Salt Spring Island Archives
| Accession Number | |||
| Date | 20 April 2022 | ||
| Media | digital recording | Audio | mp3 √ |
| duration | 68 min. |
447_Chris-Arnett_History-of-Mahon-Hall_20-04-2022.mp3
otter.ai
12.02.2024
no
Outline
Unknown Speaker 0:00
All right. And then testing testing
Unknown Speaker 0:11
I love your
Unknown Speaker 0:19
show that one doesn't have any babies to jump from your elbow,
Speaker 1 0:24
their old older they're all the details of their night in a way that it's a different use of long Arbor from last month's phones
Unknown Speaker 0:43
Yeah. So that's yeah, I see it a lot.
Speaker 2 1:01
So good evening, everyone. It's really a pleasure to see so many of you here. Thank you for joining us. My name is Scott elewana Are the executive director of the Salzburg arts. And this is the second to historic talks that sell trademarks and Historical Society and archives are partnered on. So I'm really excited for this evening. We are forced on on the unceded Coast Salish territories and very grateful to live and work here. And part of that acknowledgment is understanding this place where we are and a night like this and especially the night we had a month ago with Chris talking about Indigenous stories and Indigenous histories of what we have no respect for Ireland has been really enriching community. And this show hopefully is also a bit of a window into looking into our past. So I invite you, you know, to take a moment after the show or come back this week, to learn a little bit about some of the stories and histories that artists here and sharing I hope that's also kind of an invitation to continue learning more of the stories of this place, and especially the indigenous peoples of this place. Tonight, is sponsored generously by Saltspring cottages. So I really want to thank the cottages for that either daily without any confusion. I say thank you another time again. And I also want to thank our volunteers, Susan, Donna and Deborah to help set up tonight. Thank you so much. And thank you also to Zoe's a Ferris who is our gallery manager here through the spring Art Show this week she has been holding on board. She's been amazing. So we started with the topic Chris delivered last month. And as I mentioned, it's really in the lead up to the spring Ark show, which is all about manholes. It's our 15th annual Springer show. And the title is men and Morial Hall the nature of memory. So it's been fascinating to watch how 26 artists in the hall and responded to the history of the hall specifically have responded to memory specifically and then you know, everything in between. As well as this exhibition, there's art on the hall. So you might have noticed for new murals that we bought on the on the outside of the building, and those are on the building until the end of September. And we have completely turned off the kids in the hallway exhibit in the annex Gallery, which is a lot of fun. Salt Scrub, salt spray, elementary kids participated, as well as kids from Phoenix Elementary. There are a few more events coming up with a spring art show. So the one tomorrow and the day off the gallery is open for visits. But our next event is Friday at noon and he said I talk with Martin Herbert whose work is just over there that beautiful small rendition of man holidays done. He's gonna be talking about this piece of some other works. And Saturday evening we have a performance called hollow place. And that is with Pixar net. Kris Humphries and Sue Newman storytelling stole music. It's going to be a lot of fun. So join us doors are seven shows at 730 as tickets by donation. And as well as the spring Archer we're moving into a really busy season for the Arts Council for calls. Before I'd have to listen because there's so many so Artcraft I summer. The call is open until tomorrow actually, our craft showcases we are looking for showcases for 2023 And I think that's open a little bit longer. I don't know what the deadline dates on hand. If you're interested in curation, we do put a call annually for a curator for the spring art show and we are looking for a curator for the 2024 spring. We have grants and awards call open right now if you have projects in the community that are cultural value cultural events attempt to sell training, grants and awards is open until April 30. We're looking for artists in the class for next year, you don't want to be an artist in the class catalog. And that's artists that we pay to go into schools and do artistic, creative mentorship, in all kinds of disciplines. And we're just about ready to launch our murals on Saltspring call as well, we're looking for three professional artists to do murals and Ganges. So lots of opportunities, if you know anyone, please share in Word, and one more thing we're looking for are really fabulous summer students who wants to work with us this season. So if you know anybody who's returning to universities, and then finally, a really huge thank you, to the archives, and especially the carry and coast have been really helpful to us as we were preparing for the show. But they also saw so many artists who are on the show, help them find material in the archive. So thank you, both of you. And I'm going to turn it over to Chris in a moment. Chris is one of the heroes of this show all the stuff in the ends. So it's been a real pleasure to work with Chris and to learn so much from him about the stories of this place. And it's so exciting to talk with someone who's as passionate about, you know, how this building got built. And when this book got put there, and, and really, you know, it's really opened up my eyes to, you know, this building is so alive and I so impacted by every person who has contributed to it over 120 years. So Chris, is a fourth generation Vancouverite born to a Canadian mother and a Maori Father, is that right? Yeah. Well, of course, an author and I've had the pleasure of reading some of Chris's books. And hopefully you have to look at what happened to the chair as opposed to houses have buried in the sand, as well as the day right to your dream on or off forever. So we're so lucky to have Chris who is a historian and archaeologist and anthropologist, as well as an author, a painter, a musician, and a general rock and roller and an avid gardener in our midst. And thank you again for sharing your knowledge with us tonight. So I'll turn it over to
Speaker 1 7:22
