Victoria’s Lost Industries – Part 3

Image Credit: Courtesy of Elite Home Vacations (view today from historic downtown Victoria out to the James Bay neighborhood (including the Inn at Laurel Point, the Shoal Point condos and the Ogden Point Cruiseship Terminal), and beyond to the Sooke Peninusula foothills in the distance). 

Reprinted with the kind permission of John Adams, a local author, historian, and James Bay resident; this article originally appeared in its entirety in the July/August issue of Douglas Magazine).

Inner Harbour Mudflats

The Pendray family is synonymous with the rise of Victoria’s industries. William Pendray opened his soap factory in 1875 along the northern shoreline of the James Bay mudflats (where Humbolt Street is today). His White Swan brand and "electric" soap were big sellers and no one paid much attences to the soap lees that sometimes spread out into the harbour. Plans to fill in the mudflats prompted Pendray to relocate the works to Laurel Point where he also began manufacturing paint, shellac, and varnish. A sign on the roof of the factory proclaimed to all arriving by steamer that this was the home of the British American Paint Company (BAPCO). Oil drums lined the shoreline and pipes spewed coloured liquids of dubious content into the water until the plant was teaken over by Canadian Industries Limited and moved to Surrey, B.C. in 1974. The Inn at Laurel Point graces the site today.
 

Breweries and More

Victoria’s hardworking factory workers were able to slake their thirst on beer brewed in the city’s numerous breweries. The first one started up in 1858 and, in 1870, was bought out by Joseph Loewen and Emil Erb, two enterprising Germans who named the business the Victoria Phoenix Brewing Company. By 1891, they boasted an annual production of 120,000 gallons that supplied customers throughout British Columbia and along the coast. The impressive brewery building stood on the 1900-block of Government Street, until the 1980s when it was demolished by Labatt’s. Other breweries came and went — the Lion, Bavarian, Silver Spring — but eventually all closed and Victorians could only drink beer brought in from elsewhere.

Many other factories and workshops opened and closed in Victoria during the 1800s and early 1900s. Residents could purchase vinegar, boots, shoes, clothing, candles, roofing felt, peanut butter, rice, flour, industrial chemicals, dynamite, dairy products of all descriptions, and even cigars and opium made or processed right in their own city.

Vancouver: The Young Upstart

Victoria was the undisputed industrial powerhouse of the province until Vancouver sprang up as the western terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1886. Some in the capital city were smug about the poential for the mainland city but soon realized Vancouver’s superb harbour and new rail connections to the rest of North America gave it a distinct advantage.

Still, Victoria remained bigger until about 1898. Unwilling to admit defeat, the city’s plutocrats devised many schemes to bring prosperity back to Victoria. One such plan in 1897 was prepared by architect Thomas Sorby and called for filling in the shoreline to provide land for new factories, warehouses, railyards, and deepsea docks. Hopes were high in the early 1900s when the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway was seriously proposing to bridge Seymour Narrows and bring a transcontinental railway line to Vancouver Island with Victoria as its terminus.

The breakwater and industrial development at Ogden Point were tied to that vision, also spurred by the completion of the Panama Canal in 1914. However, the railway dream faded and the Panama Canal never quite brought the shippiing to Victoria that the businessmen had hoped for. A grain elevator was built in the 1920s but was never a success. A rail barge slip, a textile factory, fish packing plant, and a few other factories hardly achieved the site’s full potential. Lumber was shipped from Ogden Point for many years, but eventually the freighters no longer stopped there. By the end of the 20th century, Ogden Point was a barren parking lot until cruise ship companies discovered it.

Victoria’s industrial past may surprise young people or those who are new to the city. Though a few former industrial sites lie vacant, many have already been redeveloped or are in the planning stages, typically for townhouses, office and commercial space, parks and walkways. However, one exciting phenomenon is seeing some industries being revived in Victoria. Craft breweries, organic bakeries, custom furniture makers, and specialty woodworks and ironworks are among the businesses that now attract considerable attention. They are on a much smaller scale than their predecessors but, nevertheless are continuing a proud tradition of manufacturing in the capital city that extends back to its earliest days.