Following up on a post about buildings I photographed over the last 25 years before they were demolished, burned, or otherwise lost, here are a bunch more that I did not have the foresight to take pictures of before they disappeared, what might otherwise be titled The Ones That Got Away. I have used photos and images by other people to illustrate them where available. Below is an index allowing you to skip to a particular community.
BOSWELL
Heidelberg Inn, 12862 Highway 3A
Built in 1965 by Willie Bohmke, a former paratrooper and sailor. Burned down in 2008.
CASTLEGAR
City Centre Motel, Castlegar, 1101 2nd Street
This derelict building was demolished by the City of Castlegar in April 2011 after a battle with its owners that ended up in court. I remember it best for the attached restaurant, variously known as Anthony’s Pizza and Steak House, Athens Steakhouse, and Leo’s Gourmet Pizza. A 13-unit housing project known as Eagle Estates is now being built on the site.
Castlegar Import Centre, 2701 Columbia Avenue
Driving home from work on Nov. 19, 2003, I spotted a big, dark plume of smoke in Kinnaird. As I got closer, I saw huge flames shooting through the roof of the two-storey building, which I think was a towing shop. I parked and got stupid close, for I could feel the intense heat. Two guys who presumably worked there said everyone was out and the fire department was coming. At that point, windows started exploding. I ran back to the highway, where a couple of other cars stopped and confirmed someone else had called for help. I watched it burn for half an hour but didn’t have my camera. I don’t know the history of the building but it was on the same property as a still-standing house built in 1947. The spot is still vacant. The concrete pad the shop once sat on is still visible.
Valley Vista Elementary, 2636 4th Avenue, Castlegar
Built in 1954, expanded in the 1960s. Closed in 2001 and sold in 2003. Subsequently demolished to make way for a housing development.
Woodland Park Elementary, 1713 Greenwood Drive, Castlegar
I went to Kindergarten here. Built in 1961 to accommodate Celgar employees’ kids and expanded in 1965. Closed in the early 2000s, sold in 2003, and converted into a Baptist Church. However, it was vacant when it burned down on June 13, 2009. Five teenage boys were charged with arson but I don’t know the outcome. Several homes were built on the site in 2017-18.
CHRISTINA LAKE
Crown and Bear Pub, 1770 Highway 3
Built in 1975 and long known as the Time and Place Pub. Burned on Nov. 21, 2015.
Time and Place pub, circa 1970s. (Boundary Museum and Archives 1987-002-618)
FAUQUIER
Mushroom Addition, 129 Oak Street, Fauquier
This building started out as a gas station/garage/store known as Jeffery’s Esso, built in the late 1960s by Bill and Joan Jeffery. The Jefferies moved to the new Fauquier townsite from Arrow Park, where they had been longtime residents and Joan taught primary grades at the local school. They retired in 1976 and sold the business to Lorne and Peggy Konkin, whereupon it was renamed Fauquier Esso Service. At some point, the post office moved into the store.
The Konkins added a restaurant to the building, which opened on April 27, 1990, with a unusual and varied menu, ranging from Cornish hen to Doukhobor borscht. But what made the restaurant widely famed was its burger that used locally-harvested wild mushrooms. Fauquier’s Gertrud Klopp suggested the restaurant be called the Mushroom Addition.
When the Konkins retired in 1992, they sold the restaurant and gas station to Roger and Sandra Stephen of Lake Country, who decorated the dining room with antiques and historic photos. In the early 2000s, the gas station became a Gas West and the businesses (store, gas station, and restaurant) became collectively known as Fauquier Services. This lasted until 2010 or 2011, as the Stephens neared retirement. The building then sat vacant and for sale until it was reopened by the McCrea family in 2019. Sadly, it burned in February 2020.
One small legacy: the old Gas West sign still stands.
GENELLE
Genelle Elementary, 402 13th Avenue
It was tucked away in a residential neighbourhood, so I didn’t even realize until recently it was gone. The original part of the school was built in 1951-52 and rooms were added in 1954 and 1956. It closed in 1997. The school district started a training centre there for staff and board meetings were held there until the building was sold in 2004. It was demolished and a new home built on the site the following year.