Zack fell for that introduction. And thank you all for coming out on this inclement night. It's good for the garden. stuff in there. It's not too delicate. So today, I'm going to kind of take her take off where we left off last time. Topic is no whole is an island the history of Yamaha just learned recently from through Dan Caldwell grandfather had a lot to do with this building. As a director, one of the first farmers Institute or the islands agricultural and Association. He in His family in pronunciations, we all go back to the late 19th century that family so you know, it's not mad. You know, American Canadian pronunciation so may on all go by, look at the fall from its inception in 1900 to 1946. This is where we left off last time. Yeah, less legs. So this was, again, area 160 years ago was known as the apogee Bay settlement. So at 5090 to 60. You see these large preemptions taken up by different stuff. There's George Richardson, US preemption occupied once again as black men. So it was Walter Isaacson, black American Thomas Langer. And it was from Australia, via California. And I talked about last time how this portion of the survey came 59. He's kind of left off, and this is the village of Choate, this part here and along the shore, so it may have been deliberately left outside of the survey to preserve it as a reserve, but we get into this murky period, following the 1860s. You know, 1860s 1870 there's not a lot of records in the native population disappears from this area and became starts coming less frequently. And it has something to do with the events that happened. On this very day, in 1863. On substantive, inelegant island, with the village of Formosa was attacked by a gun go to the oil h&s forward hm gunboat forward. And after a three hour firefight, the gunboats broke off the engagement. casualties in the treatment field, the only known defeat the only defeat of the Royal Navy but an Aboriginal claim, for instance, on this day, almost 160 years ago. So the defeat, this is an important battle, it's not going to bring my history because it had to do with the eventual colonization and occupation of this part of the island. Because the people from this village will not side who inflicted defeat defeat on the gumbo. They were subject to the large military operation that lasted months after that the village was eventually burned. The leaders were hanging baskets square. And they would people basically control this part of Salt Springs in the colonial period. And so the disappearance of the peoples from the poem Elsa, the only Coast Salish village to the, you know, attacked and dispersed and burned and destroyed through military action, you know, allowed settlers to occupy this place over time, but there's still a lot of tension like this is a American period in the history of the 60s. So but the major event here following that was British Columbia joining Confederation. And all of a sudden a huge influx of immigrants, mostly from British shot, you know, headed into Canada. And if you go to the newspapers of the day, there's all this promotional stuff about British Columbia, this British Columbia that background and this and of course, Saltspring Island is an attractive place for a lot of these newcomers. So they came out you know, via the railway Vancouver, and then began to settle down in on different parts of the island. And here in Ganges This is a 19 of six. But if you came here 1900 You find a three or four farms at one government dog, all English farms that had taken over former Black preemptions Well, not all black branches, but for example here George Richardson sprint was taken over by the Tolson brothers, Frank Scott took over Walter Isaacson Fred Croft and to the Linares, but over here, Reverend Wilson took over creation, Armand Buckner, another group. So it's a kind of an interesting transition between the black settlers and the few European settlers in the valley to this sort of predominantly English community that was centered around the parish of St. Mark's, which is over here, St. Mark's Church. And Reverend Wilson, of course, who produced this map, was the minister at this church and provided a lot of really valuable information about this time period, in the monthly newsletter called Saltspring. perishing Oh, I found a lot of information in my research from this really interesting, monthly record Saltspring between about 8095 and 9010. And you can see these branches are big, but yeah, this was a English farm community around that competitor. And this is some interesting information from Wilson about the demographic here. This is about 450 people who lived on the island in 1900. And of that number 160 were English, or Canadians and 50, Scots 20 Irish and this sort of fits in with the demographics of British Columbia as a whole British Columbia, this kind of 80% British Isles, people, my ancestors, my mom's side are part of this wave of emigration from Cornwall. But what's interesting here is we have 160 English and the next ethnic group or ethnic group is a ninth half greens they call it but these are the descendants of non Indigenous settlers and Hawaiians. And here's the the actual ethnic Hawaiians there listed six Hawaiians were living here, at that time, interesting, numbered by 10, Japanese and one Egyptian and Greek and a Patagonia sort of diverse, forgotten in the English community, again, set centered around St. Mark's Church, which everybody knows but I don't think anyone goes well, it's a beautiful church. Here's a photograph by giving an example of one of the families that are some of the families some of the people that lived here in 1898. This is a wedding of Kathleen menorah Wilson. As a daughter of Reverend Wilson, and frankly with Scott, who owned this property run today, and he ended up donating that to Paul, but for the Pope and getting ahead of my story, that just gives you an idea of the people there. The Scots and there were three or four brothers who came from Yorkshire, England. And this is a very important wedding, and a lot of interesting people are showing up. So I don't have the names, none of them. The Madonna has gone through on that in that photo, but they were part of this group of, you know, British immigrants, too, to the spamming woods. And, you know, life is pretty good introducing comments they were, a lot of them were referred to as remittance man. I'm sure some of you heard that term. It was basically the younger sons of wealthy British families who didn't inherit the estate. So unless they went to the Navy or somewhere else, they were often sent to the far reaches of the colonies, with a sipping monthly Stuffins are, in fact, quite generous amounts. And they could come to places like Seoul stream and you know, get 700 acres and ranch, they're all ranchers, they sell themselves as ranchers, and you know, they can be worked hard, you know, they had huge orchards. The Scots, one of the Scots had the largest fortune sevices, the largest orchard, the north end of the island, just across from us at Fruitvale, we still see remnants of it. And, you know, they, they grew, yeah, orchards, in cattle, and even, you know, dabbled in all kinds of merchandise and stuff. But mostly, they had, you know, a lot of money. They didn't have to work too hard to kind of remind the some people on the island today, you know, they can buy things and be hobby farmers, but they're not too much different than these folks, folks, we've always had these people coming here, you know, for better or worse, just part of the place. And so here are some of the residents of Ganges at a party. And having a good time. This is a port Henry Bullock, who has had a lot of press, I won't talk too much about him, but he was a wealthy man who had a beautiful house. And here's the interior dining room and lavish parties. And when women showed up if they weren't dressed with likely he had a special safety bring up, you know, dainty scarves and lasers and stuff, and jewelry, so that they would look nice, and he would come and visit your home and, and and