2019 Heritage Legacy Fund Projects

Heritage Awareness

People and Place - Ladysmith Neighbourhoods

Ladysmith & District Historical Society

The "People" and "Place" - Ladysmith Neighbourhoods project through research, and photo-documentation of pre-1954 Ladysmith town site homes will confirm location and existence of residences in the original Dunsmuir town site. Information found in archival and current photographs, Ladysmith Archives - Building and Family Information files will be compiled into neighbourhood resource files to be kept in the Ladysmith Archives and two education resource kits to be used in local schools, libraries, seniors homes, and the Ladysmith Museum.

The Original Little Sister's at 1221 Thurlow

Heritage Vancouver

To create an online resource/exhibit to communicate the significance of 1221 Thurlow -the original location of the Little Sister’s Bookstore- in Vancouver, and the attitudes and emotions around it as a social and cultural asset for Vancouver. Anchoring this will be a short 12 min film by accomplished filmmaker Aerlyn Weissman exploring the identities of this place for community members. She directed the 2002 documentary “LittleSister’s vs Big Brother” chronicling the 20-year battle between the Little Sister’s bookstore and Canada Customs. This exhibit is a resource to interpret this significant LGBTQ place. It will communicate the significance of 1221 Thurlow, the connection of its history with the present and in relation to the West End. Exhibit materials would include building information and records, photographs, Aerlyn’s short film, and interviews. The final product will be used as material for engagement at outreach events.

Digital Interactive Heritage Walking Tours of Abbotsford

Heritage Abbotsford Society

The aim of this project is to commission On This Spot Enterprises (OTS) to create two free-to-use app-based historic walking tours examining Abbotsford’s rich industrial, immigration, railway, and community history. The app's concept is based on its unique interactive then-and-now photographs of public spaces corresponding with each tour stop, paired with 300-600 word write-ups examining aspects of local history in an engaging way. The app will also include a number of stand-alone then-and-now photographs spread across the community for further self-guided audience engagement and exploration. The scope of the work for OTS includes: Coming to Abbotsford to conduct then-and-now photography, working with Heritage Abbotsford Society to research and write the tour content, inputting tour data and launching the app, and promoting awareness of the app through social media and press initiatives. Once launched, the Abbotsford tours will remain in the app and the OTS website indefinitely.

Heritage Conservation

Huble House Repainting Project

Huble Homestead/Giscome Portage Heritage Society, Prince George

Huble Homestead/Giscome Portage Heritage Society is a registered not-for-profit charity that has managed the Huble Homestead Historic Site north of Prince George since 2000. Huble Homestead is home to the oldest building in its original location in our region: the Huble house, a two-storey, squared-log structure built in 1912. The Regional District of Fraser Fort George owns the historic site and the regional park within which it is located, and in April 2000 officially designated the Huble house as a heritage property. The Huble house was restored in the late 1980s, and last repainted in 2007; time and the elements have taken their toll on the protective coating on the historic timbers. As stewards of the house and the surrounding buildings, the Society plans to engage a professional to repaint the structure, in order to protect and maintain the house and its historic materials.

Refurbish/ Painting Heritage Building

Nicola Valley Heritage Society

The Nicola Valley Heritage Society is charged with protecting and keeping this valuable heritage site in good condition. Currently, it has been 4 years since the building were last painted. Paint is chipped and needs attention.

Centennial Brick Repair

Centennial United Church, Victoria

A large crack in the church's brickwork has appeared and repair needs to be made.

Old Train Station Roof

Smithers Community Services Association

SCSA is a non-profit organization that provides an array of much needed social services to the community, out of the old train station, a recognized heritage building located at the foot of Main Street in Smithers. The building is in dire need of a new roof. Two years ago it suffered significant ice damming which caused extensive water damage throughout the upper and lower floors. The likelihood of further damage and the costs of repairs increases each year the work is delayed. It is imperative to have the repairs completed quickly, in part to preserve this landmark property and also because we derive vital operating income from renting space in the building.

Metchosin School Museum

Metchosin Museum Society

The project involves improvements to drainage exterior to the School Museum as well as the installation of a concrete seal over the crawl space, installation of other seals and skirts, repairs to floor joists and installation of vapour barriers insulation under the floor. All of these actions are required to reduce water seepage and humidity in the crawl space to prevent further rotting of wooden beams and floor joists. This preventative measure is essential to the long term preservation of the Metchosin School Museum.

MV Tarahne Deck Re-Surfacing

Atlin Historical Society

Repair and refinish the outside decks of MV Tarahne. The decks were last resurfaced in 1982 and with small tears and nicks and lifting of a few seams, water has begun to leak into the interior causing concern of possible wood rot. As part of our commitment to preserve the Tarahne, it is necessary to repair and apply a new coating to her exterior decks.

O'Keefe Mansion Attic Restoration

O'Keefe Ranch & Interior Heritage Society, Vernon

The O'Keefe Mansion was the main residence of the O'Keefe family from 1886 - 1977, and is currently staged as it would have been around the turn of the 20th century. Approximately 20,000 visitors take part in a guided tour of the mansion each season. Currently, guests are not able to access the mansion's attic - the original servant's quarters. Ranch management has worked with an environmental health and safety company to determine if the attic (being 133 years old) contains asbestos and is the home of resident bats. It is also accessible to pests such as mice and birds. This does not impact the air quality of the rest of the building, and we have been cleared to continue giving tours and working in other spaces. As per the WorkSafe BC regulations regarding unsafe building materials, staff do not enter the space.
Preservation of the Ranch's historic collection as well as presentation of the Ranch's history is key to our mandate. With that in mind, this project entails:
1. To conduct the proper abatement to have the mansion attic cleaned;
2. To seal the attic in order to prevent access for bats and other pests
3. To install bat roosting boxes next to the mansion to provide an alternative home for them
4. Re-lay many of the floorboards in the attic when the abatement is complete, because they will be removed in order to remove all the asbestos

Conservation of the Kulleet Bay Long House

Stz'uminus First Nation, Ladysmith

This project will support the preservation, rehabilitation and the restoration of our heritage long house. This unique facility reflects the traditions and culture of Coast Salish communities. This structure is unparalleled in the world and our aim is to preserve the continued use of it by the community for another 60-100 years. The proposed strategy is to respect the character and function while improving its life/safety performance.

