You won't know where you're going until you've found out where you've been...
Victoria has a wealth of fascinating street names. None of the boring First Streets, Second Streets, Third Streets of other cities. But where did the names come from? It's often hard to remember that they were originally attached to people.
Now Danda Humphreys introduces us to these people; to the Hudson's Bay Company traders and settlers who came here in the 1840s when Fort Victoria was the only vestige of civilization, to the colonial judges and administrators who came over from England and created a replica of their homeland, and to the merchants and magnates who came to make money off the gold rush and stayed to develop the city and the Island.
Many of the names - Douglas, Blanshard, Helmcken - are familiar from the history books, but what about
• the Prince who became a Princess?
• the British baroness who never visited the city but gave it a church?
• the photographer whose pictures seem strangely modern?
• the bookseller who founded a department store chain?
Danda introduces us to these people and their streets in over 50 vignettes of early Victoria.
•maps show where the streets are located
• archival and recent photos show the sites then and now
• locales covered range from Swartz Bay to Sooke
When she's not being Anne Hathaway (at the Olde England Inn's Anne Hathaway's Cottage) or Emily Carr (at Emily Carr House), Danda Humphreys is a heritage tour guide, storyteller, researcher, actress, public speaker, writer, and editor. Her column on the history of Victoria street names appears in the Victoria Times Colonist Islander section every Sunday. Her column is read by 97% of Sunday readers.