Places, Spaces, and Landscape

This plaque, 2nd of 71 bronze plaques on the Upper Causeway overlooking the Inner Harbour, commemorates the 1858 arrival of the first Black settlers to Vancouver’s Island. Erected by Victoria, August 1978. Read: Why They Came and the Pioneer Committee

In the 1850’s Victoria was Fort Victoria, established by the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1843. Image Credit: Parks Canada Agency / Agence Parcs Canada, Andrew Waldron, 2011.  There is also an historical landmark at 700 Government Street.

Alexander Park, dedicated 1980, honours Mary Louisa (nee Barnswell) and Frederick Alexander, children of pioneers James & Mary Barnswell and Charles & Nancy Alexander. Raised in Victoria, both became community advocates, married 50 years, and died in 1950 and 1966. At Bay St. & Oregon Ave, where the ship Oregon brought the Alexanders in 1858, the park has grassy areas and a playground.

This house was originally occupied by Black Pioneers Charlotte and John Dandridge from 1861 to 1871.  From 1864-1871 Sydnia Francis and Peter Lester of Lester and Gibbs actually owned the property and paid the taxes.  A plaque was unveiled at this location on February 9, 2014 through the efforts to the B.C. Black History Awareness Society and the current owners.  Victoria Heritage Foundation

Ross Bay Cemetery, “a superb example of a Victorian-era burial ground,” holds the graves of several Black Pioneers. The Old Cemeteries Society, with our Society, offers an annual “Black History” tour each February, plus other Sunday tours year-round. Their website also covers other Victoria cemeteries, including the Chinese, Jewish, and various church cemeteries.

Saanich Pioneer Museum, 7910 Polo Park Crescent, Saanichton, holds archives and artifacts from local pioneer families, including several Black Pioneers who farmed the Saanich Districts. Displays change regularly and include a simulated pioneer kitchen. Directions: the log cabin sits off the 7900 block of East Saanich Road, two blocks north of the Prairie Inn, just behind Thrifty Foods.

Leechtown is now a ghost town but in 1864, Samuel Booth was a prospector and it is noted in several sources as having found a sizeable gold nugget on the Leech River near Victoria that precipitated the 1864 gold rush.  He is also mentioned as having formed the Industry Company with three other black men, John Tyril, George Munro and George Dyer, to pan for gold on the Leech River near Sooke.  

A plaque there honours Emily Arabella (Emma) Stark, 1856-1890, daughter of Louis and Sylvia Stark. Appointed the first teacher at North Cedar School in 1874, she became the first Black teacher on Vancouver Island. After moving to Nanaimo, she owned a home at 331 Wesley Street. Emma’s story

Known as Stark’s Barn, this circa 1880 structure has little proven link to Louis Stark, though it’s a fine example of early agricultural buildings and area farming heritage. Nanaimo Community Archives manager Christine Meutzner notes a nearby Starks railway crossing may explain the name, saying it’s never been confirmed. Nanaimo Heritage Register. Article “If this old barn could talk“

John Sullivan Deas began canning salmon in 1871 for Edward Stamp, then built his own cannery in 1873 on Deas Island, briefly the leading canner on the Fraser River. The cannery closed in 1878, but Highway 99 now crosses the island near George Massey Tunnel, marked by a sign reading Deas Slough (or Deas Crossing). Read more about Deas

This statue was unveiled in 1988. Every year in the Vancouver area they hold the Harry Jerome International Track Classic, a two day international track meet. His story.

Image credit: English Wikipedia editor Travisl, originally uploaded as File:HarryJerome.jpg on 29 April 2006, Public Domain

In March 1912, Henry Houston Scott, wife Amy, and children Roy, Jesse, and Benola left Oklahoma for a seven-acre farm in Cloverdale, Surrey. Roy worked the lumber mill and CPR; Jesse farmed dairy, worked oil refining, and played baseball. Benola cared for the home until her 1971 death, joining family in unmarked graves at Surrey Centre Cemetery, marked in 2018.

In 2014, Vancouver named Pullman Porter Street, honouring sleeping car porters’ role in Black labour and railway history, near Main Street’s Union Station and Canadian National station. The nearby Pullman Porters’ Club backed onto Hogan’s Alley, home to many porters. The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters signed its first agreement with CP Rail in 1945, Canada’s first Black-organized union deal.

Born in New Orleans in 1929, Emery Barnes moved to Oregon at 12 and earned a Bachelor of Science at the University of Oregon. He played pro football for the Green Bay Packers before joining the BC Lions in 1957, later earning a Social Work degree at UBC. He served in BC’s Legislature and was honored with a Vancouver park. Read more

Arthur Clore arrived in Prince Rupert in 1910 and spent decades in BC’s northern interior, working as a logger, then a miner, placer miner, and prospector for gold and copper, Clore Mountain and Clore River are named after him. Newspaper coverage traces his story from a 1960 interview to a 1963 Chamber of Commerce feature and his 1968 obituary, when he died at 81.

The Huble Homestead Historic Site located 40km north of Prince George; housed in an historic house, their artifacts and website includes content about Giscome and McDame.

Buxton Heritage Museum Buxton is a rural community in southwestern Ontario, established in 1849 as a community for and by former African-American slaves who escaped to Canada.

Buton Heritage Museum, Ontario

The Canadian Register of Historic Places (CRHP) is Canada’s definitive source of information on more than 13,000 historic places.

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