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Point Ellice House is located in the Rock Bay neighbourhood of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Point Ellice House was designated a National Historic Site in 1966 and became a Provincial Historic Site in 1975. The house is also listed on the City of Victoria's heritage registry. [1] The site is under the management of the Métis Nation of British Columbia. [2]
Positioned overlooking Selkirk Water/Gorge Waterway, Point Ellice House is among the oldest homes in Victoria and was constructed between 1861 and 1862 for Catherine (née Work) Wallace and Charles Wentworth Wallace. To build the home, Catherine's father, John Work, sold his daughter and son-in-law a two-acre parcel from his estate for $100. Charles was invested in many business ventures in Victoria and British Columbia. By 1866 he was bankrupt, forcing the family to depart from Point Ellice House to pay off debts [3]
The O'Reilly family lived at Point Ellice House from 1867 until 1975 when the remaining O'Reilly's sold the historic house, the land, and the collection of household ephemera to the province of British Columbia.
Peter O'Reilly and his wife Caroline O'Reilly (née Trutch) moved into Point Ellice House December, 1867 with their infant son, Francis (Frank) Joseph O'Reilly. Weeks later, their eldest daughter, Charlotte Kathleen O'Reilly, would be born. The couple would have two more children, both born at Point Ellice House: Arthur John "Jack" O'Reilly (born in 1873) and Mary Augusta O'Reilly (born 1869). [4]
Peter's employment as Gold Commissioner, Judge, and Indian Reserve Commissioner gave him the financial freedom to make extensive changes to the house, including the addition of an entire wing in the late 19th century. Diaries and letters sent between family members discuss house renovations and the ongoing work of maintaining kitchen and flower gardens. [5]
Point Ellice House was purchased from the O'Reilly family in 1975 by the Province of British Columbia. In 2002, the province sought to outsource the sites management to a non-profit society. A willing non-profit was not found until 2004 when the Capital Mental Health Association agreed to manage the site. In 2009, the Point Ellice House Preservation Society took over operations but was replaced by the Vancouver Island Local History Society in 2019. The VILHS ran the site until 2023 but they were unable to continue, citing a lack of sustainable funding from the provincial government. [6] The Forager Foundation acted as an interim operator of the site [7] until 2024, when it was announced that the Métis Nation of British Columbia would be taking over the sites management. The Métis Nation is the 5th non-profit to operate Point Ellice House since 2002.
Architects John Wright and George Sanders chose an Italianate Villa-style design that was popular during the 19th century. [8]
Events from the year 1870 in Canada.
The Royal British Columbia Museum, founded in 1886, is a history museum in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. The "Royal" title was approved by Queen Elizabeth II and bestowed by Prince Philip in 1987, to coincide with a royal tour of that year. The museum merged with the British Columbia Provincial Archives in 2003.
Fort Victoria began as a fur trading post of the Hudson’s Bay Company and was the headquarters of HBC operations in the Columbia District, a large fur trading area now part of the province of British Columbia, Canada and the U.S. state of Washington. Construction of Fort Victoria in 1843 highlighted the beginning of a permanent British settlement now known as Victoria, the capital city of British Columbia. The fort itself was demolished in November 1864 as the town continued to grow as a commercial centre serving the local area as well as trading with California, Washington Territory, the United Kingdom, and others.
On May 26, 1896, in Victoria, British Columbia, a streetcar crowded with 143 holidaymakers on their way to attend celebrations of Queen Victoria's birthday crashed through Point Ellice Bridge into the Upper Harbour. 55 people were killed in the accident, making it one of the worst transit disasters in British Columbia. Only passengers on the left side of the streetcar escaped.
Fort Langley National Historic Site, commonly shortened to Fort Langley, is a former fur trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company in the community of Fort Langley of Langley, British Columbia, Canada. The national historic site sits above the banks of the Bedford Channel across McMillan Island. The national historic site contains a visitor centre and a largely reconstructed trading post that contains ten structures surrounded by wooden palisades.
