Bel-Aire

A hundred and fifty-nine houses on the bank above the Glenmore Dam.

Bel-Aire sits on the east bank where the Glenmore Reservoir drains into the Elbow River, with the original Glenmore Dam directly below it. The Calgary Golf and Country Club forms the whole northern boundary, the reservoir the west, Mayfair the south, and Elbow Drive the east. The dam went into service in January 1933 and the land above it was annexed in 1954. Bel-Aire was established in 1960, so the water was there twenty-seven years before the houses. By the 2006 count every building was a single-family detached home. The reservoir's sixteen-kilometre perimeter pathway starts below the community.

We wrote the full story on The Desk. Living in Bel-Aire.