Home Sweet Heritage Home - Strong, Louis Philip



	Strong, Louis Philip 707 Royal Avenue SW 1867-1952 Louis Strong was born in Scipio, New York in 1867. Educated as a mathematics teacher and insurance broker he moved to Harvey, North Dakota in the early 1890s and went into partnership with Judson Sayre of Iowa. The two men bought farmland and resold it to settlers along with the necessary farming supplies. While he was living there, Strong met Julia Ann Mullen and in 1895 they married. The couple had four children. In 1905 Strong and Sayre moved to Calgary where they established the Calgary Colonization Company. Strong took an interest in the grain trade founding the Alberta Pacific Elevator Company and becoming the first President of the Calgary Grain Exchange in 1909. By 1912 when he sold APEC and another company, Globe Terminal Elevator, to Max Aitken (Lord Beaverbrook), Strong had 80 elevators operating throughout the province. In June 1906 Strong purchased hilltop property in Calgary’s exclusive Mount Royal District from the Canadian Pacific Railway and built a three-storey mansion. Strong’s business partner Judson Sayre built an equally impressive home right next door. For a time Mount Royal was called American Hill in reference to Strong and Sayre who were the first to build in the newly developed area. During the 1930s Strong lost much of his wealth, mortgaged the house and even rented rooms, in order to survive the economic depression. But by the time he and Julia celebrated their 50^th wedding anniversary they were able to burn the mortgage. The Strong house stayed in the family until 1975 when it was sold. During Strong’s ownership the house accommodated family and friends including the United States Consul General and Genevieve McCall, the widow of First World War Flying Ace Fred McCall, who lived there for a time around 1949. Louis and Julia died in 1952. In January 1998, the house was destroyed in a tragic fire that claimed two lives.
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