where the streets have no name

The year 1913 started with great optimism, thanks to a strong economy, progress on the Panama Canal and plans for a wonderful summertime carnival. By the end of the year, many of the hopes had been dashed but 1913 had become a pivotal year.

“In all Victoria’s history, there never was such a year as 1913,” historian James K. Nesbitt wrote more than half a century ago. His assessment still stands.

Thanks to two new Canadian Pacific ships, we were connected to Asia as never before. The Interurban line was completed, offering a new connection to the Saanich Peninsula.

Major developments that year included the Royal Victoria Theatre as well as the east and west wings of the Parliament Buildings, the first major expansion of the legislature block since it opened in 1898.

Work started on the new provincial jail on Wilkinson Road in Saanich. It was to replace the Topaz Avenue jail, which had been partially destroyed by fire in late 1911. Architect W. Ridgeway Wilson was asked to design the jail as well as a new drill hall on Bay Street.
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In July, the contract was awarded for an observatory to be built on Gonzales Hill. Permanent edifice at Douglas and Johnson streets, went up in 1913. Plans for other tall structures, including a 14 storey tower at Wharf and Government, were scrapped when a recession hit in the spring.

The original Church of St. John the Divine the famed iron church on Douglas Street was demolished, and the Hudson’s Bay Company announced plans for a store on the site.

The Union Club moved into its new quarters on Gordon Street, and the YWCA took over the old club building on Douglas Street.

Saloon owners were scrambling to meet changes to the liquor laws. Pubs would only be allowed if they offered at least 30 hotel rooms as well. Many famous names disappeared as a result, including the Retreat Saloon, the Jubilee Saloon, Murphy’s Saloon, the Princess Saloon, Everett’s Exchange Saloon, the Bank Exchange, the Brown Jug, Blue Post, Fountain, Elk, Garrick’s Head, Bismarck, Boomerang and King’s Head. Eberts, the speaker of the house.

There were big plans to develop the former Songhees reserve, just across the water from downtown Victoria, into a major rail hub, with a bridge to connect it to Laurel Point.

The new cement plant at Bamberton opened, complete with a model village for its workers and their families. The Canadian Explosives Co. proposed a powder plant on James Island, although Saanich residents expressed fear of the potential for a massive explosion.

After the death of soap factory owner William Pendray in an industrial accident, the English company Lever Brothers bought the Pendray soap works. Marine Railway shipbuilding facility in Esquimalt.

Members of the local militia were pressed into service in the summer. In May, coal miners in Nanaimo and Ladysmith went on strike for higher pay. Three months later, the strike turned violent, with injuries suffered in a bomb blast and in a shooting.

The militia was asked to calm things. Special trains from Victoria took the peacekeeping force to Ladysmith. Most returned to Victoria after a couple of weeks, but some remained into the fall.

In October, Col. Arthur Currie was named head of the new 50th Gordon Highlanders. He went on to great fame as the leader of the Canadian Expeditionary Force in the Great War.

The year 1913 was a golden one for railways on Vancouver Island. Lines were being expanded and service was better than ever before.

The Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway was opening up new regions, the Canadian Northern Pacific was building, and the new Interurban street railway line between Victoria and Deep Bay Deep Cove, as it’s known today was opened.

In Victoria, much of the enthusiasm was because of the potential seen in the former Songhees property just across the water from downtown Victoria.

The Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway built a roundhouse there, with stalls for 10 locomotives. The roundhouse, along with a storehouse and a car repair shop, was seen as the first step in the development of the former reserve as a rail terminal and industrial centre.

The railway’s repair shops were to be moved from Wellington to Victoria. The railway had also converted to oil burners, primarily to meet forest fire regulations.

The E line between Duncan and Cowichan Lake opened on the same day as the Interurban extension. Thirty two kilometres long, it was primarily to be used to get logs out of the valley, but also opened up the area for tourism and fishing.

It had previously been accessible only by a long and tedious stage route. The E was also pushing into the Comox Valley, and that was expected to be open in 1914.

The Canadian Pacific Railway brought a barge loaded with rail freight cars from Vancouver to Esquimalt rather than to Ladysmith, the previous loading point. The thinking was to relieve congestion on the E and save time as well.

Canadian Northern Pacific had crews at work on the Saanich Peninsula, between Shawnigan Lake and Sooke Lake, between Cowichan Lake and the headwaters of the Nitinat River, and south of Alberni.

The railway proposed a line to the Saanich Peninsula, including a bridge over the Selkirk water at the mouth of the Gorge. The bascule bridge would connect the former Songhees reserve to the gully under the bridge on Gorge Road. Today, that crossing is part of the Galloping Goose Trail, which was built on the old rail line.

Also, parcels would not be allowed unless they were held by someone. It had been common for people to put parcels on the cars to be delivered by the motormen.