BC Provincial Police Station Windows Project

Oliver & District Heritage Society

This project aims to preserve Oliver’s first police station, a 94 year-old municipally-designated heritage building by stabilizing its windows while maintaining the original wood and glass to the fullest extent possible. The building is one of the three oldest buildings in town and houses the Museum and a collection of local artifacts. Currently both the windows and storm windows are in various states of disrepair and allow significant and noticeable drafts to enter the building. Damage to the paint, frames and putty allows moisture build-up and makes the aging wood and glass vulnerable to weather damage. This also makes the HVAC system inefficient, decreases staff and visitor comfort, and exposes collections stored inside to regular fluctuations in temperature and humidity.

Indigenous Partnerships

FraserFEST 2019 Indigenous Partnerships

Rivershed Society of BC, Port Moody

FraserFEST features 44 unique educational activities, including community dinners, raft trips in the Fraser Canyon, guided paddling on the Lower Fraser River, guided cycling trips, educational eco-tours and a Water Forum. Participants learn about the Fraser's history, culture, the issues threatening its health, solutions for change, and how to take action for a healthy watershed. FraserFEST works with leaders, decision-makers and members of the public, challenging them to take the Watershed Challenge and commit to Watershed CPR (conservation, protection and restoration). By reaching these decision-makers (e.g. individuals, students, First Nation leaders & elders, businesses, community organizations, and municipalities) we help inspire an ethic of care for salmon, the Fraser River and its 34 riversheds. By working with First Nation communities along the Fraser River, we encourage cross cultural learning, provide a platform for First Nation leaders & elders, and communicate the cultural and community importance of salmon and healthy watersheds. By understanding that our actions impact salmon and watersheds daily, we will be better-positioned to lower our impact on salmon and watershed ecosystems, while increasing watershed and community well-being.

Taking Reconcili-Action: Student Exemplars - on working with Indigenous Elders in your community

BC Heritage Fairs Society

This project focuses on BC Heritage Fairs Alumni students working with WSANEC Elders over the course of the 2019 Provincial Heritage Fair to create curriculum material on working with Elders. The main outcome of the project will be to create online resources in the form of exemplars to provide inspiration and guidance for teachers and students to follow when doing Heritage Fair or other subject area projects. Other goals include to highlight the reconciliatory work being done in the Victoria and Saanich community, and to promote the building of relationships between Indigenous/non-Indigenous peoples and students. Our Indigenous advisor for this project is Tsartlip Elder STOLȻEȽ Dr. John Elliott.

Toward Renewal & Reconciliation with the Snuneymuxw Outdoor Exhibit

Gabriola Historical Museum Society

In building on our past experience and seeking to embrace the spirit of the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP); in early 2016, the Gabriola Historical Museum Society (GHMS) began actively seeking further dialogue with the Snuneymuxw First Nation to explore and reconcile concerns about the museum’s inclusion of Indigenous artifacts and replicas, and identify meaningful ways we can work together. We recognized past support and dialogue doesn’t necessarily mean an unchanging landscape as local Indigenous People walk the path of healing and reconciliation. Since then, our relationship has grown closer and stronger. Our goal through this project is to formally collaborate on developing GHMS’s outdoor Snuneymuxw cultural exhibit. It will consist of a scale-sized traditional village diorama, relocation of replica petroglyphs and interpretive signage.

Inter-Community Reconciliation Murals @ The Harry Stevens Federal Building

Vancouver Mural Festival

The Vancouver Mural Festival is partnering with Coast Salish and South Asian artists and curators as well as non-profits like the Urban Native Youth Association, Squamish Youth Centre and the Indian Summer Festival in order to produce a site-specific mural project featuring historical storytelling about the Komagata Maru Incident. We will be focusing on the account of how Coast Salish people in canoes brought food and supplies to the stranded passengers while detained in the harbour for 62 days. Historical accounts of this incident will be featured in Punjabi, Squamish and English languages and will transform the exterior walls of the Harry Stevens Federal building with highly visible murals to spark awareness and promotion of the values of reconciliation with indigenous and South Asian communities.

Dialogue and Reconciliation in Sechelt

District of Sechelt

This a reconciliation project developed through dialogue between staff of the District of Sechelt and staff of the shíshálh Nation. The goal is to decolonize the District of Sechelt’s heritage interpretive signs that are located in Sechelt’s downtown and along the waterfront walkways in the community. This series of interpretive signs were created to celebrate the legacy of “early explorers” and, not surprisingly, reflect an exclusively settler narrative. We would like to replace these signs with something more culturally appropriate in order to redress the erasure of shíshálh culture and history from our public signage. One of the signs is located in
front of a mural depicting shíshálh fishermen. For this particular location we will both replace the sign and conserve the mural. We will do this work in collaboration with, and with direction from, shíshálh Nation staff and elders.

New Report : Seismic Risk for Heritage Buildings

Meet Our Heritage Legacy Fund 2022 Recipients

Conference | Victoria Nov 2 -4, 2022