Future still unclear for historic Bowman building

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on October 20, 2022.

Herald file photo The City has been looking at the potential for selling the historic Bowman building, which has housed a number of different organizations since it was built as a school in 1912.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

The Bowman building was built in 1912 as Lethbridge Manual Training School, which was the first of its kind in Alberta, a school that taught trades for men and home economics for women.

“It served back until the First World War and then it became Lethbridge High School and Bowman Elementary after that, and then it became the art centre,” said Belinda Crowson, president of the Lethbridge Historical Society.

She said the Bowman building has always been a public building and it has served the people of Lethbridge for 110 years.

“It has been a very central building to many people in Lethbridge in their education, the arts and to Lethbridge in general,” said Crowson.

One particular part of the building’s history has a rather sweet connection to the world of candy bars.

“Forrest Mars who was a member of creating the Mars company actually went to high school at that building,” said Crowson.

She said he came to live in Lethbridge with his mother’s parents after his parent’s divorce, and attended the Lethbridge High School.

“The building was named after the Bowman family here in Lethbridge, as Bowman was on the school board and that’s when it became the Bowman Elementary School, named after him,” said Crowson.

She said it was common practice back then to name schools after people who took part on the school boards.

The building was later turned into the Bowman Art Centre until Casa was built and it was then that the city was having discussions about what to do with the building.

“Approximately 10 years ago, in 2013 the idea was to turn it into a not-for-profit hub and as everybody’s expenses have gone up and rent has gone up, the idea was to create a hub there where groups could share resources, like staff or subscriptions to computer programs,” said Crowson.

She said the idea was to boost not-for-profits and that was the idea that City Council favoured 10 years ago, but it was put on hold because the building was needed for some other uses and then the pandemic hit.

“Many other communities have it (the hub), I’ve seen it in Calgary and many other centres where they do this. In some ways if a group needs help, they use that for a bit, when they get their feet under them then they move into their own location and a new group gets the support,” said Crowson.

She said it is a way of supporting not-for-profits coming out of the pandemic.

“As you can well imagine, not-for-profits have been hit very hard, they’ve missed two years of casinos, if they rely on casinos, they haven’t been able to do their events in their programs that might bring in money and members,” said Crowson.

She said that from talking to many not-for-profit organizations, she knows many are not doing well financially.

“My hope is, my own individual hope, is that this might be one of the things that we look at the Bowman for, supporting those groups that supported us through the pandemic but aren’t doing well financially,” said Crowson.

She said at the moment the building is vacant, and it continues to be a designated building.

“It’s a provincial historic designated building, so it does have the highest protection we can put onto a building,” said Crowson.

She explained that there are two levels of designations, at the provincial level and at the municipal level. At the municipal level it is a bylaw by City Council and at the provincial level the building is protected by the province.

“This is a provincial designation, which means you cannot make changes to the outside of the building without permission from the province. It is the highest level of protection a historic building can have,” said Crowson.

She said the building has had some renovations done throughout the years for maintenance purposes.

She said the provincial designations on a building depend on the building, it could be based on the architecture, on the history or it can be based on connections to people.

“In this building the idea of a manual training school was a very new idea. This was the first manual training school in Alberta, so that idea of having a trade school and a home economics school was a new idea in 1912,” said Crowson.

She said the building was also opened by the Duke of Connaught who was the Governor General in Canada at the time and was Queen Victoria’s son, which created a connection to a historic person.

“There was also the connection to the Bowman family and its long history as a school, and then there is the architecture of the building. So, a lot of things are protected on the building,” said Crowson.

She said the architecture on the outside is protected as well.

“Coming from a council perspective the building, right now, there was a resolution passed by council to have administration look at the potential of selling the building. Not that council has said to sell the building, but to look into at least the possibility, and that is coming back to council in November,” said Crowson.

“If it is sold, any designation goes with it and those designations can be removed. To do it provincially, it is the minister who would have to remove it,” said Crowson.

She said she hopes the building remains public and with a designation, but she has seen designations being taken off buildings in other parts of the province.

“That building is well worth saving and it is an amazing building,” said Crowson.

She said she has had conversations with people who have great memories of going to school there when it was an elementary school.

“For 110 years it has served the public well, and I think it could serve the public very well for another 100 years if we take care of it,” said Crowson.

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