The Métis Nation British Columbia (MNBC), formerly Métis Provincial Council of British Columbia, is the only federally recognized organization representing Métis people in British Columbia, Canada. The current president-elect is Lissa Dawn Smith, the Acting Vice-president is Louis De Jaeger. MNBC represents the section 35 rights of over 24,000 Métis citizens who are registered with MNBC and advocates for the over 98,000 self-identified Métis in British Columbia.
Fairfield is a neighbourhood of Victoria, British Columbia. It is bounded by the James Bay, Downtown, Harris Green, Fernwood, Rockland, and Gonzales neighbourhoods, and meets the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the south.
The Rock Creek Gold Rush was a gold rush in the Boundary Country region of the Colony of British Columbia. The rush was touched off in 1859 when two US soldiers were driven across the border to escape pursuing Indians and chanced on gold only three miles into British territory, on the banks of the Kettle River where it is met by Rock Creek, and both streams turn east to where in times since developed the city of Grand Forks. The first claim was filed by an Adam Beam in 1860, and the rush was on, composed mostly of Americans and some Chinese, all of whom had come overland from other workings, either at Colville or Oregon or all the way from California.
The Gulf of Georgia Cannery is a National Historic Site of Canada located in Steveston village in Richmond, British Columbia.
Peter O'Reilly was a prominent settler and official in the Colony of British Columbia, now a province of Canada who held a variety of positions, most notably as the head of a commission struck to revise and allocate Indian reserves throughout the province.
The Craigflower Manor and Craigflower Schoolhouse are National Historic Sites of Canada located in View Royal, British Columbia and Saanich near Victoria. The centerpiece of each historic site is a 19th-century building — a manor and schoolhouse commissioned by the Hudson's Bay Company to provide education and lodging for their employees. Built as part of the agricultural community Craigflower Farm, the buildings served as a focal point for the community into the modern era; they remain open to the public today as museums devoted to the colonial history of Victoria.
Carr House is a National Historic Site of Canada located in Victoria, British Columbia. It was the childhood home of Canadian painter Emily Carr, and had a lasting impression on her paintings and writings.
Victoria Harbour is a harbour, seaport, and seaplane airport in the Canadian city of Victoria, British Columbia. It serves as a cruise ship and ferry destination for tourists and visitors to the city and Vancouver Island. It is both a port of entry and an airport of entry for general aviation. Historically it was a shipbuilding and commercial fishing centre. While the Inner Harbour is fully within the City of Victoria, separating the city's downtown on its east side from the Victoria West neighbourhood, the Upper Harbour serves as the boundary between the City of Victoria and the district municipality of Esquimalt. The inner reaches are also bordered by the district of Saanich and the town of View Royal. Victoria is a federal "public harbour" as defined by Transport Canada. Several port facilities in the harbour are overseen and developed by the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority, however the harbour master's position is with Transport Canada.
The Camas Bookstore and Infoshop is a not-for-profit infoshop located at 2620 Quadra Street in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
Rockland is a historic neighbourhood of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, located just southeast of downtown and northeast of Beacon Hill Park, and comprising the northern portion of the official city neighbourhood of Fairfield. Its boundaries are imprecise but the area roughly flanks Rockland Avenue.
Fort Pelly was a Hudson's Bay Company fur trading post located in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The fort was named after Sir John Pelly, governor of the Hudson's Bay Company. The current village of Pelly, Saskatchewan, takes its name from the fort, and is located approximately 8 miles north of the site of the fort.
Grouard, also known as Grouard Mission, is a hamlet in northern Alberta within Big Lakes County. It was previously an incorporated municipality between 1909 and 1944.
Victoria West, commonly called Vic West, is an historic neighbourhood of the city of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, located just west of downtown across Victoria Harbour, bordering on the Township of Esquimalt.
The Point Ellice Bridge, also known as the Bay Street Bridge is a major road-crossing of the Victoria Harbour in Victoria, British Columbia.