Vanishing B.C. Wells

Return to main Vanishing B.C. page Return to home page

Page last updated May 1, 2015

Sketched in 2002: I couldn't find an angle on the "Knob Hill" residential district (see map below) that appealed to me, or an overall view of Wells, and eventually settled on this house, as I liked its angles and the way it shared the street with commercial buildings. It is 4281 Sanders Street (block 4 lot 22), with the sidewall of the Wells Community Hall, designed in 1937 by Ed Richardson and built by Garvin Dezell, next to it. It was one of the second contract of houses, all two-storey, built for the Townsite Company by Gardner Construction in 1934. An earlier 1934 contract by Northey Construction built 24 small, single-storey four-room bungalows with hipped roofs. In the second set, the roofs were all gabled probably due to the snow loads. In total, about 40 houses were built by the Townsite Company.

Map adapted from the map in the Jennifer Iredale report referenced below

The view of the edge of the town, looking across the swampy flats toward Moose Island, from the upstairs window of the school, in 2007. The little miners' cottages look almost like dolls' houses. I was back in town that summer to teach at Island Mountain Arts, a trip recorded elsewhere on this site here.

Reproduced by permission of Wally West, Prince George

Pooley Street, 1950s. Much of the street is intact today, notably Paddy McDonnell's Wells Hotel (on the left), in the fashionable Tudor style, built in 1934 to plans by "a qualified architect" (Province, October 13, 1934) by Vancouver carpenters Bury and Johnson. The parapets in the distance include the Sunset Theatre--photo below.

Wally West, born in Vermilion, Alberta in 1916, worked as a photographer in Victoria for five years (including the 1939 royal visit) and Edmonton for a further five before moving to Prince George in 1946. He and his staff used postcard blanks from Kodak to produce thousands of cards during the '40s and '50s, then got out of the postcard business when the market shifted to litho'd colour images. The Prince George museum has 56,000 of his negatives in its collection.

"Edna in Wells," a photograph included in a large pile of postcards I obtained many years ago from Jessie Acorn, an indefatigable traveller who resided in Vancouver's Kerrisdale district. The photo is c. 1957-1958, one of a series (including the Cottonwood House one below) taken on a trip that was probably prompted by the BC Centennial and the renewed interest in Barkerville. The Sunset Theatre, built by Olson & Pigeon and opened in 1934, is the building on the right; the Deluxe Cafe was moved across the street in the late 1990s. The building in the middle, long known as the Good Eats Cafe, was built in 1935 by carpenter Ira Mooney and, like the theatre, still exists.

Note from Karen Jeffery: The owners of the theatre were Anderson and Stromberg and it opened on Dec 6 1934. I got this from the newspapers that are archived in Quesnel. Why am I interested.... I am the new owner of the Sunset Theatre and have been renovating the theatre for the past 6 summers. I have been updating my websight in hopes of opening the theatre in the summer of 2006.

Photographer unknown, 1950s, of Pooley Street with the Wells Hotel in the background.

Late 1950s/early 60s postcard, photo by Ken Buchanan, published and distributed by Lakeside Photo Studios, Williams Lake. Ken Buchanan apparently sold out to new owners, who continue to operate Lakeside Studios. His postcards, including ones of the WAC Bennett dam taken in the late 1960s, are still in commerce.

Note from Claudia Smith, 2005: Ken Buchanan lives in Williams Lake still and is retired. I believe he sold everything to Lakeside Color Productions (Mel Basaraba). I wish my Dad was still alive to tell you some of the history of the Cariboo area. He owned Docherty-Blair Construction in Quesnel and knew everyone.

Update: See bio/obituary below for Ken Buchanan.

The cairn on the right still exists, and commemorates Fred Wells

Barkerville in the late 1950s, around the time of the BC Centennial which prompted its restoration and rebuilding. Barkerville is the largest heritage site in western North America, a tourist attraction managed by the provincial government's Heritage Branch for more than 40 years. The government's plans to devolve heritage sites to private sector/non profit operations have been especially controversial with the large operations like Barkerville and Fort Steele.

Photographer unknown--postcard published by Traveltime, Vancouver, Grant-Mann Lithographers Ltd.

"On the way to Barkerville," a photo in Jessie Acorn's collection from the late 1950s. The Cottonwood store is now restored as a provincial heritage site, part of the same Heritage Branch group as Barkerville. The gas bowser is, alas, long gone--the only one I know of still in use in the province is at Trout Lake.

Thanks to Sharon for sending along the Ken Buchanan obituary:

From Dave Hong, 2012: I saw the picture of the house you drew in 2002 in Wells, BC. It was at one time my grandfather's (Bill Hong's) house. I was around 8 years old (1976) when I first visited Wells and stayed in that house and it was over 32 years later (2008) that I visited Wells again.

I've been back to this area every year since then to rediscover my roots and trace my geneaology. My uncle lives in Quesnel and has given me a lot of information. It's a story of a Canadian (he was born here in 1901), a family man, an industrious man, a charitable man, a traditional man, lucky and unlucky in life.

My grandfather's home taken in 2009. The new owner is Carrie Johnston whom I met paying her the admission fee to get into Barkerville. I told her I was a Hong which gets me in free and she quickly told me that she was the home's new owner. She even offered up a dresser to me that came with the house when she bought it.
[From Wayne Duggan, 2015: We have the home up for sale and I noticed Mr Hong is saying it was owned by Carrie Johnson when he was visiting which is not true.We owned this house before you did your sketch and purchased it from Carrie.Just wanted to set the record right.Thankyou for sketching our home Wayne and Janice Duggan.]

The other pics are of a cabin a few miles away from Wells. This was my GF's "Office" back in the 30's when he took on a claim that did well for him. The 30's were his "lucky" years and produced the most interesting stories. A trapper named Fred Boychuck had flipped the roof shingles and siding around as a cheap way to restore it and added an addition. The dilapidated log cabin (below) was my GF's blacksmith shop behind the cabin that is a few winters away from collapsing. There are still some old rusted artifacts inside.

Bill Hong was the author of ...And So...That's How It Happened, Recollections of Stanley-Barkerville, 1900-1975, a 264-page illustrated book first published in 1978, distributed by friendsofbarkerville@barkerville.ca, phone 250-747-0112.

Contact me

Return to Vanishing B.C. main page