Our Story - A Dream Come True
Every fairytale needs a beginning, and ours starts with a big red barn. Built in 1904, the barn that anchors The Heritage Centre today was the very first building block of what would become this storybook wedding and event venue near Calgary, Alberta. There is nothing more ‘Alberta’ than the silhouette of a red barn against an open prairie sky — timeless, familiar and full of history. Weathered by a hundred Alberta winters and warmed by a hundred more summer suns, this barn stood as a quiet witness to generations of stories long before it became the setting for so many new one
Where Our Story Begins
Every fairytale needs a beginning, and ours starts with a big red barn. Built in 1904, this barn was the very first building block of what would become The Heritage Centre — a wedding and event venue near Calgary, Alberta, and the realization of a lifelong dream. There is nothing more “Alberta” than the sight of a red barn standing against an open prairie sky. Weathered by a hundred winters and warmed by a hundred summers, our barn has watched generations of stories unfold — and today, it welcomes new ones.
A Legacy of Barn Dances
Alberta-born founder Debora Rice-Salomons grew up with treasured memories of barn dances at her grandfather’s barn, held by Russell and Edna Rice east of Torrington, Alberta. As a little girl, she remembers spreading dance wax and twirling with a floor polisher to help shine the hayloft dance floor, then dancing with her father at the Rice family barn dances. Debora’s father passed away when she was just seven years old, and one of her last memories of him is a dance in that very barn — making those barn dance memories a lasting way she has always remembered him.
The Rice Barn
Debora’s Aunt, Lola Hazel (née Rice) of Knee Hill County, shares that her grandfather, Frank Rice, was convinced by his three unmarried sons to install a “number one fir dance floor” in their barn — all in hopes of drawing marriageable young women to the family farm for evenings of dancing.
When the Rice Barn was built in 1924, the Rice boys travelled by horse and wagon to the Eagle Hill Sawmill northwest of Olds, Alberta, to bring back the lumber for that dance floor — a three-day journey slowed by deep coulees along the trail. Debora’s Uncle Ron Rice recalls how his father and uncles had to unload half the lumber partway up the steepest hills just to make the climb, then return for the rest. Quite an undertaking, all in the name of getting a girl to dance with you.
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From Dream to Reality
Debora dreamed of one day having a barn of her own, just like the Rice family barn that shaped so many of her happiest memories. When she reached a milestone birthday, she decided it was now or never — and began searching for the right property to bring that dream to life.
In early 2017, Debora found it: a historic property one mile east of Cremona, Alberta, featuring a 1915 Eaton’s Catalogue House and a 1904 barn. The land was originally homesteaded in 1903 by Jack Rattray, and stayed in the Rattray family until the passing of Jack’s son, Grant, in 2014. Neighbour Lynn Reid recalls how Jack Rattray worked at the Ottobine Sawmill to earn the very lumber used to build that barn — the same one that still stands on the property today. The house, ordered straight from the Eaton’s catalogue, arrived by train to Carstairs, where Jack collected it by horse and wagon and brought it home for construction. To this day, the Rattray family remains the only family to have ever called this property home before Debora.
The Eaton's Catalogue Home
In the early 1900s, during the settlement of the Canadian prairies, the Eaton’s catalogue was the shopping mall for farm families everywhere — coveralls for dad, a new dress for mom, a special Christmas gift for the kids, all ordered straight from Eaton’s in Winnipeg. Remarkably, the catalogue supplied almost everything for the home, and from 1910 to 1932, it supplied the home itself.
Ordering a house was a uniquely Western Canadian phenomenon — these homes were advertised only in the Winnipeg catalogue and in special plan books, showcasing Douglas Fir lumber so fine and knot-free it simply couldn’t be sourced today. A handful of homes were featured directly in the catalogue as a teaser, with free plan books offering the full details: an artist’s sketch, a floor plan, and everything needed to know about the lumber, doors, windows, flooring, and hardware.
A Barn That Helps Dreams Come True
Debora’s fondest childhood memories — the barn dances at her grandparents’ farm, dancing with her father before his passing — became the quiet inspiration behind a dream that never faded. Through years of hard work and determination, that dream finally became reality. Today, Debora’s vision is to share this special place with families, couples, community members, corporate partners, and charities alike, so that new memories can be made here for generations to come.
Meet Our Founder, Debora Rice-Salomons
After 40 years in the oil and gas industry and 30 years of dreaming, Debora made her lifelong vision a reality. In January 2017, she took the leap — purchasing this historic property and building The Heritage Centre from the ground up. With farm-girl grit, hard-earned determination, and a hundred years of history already woven into the land, Debora has created a place where dreams come true, one celebration at a time.
