The Hauler Guy

From Horse To Horsepower
Inglewood has three gas stations, five used-car lots, six auto repair businesses, two motorcycle shops, and one truck stop. This is a far cry from earlier years when there were gas stations on almost every corner of 9th Avenue, motor courts at the bridges at either end of the community, and even a refinery.

When, in the eventual future, society manages to free itself from the automobile and segues to whatever form of transport comes next, it will be necessary to preserve a body shop or two as historical monuments to this period. That is exactly what has happened by accident for Inglewood’s horse-and-buggy era.

There are two livery stables still standing in the community—the East End livery barn which is to be incorporated into the National Condos development whenever Apex can get a handle on the river beneath the site. And the mysterious white barn on 14th Street which was originally Stewart’s Livery Stable. Both were built in 1909. There were many more such stables operating in Inglewood and throughout Calgary from 1883 to the 1920s.

One such was the draying establishment on 8th Avenue and 12th Street across from the Rhubarb Patch. It was owned and run by Charlie Riddock, who became in his time one of Alberta’s best known liverymen.

Furrow And Haul
Charles Riddock was born in Guelph, Ontario, on May 24, 1880, one of fourteen children (thirteen boys, one girl). The Riddock family originated in Banffshire, Scotland. Charlie’s father was a stern man, prompting Charlie and many of his siblings to leave home young. Charlie left at twelve and earned himself a reputation on farms in southern Ontario as an excellent horse handler who could plow a furrow as straight as any man.

Eventually many of the Riddock clan migrated west. Charlie’s brother Tom became a highly successful trader in northern Manitoba. Charlie himself ended up in Calgary in 1900. Here he met and married Jessie Blyth (born in Edinburgh in 1881) and they had two children: a son christened Blyth, and a daughter named Greta (pronounced Greeta) who was born on October 31, 1909. The information for this story comes from Greta.

Charlie’s expertise with horses and his excellent business sense led to his ownership by 1908 of Scott’s Livery Stable at 228 9th Avenue (where Theatre Calgary now stands) and by 1912 the cartage and draying barn in Inglewood. The Bain brothers at 128 9th Avenue (where the Glenbow and Marriott are now) were his main competitors. The Bains had started a livery business in Inglewood as early as 1883 but scooted across the Elbow as soon as the CPR offered land downtown.

Charlie and Jessie established their first home in Victoria Park. Greta went to primary school there and then for high school took the streetcar to Colonel Walker School. As an offshoot of the livery business Charlie got into harness racing and had many successful entries at the Exhibition grounds track. After the Great War cars gradually replaced horses on Calgary’s streets, and so it was a normal progression for Riddock’s business to shift from horse-and-wagon draying to using trucks and tractors for heavy haulage.

By the mid-1920s his company had become Calgary’s premier house mover.

The Duplex, The Deane House, and Blyth Hall
Riddock is especially associated with three buildings in Inglewood: the duplex at 1313-1315 8th Avenue, Blyth Hall on the northwest corner of 9th Avenue and 13th Street, and the Deane House. His Inglewood livery stable disappears sometime between 1916 and 1921. The Glenbow’s last picture of it is dated 1916; it is no longer there when the duplex is built in 1921. Greta says the stable burned down. Joe Couto, whose house now sits where the stable used to be, has a collection of horseshoes unearthed in the process of digging his colourful gardens. He has also come across many equine skeletons.

The Riddock duplex was originally a house on the CNR right-of-way along the Bow River bank behind the Suitor House. Charlie hauled the house to the lot across from the Rhubarb Patch, split it down the middle and created a serviceable duplex. His mother-in-law Margaret Blyth, a noted needlepoint artist, lived in one side. The other side became the Riddock family home for many years. Charlie built Blyth Hall in 1923. Greta says it is made up of parts of other buildings which Charlie brought to the site. Charlie had his cartage company offices there. Blyth Hall was a community social centre where dances, card parties and other gatherings were held. Riddock also had tennis courts in the same block (where the credit union is now) which served as a skating rink in winter. His son Blyth Riddock became manager of Jenkins Groceteria just across the street next to Dad’s Cookies. Blyth Hall is now a corner convenience store, Inglewood Video and Food Mart.

In the early 1930s Charlie was arrested for maintaining “a disorderly house.” He was holding whist drives at Blyth Hall and offering monetary prizes of up to $50. It was a test case to sort out the legality of games. The charges were dismissed. In the summer of 1929 Charlie’s company moved the Deane House across the Elbow to its present location. This job brought some notoriety when it was written up in Popular Mechanics.

How did this story end up in one of North America’s most widely circulated periodicals? Surely the magazine would not have had stringers in an obscure prairie city. And though Riddock had an established reputation as an innovative mover, his work was hardly international news. Greta says it was the tractor manufacturer who submitted the photos and story.

Moving A Mountain Town
Riddock had already confirmed his reputation with a much more spectacular job of work in 1926. Bankhead was a small coal-mining town just off the route to Lake Minnewanka, a few miles from Banff. CPR owned the mine and the town of some sixty houses. In 1922 the miners went on strike. Rather than settle, CPR closed the mine and essentially Bankhead became a ghost town.

Charlie Riddock (foreground) moving a house from Bankhead to Banff, c.1926

Canadian Pacific advertised across the country for a moving company to haul the houses off the side of the mountain and into Banff. Charlie’s outfit won the contract and in 1926 his crew did such an efficient job of sliding the buildings down the mountain and into town that the publicity kept him very busy thereafter. This was before the days of demolitions and implosions. If a structure had become unwanted in one location, it was carted somewhere else and reused.

The Riddock cartage company did jobs as far afield as Lethbridge and Saskatoon. But his main focus was Calgary. And it was a job in the Beltline which cost him his life.

Too Young
On Friday May 31, 1935, Charlie Riddock went to work early—7 a.m. The day before, one of his crews had hauled an 8-ton boiler from Vulcan to the Co-operative Milk Company at 705 11th Avenue West. Charlie worried that the boiler hadn’t been secured properly and might damage the dairy’s machinery. He was working with a lone assistant Fred Moore when the boiler shifted and pinned Charlie, crushing his chest and abdomen. He died at the scene. Charlie had just turned 55.

Charles Riddock is buried in Union Cemetery. His headstone erroneously reads “1878-1935.” His wife Jessie died in 1961 and joined him there. Their son Blyth is now gone too. Their daughter Greta, a hale and articulate 97, still maintains her own home in Haysboro.