Hidden History Right in Front of Our Eyes
If you have been reading Sidewalking Victoria for a while, you will know that one of the joys of living in a city, at least according to me, is the overlapping pieces of history that surround us waiting to be discovered. And by that, I don’t mean all of the history that is standing there with a sign in front of it telling us what it is and what it was used for. No, I am talking about some of the little pieces of history that are sitting there for you to notice and ask, “Why is that there?”. As cities change quickly, things often get built or changed and sometimes a piece of the story of our city gets left behind without a plaque saying what it is. If you are a member of some of the old Victoria groups on Facebook, you might be familiar with a couple of the ones that I highlight here. Last year I wrote an article on some of the things you might see on the sidewalk and this is a pretty similar story. I thought I would look at five places where our city’s history comes out and tries to reveal itself. To be clear, there are likely thousands of things like this all over the city and I would love to hear some of your favourites in the comments.
Okay on to the list. So the five that I am looking at are all sort of between where I live and downtown. They are things that I see and know the story behind, but others might walk right by them. Some, even if you know what they are, might tell more of a story then what is generally spoken about. I look forward to your thoughts.
Lim Bang Residence
Lim Bang is one of Victoria’s most important city builders and businessmen in the early 20th century, maybe almost equally but not surpassing his father Lim Dat. He was born in Victoria in 1884 and among some of his most notable endeavours was the building of what is now known as the Rialto Hotel, the Lim Bang building along Government Street and Herald and creating the Sidney Brick and Tile Company. You can read all about Lim Bang at this site here and he also comes up quite a few times in the excellent book on Victoria, City in Colour by May Q. Wong. Lim Bang lived at a number of addresses in Victoria, but the one that I want to focus on is the family residence he bought at 952 Queen Street. You can’t see the house any more, as it was torn down decades ago and replaced with a series of townhomes. What you can see if a beautiful stone wall that surrounds the townhomes. At first you might not notice it except for the fact that it seems an odd addition to a more modern building. And that is because this was the original stone wall for the home that used to be on this site. After I found out about it, I can’t look at the wall and not think about Lim Bang and his family living here. As one of the first owners of a car in British Columbia, you can imagine his old noisy car being started up and being driven to one of the family businesses. I am sure that at the time it was quite the sight to see.
Pacific Coast Savings Credit Union Sign
This might be one of the more esoteric items on this list. If you have lived in Victoria for a long time you may recall the Pacific Coast Savings Credit Union. Pacific Coast was one of the bigger credit unions on the island. In 2001, it merged with Richmond Savings Credit Union to create Coast Capital Savings, which we are all familiar with today. When I moved here in the mid-1990s one of Pacific Coast’s main branches was at Yates and Blanshard in the old Carnegie Library (I suppose I could almost have included the Carnegie Library in this article on its own). While the Carnegie Library has seen quite a few changes over the 23 years since the merger, for whatever reason it still holds what is likely the only outward physical piece of Pacific Coast Savings Credit Union. On the north face of the newer part of the building, high up above Maycock Optical, you can see an old light up logo of an orca over top of some waves. This sign still advertising the old credit union decades after it left the building it sits on.
Centennial Square Water Fountain
This might be the one to see soon if the new plans for Centennial Square are implemented (If you haven’t read my latest post on Centennial Square, you can check it out here). One of the controversial aspects of the new plan has been the idea to move the centre fountain. The fountain on its own is historic in that is was funded as a gift from the surrounding municipalities of Victoria as a gift to celebrate the city’s one hundredth anniversary of becoming a city in 1962. One can imagine that a gift like that would be unlikely now given the colonial aspects of the founding. But that history is well known and not particularly hidden. If you have looked at the fountain you would know that it is surrounded by a white ring of concrete that has been formed into a particularly Googie design. However, again it is not the fountain’s white concrete ring that I want to draw your attention to. Instead, I want you to note the rough surface treatment on the concrete. This was not the original way the concrete was made. The bumpy texture was added a few years later when it was noticed by the City that young people seemed to enjoy relaxing on the smooth surface a little too much. This was of course late 1960’s and the counter-culture movement was in full swing. In an early implementation of hostile architecture, the rough surface treatment was added to make the fountain less comfortable to sit on. Who ever says that Victoria is not at the leading edge of things!
Fernwood Water Fountain
This one has a plaque, but it is still almost impossible to find. Hidden away in a corner of Stevenson Park in Fernwood sits a small hand pump water well. Before being called Fernwood, the area was known as Spring Ridge. As you would guess, this was due to a water spring being located here. The first main water source for Fort Victoria was where this pump now sits. I have been told that the handle is occasionally added to the pump and water brought up, but I have never actually seen this. Still, to see such a non-descript little pump in the corner of a park that holds so much history is amazing.
Old Police Headquarters
When you see the police headquarters building at Quadra and Caledonia, you probably can see that it is not that old. This means that there was a previous headquarters building. When I moved to Victoria in the 1990’s the main police station was on Fisgard Street across from the Chinese Public School. And it is still there (sort of…) The facade of the old police headquarters sits in plain site, but if you don’t know what you are looking at, you might just think it is just an old building that was kept. The building was originally built in 1914 and was part of a group of buildings that included the main fire department and the old ‘real’ public market for the city. Now, all that remains is the facade and one clue to its original purpose. Behind the gated portico doorway, above the door, is written, ‘Fiat Justitia’, or, ‘Let Justice be done’. It reminds me a lot of the old police station precincts you see in movies about New York or Boston, but this doesn’t even get a plaque.
There are an absolute ton of things like this all over the city and I will like do another post on some more in a couple of months. In the meantime, I would love to hear about some of the hidden histories that you see every day in Victoria. Let me know in the comments.