of which are also heritage homes. According to Parkdale's resident historian, Marcel Hebert, by 1912, there were approximately 12 houses/farms located in Parkdale as farmers began to homestead there. One of the earliest Parkdale houses which was built in 1910, was a farm house that is still occupied by the original intergenerational family on 35th street NW. According to Parkdale resident and author Robert M. Stamp, in April 1950 surveyor "R.M. McCutcheon trod through the grassy field on the north bank of the Bow River" in Parkdale and blocked out lots. They were about 45 to 48 feet wide and 108 to 120 in length. Nu-West Homes Ltd. built the standard story and a half Wartime Housing Models. During World War II homes built known as Victory Housing emerged in suburbs in several Canadian cities and towns to provide housing for workers in factories supplying items for WWII. Victory Housing employed a cheap and simple design meant for temporary use. After the war many of these houses were maintained (and many remain into the twenty-first century), but newer versions improved on the basic format. During the 1950s Keith Construction built 130 homes in Parkdale and Parkdale Addition. By 1951 13 of the new homes were inhabited. In 1952 the Calgary Board of Education opened the 15-room spacious, modern and bright Parkdale Elementary School in 1952. It was the "largest of four schools opened by the Calgary School Board that year." In a Calgary Herald October 6, 1952 article, Parkdale was described as being located "on the Western outskirts of Calgary" in "one of the new and rapidly populating districts of Calgary." Along with the new school, city planners land use development in the 1950s also included the Parkdale Crescent for local businesses and recreational green space (in what is now the Parkdale Community Association complex where the Parkdale Community Garden and Gathering Place is located). Calgary experienced another major economic and building boom from 1972 to 1982. The city's economy grew when oil prices increased with the Arab Oil Embargo. In 1971 the city's population was 403,000. By 1989 it was 675,000; in 2007 it reached 1,020,000 and in 2014 it reached 1,419,800. The Point McKay upscale condominium development was built in the 1970s to the east of Parkdale, replacing the Cinema Park Drive-In movie theatre. In the 1980s the city of Calgary proposed the construction of a six-lane highway