Today the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation – the new owners of the storied Cecil Hotel – have announced the 1911 building will come down.
We won’t be sad to see the Cecil – which for many vulnerable women and families evokes memories of loss and pain – razed.
As the next door neighbour to the Cecil Hotel for more than 40 years, the YWCA of Calgary certainly felt deep impact as that operation slid into an ever-seedier states. Reports are consistent about violence, crime and the open trafficking of drugs and women which happened at the Cecil in its later years of operation.
Long-serving YWCA team members recall the spillover impacts of the Cecil’s last decades of operations across 3rd Street SE to our lawns. Drug paraphernalia, empty liquor bottles and discarded condoms were picked up daily. Interior YWCA doors required special locks. Barbed wire went up to reinforce fencing. Calls to private security services and police from YWCA staff and clients seeking to keep our building safe were frequent.
And that’s not to mention the human impact.
Women staying in the YWCA Mary Dover House transitional housing program – a key step in rebuilding their own lives – were terrified to venture outside for fear of being harassed and assaulted. Those struggling to manage their addictions were highly vulnerable to easy access to booze and illicit drugs on open offer. People struggling for basic survival transacted sex in rooms rented by the hour – the only hotel in the core with that practice. Violent and sexual assaults and homicides accounted for many of the 1,700 police calls to the Cecil in 2007 alone.
In an unprecedented move (supported by powerful testimony from then-YWCA CEO Jill Wyatt), the Calgary Police Service approached the City to seek closure of the tavern in 2008 on the grounds it was “a threat to public safety”. With the tavern closed and the subsequent shuttering of the hotel a year later, the transformation of the area – including the East Village redevelopment – could really begin. The removal of the old building itself is a next step.
As a 104-year-old organization, we believe firmly that heritage has its place. We draw strength from our history and our legacy. But the Cecil Hotel, that place, is remembered by many as a place of misery and human suffering. Tearing it down is a responsible decision.