talk to you about how you should look and stuff. He's very eccentric man, but in a well liked to the community and a part of this Anglican parishes of St. Mark's and up here is a frank Scott here and his family, you know, hanging out on the beach chocolate island. So these people did all the things that you know, we enjoy on Saltspring today. And but you know, it's not without tragedy to the gentleman in this picture. Fred Smedley and Harold Scott red party over here at Tulsans Ranch was only places within the branches. And it was quite a party, I guess. And then they went back in a dB to their home over at Hastings house was the day he was upset. And one of them, I think was Harold Scott was was a powerful swimmer. And the other man couldn't swim. And they just reached the shore trying to make some steps for the drought and drowning in their bodies were found just on the rocks and the reef in front of Hastings house. And so in the parish, of course, everybody was shocked by this the death of these two young men. And so this special stained glass window is conditioned to audit your memory. You can see today in St. Mark's Church. So let's get to the archives. I'm calling me on because I think that's probably what they were the real name. There were two brothers that are grandsons of Ross, my aunt, who was the first Baronet of Castle dar Ireland. And this is in the west coast of Ireland. This was a big America and a state that still there. This is the main house and this is a very wealthy family connected to Guinness the base and so these two sons Louis and Ross ended up on salt spray and they had other cousins who ended up in the coop knees and have lots to do with the founding of the town council guard. You look into Castle guards, early history Neons are all over. You're involved in the mining there they were very wealthy folks. And these two guys came to Salt Spring and this is like the only known photo we have of Ross Mian here and possibly here this he had a crown granted land here where Hastings houses today or is it actually this is this is Churchill. Okay. We're in some all the time you should look at math so carefully anyway that's the house he built here and which doesn't exist today and he also
Unknown Speaker 20:35
got Churchill beach. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 20:38
And his brother owned his piece of land inside and they built a house that it may still be standing I mean, the house sits up there may have been built by them right across from the Duffy gallery Francis bread, it was a house up the road there and that may have been built Nietzsche 90s by one of these men anyway, this is Henry Louis mall play on one of his holdings and they own other properties on the island. And in the directories of the day they're listed as h&m on general store Ganges are labor involved in lumber revolted, getting wasted leases, but, you know, but they had lots of money. So they didn't have to worry too much about what they were doing. But they got a lot of things. Ross eventually bought purchase this last section on long Harbor. And this was the house that he built. And I and he was he owned the special. A yacht ran a NASA gas. He experimented with homing pigeons on this yacht, he would take people out and begin the 1940s and so they can send letters home via the pigeons. I don't know if the word and he he began in a waste release here that is probably still happening. That was his property. Why harder? So when Queen Victoria died, and I can only commission a giant stained glass window in first name Mark Scourge and Ross Mian was one of the earliest and most generous donators to this beautiful stained glass window and in Marion County, Victoria. So around this time, these men were also because they were wrong. And farmers, they were involved in the islands agricultural fruit Growers Association. That's a big long title. And this is from the Constitution at 97. The purpose of this society shall be encourage and stimulate the general development of all the agricultural and horticultural resources of Saltspring Island and adjacent islands. So we've had a wide umbrella with them just Saltspring included Cooper m&ms is no Dalian awards be made. And all of the Gulf Islands were part of this umbrella organization to society shall hold an annual exhibition and competition of livestock fruits, field and garden produce. And these are just some of the farms Bullock's farm farm by St. Mary's lake and the Scott farm back between long harbored Road in Minnesota. So this first station is happening. And they decide ground at 98, the end end of the century that will they were starting to hold fairs and events at Central Hall, which is way up here. And so all the people from the other islands, they didn't like coming in again, and then going all the way and and or wherever that road into Central Hall, which was the community hall and they said we got to build a new hall. They had a meeting and they said yes, we're going to start it. Frank Scott, welcome this acreage here 100 200 acres, whatever was donated this chunk of land to the Association for $40. And you probably did it because it's a rocky Knoll of land, it's not really useful. It's got a nice view of the harbor. And 40 Max is a lot of money in those days. And so they this is Frank's property near and so this is the hall in relation to the rest of his land. And so they hired Reed Bittencourt so here who's the son of Portuguese settlers, and one of his assistants are athletes per Kirti. And there are others involved and they can work on Hall. But in typical kind of Saltspring fashion, you know, things took a while, you know, they didn't have windows, you know, just they began to owe money, the lumber, a lot of lumber. I don't think it came locally. It came from Sailor J Sayward. Over in Victoria and they were getting bills from them like where's our payments? Now so there was some issues with the hall but it money issues mostly financial that we played these organizations right to the end. Ross Mian stepped forward and said I'll give you guys 1000 bucks to not only finish the hall but to purchase four acres of land and water access from Frank Scott and Frank Scott donated for no he didn't donate it he sold that land for 500 bucks and it included a water accessory here could a random rainbow row plus this field that goes up to the Kinect road and the hall and so the the head the first bear at the Hall it was unfinished that was October November or October 21 1901 It was raining day but it was a pretty good period he said you know the 3d cattle and 20 Horses and stuff but it's well documented in us in the parish and Saltspring parish and home news but within a year Tom thanks to this generous donation they were able to wreck the building so this photo here we used to think this is the was one of the earliest photos of the hall but it's not from the first fall fair, as I mentioned on this thing, so that's wrong up there. But that's it for you. We're always changing with new information, the story but this this probably dates from about 1904 or something not sure deciding is still to be put on the building. Anyway, it's a very early photo the hall probably made 1902 1903 You can see all the windows