Victoria History

By Dr. Patrick Dunae February 1, 2024 Moses R. Smith (1832-1896) was a Black settler in early Victoria and a prominent British Columbia business owner. At the turn of the twentieth century, the commercial bakery he established in 1858 was the largest in the Pacific Northwest. A biographical sketch of Smith, with an overview of

Research Compiled by Chris Hanna for Point Ellice House Museum & Gardens As part of our efforts to learn more about Charles and Catherine Wallace, for whom Point Ellice was built, we asked researcher Chris Hanna to visit the City of Victoria Archives and BC Archives. As we begin to understand more about this family

Point Ellice House Museum and Gardens February marks both Black History Month and Heritage Week (February 15th to 20th) in British Columbia. With this in mind, we want to share the stories of a few Black workers featured in our 2020-21 exhibit, Springs and Scavengers: Waste and Water in Victoria, 1842-1915. For much of the

Tim Fitzthum, Volunteer Interpreter By the late 19th century, the Rock Bay neighbourhood had become a mixture of waterside factories, mills and shipyards, modest workers lodgings, and grand homes along Pleasant Street.  Along the shores of Rock Bay and the Upper Harbour, one could find tanneries, sawmills, factories producing matches, canned fruit, watercraft, metalworks, and

Tom Bown, Research Associate, Royal British Columbia Museum Despite the fact Victoria has, for the most part, had a safe water supply, anyone living in the 19th and early 20th century needed to remain vigilant. The threat of serious water borne diseases such as cholera and typhoid were never far from mind, but sometimes the

When it was first built in the early 1860s, Point Ellice House was a semi-rural estate, located quite a distance from the very small downtown of Victoria. In the many years since, the other grand homes and residences around Point Ellice House have disappeared. Today, the house and gardens are an oasis in the midst