This Depression-era make-work project — Frankensteined together using spare girders and old streetcar rails — is counting the days until it’s replaced.

It might not look like much, but beneath the ol’ Hub Hotel’s pockmarked walls and faux-stone facade hides the remnants of Jasper House, the first brick building between Vancouver and Winnipeg.

This threatened heritage home, tucked away off Jasper Avenue, was once home to two of Edmonton’s earliest pioneers.