GRAND FORKS
Grand Forks Hotel and Winnipeg Hotel, 7382 2nd Street and 426 Central Avenue
Why, oh why, did I never photograph either of these hotels? Sure, they had both seen better days before an arsonist attacked them on March 7, 2012, but that’s no excuse. The Grand Forks was built in 1909 and the Winnipeg in 1901. Initially there was some hope the Winnipeg, which was not as badly damaged, might be saved, but it was demolished a year later and a liquor store built on its site called the Winnipeg. Sometime between 2020 and 2022 it became Forks Pharmacy IDA. The man responsible for the fires was convicted and received three years in prison.
Grand Forks Hotel, 1900s. (Boundary Museum and Archives 1991-055-042)
Grand Forks Hotel, 1980s. (Boundary Museum and Archives 1998-011-026)
Les Johnson made a video of the aftermath of the Grand Forks Hotel fire and its demolition, which you can view below.
The Winnipeg Hotel, from Views of Grand Forks (1913)
While I could not find any photos of the Winnipeg after it lost its turret and balconies, Google Street View captured it several times.
Longhorn Hotel, 7248 2nd Street (formerly 148 SE 12th Street)
This building opened in December 1899 as the Granby Hotel, under the proprietorship of Mrs. M. Quinlivan. (Her husband was involved in a shootout a few months earlier with the police chief. Yet, incredibly, in 1911 he was hired as a city police constable and in that capacity was involved in another shootout. He was later shortlisted for police chief himself.)
Fred W. Russell bought A.W. Fraser’s interest in the hotel in 1909 and renamed it the Russell. In the 1930s, F. Fedorak bought it and changed the name to the Royal. It became the Longhorn sometime between 1976 and 1981. It had recently passed its centennial when it burned on March 9, 2000. Clyde’s Pub was then built on the site.
Longhorn Hotel, Grand Forks, 1980s. The date on the sign was off by a year. (Boundary Museum and Archives 1998-011-023)
Home, 7158 3rd Street
This house was reportedly built as a brothel known as The Mascot. However, in 1903 it was converted into a hospital after mayor Martin Burrell’s council shut down the red light district. It was demolished in April 2021. It stood next to another house that was demolished in 2023 that I previously wrote about.
7158 3rd Street as it is demolished in 2021. (Christopher Stevenson/Boundary Heritage)
Homes of North Ruckle
I never photographed any of the 62 homes of North Ruckle damaged in the flood of 2018 before they were bought out by the City of Grand Forks and moved or demolished beginning in 2022. But Les Johnson did, and made an amazing website out of it. Ten homes were ultimately moved in a partnership between the City of Grand Forks and Osoyoos Indian Band to sites on 72nd Avenue, McCallum View Drive, and Donaldson Drive.
GREENWOOD
St. Jude’s Anglican Church, 145 South Kimberley Avenue; Old elementary school, 102 South Government Avenue; Home and garage
I was sad to hear about the fire that destroyed these buildings on May 9, 2024 and also really frustrated to realize I had no pictures of any of the buildings involved. The church was built in 1901 but had been vacated a few years earlier. The first part of the school was built in 1953. A gym and more classrooms were added in 1956 but I don’t know when it closed. Nor do I know anything about the home and garage that were destroyed.
Two views of St. Jude’s Anglican Church. (Christopher Stevenson/Boundary Heritage)
Roadside Restaurant, 121 North Copper Avenue, Greenwood
I had to look up the name of this truck stop, which burned down in the mid-2000s (I couldn’t find the exact date). I was never inside. Its sign is still standing (it just says “family restaurant”) and the concrete pad where it once stood is still visible. The property is for sale.
KASLO
Bowker home, 231 Front Street
Built in 1902 and owned by the family of postmistress Verna Bowker and later by her daughter and son-in-law. It was across the street and a block below where the SS Moyie would eventually be berthed and two doors down from the Beach Gables guesthouse. Jim Yount got photos of the demolition, which occurred on Sept. 6, 2013. A new house was built on the site the following year.
Mariner Inn, 430 Front Street
Built in 1957 as the Kaslo Hotel, it replaced a hotel by the same name on the same site that was built in the 1890s and torn down in 1947. It was later renamed the Mariner Inn, but I don’t know when. It closed in 2006 and the following year the Eckland family bought it, completely rebuilt it, and it became the third Kaslo Hotel. It kept the same footprint but another storey was added.
