The Patricia Theatre, on Ash Avenue at Marine Avenue, in Powell River Townsite, sketched in 2002, a rare surviving example of a neighbourhood theatre in an era when even drive-ins have become dinosaurs. Built in 1928, it is the second theatre building in Powell River and, according to the Townsite Heritage Society, the oldest operating theatre business in B.C. It celebrated its 75th birthday in a community party early in November, 2003.

The view below is of the Kenmar Building on the corner of Walnut and Arbutus, with the steaming mill in the background. It was built for Dr. Henderson in 1913 as St. Luke's Hospital. According to the Townsite Heritage Society, Henderson was the first practising physician in Powell River and implemented the first medical plan in BC in 1910.

Powell River is the largest community on the BC coast between the Lower Mainland and Prince Rupert. As the last surviving mill townsite on the coast, the original dozen square blocks on the hillside above the mill were named a National Historic District, a rare commemorative acknowledgement from the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, in 1995. Even the mill is historic, having produced the first newsprint in western Canada in 1911. The townsite is especially interesting because of its residential areas, designed mainly by the townsite manager, John McIntyre, in the fashionable styles of the 1910s and 1920s. The old downtown is more eclectic, with a couple of hotels, government buildings, banks and the Princess Theatre creating a nostalgic atmosphere for anyone with enough imagination to re-people the streets and re-erect vanished shops andbusinesses on the many vacant lots. Mill manager A.E. McMaster built a very fine lodge on Savary Island during the 1930s.

In the summer of 2000, on my way to paint some commissions on Hernando Island, I passed through Powell River for the first time in about 25 years. Having been very aware of the successful campaign to have Powell River's historic character recognized, I was quite surprised to see how deteriorated and depopulated the old downtown had become. The mill, of course, employs fewer people than it once did, as do the logging companies, and many local residents have migrated to a new neighbourhood a few miles to the south, taking the town's businesses with it. I stayed in the old (1939) Provincial Building which has been converted into a hotel-cum-hostel and drank a few "beers" in the almost-empty Rodmay Hotel, the shell of which is the 1911 Powell River Hotel, before moving on up the coast to Lund--the end of the road and jumping-off point, by water taxi, for Savary and Hernando islands. Regrettably, the National Historic District designation brings with it neither money nor statutory protection, and the local town council probably has little ability to channel new growth into the Townsite to rejuvenate it. Nevertheless, it is well-marketed as a historic attraction, with signs and good walking-tour brochures, such as the one I have temporarily misplaced, interpreting the history for visitors.

Does anyone have any good Powell River stories to tell? Even mushy first-kiss ones about the theatre would be welcome.

Note from Stuart Holland: When I was searching my home town of Powell River I clicked on to your works and the first one that came up was the Patricia and it took me back to my childhood,and the year that Davey Crockett classic movie came out me and my 3 brothers got to go and we did not go to movies often but that one was it and they even had a draw from the ticket stubs and my older brother won a Davey Crockett belt buckle. Well to go up to the curtain and get his prize was so cool to see as a kid and the amount of coon skin caps in the crowd on the the young boys was a raccoons worst nightmare,the smell of popcorn and the atmosphere has welded itself into my memory forever.And I always said that if I ever one a lottery I would go back and restore those old classic buildings.

My mother was born in the Kenmar building when it was a hospital,but for me my memory was when Mr White had his barber shop in that building and I would go get the crew cut the style of those days and sitting on the plank in a barber chair so he could cut my hair and staring at the big Toronto Maple Leafs calendar on the wall and listening to the radio he had on and smelling the scent of hair tonics was just another memory of the mill town,but once you walked out the door to leave you could hearÊthe sounds of the paper millÊthe steam whistles and and just the plain roar of the mills heart beat.

The Rodmay Hotel was another memory that was close to the mill town. My dad would come out of the mill gates after his shift on the paper machine and sometimes just get sidetracked and not get home to his young wife with four hungry kids,but that is another story on its own. Just up from the Rodmay was the little fountain that as a kid made you think you were in a European country. Another image was the boat houses just up from the dam on the lake just below Oak street, we as kids would go down there and teach ourselves how to swim ,jump in the lake dive under the boat houses and come up inside,the reflections of the water from inside a closed boat house was so different than outside in the sun. Well the bears chasing us down trails to the lake was something of a life that in today's society would make the over-protective people cringe. We as young grade ones would sneak down to the concrete ships and booming grounds and run across the logs to play.

My grandfather and father both worked in the mill and fished on Powell lake they even had a cabin up there. I really feel that coming from a era like that was so magical but hard that I have so many stories that it would make people reflect and laugh but also cry and take them back to an era of time. I took my wife and kids back in the 1994 and I gave them a tour and boy did time stand still in some parts.