August's illustrated Tweets for @explorearchives #ExploreYourArchives theme of #firsts - with a few more characters than Twitter allows, and some links to explore further:
Oak Bay Archives @OakBayArchives
Aug 5
Some Archive #firsts for August's #exploreyourarchive theme, starting with the first woman who served as the municipality's mayor, Frances Elford (1914-2002).
More about her life & career: https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/timescolonist/obituary.aspx?n=frances-elford&pid=157466218
Image: Oak Bay Archives, PHOT 2016-002-030
Aug 6
The first Exhibition Building at Willows Fairgrounds (on the site of the present day Carnarvon Park) aka 'Crystal Palace'. Built in 1887, it was destroyed by fire in 1907. Fairs, however, continued into the 1940s.
More about the B.C. Agricultural Association Exhibition Building: http://stuartstark.ca/books/
Image: OB Archives PHOT 1994-001-072
Aug 9
Today we’re hopping just across municipal borders to the first Royal Jubilee Hospital building at Richmond x Fort, built 1889-91.
Image: OB Archives PHOT 2010-010-316 by Oak Bay photographer Frank Burrell, ca1900. https://bit.ly/3AgMk9g
More @CityOfVictoria Archives https://archives.victoria.ca/informationobject/browse?topLod=0&sort=relevance&query=royal+jubilee
Aug 10
The first St Mary's Anglican Church building in Oak Bay, built 1911 as a local ‘chapel of ease’ to the Cathedral, replaced by the present building 1959. The street address then was 1805 Burns Rd, but is now 1701 Elgin Rd – street names and numbering have changed, not the site.
Image: OBA PHOT 2010-010-153, photo by Frank Burrell, ca 1912. https://www.oakbay.ca/our-community/archives/photographs/2010-010-153
More about St Mary’s history: The history of St. Mary the Virgin Anglican Church, Oak Bay, Victoria BC, 1911-2011 (first published 1986, updated 2011) by Betty Benton and Elizabeth Laugharne.
Aug 12
James Sterling Floyd, Oak Bay’s first municipal clerk, & staff in the first Oak Bay municipal offices – ironically, not in the municipality at all for Oak Bay’s first few years of official existence 1906-1912, but downtown at 1218 Langley St in (looks like the basement of) the then brand new Rattenbury-designed Chancery Chambers building, adjacent to Bastion Square.
Image: OB Archives PHOT 2016-005-009 https://oakbay.ca/our-community/archives/photographs/2016-005-009…
More about JS Floyd https://bclocalnews.com/news/oak-bay-honours-its-fathers/…
More about this building: http://www.victoriaonlinesightseeing.com/1218-langley-street-victoria-bc/
Now, who can identify the women in the photo…
Aug 16
Oak Bay's 1st reeve (mayor), William Edgar Oliver (1867-1920), held office for three terms: 1906-08, 1912, and 1914-15.
Image: https://oakbay.ca/our-community/archives/photographs/2016-002-001
And try searching photo # 2006-004 as well.
See also @CityOfVictoria Archives & archives descriptions, and @archivesassocbc's catalogues at MemoryBC https://memorybc.ca/oliver-william-edgar…
Aug 17
Oak Bay's first fire chief, Edward G Clayards 1904-1955, formerly of @CityOfVictoria fire dept, was appointed in 1938 when the municipality established its own @OakBayFireDept https://bit.ly/3xm8kxK
Image: OB Archives PHOT 1994-048-018
Here's his original helmet https://goldstreamgazette.com/news/watch-1938-firefighter-helmet-passed-to-new-chief/… #exploreyourarchives #firsts
Aug 19
Oak Bay House (Tod House) still stands at 2564 Heron St, built by Oak Bay's first retiree (possibly the least interesting facet of his biography!) HBC Factor John Tod, in 1850/51
Image: https://oakbay.ca/our-community/archives/photographs/1994-001-019
More on John Tod http://biographi.ca/en/bio/tod_john_11E.html… & on the house https://historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=2350
Both of those publications about John Tod & Tod House need updates. See also Robert C. Belyk’ biography John Tod: Rebel in the Ranks, published by Horsdal & Schubert in 1995.
Tod House is a Designated Heritage Property on the Oak Bay Heritage Register: see
https://www.oakbay.ca/explore-oak-bay/points-interest/tod-house and
https://www.oakbay.ca/our-community/history/heritage/heritage-sites/2564-heron-street
Aug 24
Oak Bay's original Municipal Hall, at the NW corner of Hampshire Rd x Oak Bay Ave
OBA PHOT 2016-005-001 https://oakbay.ca/our-community/archives/photographs/2016-005-001…
The building gains some nice streetscape context in this @BCArchives photo https://search-bcarchives.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/municipal-hall-oak-bay… taken looking NW past Pattinson pharmacy, now @_PennyFarthing
Aug 31
The last in this series of #ExploreYourArchive #firsts is the First World War #WW1 in Oak Bay. Here, troops are marching from Willows Camp at Willows Fairgrounds on Willows Rd (now the south end of Eastdowne) toward Cadboro Bay Rd, ca 1915. I reckon the house nearest the camera on the right is the one that's still at the northeast corner of Bowker x Eastdowne; that distinctive curve at Eastdowne and Cadboro Bay is still there. This photo must have been taken from the south side of Cadboro Bay Road, which would run across the bottom of the photo. There's no longer a streetcar track on Eastdowne, and the Exhibition buildings have been replaced by houses, but the three houses visible on the right are still there, including, about three telephone poles back, the former Willows Park Grocery, now housing Yumbrosia deli.
Image: OBA PHOT 2012-001-057
And compare with Joseph Davenport, Atlas Map of Victoria BC, pocket edition. Island Blue Print & Map Co., 1925. P. 27 (detail) – showing junction of Cadboro Bay Road and Willows Road (now Eastdowne) and Fair St streetcar loop.
Compare with that corner now, on Google Earth: https://earth.google.com/web/@48.43388354,-123.31617603,14.9730085a,107.17345122d,35y,6.20228797h,63.69327163t,0r
For more photos of any of the above subjects, search Oak Bay Archives' photos online at https://www.oakbay.ca/our-community/archives/photographs-view
Questions for the archivist? email obarchives@oakbay.ca
