Scarboro

The hill above the rail corridor, drawn by Olmsted Brothers in 1910.

Scarboro sits on Canadian Pacific Railway land annexed to Calgary in 1907, with subdivision plans approved in 1910 and 1911 under the name Sunalta Addition. John Charles Olmsted of Olmsted Brothers drew it, and it is one of two complete Olmsted neighbourhoods in Canada. The streets curve with the contour instead of gridding. Twenty-two percent of the 113 acres is green space, and small triangular parklets sit where the curves meet. Lots run about fifty feet with many houses on doubles, which is where the deep setbacks come from. Building ran from 1912 to 1960, so the blocks carry five decades in sequence.

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