The spacious homes and gardens of Mount Royal stand in contrast to the more congested mix of light industry and workers' residences in the Victoria Park district of southeast Calgary. The large stone and brick building in the centre was Calgary's first General Hospital, built in 1894. The row of modest and closely spaced identical cottages across the street typifies the kind of accommodation that unskilled wage earners might secure for their families in 1912. Housing was a problem in that during the boom period before 1912 accommodation was in short supply. As a result, many newcomers had to live in cramped, shared quarters. Still, the stock of existing housing by 1912 was basically adequate. Being so new, Calgary did not have a slum on the periphery of the business core, nor a significant immigrant ghetto, a feature of some other urban centres during this period.
