Now What?

Riverview Psychiatric Hospital closed in 2012. But what is to be done with the 244 acres and 80 buildings overlooking Fraser River? What are we are going to do with the site of  Western Canada’s first botanical garden—an arboretum featuring over 1,800 mature trees from around the world—and incorporated natural meadows and watercourses? And the heritage buildings, five are massive brick wards - what's to become of them?

Although the entire Riverview site has Municipal and Provincial heritage registry, it has no protection. There was an effort in 2009 to recognize Riverview as a National Historic Site but the provincial government blocked that.

Two years before that, the BC Government had come  out with a plan to redevelop Riverview to accommodate 7,000 units or more of high-rise market housing, as well as social housing and residences for the mentally ill. Negative reaction was swift. The City of Coquitlam reaffirmed its position that the land should remain publicly owned and market housing taken off the table, and a petition calling for protection of Riverview quickly garnered over 13,000 signatures. The provincial government later withdrew its proposal.

The future of Riverview is up in the air. There are many groups concerned including a few First Nations groups who are laying claim to the land. As we have seen, the provincial government was interested in developing the site for more housing and citizens in the area are concerned about keeping the heritage aspects of Riverview intact.

The provincial government prepared its own Heritage Conservation Plan for Riverview which was to guide the future use of the property. This was to be completed in October of 2012 and after BC Housing would begin the long-term planning process for the site.

Citizens were wary of this though. Riverview supporters were concerned about the Province's swift decision-making timelines.  A series of open houses to gain heritage feedback were held in May on very short notice leaving people worried that everything was being rushed.

It isn't just a few people, a few crackpots if you will, who want to see Riverview preserved and protected. There is the Riverview Horticultural Centre Society and the Riverview Hospital Historical Society who support the Coquitlam Council and they are actively advocating on its behalf. Port Coquitlam, Coquitlam and Port Moody, the BC Union of Municipalities and the BC Chambers of Commerce have all passed resolutions calling for preservation of the site.

Fast forward to June of 2014. The City of Coqutilam announced its intention to reopen the hospital as a rehabilitation centre for the treatment of mental health and addictions. This is a move that has received strong public support. The preliminary plan for the Coquitlam Health Campus includes the re-establishment of a psychiatric hospital on the site, as well as a new acute care hospital and a dedicated public park.

The ownership of Riverview lands was transferred to BC Housing in February of 2015. In a January 2015 article in the Georgia Straight, BC Housing CEO, Shayne Ramsey, said he was optimistic they would be breaking ground in two years.

The plan is to continue to help those with mental illness, including the severely mentally ill. Other ideas include a mixed use area - residential and mental health care. The article is really good and I don't quote too much of it here. Just click the link and read it for yourself.

I want to thank National Trust Canada and the Georgia Straight for the above information. This concludes my series on Essondale/Riverview. There are other stories, numerous ones, concerning the asylum and I may tell you them another time.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill

I took these last three photos to show something. No matter how hard we try to destroy it, nature reclaims her territory. I wonder is this is kudzu?

With a Little Help

These shoes were discovered outside a house known as #flatland

Once the fire was out, it was time to take stock of the dead and the damage. More than 20 people were known to have died but there more than likely many more who perished in the flames. A mother and child were found the next day in a well where they had sought shelter only to be suffocated when the fire at the oxygen. 

One account states, "a man named Fawcett with a magnificent team of bays and a face like stone" drove directly into the heat of the fire where no one could have lived. Calcined horse and human bones mixed with the iron tires and ashes of a wagon were found on Hastings Street. I wonder why would the man do that? What was so important he sentenced himself, and his beautiful animals, to death?

In many places iron melted because the heat was so intense. The bell of St. James Church became a pool of bronze where the church had once stood. The deck timbers at the shore end of the the city wharf caught on fire. The survivors who were crowding the structure, tore them out of the ground and threw them into the water. 

Many of the survivors were taken aboard ships in the inlet while others stood in the water, waiting and praying the fire wouldn't reach there. Father Clinton held a nine-year-old boy in his arms as he stood in the water, watching the flames come closer. Then, as suddenly as it had started, the wind died down and the blaze burned out.

