Antique Chic

May 1, 2009

Destination: Lacombe

by Scott Messenger

Early on a Monday afternoon, Ugly’s Pub and Grill in downtown Lacombe buzzes with the local lunch crowd. The place wasn’t the first recommendation I got after asking around for vegetarian fare, but a peek through the windows of the 100-year-old facade made it tough to resist. Originally accommodating a butcher shop and a Chinese café, its interior exhibited rough authenticity: exposed brick walls, worn hardwood floors and a vaulted wooden ceiling of shrunken wood slats. A veggie burger on the menu helped, too.

FIRE MADE IT GOOD: After downtown Lacombe burned in 1906, it was rebuilt in brick (top) to emulate the 1904 Merchants’ Bank, today the Lacombe Interpretive Centre (bottom)
Tourism Alberta

Name aside, Ugly’s is emblematic of the town itself. The pub stands out because of the way it looks, which is pretty much the way it has always looked. Same for Lacombe. Built in brick mostly around the early 20th century, the Edwardian architecture of its downtown is impeccably preserved. Largely because of that, the core has remained vibrant and relevant, tenanted with services to satisfy everyday needs as well as with restaurants, coffee shops, antique and gift shops and galleries to cater to both locals and the 25,000 visitors – double the town’s population – that stop in each year. What buildings didn’t survive the fires that stimulated the switch to brick a century ago are immortalized in murals in downtown back alleys.

But the importance of the past here goes deeper than store facades and tourist attractions. While it has enough of an oil and gas services industry to justify a few blue flames on the town’s coat of arms, Lacombe’s success stems from nurturing agrarian roots. Incorporated in 1902 as a farming town along the Calgary-Edmonton CPR line built a decade earlier, it’s now a centre for livestock and crop studies, for agricultural value-added processing and for providing financial services to farmers.

The town continues to grow, booming somewhat in recent years, but in a tempered manner. Its proximity to Red Deer makes Lacombe a convenient haven for commuters, who in turn help fund enviable local amenities. The Sports and Leisure Complex, with aquatic, hockey, curling and fitness facilities, is one. The new Lacombe Memorial Centre is another. Designed to architecturally match nearby downtown, the centre features public meeting space, the town’s art collection and the public library. Among other benefits: light traffic and quiet neighbourhoods dotted with character homes as old as the town.

Spend some time here and you’ll likely conclude that no matter how big Lacombe becomes, it isn’t likely to deviate from its founding elements. Certainly, that kind of approach to development may seem too much like common sense to hold in esteem. Still, there’s something admirable in being able to recognize the value of a given resource and properly manage it for future generations.

Back at Ugly’s, I finish lunch and take a moment to talk to one of the owners about plans for the pub. The floors, it turns out, are going – they’re just too tough to clean. Outdated bathrooms are also up for an overhaul. And there’s one other big renovation planned. The owner leads me into another room covered by a white stippled ceiling much lower than the vaulted wood one above the dining area. He’s cut a square foot out of it, and through that you can see the badly tarnished tin panels of the long-hidden original ceiling. He knows a Calgary company where he could send a section for replication. It won’t be cheap, but he intends to resurface the whole ceiling, making the pub better by making it look even more like it did a very long time ago. Next page...

The Bigger Picture
LACOMBE, ALBERTA

	Population 11,562 (2007 municipal census), with growth at about 3% a year.
	Median Home Price For a single-family detached home: $308,000 at the end of 2008 – 10% more than the same time in 2007.
	Weather Winter bottoms out in January with an average low of -18 C. Summer peaks in July with average highs of 22 C.
	Commuter Route Just off the Queen Elizabeth II Highway, slightly closer to Edmonton than Calgary.
	Economic Picture Government services – two agricultural research centres and Agriculture Financial Services Corp. – figure most prominently. Manufacturing follows, anchored by concrete and meat processing plants, and oil and gas services round out the mix, piggybacking on petrochemical activity at nearby Joffre. In general, Lacombe’s business community is growing, thanks in part to rents starting at $9 per sq. ft. of office, commercial or industrial space.
	Under Construction Last year, Lacombe issued nearly $42 million worth of construction permits, much of it for single-family detached homes. Highway upgrades to improve access are “imminent,” and council has received regulatory approvals and completed surveying for its AirPark Community. This new subdivision, to be situated at the northeast corner of town, will link home- and plane-owners’ driveways with a 3,000-foot paved airstrip.
	Conversation Starter Plans to build a bridge over nearby Lake Elizabeth to improve links between Lacombe and communities west are proving contentious. Current traffic would thin, but so might the biodiversity supported by what some residents call the “prettiest” of surrounding natural areas.
	Where to Eat Besides Ugly’s, locals like Leto’s Steak and Seafood. Our Flames does well for family dining. For coffee, try Kavaccino’s in an old house downtown, or bright and clean Anna Maria’s in the attractive Lacombe Memorial Centre.
	Where to Sleep The Greenway Inn caters to the business set with wireless Internet and corporate rates. If you’re lodging with Country Club Inn, bring your golf clubs. Book ahead; there are only about 175 rooms in the entire town.
	Diversion Tour downtown (grab a map at one of the shops) and stop at the Interpretive Centre in the Flatiron Building for its display of locally collected antiques. If the weather’s decent, the Nursery Golf and Country Club – one of 18 nearby courses – claims the longest hole in Canada: 782 yards, Par 6.