Live in Scarboro
A 1910 Olmsted-designed garden suburb of curving streets and triangular parkettes on 0.5 square kilometres, bisected by Crowchild Trail since 1964.
Scarboro was established in 1910 as a Canadian Pacific Railway garden suburb, its curving streets and triangular parkettes laid out by landscape architect John Charles Olmsted rather than the city grid: 0.5 km², 1,010 residents in 350 dwellings at the 2021 census, median household income $268,000. Crowchild Trail has split the community since 1964, with the bulk of the original plan sitting on Scarboro Hill east of the freeway and Bow Trail's on-ramp to the Trans-Canada Highway forming its northern edge. Thin, expensive inventory and near-total ownership define a market that has barely turned over in decades. This is what living here is actually like.
The 1910 Olmsted suburb the grid never touched
Bounded by Bow Trail SW to the north, Sharon Avenue SW to the east, 17 Avenue SW to the south, and Crowchild Trail SW to the west. Ward 8.
Scarboro was established in 1910 as a Canadian Pacific Railway garden suburb, its curving streets and triangular parkettes laid out by landscape architect John Charles Olmsted rather than the city grid used everywhere else nearby. At the 2021 census: 0.5 km², 1,010 residents in 350 dwellings, median household income $268,000.
The Olmsted plan. Scarboro is one of only two complete Olmsted-designed neighbourhoods in Canada, alongside Uplands in Victoria, BC. The original 1911 street plan — curved roads, wide setbacks, triangular parkettes at the intersections — remains largely intact more than a century later.
The freeway split. Construction of Crowchild Trail and Bow Trail in 1964 divided the intended single community into Scarboro Proper, east of the freeway, and Upper Scarboro to the west. Bow Trail also forms the community's northern edge and feeds directly onto the Trans-Canada Highway — the most direct mountain access of any community on this site.
What it costs. Median household income of $268,000 and just 11% rental make this one of the most owner-occupied, highest-income communities on this site. Listings are rare — the community has barely turned over in decades.
- Only 11% of dwellings are rented — this is an owner-occupied market almost entirely
- Century-old Victorian and Arts and Crafts homes carry a full heritage inspection list
- Crowchild Trail's cut runs along the western edge — check a specific lot's noise before you commit
- Listings are rare; the community can go long stretches with nothing on the market
- Curving streets and triangular parkettes mean street parking and snow clearing work differently than on a grid
How Scarboro got here
- 1910Scarboro is established on CPR land, originally marketed as the Sunalta Addition.
- 1911Landscape architect John Charles Olmsted lays out the community's curving streets and triangular parkettes.
- 1912The first lots go on sale, priced around $1,100 each.
- 1958Residents organize to preserve Sunalta School, the first of three such campaigns over the following decades.
- 1964Construction of Crowchild Trail and Bow Trail splits the intended single community into Scarboro Proper and Upper Scarboro.
- 2021Federal census records 1,010 residents in 350 dwellings, median household income $268,000.
Curving streets designed as the park system itself
Triangle Park, an original 1912 parkette, sits inside the community, but the real park is the street plan itself — Olmsted's curving roads, wide boulevards and triangular islands were designed as connected green space, not just streets with houses on them.
The resident's angle: the curves that make the streets feel like a park also make them confusing to a first-time visitor and slower to plough — worth a daytime drive-through before you commit to a specific block.
15 places, with real drive times
Road-adjusted distance and drive time from the centre of the community to each destination, nearest first. Filter by category.
Showing 1–12 of 15 places, nearest first.
Method: distances and drive times are estimated from the centre of the community to each destination using Calgary's road grid, and are rounded to honest ranges rather than presented as precise figures. Curving streets add a little real distance that a straight-line map would understate.
Every gym within reach
There is no recreation centre inside Scarboro. Killarney Aquatic & Recreation Centre is the nearest full facility, a short drive west across Crowchild Trail.
- City pool, gymnasium and fitness centre — the nearest full public facility
- Calgary Tennis Club offers private membership courts at the community's eastern base
- Shaganappi Point Golf Course is the seasonal option, also across Crowchild Trail
- Triangle Park and the curving streets themselves are the free option
| Facility | What it is | Drive |
|---|---|---|
| Killarney Aquatic & Recreation Centre open | City pool, gymnasium and fitness centre, west across Crowchild Trail. | 5–8 min |
| Calgary Tennis Club open | Private membership club with outdoor courts at the community's eastern base. | 2–3 min |
| Shaganappi Point Golf Course open | The seasonal option, across Crowchild Trail. | 4–6 min |
| Triangle Park and the curving streets open | Free option: the Olmsted plan's own parkettes and pathways. | 1–2 min |
Most residents drive out for anything indoors — the community's own recreation is walking and tennis, not a pool or a gym.
