North Glenmore Park

The Atlas

You will time your year here by the water. In May the reservoir opens and the racing shells go out at six in the morning, thin and improbable, four of them in a line. By August the canoe rentals have a queue. In November the ice trail gets flooded on the park side, and you skate a kilometre through poplars on a Tuesday because it is there and so is everybody else.

Grounds

The community occupies the north shore of the Glenmore Reservoir, running from 50 Avenue down to the water with Crowchild Trail on the west and the athletic park and golf courses on the east. The land falls south, which is the first thing we say about the place and the last thing the map tells you. Longridge Drive and the crescents behind it sit on the upper shelf and the park takes the whole lower edge, so a household here is either two streets from the water or one. North Glenmore Park covers 84 hectares along that shore, open from five in the morning to eleven at night, carrying pathways, playgrounds, tennis courts, picnic sites with fire pits, an ice trail and a skating rink. West of it the Weaselhead Flats runs as a regional park where the Elbow River comes into the reservoir, which puts a river delta with its own bird list inside a bicycle ride of the front door.

The reservoir came first and made the community possible, and we still describe the place in that order. A dam on the Elbow created it as Calgary's drinking water source and as flood control downstream, and the shore was set aside as park rather than subdivided, which is the decision the whole community rests on. The land was annexed in 1958 and North Glenmore Park was established as a subdivision in 1959. Earl Grey Golf Club, private and over a century old, holds the ground south-east on 20 Street, and Glenmore Athletic Park sits on the eastern boundary. The reservoir carries a pathway loop of roughly 16 kilometres and opens for fishing, sailing, rowing and canoeing from May 1 to October 31.

Homes

Detached houses from the late fifties and early sixties are almost the whole community, on lots the 1959 plan drew large, and the condominium and rental share is among the smallest in this part of the city. That gives North Glenmore Park an unusual profile. It is a detached-house neighbourhood with a regional park attached, and the two facts set its market between them. The streets on the upper shelf carry the original bungalows and split-levels, many of them renovated more than once and some rebuilt outright, and the pattern is a slow one because a lot with a reservoir two blocks away rarely comes down in a hurry, which is our reading and the roll's. Longridge and the crescents nearest the water changed least. The blocks along Crowchild Trail and 50 Avenue changed fastest, because an arterial frontage rebuilds sooner than an interior one. What a household buys here is a garden, a garage, a lane and a walk to the water, and what it gives up is a shopping street, since the community carries almost no retail of its own and never has.

Everyday

The park is the community centre and the community centre is inside the park. Calgary Canoe Club and Calgary Rowing Club both operate from the shore, the canoe club renting boats to the public and running camps and lessons alongside its racing programme. The community association on Longridge Drive holds a hall for 330 with a gym, a dance studio, a music room and a lounge, and runs a programme list reaching from Ukrainian dance to fencing. Commerce is one corner, and we would not pretend otherwise. The 54 Avenue plaza at Crowchild carries a pancake house, a liquor store, a pharmacy, a convenience store and a Tim Hortons, and that is the community's entire retail frontage. The Central Memorial and Lord Shaughnessy high school campus sits inside the community, along with St. James, Emily Follensbee and the Calgary Girls' School; designations change year to year, so confirm current catchments with the Calgary Board of Education and the Calgary Catholic School District. Groceries mean a short drive east or north.

Edges

Fifty Avenue closes the north, the reservoir the south, Crowchild Trail the west, and the athletic park and golf courses the east. Three of those are green or blue, which is rare in the inner city and is the reason a community with one plaza holds its residents for decades. North across 50 Avenue, Altadore runs its bungalow-to-infill sequence toward River Park. West across Crowchild Trail, Lakeview continues along the same shore. North-west past the trail, Garrison Green and the old base ground begin. Across the water, South Glenmore Park answers with the same pathway from the other side. The wider map sits on the full neighbourhoods index.

The North Glenmore Park Edit

Where to start. Hours move, so check before you go.

North Glenmore Park
Eighty-four hectares on the shore, five in the morning to eleven at night, with an ice trail in winter.

Weaselhead Flats
The delta at the west end, where the Elbow comes in. A regional park, and a different city.

Calgary Canoe Club
On the water inside the park. Rentals to the public, and lessons if you ask.

Pfanntastic Pannenkoek Haus
In the 54 Avenue plaza. Dutch pancakes, and the community's only reservation.

We keep the listings on the neighbourhood page, updated as the market moves. Start with North Glenmore Park homes for sale.