Banff National Park Administration Building - Banff, Alberta
N 51° 10.267 W 115° 34.262
11U E 599898 N 5669823
The Banff Park Administration Building was built as a relief project during the Great Depression, and completed in 1936.
Waymark Code: WM18HNC
Location: Alberta, Canada
Date Posted: 08/06/2023
Views: 1
The Banff Park Administration Building was designed by architect Harold C. Beckett and built between 1934 and 1936. It originally served as a customs house and post office in addition to the administration offices for the Dominion Parks Branch (now Parks Canada).
Although the older (1903) Banff Park Museum (on the opposite side of the Bow River bridge) is a log structure, by 1934 the Chateau Lake Louise and Banff Springs Hotel had both suffered devastating fires. They rebuilt in stone. In 1934, fire completely destroyed the Hotel Bretton Hall.
The federal government chose the hotel's former site for the new Banff Park Administration Building, and stone was the material chosen.
It is built of Rundle stone (limestone) quarried from the nearby Spray River. The stone trim around windows and doors and for decorative touches is from Cochrane sandstone.
There is an entrance fee for Banff National Park, but there are no additional fees to view the exterior of the Administration Building or the adjoining Cascades of Time Garden. The building interior is not open to the general public.
Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada: Harold C. Beckett (
visit link)
Internet Archive: Hotel Bretton Hall postcard photo (
visit link)
Calgary Public Library, Williams and Harris Shared History Centre: Brett Hospital, Banff (1912)
(
visit link)