are in. And here's some of the the building committee. If you look at the names here, I can recall well Norton maxvill moves Wilson Walker, Towson rains, a Kremen it's a real cross section of selfing society of the day it wasn't just all English, English at the Raj, they with a brand they have ranches and farms, but they all work together at the same time. So 1903 Ross Mian goes for swim in June ninth 1903 offers property long harder and dreadful. And but that didn't change the work they still have to make the payments and mortgage and actually they were having trouble doing that and so badly and contacted the the islands agricultural and horticultural Association, and said that they would forgive the mortgage if they if you would put a brass plaque in a hall with the entitled Mian Memorial Hall. And we'll do that we'll forgive the debt so they spent a lot of money on this plaque $40 plaque, which is a tempted to 1000 bucks, but anyway, it's nice, it's made of roll brass, it's not gonna cast and engraved very finely and but as soon as it was installed in the, in the very issue where they talked about installation at the top of the sink from now on, you know, it's going to be called marble. So they dropped in the morning right away. And then Ross lon just appears I mean, he had a well attended funeral, and with wreaths and shakes of anchors and things, and I love the this is in the St. Mark's cemetery on bacon Road, man go with forth unto his work and labor until evening. And that's what these guys did. And they had, you know a lot of money, but they worked hard and played hard. So and So here's some other early pictures of the hall. And here we can see. You know, it's interesting to note the comparison between this picture here a small the trees are so this is an old photo, maybe from 1902 This could be later 1908 for trees are starting to grow up here. But the building is basically this section here. We don't have the stage or any of the additions. It's just this is the core of the building the front entrance and this was the hall and over here with the dining area. The shed light thing on the side is where they fed people probably as long benches
Speaker 1 29:34
in here is we're not sure what events here could be a bowl affair with ghosts of the made a weekend and favorite the King's birthday was a big event. So finally, some time after night to find I need to six 1907 You know things are taking a while on Saltspring they get clapboard siding on the building, and it's so cool and this is a remnant of the original color which is preserved right up here. Above the stage, I photograph, it's not a great photo, but you can see the original pinky red color. And that was the color given to a lot of public buildings and barns in this time period to signify agricultural prosperity. It's based on the idea or the customer in England, and possibly other places where they would make some blood for slaughtered animals in with water and linseed oil didn't you know, iron oxide and paint their barns red as preservative. And as a symbol of agricultural prosperity, and the use of special siding, it was this Dutch siding, drop siding, which has this sort of channel in it. That gives it kind of a nice decorative look. So it had, you know, this pinky red color. And then this white kind of trim around the windows in between each board, it was sort of quite striking that we don't have too many pictures of that phase, the building. Here's another shot, maybe F 1908 Maybe. And you can see the building has all the sidings on nicely. And this is a nice picture because it shows the brass band from Cooper Island, Cooper Island industrial band, who had been coming over to Salt Springs since the school began in you know, I have references to them playing on Saltspring in 1896. So they came over quite regularly. So here they are setting I'm sitting on a makeshift stage. And I've been on Cooper Island, or Connecticut Island as it is now. And the drum group there we have a tribal drum group, and they use the bass drum from the Cooper Island industrial band sort of me so it's kind of an interesting continuation. And the follow up there was you know, a big deal and focus a lot on you know, equestrian stuff cattle of course, grow ranches, so lots of cattle and the rancher here's Henry Bullock, this is the buggy display used to be like, you know, showing the cars now sending your your hot rod like, Hey, look at my RAM buggy. There's Bala, can you I think he was the judge like Well, that's a very fun buggy. But they have all these fences feels like this is like a community grounds here. It's like a public, very public areas, nice little community. And these shots give you an idea. He stands up there, you know, the four acre field. And these are the workhorse, you know, competition, people show up showing off to the beautiful horses. And here's somebody there's the hall up here. And the other building that was erected the the chicken house, which was another building, once the agricultural Association got a hold of this land, they built this other buildings chicken house, they call it to showcase poultry. And there's some in writing showing off the right Phil. And dairy, this is Rainbow Road here. And you see all these sheds are built along the road for the the annual show. So Rainbow Road here, which went down to the to the to the water. Now this is I'm sorry, the quality is so great and nice. But this is a great resource for this time period. It's the diaries of barrel Scott is the daughter of Frank Scott and Kathleen Wilson. And if you go online and posting archives, to the Scott collections, you can see her whole diaries from from ninth, all her diaries for 1912 up to 1930s. And it's fascinating. She was an artist so she she she do beautiful caricatures of people a period like this is that fall fair in 1914. And I can 15 And there's your Uncle Billy, who's the he's the Deputy Minister of Agriculture and provincial government. He, along with his brothers all that land at Fruitvale. Here is the artists herself a barrel. And there's her dad who generously gave this land with the hall. And so I'm going to throw smokin away, I'm a good time. But she is a meticulous reporter of the of the daily life. So just prior to 1910, we still don't have the date yet. This important addition was added to this building. And this is the stage here, which is you know, from here, because this was the outside wall. And then they added on this day because they wanted this hall to you know, be able to function for all kinds of reasons with you know, with all sorts of activities, concerts and plays and stuff like that. There's a demand for it, and the agricultural stuff He was fine with it. We even talked about it in some of the early minutes and stuff about the halls we use for all of these other purposes and and the grounds to, but this is the addition here, you see, it's not cited yet. And so play so you look in your diaries, you know, from 1914 on She's always talking about all plays that went on once the stage is built to track and lots of fustian activity. And she's got the place here with the all the characters and who was playing them. And it's really great story these bad pictures with the have a look