I am curious as to whether any of Victoria’s streetcars are still alive and well or did they all end up in the trash bin? I was told by my Dad that the old Jolly Friar that served a minimal menu of delicious burgers, fries, etc was also a converted streetcar.
Read MoreIf you care to make the trip to Nanaimo this evening, guests are welcome at the Nanaimo Historical Society’s April 13 general meeting. Tonight’s entertainment is of interest to Cowichan residents, a video by NHS directors of the old Hillcrest Chinese cemetery at Sahtlam.
Read MoreI’m sure that not many Chronicles readers grew up in post Second World War Victoria as I did so they won’t remember downtown businesses as I knew them in my childhood and teenage years.
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Historically, the big news story of the past week is the closure of one of Victoria’s most significant historic sites, Point Ellice House Museum and Gardens, for want of sufficient government funding.
Read MoreIt’s Spring and I’ve been housecleaning my files.
Among the many newspaper clippings that have been gathering dust, this one since last September, is an obituary for Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough, aged 89.
What an amazing career.
Read MoreEverywhere I go, everything I do, everything I read....there’s history there!
I read three regional newspapers each week, daily seek out past and present events and personages online, and I’m forever surprised by the nuggets that I continually find in today’s news that link to or recall past happenings.
Read MoreAs I hope you noticed, the Chronicles was off the air last week thanks to a four-day power outage. Which also meant, of course, that I was offline, so there was no way to go to press with last Thursday’s latest instalment of “Cowichan’s ‘Hanging Tree.’”
Read MoreTwo weeks ago I told you the sad story of a German man, ‘Albert Ehmann,’ who committed suicide in a Victoria hotel room in 1909.
Read MoreSo the Royal BC Museum has blinked.
Read MoreAs some Chronicles readers may have discerned, aviation history is another passion of mine. What a treasure trove of fascinating stories is available in books, newspapers and online!
Read MoreWell, we finally did it, a little bit late but better than not at all. For two weeks we’d tried to make it down to Saanich to mark the 80th anniversary of the murder of 15-year-old Molly Justice.
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Chronicles readers have a chance to save some local heritage, downtown Duncan’s venerable E&N Railway (our Cowichan Valley Museum) as explained in this press release by the Island Corridor Foundation, the building’s owners:
The Cowichan Valley Museum and Archives Needs Your Help!
It was in the news earlier this month that a Gabriola Island man had lost his great-uncle’s ‘Dead Man’s Penny’. This First World War memorial plaque was made from bronze and became popularly known as the ‘Dead Man’s Penny’ among front-line troops. It was also known as the ‘Death Penny,’ ‘Death Plaque’ and ‘Widow’s Penny’ even though it’s 120 millimetres in diameter.
Read MoreIn place of an editorial this week, here are some of the many comments I’ve received over the years in response to my writings about Molly Justice, the subject of today’s Chronicle. I’ve attached my answers where I think they bear repeating.
Read MoreAn interesting WANTED ad in last week’s Citizen caught my eye: “In the 1950s float planes replaced the steamships as the preferred mode of travel on the West Coast.
Read MoreThanks to the wonderful voice(s) of the late ‘Fireside’ Alan Maitland, The Shepherd, the story of a British Vampire jet fighter pilot flying home from Germany on Christmas Eve, 1957, is, in my humble opinion, the finest half-hour radio drama of all time.
Read MoreEveryone knows about the murals of Chemainus; they are, after all, internationally famous. A new project on the local scene was recently announced, the Que’utsun Festival of Murals…
Read MoreBlack Diamond mines is a historic site where 5 different communities developed during the coal mining era of 1860-1906. What we have left are the mines; we give tours, a cemetery, and a story that continues to be told.
Read MoreNurturing and conserving history, as is the case of almost everything else in life, requires effort, enthusiasm—and money.
All of our provincial museums, historic attractions—even those that enjoy the rare luxury of various degrees of public funding—rely upon cores of dedicated volunteers. The Cowichan Valley is no exception.
Read MoreWho was it who said, “The only thing we learn from history is that we don’t learn from history?
And, does history really repeat itself?