by month, what living here looks like
Not a highlights reel: the actual annual rhythm, including the dates residents have to remember.
- River mist and hospital shift-change are the morning rhythm
- Priority snow routes keep the main roads clear
- Indoor recreation carries the season
- Long dark evenings, but rarely for weeks at a stretch
- Ski traffic west on the Trans-Canada peaks on Friday and Sunday
- Coldest snaps usually break with a chinook
- Noticeably longer light by month end
- Indoor pools at their busiest
- Melt and refreeze on the side streets: ice cleats weather
- Pathways reopen as the snow goes
- First patio afternoons on the warm chinook days
- Street sweeping begins late in the month
- Last hard frosts: planting waits for the May long weekend
- Pathway and park season opens properly
- Garden centres open across the quadrant
- Migratory birds return to the parks
- Flood watch matters on the flat: know your elevation
- Lilacs and crabapples through the older streets
- Field sport seasons start on the community greens
- First genuinely warm stretches
- Peak daylight at the solstice: over 16 hours
- School year ends and the parks fill
- Evening thunderstorms begin building over the foothills
- Farmers' markets open for the season
- Calgary Stampede: ten days across the city
- Hottest month, with cool nights on the river flat at 1,063 m
- Evening thunderstorms roll off the foothills
- Canada Day events in the parks
- Folk Festival on Prince's Island mid-month
- Kananaskis and Banff at their best, straight west
- Quietest weeks before school returns
- Smoke from western wildfires is possible
- School year restarts and the hospital hill's morning traffic thickens
- First frost typically arrives late in the month
- Poplar and aspen colour begins
- Evenings shorten fast
- Peak autumn colour through the older tree-lined streets
- First snow is normal, and normally melts
- Snow tires go on across the quadrant
- Nose Hill's grasses turn gold
- Ski season opens west on the Trans-Canada
- Dark by 5pm
- Freeze sets in for good
- Holiday retail season begins
- Chinook arches over the western skyline on clear days
- Holiday lights through the community streets
- Outdoor rinks open when the freeze holds
- Quiet, short days between the holidays
3 more photographs of the community and its surroundings
All freely licensed, via Wikimedia Commons. Filter by category.
Showing 1–3 of 3 photographs.
About these photographs. Openly licensed images geotagged in or near Parkdale, found on Wikimedia Commons and served from there with full attribution. Inline photos elsewhere on the page may still come from the site's shared Calgary library.