Thursday, March 04, 2004

Nanaimo 1892: "The nomenclature of the streets and squares is an interesting study which affords a clue to some of the distinguished and enterprising capitalists who promoted and have fostered and developed the coal industry of Nanaimo until it has arrived at its present immense proportions: there are Roberts street and Lubbock square (1), after the well known bankers of London, and Fitzwilliam(2) and Milton(3) streets, in honor of the scions of the noble Earl of Fitzwilliam, who have in early days made the tour of the province, notable, Lord Milton, whose travels in the upper country are part of Colonial history. The memory of the late Justice Haliburton, a former chairman of directors of the Vancouver Coal Company, and of world wide renown as the writer under the nom de plume of 'Sam Slick,' is perpetuated by one of the longest streets. And the honorable directors of the company, Galsworthy(4), Tendron(5), Prideaux(6), Selby, Irwin and Fry, Campbell, Young and other supporters of the company's adventure with other celebrities, such as Robins, Finlayson, Robson, Dunsmuir(7) and others, are handed down to posterity as familiar household words." 1. Absorbed in the last decade. I think my friend Rob might have been the last person to have had it as a postal address. 2. The old library was on this street. 3. Always identified with the poet in my mind. 4. Gone 5. Gone 6. I lived on this street. 7. The muddy truckpath at the bottom of our yard is still called "Dunsmuir Avenue" on the maps, a joke well into its second century.