at them on the site. And you'll find a really interesting, here's some more like, like, I love this one, I don't even see it. This is the stage here. And look at all the lights that is shown along here when you do some kind of light rack. So this place is electrified, you know, this is during World War One, there were lots of plays here. Here's another play these guys dressed up as soldiers here and she documents a lot of the different plays. Here's a bill man, all the play the private secretary, and here are all the the actors and the characters, the players. So it's really waiting for somebody to go through and document a whole decade of amateur plays in this hall. And this is the one I like the best. And so every day, they have a playdate. And this he originally didn't have the Athenian This was built in 1987 I think it should go anywhere, that's fine. But anyway, the original theory was very bad, big enough for big productions. So what they would do, they'd have an intermission, they close the curtains, and then the locals would go up do these Tableau, which I just didn't know anything. I sort of heard about him, but it's where you just post like this was the Canadian or something or the grumpy salesman or something. This one's you know, block shards, wise Fatima really severed heads. Hey, so the people just pose there and you bring up the curtains and people don't know, who knows that we did this. I mean, it's while she was in a lot of costume parties here. This is one from ago 1914 This picture was taken here at the back. And what's cool about this shot, must be a Christmas time. So this this floral stuff is the here's the stove, which was they're located at the back of the hall. And you can see these gasoline lamps hanging from the ceiling. And of course, it's all wood paneling. It's as old wood paneling, cedar fir. And just the bottom panels were sugarcane. So it's a sugarcane material. And this is a great drawing. This is a craft fair and in the children's section and now all about 1917 to sewing little monsters running around this lady here, but look at the costuming seal the hats and then she really got had an eye for detail. These girls are teasing her here's my grandson trying to run around and ladies over here checking out all the stores you know they have sales, your past sales, like in were necessarily just a great drawing because this drawing right here so if you're dealing with a hall in those days or any society and this area you have you probably would belong if they let you to the imperial order the daughters of the British Empire, daughters the Empire and here are some of the leading you know, she's captured them here singing God save our King, Ganges and they held a lot of us, you know, like the craft sales. Cricket tournaments badminton was very big in here because the whole was big enough to have indoor badminton and outdoor. And I love hockey players, Canadian hockey players, because this is a very big advance here was a brass argument for women and girls out on the fields here. And of course then they come up here for tea and cakes and I can't show all the drawings she did you know someone should do it. Maybe I will do a presentation on herself because there's some incredible
Speaker 1 39:30
insight into the time. Yeah, here's the use of the field wasn't just for the agricultural shows for the whole community. Here's the sheds for all the animals for the fair to here is just you know, a game cricket or baseball or something. Badminton and of course you got to have your cigar when you playing badminton. Another big event here for years to come up in this diary is this flower show the Scots the Dover there are tons of flowers in there. On on the auspicious day, they come over and bring all the flowers from the garden. And this whole hall was decked with the flowers. And it was an annual suit with a man here for maybe a couple of decades. The flowers are in July, June, July, whatever so I was. And during the war, they had lots of events. Here, we have over one another images drawn from events in this hall. This was a whisk tournament. So everybody's dressed up, you guys are all smoking away, the pipe with bell dinner bell ringing and everybody's playing with the whisk drive to raise money to send things to the troops. And up here to dances were very common. She's not associated with certain people. He's just smoking away. They're all dancing, you know, respectfully, these are all kinds of teenagers. So the war ended or, you know, Thursday feedback, well, the ones that were killed or stayed over in England, or in Europe. And this is an awesome photo. There's a very detailed one on the back one of these panels up here. And this is a Shelly picnic wherever they were, but a giant family or an organization, visiting Saltspring in 1922, to enjoy the grounds and the facilities in the hall still don't have the siding and the new addition, you know, this, so half of it was sighted and Saltspring. And this is the chicken house. And that's the interior of the chicken house showing the great shot showing the display area. Now here's the shot probably in the mid 20s, showing the halls finally got all that siding on the addition and it was all painted a new color, this time, a brick red and dark brick red, sort of like Mary's installation there that color. And that's where he goes to the old times I interviewed when I moved to in the 80s recalled the hall being painted this brick, dark red, not the or the pinkie river. And so here we have the islands agricultural fruit Growers Association, so called the farmers Institute. Yep. Or the pharmacist to coexisted. And they'll work together and there are different organizations, and then eventually amalgamated. There's the 30th annual exhibition 1926. But it's interesting, it's still represents all these other islands, it's Cooper on here and then Kellyanne I can read them all but all the Gulf Islands are mentioned, you know, Tagle to this agricultural, this organization. But this is 26 the depression happens in the fall fair kind of starts to diminish a bit and begins to be not mentioned at all in your diaries, it suggests that you just start doing it. But other things happen in the hall. This is a place for political meaning meetings, you know, the stage here and here's a guy to say drown it out. And another guy ranting and raving, and she says I went to the fair the sly slight area, political ferret man Hall 250 people there but a ghastly so and so Manson spoke for two and a half hours. I'm not gonna be this person. There he is. And other documentations you know, this is when she was, you know, in her 20s You know, she's young woman, she's coming out thing. And all these are parties crazy dance fans from Victoria's he's going crazy notes coming out to trumpet and yeah. So there's a lot of wild parties in the 20s and the tableaus continued, you can't really see it this spring. So halfway through the play, now we run into it. So we're getting up into the third expressionistic picture here. So you all see what it says this is manholes here more on the on all of Ringo road to lock down which is still here when I came and the field community field with the sheds and stuff and look out the trees are