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                                    WOMEN'S HISTORY NETWORK OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

                                                                      WHN/BC

British Columbia Heritage Sites Relating to Women's History    

Bicyclers in Stanley Park, Vancouver. Courtesy City of Vancouver Archives, Major Matthews Collection, Add.MSS 54, SGN 119.

Upcoming Heritage Events                 

Canadian Heritage Sites 

"Canadian Women's History, Be Proud of It, Be Part of It", Parks Canada's website features sites designated because of associations with women and women's history in Canada.                                                                                                                                   

B.C. Heritage Sites

Victoria

St. Ann's Academy, Victoria, B.C. 835 Humbolt Street, Victoria, B.C. 250 953 8828

St. Ann's Academy is designated as a National Historic Site.  Although the building dates from 1871, the Academy had its start in 1858 when four sisters of St. Ann and a lay helper arrived at this site in Victoria from Quebec.  St. Ann's Academy was a Catholic girls' school (primary aged boys were also educated there). As the Provincial House of the Sisters operations in the West, St. Ann's Academy also housed a convent, a Novitiate for new Sisters of St. Ann and  administrative offices for the Sisters educational, nursing, and missionary work throughout British Columbia, Alaska, and the Yukon till 1973 when it was closed.  Today the building houses provincial government offices, an interpretive centre and some of the building and six acres of grounds, including the Chapel, parlours and auditorium, are available to rent for events.

Emily Carr House, Victoria, B.C. 207 Government St., Victoria, B. C. Canada V8V 2K8 (250) 383-5843

This 1860's house where artist Emily Carr was born in 1871 is now open to the public May to October, and features "A People's Gallery"--- see the website for dates & details.

Canadian Women's Army Corps  Plaque, Esquimalt, B.C.

February 20, 2000, a plaque was placed at the C.F.B. Esquimalt Military and Naval Museum, Victoria, B.C. commemorating the C.W.A.C.'s contributions to the Canadian forces during World War II.  The first C.W.A.C. office opened August 29, 1941 on the Esquimalt Base, near Victoria, B.C.

Vancouver

New!Joy Kagawa's House, South Vancouver, B.C.

Historic Joy Kogawa website: www.kogawahouse.com

Hycroft House, Vancouver, B.C.

Since 1962, Hycroft has been home to the  University Women's Club of Vancouver, whose members spent five hard years restoring the house.  Since they weren't then allowed to hold mortgages in their own names, the property had to be paid for in full by the Club.  The Vancouver Historical Society gave the Club an award of merit in 1974 for their work, and in 1994, the Club received a Heritage Award from the City of Vancouver.

Pauline Johnson Monument, Stanley Park, Vancouver, B.C. (at Ferguson Point)

A subscription campaign by the Women's Canadian Club of Vancouver, B.C., for a monument at her Stanley Park gravesite began soon after her 1913 death, although the monument with a small stone fountain and pool wasn't built until 1922.

    Pauline Johnson Memorial, Stanley Park, Vancouver.     Postcard, unused. Private collection.

Grace Ceperley Plaque, Stanley Park, Vancouver, B.C. (Ceperley Meadows)

 In her will, Grace Ceperley left her Burnaby B.C. house, Fairacres,  (now the Burnaby Art Gallery) to be sold and the proceeds were to build the first children's playground in Stanley Park. This was done in 1922, and a plaque was placed in the area in 1924.

Women's history tours in Stanley Park with Jolene Cumming!

          Sponsored by the Stanley Park Ecology Society

         Check the Stanley Park Ecology Society website for future tours. 

The Nurses   These eleven feet high figures, dressed in World War I uniforms, once landmarks in Vancouver's downtown skyscape,  stood on the Georgia Street Medical-Dental Building, which opened in 1929.   When the building was demolished in 1989, the nurses were rescued and mounted on the fifth floor of the University of British Columbia's Technology Enterprise facility III.  Replicas of the statues can be see on the Cathedral Place office tower, the post-modern style building that replaced the art-deco Medical Dental Building in downtown Vancouver.  The British Columbia History of Nursing Group has information on these and other Vancouver Nursing Monuments .. 

Note: The B.C. nursing group sells a series of notecards showing monument pictures to raise money towards a permanent nursing archives for the province.

The British Columbia History of Nursing Group: http://www.bcnursinghistory.ca

West Vancouver

Gertrude Lawson House is now the West Vancouver Museum & Archives.

 Gertrude Lawson designed and built her own home in 1939. A teacher and artist, she was the daughter of John and Christina Lawson, pioneers of West Vancouver.

West Vancouver Museum blog

2008  Old Cemeteries Society Tours, Victoria, B.C.  Call for information on future tours.

 #15 - 1594 Fairfield Road, Box 50004, Victoria, BC V8S 1G1  Phone: (250) 598-8870

Please contact WHN/BC with information on heritage sites, plaques, events, etc. in your area relating to women's history in British Columbia.

[Updated March 2010]

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