The Kaslo Hotel when it was brand new. (Fred Turner photo/Greg Nesteroff collection)
The Kaslo Hotel is seen at left in the 1960s. (Ellis Anderson photo/Greg Nesteroff collection)
Scout Hall, bottom of A Avenue
Built in 1940 by the Kaslo Rod and Gun Club as a fish hatchery for Gerrard trout, but it only operated for a few years before being converted into housing for interned Japanese-Canadians. It was again a hatchery after World War II, but in 1953 it was turned into the scouts hall, and later a community hall, and then a youth centre. Upon discovering structural problems, the Village of Kaslo tried to sell the building but received no offers. It was torn down in 2016. I walked by it many times yet not once did I bother to take a picture of it. The postcard from my collection seen here was probably taken shortly after the building was completed.
KOOTENAY BAY
Boccalino Restaurant, 16181 Highway 3A
I think my family ate here once in the 1980s. You couldn’t see the ferry line-up from the restaurant so after finishing our meal we were alarmed to discover we were about to miss our sailing. The rest of the cars had boarded around us. We ran like hell and the ferry crew kindly let us on, although our wheels may have been hanging over the edge. The restaurant burned down in June 2023 but the adjacent motel and cabins are still in business.
KUSKONOOK
Great Northern Station/Kuskonook House/Afoldy Gallery, Highway 3A
This building had an especially interesting history with several different uses before it was wiped away. Originally it was the Great Northern Railway station, built around 1901, but train service to Kuskonook ceased just two years later. I’m not sure what the station was used for immediately thereafter, if anything, but its platform and ticket office survived after Sam Bysouth bought the building for scrap value. He converted it in 1931 into a combination hotel, beer parlour, and general store called the Kuskonook House.
Two views showing the Kuskanook House, probably in the 1930s. The other building nearer the camera in the first view is a hotel built in 1899 that survived a big fire that destroyed most of the town in 1900. It was likely the Union Hotel, operated by Cherbo and Mannarino. It was probably not used after 1904 as a hotel, but I am not sure what it was at the time this photo was taken. (From a photocopy in BC Archives GR-0048, Box 40, File 2)
The beer parlour lasted until 1942, when Bysouth decided not to renew his license, but the hotel stayed in business until 1948. In the latter year, Bysouth’s son Alfred took over the store, added a gas pump, and ran it until 1981. A year after that, Elaine and Andy Afoldy established an art gallery there. But the building was empty when a mudslide of Aug. 8, 2004 pushed it off its foundations. It was subsequently torn down. It was the last heritage building in Kuskonook and of all the buildings on this list, the only one whose loss is attributable to landslide.
Kuskanook House probably in the 1960s. (Ellis Anderson photo)
MARBLEHEAD
Quarry buildings
These two wooden buildings, which burned on May 13, 2010, were associated with a stone quarry that operated from about 1909 until the late 1930s and later with a logging camp and sawmill on the same property. One of the buildings was supposedly the oldest in the Lardeau Valley, but the date of 1895 cited in the media at the time of the fire seems a bit early, as the quarry wasn’t discovered until 1899. The fire came three weeks after a group formed plans to buy the property, which had been abandoned since 1989, and turn one of the buildings into an entrepreneurial centre. The deal was about to close when the fire occurred. RCMP considered the fire suspicious, but no one was ever charged.
NAKUSP
Green Door Lanes, 620 NW 4th Street
Built in 1956 across from the high school by Stan and Peggy Fellows as a cafe and gas station that took its name from a hit song. A bowling alley and pool hall were added in 1962. Purchased by the local youth society in 2001 and turned into a youth centre that opened in November 2005 but a fire in an upstairs apartment on March 12, 2006 badly damaged the building (a man pleaded guilty to arson and received an 18-month conditional sentence).
The building was partly torn down shortly thereafter and more demolition took place in August 2009, leaving just the bowling lanes, which were considered salvageable. However, that building was ultimately also demolished in October 2017, although there was talk of saving and storing the lanes for future use. I don’t know if that happened. But at no point did I ever get a photo. (The Arrow Lakes Historical Society has over two dozen Green Door photos on its website, so it’s not like we are bereft of images, but I still can’t explain my negligence.)
