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Nicholson Road is an ongoing photo project aimed at sharing and celebrating the different communities in Metro Vancouver. Each week Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» will be featuring an image from the previous week, shot in one of the many 'hoods around town in order to draw your attention a little bit outside of the hyper-focus that we usually have on the City of Vancouver. |
Established in 1858, when New Westminster consisted of little more than a saloon, butcher, grocery, and bakery, Sapperton is one of the oldest neighbourhoods in Metro Vancouver.
Earlier that same year, gold was discovered in New Caledonia (or what would quickly become the Colony of British Columbia) and a body of men, selected from the Royal Engineers, travelled to the new colony to support its protection and development. This group, traditionally known as the "Sappers", set up camp atop a large ravine near the bend of the Fraser River (today known as the Glenbrooke Ravine).
During the 5 years these men were in BC (some would later choose to stay), they built countless roads throughout the province (remember the horror stories of the Cariboo Wagon Road from history class?), surveyed town sites like Hope, Yale, Lytton, and Lillooet, designed and built the first English churches in New West (both of which still stand today and remain two of the oldest buildings in the province) and schoolhouse. But that's not all! These men also designed the first coat of arms for the province, the first postage stamp, and published the first B.C. Gazette (after first establishing the Government Printing Office).
It seems only decent to name a neighbourhood after the men who contributed so much to New West, and British Columbia as a whole! But what does all of that have to do with the building pictured above?
When it opened in 1878, the BC Penitentiary (known as the BC Pen, or Skookum House) was the first federal penitentiary west of Manitoba. It was expanded many times through the years, and was closed just over a hundred years later in 1980. Today most of the land has been rebuilt into a maze of low-rise condos and townhouses but two original buildings still stand: the Gaol Block (pictured), which has since been converted into office space, and the gatehouse, which is now home to a sports grill. If you've ever driven up E Columbia (or ridden the Millenium Line) as it parallels the Fraser and noticed some steps leading up to what looks like an old castle, you'll have seen the gatehouse.
I have to say - if you ever feel like you've seen all the history there is to see on the streets of Vancouver, get out to New West! The city is bursting at the seems with history, and every road has a story to tell.
(And just for fun, for a present-day google map view of the Pen site, and then to see it in 1982. Who knew?! Now YOU do!)
Archives of the Nicholson Road project can be found .
