The history of some cities is filled with stories of flooding, hurricanes or tornadoes, brush fires, or extreme cold and snowfalls. A major part of the Royal City’s history concerns fire or, more accurately, recovery from fires. The fire on Columbia Street last week added another chapter.
The block where the fire occurred, the 600 block of Columbia Street, on the even-numbered side of the road, was a wonderful intact set of buildings with the Dominion Trust Block at Sixth Street, followed by the Cunningham/Chess, Hamley, and E.L. Lewis buildings.
This block was one that we frequently used on walking tours as the buildings were all post-1898 Great Fire structures – two from 1899, one 1904 and the other 1907. The two in the middle had heritage information signs on them (a BIA/city project of years past), the Dominion Trust at Sixth was the site of an iconic 1898 loss, then the majestic (even in ruins) Douglas Elliott building, and the other end known for decades to generations as a shoe store. As of last week, this has all changed. Standing across Columbia on the McKenzie Street corner, you had a great view of period architecture. You could imagine what the older city was like and “see” the streetscape from the ‘10s and ‘20s. Yes, there are other heritage structures on the street, but it just won’t be the same without the shop fronts in that block, especially Copp’s shoe store.
A few years ago, a group of college students entered the Copp’s store on a walking tour. They walked in and just stood and stared – they had stepped into the past, and it was a great experience both for them and for others watching their reaction. Amazing stuff, now lost to all but our memories and photos. New Westminster has had many large fires, the largest by far being the one in 1898, but there were many others, both before and after that important date. Without listing all the others, it is important to recognize the record of other major fires downtown after 1898. Just as the latest fire has triggered memories for many people, so too did those others. The losses in all the fires were enormous to those involved and often pivotal to their lives.
Some examples from a very long city list include the Central Hotel 1916; Reliable Furniture 1930s; Swanrite building/CKNW 1954; Marshall Wells 1954; the Premier Hotel 1955; Collister’s Department Store circa 1959, Metropolitan Store 1968; Darby/Dunsmuir Hotel 1982; and the Kresge’s building 1990s.
An interesting but eerie fact is that major fires have occurred on three corners of one intersection. The McKenzie at Columbia intersection, which was the focal point of this latest fire, was also the location of the previously mentioned Collister’s store (with loss of life) and Metropolitan building (with loss of Charlie Stride photo collection) fires. In this case, 75 per cent is more than enough.