The property was turned over to the Straight Arrow Youth Opportunities Society and a new combined community centre-aquaponics facility-bioenergy plant was proposed for the site. Matters were stymied by a required environment assessment because a gas tank was once on site. That work is ongoing and the dream of a new youth centre remains alive. The school district donated a portable building that has been moved to the site, awaiting the construction of a foundation.
NELSON
Chamber of Commerce, 501 Front
I don’t know when this little building was constructed, but the Board of Trade (now the Chamber of Commerce) moved there sometime between 1905 and 1910 and remained there until moving to the new Louis Maglio building on Hall Street in 1987. I don’t know what the old building was used for after that, if anything (it was vacant as of 1989) and don’t remember when it disappeared, although it was probably in the mid-2000s. I don’t think its loss was remarked upon or noticed much at all. One day it was just gone. The site is vacant. The photo below is from my collection and is perhaps from the 1960s or ’70s. It looks like the building was constructed in two phases, but I don’t know which section was the addition.
Apartment building, 507 Silica
I’m not exactly sure how old this three or four storey building was, but it was an apartment building from 1907 onward. If it ever had a name, I haven’t found one. Ads for its suites appeared regularly until the mid-1940s. In 1950, two more suites were added. By 1989, all seven apartments were vacant and squatters took up residence. In August 1998, neighbours petitioned for its demolition.
Nelson Daily News, Aug. 20, 1998
The building was owned by a company whose directors included local realtor Ernie Mason, who said the “nosy neighbours” should mind their own business. He explained that while a former tenant was away on a Christmas holiday in the mid-1980s, pipes in the top apartment burst, causing major damage that was not covered by insurance. While the fire department considered the building a serious hazard, they wanted it restored rather than demolished. It almost happened. Someone bought the building with plans to spend $90,000 on repairs.
But on July 23, 2000, a suspicious fire began in a former kitchen on the bottom floor and spread. One firefighter was treated for heat exhaustion and smoke inhalation. The potential buyer backed out and although not ordered to do so, the owners had the building demolished on Sept. 11, 2000. “I think we just got tired of dealing with the hassle,” said Mason, while insisting it was still structurally sound. The site remains vacant.
Nelson Daily News, July 25, 2000
Caretaker’s cottage at Lakeside Park, 1901 Lakeside Drive
When this small log building was demolished in March 2018 one resident expressed outrage. Although its exact age was unknown, a city staff member insisted it was in poor shape and “had been there for a long time but was not historic.” The city’s heritage working group, which received no warning of the demolition, begged to differ.
Extra Foods, 708 Vernon Street, Nelson
Built in 1966 as a Super-Valu and demolished in early 2015 to make way for the current Kootenay Co-op, which opened in December 2016. I never got a photo of the old building, but Google Street View did, in 2012. (Side note: the old address made no sense, as the building fronted on Hendryx Street and had no Vernon Street entrance. I think the address was just carried over from Stevenson Machinery, which used to be on the site. The co-op is 777 Baker.)
House, 808 Front Street
This home was demolished on May 29, 2003 to make way for an expanded aquatic centre, but only after police removed 11 squatters. Confusingly, the police said they would not take action unless the Regional District of Central Kootenay, which bought the house in 2001, sought a court injunction. The RDCK did so, but a judge refused to grant it, saying enforcement should not be up to the courts. Police then relented. One woman was arrested for trying to block a bulldozer but a charge of mischief was dropped. No attention was paid to the home’s history during the controversy, but it dated to at least 1909. It was the longtime home of the Simpson and Shackleton families, who were connected with the Kootenay Marble Works. The house next door at 824 Front was demolished in 2023, to make way for further expansion of the rec complex. I did get a couple of photos of that one.
Nelson Daily News, Oct. 11, 2001
Kootenay Sleds and Wheels, 708 Highway 3A
Burned down on Dec. 31, 2009 and now the site of Main Jet Motor Sports. The building began life in the 1950s as an A&W drive-in and in the ‘90s became the Silver Bullet restaurant before Sleds and Wheels moved in.
