KELLY H. GIBSON HOUSE
Firm: Stevenson Raines Barrett Hutton Seton and Partners
Address: 708 Riverdale Avenue SW
Date of final plans: January 1968
Status: demolished in May 2016
The Kelly Gibson house is a series of clichés of late 1960s design: tudor windows, neo-mansard roof (that term appears to be in common use), Mediterranean front door. By 1996, when it was remodelled completely, it must have looked quited dated. With with a bit more distance, however, it actually looks kind of cool. The interior would have been quite spectacular. The rear of the house drops down two steps to a living room that included a double-high clerestory. Beside the living room at the back of the house was a den and the master bedroom. The second floor, which only covered part of the footprint, had two bedrooms and a recreation room. The basement was unfinished.
Kelly Gibson, an Oklahoman, built the house during his tenure as president of Pacific Petroleums. In July 1970, he was appointed chairman and president of Westcoast Transmission – Pacific's sister company – and moved to Vancouver. He appears to have kept the house in Calgary and moved back after the retired from Westcoast in March 1977.
The house must have been wrecked in the 2013 flood. In any case, it was demolished in 2016 and the lot has been vacant since.
THE CLIENT
Kelly Hurd Gibson (1912–1996) was born in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma on 18 March 1912 to Kelly Farris Gibson and Annie Beatrice French. Kelly was raised on a farm and graduated from the Oklahoma Military Academy. For two years he attended the Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College, but dropped out in 1934 to marry. That year he began working for Gulf Oil in Kansas digging ditches for ¢50 an hour, and later worked on rigs. From 1943 to 1946 he served in the army as a training officer at various bases around the US. After the war, he rejoined Gulf in Michigan. In 1949, Gulf sent Gibson to Alberta where he was handed a variety of projects. In 1956, when Gulf merged with British American, Gibson settled in Calgary. Then, in November 1957, Frank McMahon offered Gibson the role of vice-president for production with Pacific Petroleums for $30,000 a year. In 1964 he was appointed president of Pacific, and that year became a Canadian citizen.
In 1970 Gibson stepped down as president of Pacific and was appointed chairman and CEO of Westcoast Transmission, Pacific's sister company in Vancouver. Gibson remained CEO until April 1976, and retired from the chair in March 1977.
In 1934, Gibson married Juliette Robinson (1914–1981), a cousin of Will Rogers. They had two children: James and Allan. He died in Calgary on 23 January 1996 at age 83.