starting to grow up and she has a building to like these furs you know, people don't realize trees actually do grow into huge things like very quick and the fall during the 30s began to use less because of the depression and yeah there's less interest in the full figure if you had less time to devote to you know volunteering and stuff like that. This shot I'm not sure when this was taken. But you can see that the huge wall of trees here you know, it's not good to have your house shaded every too many trees. The building I think began to deteriorate like you go up and look at the the nice high res image I have appeared you can just see this tumbled down stairs like everything's kind of rotting and stuff and this may have been the reason they added on this entrance. I'm not sure when they added on this end trips. But this was added on sometime, maybe in the in the 20s, or 30s. And it's in Congress in the building kind of overlaps, you know, these windows here probably replaced the third window. And then there's these funny buildings and who knows what they are, but they're gone. Anyway, that's how the building looks in the late 30s. And we're still being used for you know, odd things, but just not the full fare. When war broke out in 1939, as the programs and the chicken house school here, we're used by the 13th, platoon, Canadian Scott's for training and, you know, Saltspring, contingent, and other uses sports and stuff. And it's interesting, when the property was eventually purchased by the school district, this building was dismantled, and felony Bettis lived on Walker's hook Road, bought the building salvage materials, and then build this house, on Walker's Road, many of you know. And it's kind of interesting, maybe even kept the same color of the original building paint. So that's a little bit of a mammal baby stuff over it. And then so thank you 40. A lot of people that were influential here, and we're a wave of war. And there was a movement on the island, you know, this is funny history. So I don't, may not have all my facts straight. But there was a real desire to have a consolidated school, because there were numerous schools all over the island, you know, and Isabelle pointed all over the place. And so they wanted a centralized school, but you know, learn through the, I mean, this is a big change for this area. And this, this building here was built 9040 on land donated by Gavin Nolan. And this This hill is rocky part here, but there was no adjacent playing field, you know, associated with still owned by farmers Institute. So, between 1940 and nine, so yes, they have an interesting situation here, because a lot of the the members of the farmers Institute never at the war, the children, they were at a school and there lots of them, were playing on the ground, hold the empty shed. And there was sort of liability issues and there was concerned about it. And they were sort of the story I hear is that the farmers instruments pressured into selling this place to the school district because they didn't have the resources or the people to kind of maintain the hall, the chicken house and the grounds. So school district cap, we purchased at all that they still haven't really figured out the water access. And eventually the controversy comes up over the years. It's kind of an interesting change in the use of the place. So the building according to earnings, mirrored England told me that they painted over the original red with leftover paint from this building. So why not cover up the old and yeah, it was just a sign of the changing times and Jana, when it's sort of a shifting from this agricultural based community into a more integrated, you know, community with people you know, all means and moving here so, I don't know when this has to oh, this is taken. Yeah, this is a recent photo because you have all the fill in here and you can still see this sort of the the remnants of the the original grounds here, Mont Hall, hidden behind the woods overtaken that's it, RCA.
Speaker 1 49:24
So that's a very cursory view. But I hope you learned a little bit about the history of building and if there's any questions that we have to try and answer. So straightforward to move up pretty good. I don't know. Good question. After 1940 and he bought most
Unknown Speaker 49:54
things for the 1950s but it can't be shorter.
Speaker 3 49:58
But there was a I'm in the 1970s when the fall fast start again, it actually happened here and on the grounds because they hadn't built anything. They own the land on that
Unknown Speaker 50:15
was cool.
Speaker 4 50:17
That's cool. Okay. really had a lot to do with the buying of that property
Speaker 1 50:29
but it's one of the photographs that showed up blind Oh, yeah. Let's see which photo they were watching. It's all around like, Yeah, especially this property. Was at that butcher shop. Oh, actually, the first thing we need
Unknown Speaker 50:59
to do this one just kind of gives you the
Speaker 1 51:05
an overview. You know, I've overlaid it clearly stuff. Yeah, look at the huge orchards. And there's remnants of them out there. Go down connect a road everywhere even downtown Ganges here had good fortunes, you know, robbing saving for the best preserved fortunes in that time. It's really gem is your friend Scott orchard? And he was one of the Scott brothers and 12 under trees. They used to ship 20 times a cruise in a dehydrator. That's amazing.
Unknown Speaker 51:41
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 51:44
It's still there, isn't it? I mean, yeah, my, my son was and my son lives in that form of property that's been exploring around. So we're gonna go down into that.
Speaker 3 51:57
The properties described there, where they land grants are the purchases.
Speaker 1 52:04
Oh, these ones? Oh, these were the preemptions. So we haven't there was a system that was in place, I think up until the 1880s or 90s, where you could just go on to some sort of a piece of land and just occupy it. You know, these are 200 acres sections. And it's just occupy it. And then you had to approve it is a three step process. So you don't occupy it and prove it. And they give you a certificate of improvement in the clear to build a cabin. And then you could buy it outright for some nominal price. And a lot of people did, and then a lot of people didn't they just work at logon to sell again, another one was lots of things. And then it was found during the search commands. Bought demand. Yes. I was just wondering, I'm doing the Pentagon area. The original people there are Uppercross branches, right? Yeah. And then they sell to developers in Vancouver around 1900. And it's all gets promoted to establish stuff in the land. And again, so in British with this began sort of sales pitch. Yeah, the same thing happening around the same time here or not so much. I wasn't, I don't think Saltspring per se was promoted as much as the Okanagan. Like the Okanagan was definitely, you know, big real estate push. There was nobody saying kind of salting out and get land. I think it was done informally through word of mouth, you know, active promotion that I know. They're just coming out, and they were
Unknown Speaker 53:36
proud of the Hudson Bay account company.