From the British Columbia Centennial Directory (1967)
NEW DENVER
Eldorado Market, 402 6th Avenue (now 808 Kildare)
While I have taken lots of pictures of New Denver over the years, somehow this building eluded me entirely, only turning up in the background of one photo, and then just barely. I don’t know when it was built, but it was in business as Eldorado Market before 1976. It was vacant for several years before the village approved a redevelopment permit in late 2017. The owner originally planned to refurbish the building, but told council in 2019 “unfortunately its structure and defunct septic put constraints on what was possible.” The north section was turned into a commercial building, now facing Kildare Street, that has been used for event rentals while a pavilion is now where the south section once stood, dubbed Eldorado Square, which has been the site of some pop-up markets.
Garage, 430 6th Avenue
Hans Schlaffke built this Esso service station in the mid-1950s with wood salvaged from the Reco Hotel in Sandon. It had been vacant for a long time when it was demolished in August 2014 to make way for a new Valhalla Pure store. By coincidence, relatives of Johnny Harris, who built the Reco in 1900, were visiting from the US at the time and salvaged a few splinters as souvenirs. Google Street View captured the building in October 2007 and September 2012, along with a few others next to it that are also gone.
From the British Columbia Centennial Directory (1967)
OOTISCHENIA
Ootischenia Elementary, 120 Ootischenia Road
My father taught here. Built in 1963, closed in 1986, and used for a time by the West Kootenay teachers education program (whereupon it was dubbed “The U of OO”). Purchased by the City of Castlegar in 2004 as a potential site for a new regional hospital. I’m not sure when it was demolished, but the property was ultimately sold to FortisBC, who built a new regional operations centre there in 2017, spelling doom for their old South Slocan staff house and warehouse.
REVELSTOKE
Ol’ Frontier Restaurant, 122 Highway 23 North, Revelstoke
Burned down Aug. 24, 2024 although the adjacent motel and gas station survived with some damage. It was a western-themed family restaurant built in the mid-1960s, capitalizing on the opening of Highway 23.
ROCK CREEK
Edelweiss Inn, 3990 Highway 3
Built in 1974 by the Zimmerman family to replace the Swiss Inn, which burned down in 1971, although not at the same location. The Edelweiss also burned down May 27, 2006. A couple of passing motorists from Vancouver were credited with noticing the smoke, hammering on doors, and saving 18 people. At the time the area had no fire protection and no cell service. Since 2019, this has been the site of the Riverside Centre, home to the visitor centre and a variety of community services.
SLOCAN
Slocan Motel office/residence, 801 Harold Street
The motel, which opened in 1964, still stands although the units are used for long-term accommodation. The office and home next door where the owners lived burned down on June 21, 2005. News coverage stated the building was over 100 years old and had “four renovated add-ons and was full of hidden crawl spaces and false ceilings.”
The house originally belonged to the McNeish family and was moved to the site by Bill and Thera Heslip. They added it to an existing garage and small store built by the Klein family in the 1930s that became the Greenlight Service Station. It was subsequently acquired by Des and Enid Hood and then by Elsie and Jerry Altman, who ran a restaurant, post office, and bus depot.
From the BC Centennial Directory of 1967
When the Altmans built the motel, they added an office to the house and cut out a doorway that revealed newspaper insulation dated 1918. According to Elsie, years later in an upstairs crawlspace they also found an old coat with a big bottle of Greenlees Brothers whiskey wrapped in it.
(Dave Fredrickson and Scott Lunn photos)
SOUTH SLOCAN
West Kootenay Power staffhouse
Somehow I never took pictures of this building, even though my mother worked there for the better part of 20 years. It was completed in late 1931 and opened early the following year. It had accommodation for company brass and guests as well as a banquet hall. In 1986, all of the old furniture was auctioned off in preparation to refurbish the building as district headquarters.
South Slocan staffhouse, circa mid-1980s. (Al Peterson photo)
Despite inclusion on a Columbia Basin heritage register and some protest, the building was demolished in 2018 after FortisBC opened its new operations centre in Ootischenia, on the former site of Ootischenia Elementary (mentioned above). Nothing is on the site anymore, although a set of stairs helps denote its location. More on its history here.
No. 3 plant hall
Likewise, I didn’t take any photos of this recreation hall built in 1927, but my mother did, as seen below. It was home to a bowling alley and badminton hall that briefly served as a classroom before Mount Sentinel high school was completed in 1950. FortisBC torn the building down in 2005 because they didn’t want to look after it anymore. More about it here.
