Richmond

Curved streets replotted after the war, on old ranch and quarry ground.

The land was part of William Nimmons' 3-D Bar Ranch, and Nimmons held the lease on the Oliver Quarry near what is now Crowchild Trail and 17 Avenue SW, which supplied much of the stone for the first phase of City Hall. Annexation came in two passes, 1907 and then 1910, though the community was not established until 1950 and the houses largely went up in that decade. The grid had been replotted in the late 1940s on the Neighbourhood Unit Concept, which is why streets curve and blocks run irregular along Richmond Road instead of squaring off, and why 19 Avenue lost its earlier name, Williams Avenue. Crowchild Trail opened in 1967 and splits the community in two. Richmond Green sits along the west edge.

We wrote the full story on The Desk. Living in Richmond.