If New Westminster has a theme, it’s survival, says long-time resident Jim Wolf, who has written two books about the city’s history.
After decades of languishing and suffering the consequences of bad decision-making, though, he believes New West is in the midst of another renaissance.
The most dramatic example is his own neighbourhood, Queen’s Park, where many of the gracious homes built more than 100 years ago have recently been restored.
We’ll end our walk in Queen’s Park. But we begin by the river and the railway, which have shaped the city’s history and its character.
“I love the deep, rich clay colour of the Fraser,” says Jim. “That is the province of British Columbia flowing by in front of your eyes.”
Col. Richard Moody arrived here in 1858 with his wife and four children on his first trip up the Fraser and proclaimed it a perfect site to set up a colonial government, a British bastion against a possible annexation by the United States in the early days of the Gold Rush.
The city was built on the site of an abandoned Kwantlen native village, which had existed for millennia before smallpox — brought from Europe by the early traders and explorers — killed a third of the Kwantlen people. The survivors moved further upriver in the hope they would be safer there.
Although it’s still called the Royal City, the regal days lasted only until 1866 when the British government forced its amalgamation with the Vancouver Island colony and proclaimed Victoria the capital.
Construction of the railway saved the city, which more than doubled in size by 1892. There was a bustling Chinatown — the subject of Yi Fao, which Jim co-wrote with Patricia Owen — and a Japantown.
But almost everything except the Queens Hotel and the Burr Block was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1898. The morning after, inhabitants began salvaging bricks for the rebuilding, which was completed within two years.
New West’s long decline began in the 1940s, and today the waterfront is testament to a mishmash of failed dreams and new hope.
There’s the rusting hulk of a little-used 1960s parkade, which was the city’s failed attempt to mitigate the disastrous decision to allow Eaton’s department store to abandon the historic retail core on Columbia Street and move uptown to 6th Street and 6th Avenue.
There’s the waterfront village of condos at the Quay alongside a privately owned market modelled on Granville Island. Both date to the 1980s when SkyTrain was to be the catalyst for rebirth.
That promise has never been met because of the railway tracks, raised SkyTrain tracks and the busy truck route along Front Street that make access difficult over vehicle bridges that buses can’t easily negotiate and via snaking, steep stairs up to pedestrian bridges.
The market failed. New owners renovated and renamed it River Market; only within the past few months have shops begun reopening in it.
From the top of the parkade, we look down at the construction of the $50-million Westminster Pier Park, which stretches from the Quay all the way to the Pattullo Bridge. You can see the plans at http://tiny.cc/mz8nl.
It is the missing link in the Central Valley Parkway that runs all the way to Vancouver and it will finally re-establish the historic connection.
We leave the river, passing the original farmers’ market, built at the foot of the ferry dock. Similar to Seattle’s Pike Market, it was converted in 1928 into the Army & Navy Department Store.
We pause on our uphill climb at Holy Trinity Anglican Church whose stone walls were erected in 1870. The stained glass was fabricated in 1890 at James Bloomfield’s nearby factory.
We stop again at the United Pentecostal Church, once St. Andrew’s Presbyterian, which retains the original 1892 organ. Next door is the city’s oldest building, the original 1862 church.
Crossing Royal Avenue, we enter New West’s Nob Hill — the leafy, lovely Queen’s Park neighbourhood.
The best way to see it is during the annual heritage home tour (the oldest such tour in Canada) held every May. Next best is walking with Jim or with a copy of his book, Royal City: A Photographic History of New Westminster, in your hand.
It’s perfect for pedestrians with wide sidewalks, manicured boulevards and funny little streets that have Metro’s original laneway houses. The many porches and open vistas through the gardens to the homes make walkers feel welcome.
Among the few businesses is Queen’s Park Meat Market, established in 1915. There’s sawdust on the floor, original meat hooks and scales. Owner Peter Corbeil, who bought the shop 12 ½ years ago, says it’s so well-known that 90 per cent of his customers come from outside the neighbourhood.
Until recently, Jim says Queen’s Park homes were frequently passed from generation to generation, often falling deeper into disrepair even as the community maintained its British outpost demographic and attitude. But in the last decade, they’ve been sold, restored and the new owners more accurately reflect Metro’s diversity.
As proof, we head for a well-deserved lunch at Jim’s favourite restaurant, Tamarind Hill, a wonderful Malaysian restaurant and the best curry laksa I’ve had outside of Kuching, Malaysia.
Within its cosy, dark-wooded interior, we retreated from the bustle of modern downtown back to the British colonial period, albeit on the other side of the world.
To see an interactive map of New Westminster, go to http://www.newwestcity.ca/residents/city_maps/terms_of_use.php
See a bike route map at http://www.newwestcity.ca/database/rte/NW_BikeMapFeb28(2).pdf
For more about New Westminster's history, go to http://www.nwheritage.org/
Read more about the Westminster Pier Park project at http://www.newwestcity.ca/business/planning_development/projects_on_the_go/articles213.php
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