Unknown Speaker 53:41
Called Nice.
Unknown Speaker 53:44
getting settled on the land.
Speaker 1 53:45
Yeah, they have the charter, like, way back, that they lost their charter at 59. So this was all after Hudson's Bay. This in fact, all these preemptions here, I don't think they would be going home.
Unknown Speaker 54:03
Early on these specific parcels were originally settled five lakhs from this preliminary. Yeah. What was the process by which they were taken over by white settlers? Well,
Speaker 1 54:17
they bought the land. Oh, yeah. It was all done. Yeah. The settlers and, and, you know, these settlers had a hard time towards Richardson because, nope, the proximity to the former native village, they were put in a very dangerous spot, because the native people here were not too happy about all the settlement. And, and we know there's just something there's records of this guy particularly stressed, but he hung in like he stayed here and he sold his land. I think it's also one of the Englishman who moved to the 1980s. So he's still around. Walter Isaacson, not sure what happened to him a lot of these. It's hard to trace the history to some of these folks.
Unknown Speaker 54:59
Chris Do you know what's the First Nations presence was a year round? Or was it seasonal, it
Unknown Speaker 55:05
was fishing. Well,
Speaker 1 55:07
after the 1860s, they weren't living here year round. Coming. This is where this myth of seasonal occupation comes from the original setup of the iodinated, because they didn't understand the indigenous land tenure, which is where people, you know, lived in houses in villages that had access to property, it's all over the place where they have the resources. So people are coming here all the time. Like I've interviewed elders who were born in like the teens, and the 1920s used to come Sophie all the time, you know, for clams or the hunts. They didn't think a thing about it, just you know, they're living over in Gimenez through rock and roll Island, or even, you know, down and filtered. And they would just come over here and hunt. And one of them told me it was when the store was built, he said, that's when it all went to hell. Which is the Malcom birth store, because that attracts so many sellers, like they're already starting to come after 1870, you know, particularly after eating at the CPR coming. My great grandfather worked on CPR in Vancouver, on the docks, huge influx of people Caldwell's from blue ocean and have been here since 1880s. Came with that influx CPR workers, they built the railway, and then they just started Wow, this is a nice place. Let's explore around it found in amazing places like Salt Spring Island. And they in the palm of their land from a black side that says
Unknown Speaker 56:43
you mentioned the battle that took place right at the beginning of your talk on this day.
Unknown Speaker 56:48
What was the crux like the biggest issue? Territorial was sort of
Speaker 1 56:55
that was about jurisdiction. That's what it was about. And this village, you know, it was notorious one on seven and it could run on because they didn't want to do treaties. You know, they were sovereigns. They didn't want to deal with colonizers. I mean, they, they, they they traded with them. People from the multi day often went to Furman to trade with Jonathan bag, who's an early settler of a store there. And he you know, had good relations with them. He may even have, you know, a multi white if you have a native wife, right? We're not sure who she was. So yeah, it was. So these people from multi, they were kind of like policemen, they would go out and take out like, like pagers, or no good naked vagrants. And there were a lot of them. Because after the gold rush, and under a lot of non Indigenous man traveling around, you're just trying to make a living whatever way they could have cited the law too. And so they often ran into conflict conflict with indigenous people, because they didn't understand the land tenure system. So say, you landed on some beach somewhere, you started digging the planet, and some guy comes in and kills you. That's native law. That sounds super hard. But it never happened. So but white people, 90 people began to trespass. And they were it was violence between them. And of course, the indigenous, you know, military, you know, they couldn't stand up. So there's empire, they won that first ballot, which I think is a very significant victory. And, but they couldn't win the war. And that's been true of indigenous people all over the place when she was fighters fighting for their rights and their, you know, recognition, but you can't fake the British Empire. That was sort of why they got rid of the sky. And not just them the whole village and then when the commissioners came over from Ottawa to lay up the Indian reserves, the kept bringing up that village all the time as an example of what would happen if you didn't explain to negotiate and native people of course, in the late 1900s Your populations were just dropping like a rock and so indigenous rights through Leifeng a blessing in anyone's mind any notice that this person and needed people had no political power whatsoever? It's different today.
Unknown Speaker 59:25
Yep. Timeline,
Speaker 1 59:31
the Hawaiians mostly settled on the south and the first Hawaiian came here in 1868. And settled the beaver point and then most of the other ones came after the San Juan's are taken over by the Americans on 87. So that was the genesis of the white community and white vineyards were mostly well they were all white men married Indigenous women, and a lot of them from the mainland from Portland, Fort Langley area they weren't have native people from here, it's kind of interesting. From, from what I've been able to tell, Stephanie
Unknown Speaker 1:00:07
just was, you've got that one photo of the band from
Unknown Speaker 1:00:12
the garage.
Unknown Speaker 1:00:14
And on the stage, it looks like there's some people dancing.
Unknown Speaker 1:00:19
And I was curious about that. I think we're just leaving
Unknown Speaker 1:00:25
the place doing so I
Speaker 4 1:00:27
think I would love to dance this kind of new people like that. That, uh
Speaker 1 1:00:33
oh, this guy. No, no, they're just hanging their kids, like, just, you know, hanging from the
Unknown Speaker 1:00:38
Yeah, they're not gonna
Speaker 1 1:00:41
dance music in March through it. But, you know, he's probably played some stripy tunes. But they were very positive effect that people, you know, they existed for as long as the board school existed.
