Title     2215 14A ST SW
Identifier     ch_2012_423
Subject     Calgary (Alta.)--Dwellings--History--Pictorial Works
Description     2215 14 A Street S.W.

Home Built: 1911
First Owner: Mrs. Hettie Bereuson
1912 (she rented it to Mr. William Roberts, a travelling salesman)

• Early Residences :
• Mr. George Henry – blacksmith 19? – 1914
• Mr. Thomas Kidner – occupation unknown 1916
• Leslie Carmichael – accountant at Plunkett & Savage 1917
After several years of transiency with several owners and tenants, the Fairley family moved into this home in 1919 .
George Fairley operated the Central Meat Market, which was not technically located in Bankview but it was Bankview residences primary source for fresh meat .

Frederick Hunter has done extensive research on the community of Bankview’s history. With his permission, we have printed this section of his blog (A Stroll Through Old Bankview) for other to have a better understanding of George Fairley and his impact on the community of Bankview .

George Fairley and his family lived at this address in Bankview only a very few years in the 1920s, but their connexion with and effect upon the Community and its residents extended far beyond. Their original shop, though never located in the Community per se, was Bankview's principal source of fresh meat for several generations, and the deals it offered became legendary and the subject of folklore.

George started out about 1913 as clerk to William Fisher, who operated the Central Meat Market, owned by one of the Burns companies, at 1603, 14 Street, S. W. The following year he was transferred to another Burns property, the South West Meat Market, at 2203, 4 Avenue, S. W. During this time he must have learned the business well, inasmuch as by 1915 he was back at Central as its manager in succession to Fisher.

In the coming years Central became a family operation as George employed two sons Andrew T. and Henry G. (better known as "Harry") at various functions in the shop. Andrew worked mostly as a meat cutter or butcher, although occasionally serving as the company's driver and delivery man, whilst Harry alternated betwixt cutting and butchering and acting as his father's clerk.

About 1919 George became proprietor of Central in his own right, and the family left the North Hill to take up residence at this house in Bankview, much closer to the family business. Within a decade they would remove from Bankview to Sunalta, but their relationship with the Bankview Community continued to expand and flourish. The arrangement at the shop remained much the same until about 1940, when George himself effectively retired and Harry assumed control at Central, which by this time had become popularly known as "Fairley's". At about the same time, Andrew had taken over the reins of an older establishment and opened a similar business, Prospect Meats, on his own account much further south at 2609, 14 Street, just technically within Bankview.

Now the operation began to expand. Within another ten years, Andrew and his wife Amy were running the Prospect location, Harry and his wife Agnes ("Nancy") owned Fairley's Meat Market at 1408, 17 Avenue, and yet another shop, Fairley's Altadore Meat Market, at 1929, 34 Avenue, was managed by Bradford G. Siegrist. By about 1950 the Altadore branch was sold and moved to 2035, 33 Avenue, in the Marda Loop district. There was also a head office at 1410, 12 Avenue, S. W.

In the mid 1950s the brothers again merged operations, and the Prospect Meat Market at 2609, 14 Street became Fairley's Food Market with an address change to 2613, Duncan Mackellar becoming a third partner there. By 1960 this would be the sole remaining part of the operation, the rest having been disposed of along the way, and with the same three men continuing as owners. Then within another five years Harry Fairley retired, leaving Andrew as President and Mackellar as Vice President.

Five more years passed and Andrew too had retired, being succeeded as President by Roy R. Barr, and with Duncan Mackellar staying on as a Director. Thus the venerable company entered the 1970s, and within another few years Allan Stuart Mackellar would join them as Vice President. The Barr - Mackellar proprietorship would remain static for about another 15 years, continuing to feature its traditional meats, cheeses, deli and grocery departments. Then a couple of relocations followed during the 1990s and by 1997 the firm found itself at 6449 Crowchild, far from its original roots and clientele. It closed its doors for the last time just on the eve of the new Millennium.