CITY OF GARDENERS: The Arts & Crafts-inspired Garden City Movement shaped the Townsite’s green space. Above left, Miss Kathleen Mary Smith at home on Maple Avenue with a basket of roses, 1931. Top, landscaping beside the laboratory, 1949. Above right, artistic landscapes beside the director’s house on Marine Avenue, 1952.
Botanical heritage still thrives BLAST FROM THE PAST BY JOËLLE SÉVIGNY
“Plants are Heritage Too,” was the headline of the Powell River Town Crier newspaper on Monday November 1, 1993. This is to say that not only structures make up our heritage, but the environment and the landscape around these structures are also part of the legacy left to us. The urban planning method used in the construction of Powell River was the
Garden City Movement, which means planning communities to be surrounded by greenbelts; merging a countryside and a city environment together. It emphasizes the natural environment and beautification of the town through gardens and landscaping. This was quite a change in the ideology of the time, where most towns arose around an industry without consideration for the existing natural beauty. The Powell River Company employed full-time gardeners to maintain green spaces around the Townsite. Landscaping was even done on the mill site, bringing joy to the worker’s eye. Powell River was famous for its gardens; every visitor remarking on the well-kept lawns, the va-
riety of roses and the picture painted by the asters, dahlias, hollyhocks and so on. The Triangle Gardens which span 1,000 feet starting in front of the Patricia along Marine, was initially land used as a holding nursery for the Powell River Company’s Townsite gardeners. In the early 1990s, the Townsite Heritage Society began the project of restoring this land, first by having to clear many blackberry bushes! In 1993, more than 100 historic plant features and more than 30 plants species were identified in the gardens. So if you’re looking for a new place to go for a stroll, you can walk through these historic gardens today and enjoy the colorful display of plants ever changing with each season; rhododendrons, lavender, hydrangeas, heather, spiraea,
“In the early 1990s, the Townsite Heritage Society began the project of restoring [the Triangle Gardens], first by having to clear many blackberry bushes!” and burning bush – this last one which will only get more and more fiery as fall comes along. Blast from the Past is a monthly historical column written by the Townsite Heritage Society’s coordinator Joëlle Sévigny. The THS tells the history of Townsite from 1907 onward.
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