Unknown Speaker 1:00:57
I like that story about the founder using the drums today that we're using band. Yeah, in a different way. Oh, yeah. I
Speaker 2 1:01:06
think there's a photo that you may have shown me once of the two Brian band that's on the other side of the hall that we're playing possibly for an opening anything like this. Okay,
Speaker 1 1:01:17
yeah, he was put around. Yes, the only one I know. It's a great shot, though. The woods up there on the hill. It's pretty forested area and then left all the trees because, you know, these are grits. They wanted all the plants and foliage around German building. And of course, this
Unknown Speaker 1:01:35
is what happens. So which side of the hole? Is that? Is it better?
Speaker 1 1:01:38
This is the front entrance right here. So that's where you walk into the hall today, roughly this little building here? I don't know if it's the original one. That's here. Yeah, still the original written entrance. So it's an interesting concept if you walk in right into the hall kaboom immunity?
Speaker 2 1:01:59
was initially that they put the stage on afterwards. Maybe? I don't know. I mean, it'd be interesting if that's the reason that that entrance was built so that people wouldn't be walking into a good point,
Speaker 1 1:02:09
you know, but I still don't know when I mean, the record somewhere.
Speaker 2 1:02:17
So I know we have time for a few more questions. Are there any other questions progress? I
Unknown Speaker 1:02:23
think you should apologize. The drawings are great. And you should add commentary. Yeah,
Speaker 1 1:02:33
it'd be quite a job. But I urge you all to look at. I urge you to look into that. And you'll you'll really enjoy it. Because persons insight into this area. The turn of the 20th century. It's really cool.
Unknown Speaker 1:02:49
I'm looking at this crap up here saying no. More. Oh, my. What is it?
Speaker 1 1:02:58
It's brass. Yeah. Yeah. And it used to be over here. And then when they built this presidium they moved it. So I don't know. But that
Speaker 4 1:03:16
but yeah, yes. The Japanese population is quite a mix over the years.
Speaker 1 1:03:23
Yeah, they might became. I mean, I'm not 1890s I think and just, you know, definitely 1900 They were coming in. They didn't have much to do the whole like, you notice there weren't a lot of non non white people in this stuff. Because there were there was some prejudice, for sure. They formed their own community did their own thing. As was common these days. Don't judge pass by the President.
Unknown Speaker 1:03:57
I don't remember if you mentioned that the chicken house was a school. Oh,
Unknown Speaker 1:04:02
wow. I should have mentioned that. Yeah. And
Unknown Speaker 1:04:06
I my uncle was a student there and he said when they first came into the school, they were just covered fleet.
Speaker 1 1:04:18
And that was probably the transition from when they were building this building and using they were using that and all I mean, this was used by the school even went out in my day. I remember lockers in here and stuff. classrooms in here. Yeah, yeah, that's right. You were both Yeah. Chicken a lot of people I met Ivan No. And all these guys went to school. A
Unknown Speaker 1:04:43
high school. It was a high school.
Speaker 1 1:04:47
And the point of this bar Bob Ross, he is actually has memories of this place going back over 80 years. You performed on the stage I believe. You want to tell us about it for the metaphor Oh, yeah, that's right. Yes, check out Rosalie's piece over here. Can you hear the real story?
Speaker 3 1:05:16
The audio piece is basically people's memories from the 1940s to about 2000.
Unknown Speaker 1:05:25
But so
Unknown Speaker 1:05:28
when you have a chance, come back and have the list and
Speaker 2 1:05:30
turn it on now in a moment and also turn on in the bathroom for the kids exhibit some of the interviews that Rosalie had went to the kids at Phoenix and they made animation so their interpretation of memories. That's kind of the turn of events. Are there any I think we could have take one more question if there's any.
Unknown Speaker 1:05:53
So hopefully you
Unknown Speaker 1:05:56
the coat widens,
Unknown Speaker 1:05:58
we're employee
Unknown Speaker 1:06:02
B Company Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 1:06:05
Oh, oh. They
Speaker 4 1:06:07
came here. Yes. Employees.
Unknown Speaker 1:06:12
And a owner of
Speaker 4 1:06:22
Mr. Sampson? No, I'm NK ng Oh, he's eight votes. He was a sneeze V. Man. Okay. Yeah. And oh, oh. My word first aid in the door. Or
Unknown Speaker 1:06:48
before like
Unknown Speaker 1:06:51
eating tea.
Unknown Speaker 1:06:54
He left
Speaker 4 1:06:57
to eight or nine. And
Unknown Speaker 1:07:05
yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 1:07:09
A furnace speak. Oh, yeah. No, there's no question. That's why the Hawaiians are here because of that some big company had a store in Honolulu. And that's really recruited people and yeah, first went down to Fort Vancouver, which was like the New York and this area up until 1846 When the Americans had been way and so we had to move up here if you're British and yeah, they were all employees so when they came to Saltspring they weren't working anymore
Speaker 4 1:07:43
no know they became their own farmers. But here Oh, yeah, no, no, no question. Yeah.
Speaker 2 1:07:53
So I hope you will join me in thanking Preston, thank you so much.
Speaker 2 1:08:09
Come back again on Saturday evening. 7pm doors will open for all the players to show you can see the other beat some of Chris's other talents, musical talents. I'm really looking forward to that show and we'll turn the lights on and some of the audio for the the audio pieces so you can stay a little bit and have a look around. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 1:08:29
Ray. Thanks.
Unknown Speaker 1:08:45
Those that want to see
