CLINTON W. ROENISCH HOUSE
Firm: Jack Long
Address: 102 Eagle Ridge Drive SW
Date of final plans: 1961
Status: standing as built
Part of what makes this house remarkable is how unlikely a client Kink Roenisch seemed to be. At the time Jack Long designed the house in 1961, Roenisch was 72 years old. A grain merchant born in the Victorian age, he was an improbable candidate to commission an ultra-modern house in a brand new neighbourhood. When the house was built, the Roenisches were living at 1402 Premier Way in Mount Royal, a home that was ostensibly more in line with his old establishment status. More research is needed to investigate why, at their age, Kink and Virginia decided to make this move.
For more information on the Roenisch House, see pages 32-35 of the book Twelve Modern Houses, 1945-1985: From the Collections of the Canadian Architectural Archives.
THE CLIENT
Clinton Willis "Kink" Roenisch (1889–1976) was born on 8 February 1889 in Minneapolis. Roenisch graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1911 from the University of Minnesota and then came to Calgary in August 1911 to work in the grain business. He was with several companies including the West Coast Grain Co., the Norris Commission Co., and Randall Gee & Mitchell. In 1928 he became a British subject. Later in his career, he was president of the Winnipeg Grain Exchange and the Midland and Pacific Grain Company. Sometime in the late 1940s, he purchased the OH Ranch. Roenisch began playing polo in 1933, and subsequently, several generations of Roenisches have been prominent and successful players in Canada and the United States. The Roenisch Memorial Cup is named for his grandson Christopher Roenisch, who was killed in a horse accident in 1961.
On 27 December 1916 at St Paul's Episcopal in Duluth, Roenish married Dorothy Jane Davis (1892–1944). They had four children: Clinton Jr, Dorothy, Harold, and Davis. He remarried to Mary Virginia Hoover (1909–1984). Roenisch died on 17 March 1976 in Santa Barbara, where the couple was wintering, at age 87.