Editorially speaking…
Last Sunday, for the second time in 30-odd years, I wandered about the base of the Bay Street bridge.
It will always be the Point Ellice bridge to me, the site of the worst streetcar disaster in Canadian, even North American history.
About the only surviving link to that horrendous tragedy is Point Ellice House, now a heritage site surrounded by industry. Back in 1896 it was the waterfront home of Capt. William Grant. On the holiday of May 26th, his lawn served as a temporary morgue for most of the victims of the bridge’s collapse with an overloaded streetcar.
I wonder how many motorists who cross this busy connection linking downtown Victoria and Esquimalt are even aware of its history. I’m sorry now that Belinda and I didn’t walk entirely across from the west side to see if there’s so much as a plaque to mark that dreadful event of 128 years ago. But I doubt it.
At least the Old Cemeteries Society honoured the event with a tour of victims’ headstones in Ross Bay Cemetery.
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Victoria’s iconic Dunsmuir mansion, Craigdarroch Castle. —crdcommunitygreenmap.ca
The good folks who operate Victoria’s castle that was built on the fortune derived from Vancouver Island coal have been running a series of large display ads in the Times Colonist.
This week’s ad was headlined, “What were 30 pianos doing in the castle?”
The answer: Because, long after the Dunsmuirs moved on, the castle served as the Victoria Conservatory of Music before its present use as a museum.
To think that the late journalist/historian James K. Nesbitt had to fight City Hall to save it from possible demolition and development!
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To be honest, I sometimes find writing Facebook posts and reading and answering comments to be a chore in a workday that’s always full and long.
But the payback is often worth the effort. Time and again, readers have responded with fascinating information of their own.
A recent post on Duncan’s long ago Armoury that stood behind the Agricultural Hall on what became The Mound parking lot is a perfect example.
I wrote:
Like a ghost from the past, for a short time several years ago, this concrete foundation reappeared during landscaping work at the intersection of Duncan’s Trunk Road and the E&N Railway tracks.
This was the site of the Agricultural Hall and the Duncan Armoury, home for two world wars to the Cowichan Valley’s military—regular, militia and cadets. Both buildings are long gone, the Aggie Hall site covered with hardtop. But the Armoury was situated immediately behind, on ground as yet undeveloped and, until its foundation was briefly exposed, apparently untouched.
What stories this building could tell!
During the First World War Duncan had the highest enlistment per capita for all of Canada and served as a training base for soldiers who’d enlisted in Victoria. Many a serviceman came and went via the Duncan train station, immediately across Trunk Road. The E&N station’s still there, now it’s the Cowichan Valley Museum, but the Aggie Hall and the Armoury are just memories, the foundation of the historic Armoury having been covered over again.
Cecil Ashley:
I remember being an army cadet in the old Agricultural Hall. Our Commander was Sgt. Major Crabbe. Eddie Elliott's dad a war veteran used to serve us cadets a beer upstairs in the canteen. Sgt. Major Crabbe always said that it would be over his dead body when they tore the Aggi Hall down. I don't remember if he went first or the Aggi Hall went first.
I remember going on manoeuvres to various places, Nanaimo in particular and they would issue us blanks for our rifles. I can still remember disassembling and reassembling the old Bren guns. We had to be able to do it in an allotted time frame. Then we had our Cub Scouts meetings in the old Armoury building, and then on weekends they would hold professional wrestling matches.
Who remembers Chief Thunder Bird from Duncan and 6 feet 9 inch Ted McKenzie from Texas?
And the great rodeos, fairs, loggers events, and circuses that were held in the old fair grounds? Duncan in the 1950's was a great place to grow up in. The best of times, the pristine Cowichan Rver, jumping off the black bridge to impress the girls.
Maple Bay, Cowichan Bay was a paradise for fishing. And we actually used to be able to swim in Quamichan Lake. As school kids we were always safe to walk to school, I remember walking to the Zenith school everyday for two years without a worry. I know my old friend Robbie will remember also, I wonder who else does?
Jill Lendrum Benwell:
I remember competing in horse shows on the old fairgrounds! We water skied on Quamichan Lake but always tried to land at the wharf so we weren’t bitten by leeches!
Alice Powell Trueman:
I remember both buildings well. My father was a member of the Agricultural Society for years. I remember the agricultural agent in the 1940’s always had a package of sweet biscuits with icing in the middle. I liked going to see him. Before the new high school was finished, many kids at Duncan Elementary were on shifts or out at Fairbridge as the high school students filled most of the classrooms.
My brother Teddy started a year on shift at the old Zenith Club. Dad arranged for his class to move into the armoury full-time. I think Ted was in grade 4 then and I was with Mrs. Lowe in grade 1 upstairs in the school building.
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Coulson Aviation in Port Alberni, owners of the fabled Martin Mars water bombers, have entered the jet age with the purchase of a retired Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700 jetliner.
Progress to be sure, but I will continue to savor the song in my mind of multi-piston radial engines of the Canso water bombers that used to fly over my home at Cherry Point during spring work-ups. Like the sounds of a steam engine vs. a diesel locomotive, they were music to the ears.
One of the few concessions of getting old is having great memories!
It’s all very well to read about something and to see photos, but they don’t equate to having seen and heard—better yet, ridden—the real thing!