West Kootenay Power company houses
I didn’t get any photos of these either, but my mother took a few before they were all burned or demolished in 2006, once again because FortisBC didn’t want to look after them. Ten were built as construction began on the South Slocan dam in 1926 and a couple of others were added later. Click here for a more fulsome account.
TAGHUM
Taghum Shell, 5644 Highway 3A
A new store, far larger than the old one, was completed in 2017. I never got a picture of the old store before it was demolished, nor one of its quaint hand-painted sign (which I hope was saved), but once again Google Street View did!
TARRYS
Tarrys Elementary, 2016 Highway 3A
That I never took a photo of this school is especially baffling and frustrating because my father taught here for 15 years. It was built in the early 1950s, closed in 2003, sold the following year, and burned down in late October 2005. The property has since gone to ruin and is heartbreaking to drive by.
TRAIL
Apartment building, 262 Rossland Avenue
The City of Trail acquired this building through a tax sale and was planning to tear it down in the spring of 2007. Before that could happen, it burned on Dec. 23, 2006, “much to the delight of the neighbourhood,” according to the Trail Daily Times. Described as one of the oldest buildings in Trail, it was originally either the Pacific or Bay View Hotel, built in 1896. They were joined together in 1908 to become the Union Hotel between Victoria and Farwell Streets.
When a new Union Hotel was built in 1939, Charlie Chapela bought the old one and moved it to Rossland Avenue, which must have been no small feat. In later years, the building earned a very bad reputation, explaining why neighbours were not sorry to see it go. The building was of interest to me because my grandparents lived there in the early 1950s. I stuck my head inside in the early 2000s and reported back to my grandmother that it was exceptionally rundown. She told me it was rundown even when she lived there. Except for a landing adjacent to a set of stairs that led to the building, there is no sign that it ever stood.
Bethany Gospel Hall, 1338-46 McQuarrie Street
Built around 1953, it was a church until 1994 or 1995. It was later owned by Van Hellemond Sport Ltd. and then demolished in November 2005 to make way for an addition to Chateau Manor.
Trail Daily Times, Nov. 24, 2005
Georgetti buildings, Rossland Avenue
The City of Trail bought these properties — five residential and commercial buildings, including the Montana Hotel — adjacent to the Colombo Lodge in 2000 and demolished them to make way for a new RCMP detachment. Slope stability problems scuttled those plans, so the detachment was built in Glenmerry instead and the site remained vacant until a lovely park, Colombo Piazza, was built there in 2007.
Apartment building, 1943 Columbia Avenue and Kryski Brothers Contracting, 1947 Columbia Avenue
The apartments caught fire on July 4, 2000 and the contracting office next door was also damaged. The former was built before 1925. Its false front suggests it may have once been a commercial building but I can’t find any sign of it as anything other than a three-unit apartment block. The lot next door was vacant as of 1943 but had become Renfrew Auto Service body shop as of 1953 and Kryski Brothers as of 1957. Following the fire the buildings were demolished and the city bought the properties (or maybe it happened the other way around). Silver City Gardens retirement home was built on the site in 2003.
From the British Columbia Centennial Directory (1967)
Trail Daily Times, July 5, 2000
Three homes, 1400 block, Columbia Avenue
These houses were demolished in 2007 to expand the parking lot for the Kiro Wellness Centre. A photo of the work getting underway appeared in the Trail Daily Times on March 28 of that year, but I lost the clipping.
Home, 1850 Oak Street
This house burned on July 3, 2004 and was subsequently demolished but its concrete garage and stairs still stand. So does the foundation. BC Assessment now lists the property as a “shed and outbuilding” built in 1900. The house was there by 1918, based on a fire insurance plan. J. Bailey was the owner from at least 1953-63. The property was listed in a tax sale in 2022 but I’m not sure what the outcome was.
Trail Daily Times, July 5, 2004
Homes, 1862 and 1864, Fifth Avenue
These two-storey homes were demolished prior to 2007 when a single new house was built on the lot. I don’t know exactly when they were built, but it was between 1935 and 1943. As of 1963, there were three units in 1862 and two units in 1864. In September 1999, neighbors complained the homes were “in a sad state of repair” and had not been looked after for years, although it’s unclear if they were vacant at the time. The city looked into it and did not find the homes violated the unsightly premises bylaw. But they were gone within a few years.
