1908 – McDougall School, Calgary, Alberta

Completed in 1908, McDougall School was the location of Alberta’s first normal school. Normal schools were used for the training of teachers until 1945, and many of the early teachers in Alberta were trained at the normal school in Calgary.

The building was designed to impress and shows the influence of the Beaux-Arts movement in its symmetrical facade, large cornice, and four giant order Ionic columns flanked by two pilasters on the central portion of the upper stories. It was one of the many early public and commercial buildings constructed of sandstone in Calgary,

In 1922, the building was purchased by the Calgary Board of Education and renamed McDougall School in honour of Methodist missionaries George McDougal and his son John. It operated as a junior high and an elementary school until 1981. The Government of Alberta purchased the building and converted it to office space and a centre for government events in Southern Alberta, the McDougall Center. During the restoration, extensions to the building were removed, restoring its exterior appearance.