Acting on behalf of the British Columbia Government, the company sold the surrounding land to pioneers but kept the area around here for itself.During The Fraser River Gold Rush of 1858, thousands of new settlers, including many immigrants, arrived in Victoria. The Hudson's Bay sold the Fort Victoria land to these new arrivals in irregular shaped parcels of property. This is why parts of Bastion Square are very narrow while others are much wider.A wooden bell tower was located at the centre of Fort Victoria one block south of here, at the corner of Langley Street and Fort Street. The bell rang to call the Hudson's Bay Company's employees to gather for meals, church services, weddings and funerals. It was also used to warn settlers of fires and other emergencies in the community.
The bell tower and the rest of Fort Victoria were torn down after the Gold Rush, but in the 1970s it inspired the design of a new tower in the same location that contained telecommunications equipment. This was built in the form of a brick campanile, a type of tower from Renaissance Italy.
Photo courtesy BC Archives.
HM Number | HMX7R |
---|---|
Tags | |
Marker Condition | No reports yet |
Date Added | Monday, October 13th, 2014 at 10:02am PDT -07:00 |
UTM (WGS84 Datum) | 10U E 472736 N 5363691 |
---|---|
Decimal Degrees | 48.42578333, -123.36853333 |
Degrees and Decimal Minutes | N 48° 25.547', W 123° 22.112' |
Degrees, Minutes and Seconds | 48° 25' 32.82" N, 123° 22' 6.72" W |
Driving Directions | Google Maps |
Area Code(s) | 973, 201, 862 |
Closest Postal Address | At or near 28-30 Bastion Square, Victoria BC V8W 1H9, CA |
Alternative Maps | Google Maps, MapQuest, Bing Maps, Yahoo Maps, MSR Maps, OpenCycleMap, MyTopo Maps, OpenStreetMap |
Is this marker missing? Are the coordinates wrong? Do you have additional information that you would like to share with us? If so, check in.
Comments 0 comments