Trail Daily Times, Sept. 24, 1999
Home, 1995 Riverside Avenue
The City of Trail bought this house to make way for what became the Columbia River Skywalk, although I’m not really sure why it had to go, as the property is well east of the bridge. I have no memory of what it looked like. (The Google Street View car never ventured down Riverside, alas.) After hazardous materials were removed, the fire department burned it down for practice on April 12, 2015. It was the last house standing on the north side of Riverside Avenue, of which were once many. The city gradually bought them up starting in the early 1980s and demolished them in hopes of creating a linear park. Rotary Park is now in some of this space.
Arrow Building Supply, 1080 Spokane Street
This site has had a strange history filled with good intentions, missed opportunities, and questionable use of tax dollars — but oddly I have no memory of the building that once stood on it.
It went up sometime between 1943 and 1950. As of the latter year it was home to the D.B. Merry Lumber Co. Ltd. and around 1961 it became Merry-Mitchell Building Supply. I think there was some other name as well before it became Arrow Building Supply around 1985. It closed in 2000.
The City of Trail then bought the property in February 2002 for $280,000 as the proposed site of a new city hall, library, and museum. However, the idea was overwhelmingly defeated at referendum that fall. The Greater Trail Retirement Housing Society then suggested building a seniors housing project on the site. Didn’t happen. Instead the city sold it in October 2003 to Nelson accountant Am Naqvi for $20,000 less than they paid for it.
Nelson Daily News, Jan. 27, 1951
Then in May 2006, there was much disbelief when the city bought the property back — for $393,000. Council argued times had changed and they wanted to revisit the site for a civic complex. The city evicted a charity using the building (along with an industrial safety firm) to make way for what was dubbed the Esplanade Centre and awarded a demolition contract in September 2007.
City councillor Al Graham wondered what the rush was. Staff told him the land had more value without the building and a vacant site would pose fewer liability concerns. Graham wanted to wait until the city was ready to build something new, but was overruled by the rest of council. The building was gone the following month.
The following year the city spent another $359,000 to buy a vacant site across the street, behind the Crown Point Hotel, to create a parking lot for the Esplanade Centre. But the financial crisis of 2008 saw the project stall. When a new library and museum (minus the new city hall) was proposed again in 2013, the location had changed to the site of the Eagles Hall a block away, which the city purchased in May 2012 for $335,000 (of which see more below).
It was at the latter location that the Riverfront Centre eventually opened in 2017, following a successful referendum. But why wasn’t it built on one of the other two sites the city already owned? While I couldn’t find an explanation reported in the newspapers, apparently a developer was interested in buying the other two sites for a housing project that didn’t go ahead, possibly due to costs related to engineering problems around the Gorge Creek culvert.
In any case, in 2017 the city sold the vacant lot behind the Crown Point to Boaz Enterprises for $205,000 as part of the hotel’s redevelopment. The hotel did get a facelift, but despite the city hiring a firm to “help integrate the design of the lands into the city’s public space,” the empty lot was merely fenced and turned into a huge, mostly unused parking lot. The city-owned land where Arrow Building Supply used to be is also a parking lot, which ultimately cost taxpayers $413,000 ($575,000 in 2024 values) to acquire twice, not counting the cost of demolition.
Eagles Hall, 1505 Bay Avenue, commercial buildings at 1525 and 1537 Bay
Built in 1952 as Ferraro’s (later Super-Valu), 1505 Bay became the Eagles Hall after a new Super-Valu was built at 850 Farwell in 1965 (now Ferraro’s again). The City of Trail bought the old building in June 2012 and tore it down in March 2013 to make way for a new civic complex, which opened in 2017 as the Riverfront Centre.
To enlarge the project, the city also bought and demolished two neighbouring buildings. The first was at 1525 Bay, which was once the Columbia Music Store operated by the Lazzari family, although I remember it better as The Comicshop in the 1980s. The city bought it around February 2015 and demolished it that April. The other building was Roger Catalano’s Trail Trophies at 1537 Bay, purchased in April 2016 for $190,000 and torn down on July 27 of that year.