Men from the clearing gangs who were cut off at the Regina Hotel survived the inferno. They were penned in on all sides by fire, they went from room to room, soaked every blanket they find in water and swathed the hotel in them. A bucket brigade sluiced down the roof and other beat out every spark and blaze they found. Fortunately, there was a wide, unoccupied clearing around the hotel that helped. Once the summer hurricane was over, the Regina Hotel was the only standing building in all but the fringes of Vancouver.

The men gathered in the bar and drank beer in silence and gratitude. One them, an Irishman, crossed himself and prayed as he opened the first bottle.

Burned and injured people were attended to at the mill and Spratt's refinery. Burns were dressed with oil and flour and wrapped in leaves. An improvised morgue was set up at the north end of the False Creek Bridge and a refugee camp at the south. The people of Vancouver slept in the city's ashes.

The smoke from the burning city was seen in Port Moody and New Westminster. By 3 o'clock, unable to reach anyone in Vancouver on the single telephone line, the Royal City knew what had happened. The smoke overhead dropped bits of burned paper. As I have written before, there were squabbles between these towns and Vancouver but now was the time to put politics aside.

The New Westminster council voted $9,000 out of public funds to help Vancouver. Doctors and women collected medical supplies and bandages, food, clothing and household goods were donated. By 6 o'clock in the evening, a long relief caravan was inching its way along the Westminster Road to the stricken city. They passed crowds of refugees going to neighbouring communities where every door was opened to them.

By 3 am, lumber wagons were coming in from Fraser communities, nails and tools were unloaded

by the light of lanterns and the flickering of still burning tree stumps. By daylight, tents and building frames were standing. 

It took less than twenty minutes for Vancouver to burn to the ground. In twelve hours, the city was rising again. Thanks to a little help from our neighbours.

Thanks to the book Vancouver, From Milltown to Metropolis by Alan Morley for the above information.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

The CPR Progresses

When I left off on Friday, the CPR was making more moves to establish the terminus in Granville. Or Vancouver, as CPR president, William Van Horne, wanted to call the settlement. However, there were investors and speculators who still refused to acknowledge this fact. They were set on Port Moody becoming the terminus.

On October 11, five days after Premier Smithe and Van Horne had come to an agreement and only 45 days before it was formally approved, the Port Moody Gazette wrote:

"It is well known at Lloyds that Port Moody is safe in every respect, but that in stormy weather, none of the other places is safe for ships. How anyone in his senses could believe the extension would be made, or if made, could be of any use, appears very droll to us."

The Victoria Colonist put a reporter at Port Moody to interview newcomers and assure them there was no such place on the inlet named Vancouver. Technically, this was right until April of 1886.

It didn't matter to the Canadian Pacific Railway what the papers and investors were saying. They pushed the survey of the right-of-way to Granville through the fall with the legendary Major Rogers in charge.

At dusk at Christmas Day, Rogers, his nephew, a man named Mitchell and Otway Wilkie of New Westminster drove a stake on the eastern boundary of Granville in a heavy snowstorm. Then they returned to Christmas dinner in George Black's hotel in Hastings. Guests at the dinner included Sam Brighouse, the shoemaker-naturalist Jack Fannin and other notables.

The survey party, comprised of H.J. Cambie, Hugh Walkem, a man named Strong, Tom Smith, Paul Marmette and J. W. Stewart finished the Granville end of their work in March 1885. The CPR offices were in Maxie Michaud's Hastings Hotel. Maxie though had left the inlet, rumoured to have returned to Paris.

The speculators in Port Moody ridiculed Granville's pretensions to be the terminus but some were not overlooking the threat.

A group of landholders, including Jonathon A. Webster, William Johnson, Henry V. Edmonds, John Johnston, W. A. Duncan, D.Chisholm, H.M. Stramberg and J. C. Armstrong won an injunction from Chief Justice Siir Matthew Begbie, which prevented the CPR crossing their property and the case went to the B.C. Supreme Courts.

While the litigation dragged on, the main line of the railway was progressing. The Marquis of Lansdowne was the first governor-general to cross Canada by land. At Revelstoke, he rode horseback across the 47-mile gap but on his return, two weeks later, he only had to ride 28 miles. On November 7, the last spike was driven at Craigellachie. A few days later Robert Mee was at the throttle of the first transcontinental train (a freight) to arrive in Port Moody.

Thanks to Vancouver, From Milltown to Metropolis by Alan Morley.

I hope you find the beauty around you.