Sunalta School serves both halves of the original CPR plan
Sunalta School sits inside Scarboro on Sonora Avenue, despite the name — it predates the community's current one and serves both Scarboro and neighbouring Sunalta. Sacred Heart Elementary covers the Catholic option just north.
| School | Board | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Sunalta School | Calgary Board of Education | Public K–6 school inside the community, on Sonora Avenue — serves both Scarboro and Sunalta. |
| Sacred Heart Elementary | Calgary Catholic | Catholic K–6 school just north in Sunalta. |
| Connaught School | Calgary Board of Education | Junior high designation, northeast in the Beltline. |
| Western Canada High School | Calgary Board of Education | Public senior high, southeast on 17 Avenue. |
Alberta funds Catholic education the same way it funds public education, so there is no tuition for a resident student at either board. Confirm the designation for a specific address before you buy.
Month by month, what living here looks like
Not a highlights reel — the actual annual rhythm, including the dates residents have to remember.
- Triangle Park's small green holds a stubborn drift long after the curving streets are plowed
- Bow Trail's approach to the Trans-Canada gets priority plowing ahead of Scarboro's own curves
- Sunalta School's playground on Sonora Avenue goes quiet under fresh snow
- Crowchild Trail's cut below the community carries a steady hum even in the cold
- A chinook can strip Crowchild Trail's cut bare while the shaded curves above it stay packed with snow
- Calgary Tennis Club's outdoor courts sit under canvas covers for the season
- Sacred Heart Elementary's yard is the last on the block to lose its ice
- Shaganappi Point Golf Course, across Crowchild, sits closed and white
- Meltwater runs down Scarboro's curving grades faster than a straight grid would carry it
- Sacred Heart Elementary's yard turns to mud weeks before the grass shows
- Cleats are the right footwear on Scotland Street's shaded curves
- Bow Trail's westbound lanes clear of ice before the community's own side streets do
- The century-old street trees Olmsted specified start budding along Sunderland Avenue
- Triangle Park's original 1912 design reopens for the season, unchanged in outline
- Calgary Tennis Club's outdoor season begins once the courts dry out
- Shaganappi Point Golf Course reopens across Crowchild Trail
- The mature canopy along Superior and Sunderland Avenues fully leafs out
- Sunset past 9pm turns the curving streets into a genuine evening walking loop
- Sunalta School moves field sports outdoors onto the Sonora Avenue yard
- Garden beds along the original 1912 lot lines come into their own
- School lets out at Sunalta and the curving streets quiet down for summer
- Calgary Tennis Club's courts run full most weekday evenings
- Evening thunderstorms over the foothills are visible from the community's western edge
- Bow Trail's Trans-Canada approach sees the first weekend mountain traffic of the year
- Stampede traffic backs up on Crowchild Trail below the escarpment
- The curving streets stay noticeably quieter than the grid communities on either side
- Calgary Tennis Club's evening leagues run past nine in the long light
- Bow Trail is the fast way out to Banff on a Friday afternoon
- Calgary Tennis Club's summer camps wind down before the school-return rush
- The century-old canopy along Scarboro Avenue shows the first stress of a dry summer
- Wildfire smoke from the west can pool low along Bow Trail on windless days
- Sacred Heart Elementary's back-to-school shopping traffic picks up on 17 Avenue
- Sunalta School's morning drop-off is close to the only real traffic event on the curving streets
- The Olmsted-planted canopy along Sudbury Avenue turns first, ahead of younger plantings nearby
- Weekday court time opens back up at the tennis club once school resumes
- Bow Trail's morning backup returns with the school run
- Peak colour through the original 1912 street trees makes Scarboro one of the better fall walks in the inner city
- Shaganappi Point Golf Course closes for the season at the first hard frost
- The curving streets' storm drains, built for a gentler grade, back up in a heavy downpour
- Triangle Park's leaf litter is a multi-week cleanup for the small crew that maintains it
- The community's curving streets are among the last in the inner city to get sanded, since none of them are through-routes
- Dark commutes home mean Crowchild Trail's headlights come on well before five
- Calgary Tennis Club's courts come down for the season
- Bow Trail's approach to the mountains carries its first real winter traffic
- Bow Trail's on-ramp to the Trans-Canada is the first stretch nearby to get ploughed for mountain traffic
- Holiday lights along the curving streets are genuinely low-key compared with the grid communities nearby
- Sunalta School's yard freezes solid and goes quiet for the break
- Triangle Park keeps its 1912 outline under a fresh snowfall
36 photographs of the community and its surroundings
All freely licensed and served from this app — nothing loads from a third party. Filter by category.
Showing 1–12 of 36 photographs.
Honesty note. This page uses only the general Calgary, seasonal, Alberta-wildlife and day-trip photography from the site's shared library. Nothing here is presented as a photograph of Scarboro itself.