Google Street View captured all three buildings in 2012 — or four buildings if you count the brick addition to the Eagles Hall, which was where the bar was. The dance hall was on the other side. I don’t know if the addition came before or after the Eagles bought the property. One other interesting thing: this view reveals that 1525 Bay appears to have been another of Trail’s hidden homes; a house with a storefront attached. You can read about four others here.
John’s Books/@Pages, 1358 McQuarrie Street
Built around 1935, for decades this was the Crystal Laundry. But in the 1980s and ‘90s it was an emporium for paperback books and comics operated by John and Janet Humphrey. It was demolished in October 2000 and a duplex was built on the site.
Nelson Daily News, Jan. 28, 1950
Old J. Lloyd Crowe Secondary, 1300 Frances Moran Road
Opened in 1952 for Grades 10-13. Added Grades 8-9 in 1983 after Trail Junior Secondary closed. A new school was built on the same site in 2010 and the old building was demolished. I was inside many times but alas, never brought my camera.
WARFIELD
P9 tower
This 14-storey building was built in 1942 and used for Cominco’s heavy water program during World War II that was part of the Manhattan project to create the first atomic bombs. (The heavy water made here was not used in the bombs dropped on Japan, but was used in the test bombs in New Mexico.) Afterward, the building was left standing but vacant. Finally in 2004, the company announced it would spend $2.4 million to tear the building down, as part of a broader demolition program to get rid of obsolete buildings.
The move alarmed some, including a Trail city councillor, who said the tower should be preserved as an historic site. The company, however, responded that it was a safety hazard that they didn’t want anyone going near it — plus the top floors were filled with several feet of pigeon droppings. The P9 tower was demolished over several months in 2005. An interpretive sign was installed in 2007 explaining its history, but now even that is gone. The full story of the building and the project can be found in Codename Project 9, by Ron Verzuh.
WESTBRIDGE
General Store and post office, 2900 Highway 33
I don’t know anything about the building’s history but it burned down in 2005. A photo of the store when it was for sale appeared on a now-defunct BC tourism website and fortunately survives online thanks to the Wayback Machine. Interestingly, the photo was later replaced with an even more interesting shot of the store from the 1980s. The site remains vacant.
WOODBURY
Woodbury Resort lodge, 4112 Highway 31
Originally two separate buildings built in 1897 by the King Solomon Mining Co. In 1938, Dr. Lester Besecker bought the property and added a section in the middle that joined the two buildings together, intending for it to become a sanitarium, but it was never completed. Terry Jones completed it when he bought the building and turned it into a resort in the 1970s.
It burned on Oct. 29, 2009 in a fire that also consumed a cabin, trailer, and damaged a motel. While I never got a picture of the lodge, I did photograph the two-storey brick vault that survived the fire, seen here in June 2010. Unfortunately, it was later demolished.
WYNNDEL
United Grain Growers elevator
Built in the 1930s, sold privately in 1971, last used in 2001 for its original purpose, and demolished in October 2013 after the CPR, which then owned it, decided it was a liability. The wood was to be salvaged for furniture to be built by the demolition contractor. There are some nice photos of the elevator online. Michael Kluckner did a watercolour painting of it in 1995 and featured it on his Vanishing BC website.
VARIOUS
Miscellaneous gas stations
I never bothered to take pictures of any of the three gas stations on the corner of Victoria and Pine in Trail that have since disappeared (a Texaco, demolished in December 2005, now the site of McDonald’s; an Esso demolished in November 2009, now the site of 7-Eleven; and a Petro Canada, site still vacant). Nor did I capture the Hilltop Chevron in Nelson, nor the Baker Street Esso, nor the Chevron on Anderson Street, nor the gas station on Nelson Avenue across from the present co-op gas bar. Nor the gas station at 860 Columbia Avenue in Castlegar. Many of these sites are still fenced off. I can’t swear all were demolished since 2000, but most were.
From the British Columbia Centennial Directory (1967)
Trail/Rossland News, Nov. 19, 2009
The old Texaco station on Victoria Street in Trail bites the dust. McDonald’s subsequently built a restaurant on the site. Trail Daily Times, Dec. 8, 2005
— With thanks to Harold Hall, Kyle Kusch, Jamie Forbes, and Elsie Altman
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