NEIL S. HARVIE HOUSE
Firm: Rule Wynn and Rule
Address: 255119 Range Road 33
Date of final plans: March 1955
Status: standing as built
Neil Harvie's house, built on the famous Glenbow Ranch, is in most respects a standard split-level. Its defining trait is its western ornamentation. The only odd feature is that the front door is actually at the back of the house. Guests arriving would walk from the driveway along a path to the back of the house. The path travels down a set of stairs to a walkout basement and then up another set to a front patio.
THE CLIENT
Neil Southam Harvie (1929–1999) was born on 3 December 1929. He was the youngest of three children of Eric Lafferty Harvie (1892–1975) and Dorothy Jean Southam (1895–1998), after Joy (1922–2014) and Donald (1924–2001). Neil attended Strathcona School in Calgary and Trinity College School in Port Hope. When he returned to the west he attended the Vermillion School of Agriculture before enrolling in 1949 at the University of Alberta. Neil graduated in 1953 from U of A. That year he returned to Calgary and purchased his father's ranch, Glenbow. Harvie spent the duration of his career as a rancher.
On 19 April 1954 Harvie married Joan Robin Williams at Christ Church in Elbow Park. The couple had four children: Pauli, Tim, Carol, and Katie. Harvie died on 27 July 1999 at age 69.