Historical Background of Victoria
General Progress on Wharf Street
List of Wharf Street Businesses
Robert Paterson Rithet
Robert Paterson Rithet was born in Scotland in 1844. He left home at age eighteen and came to North America. Prior to immigrating to Victoria in 1862, Rithet trained in the merchant’s office in Liverpool. After arriving in Victoria, instead of heading out into the gold fields Rithet went into business. He secured a job as a bookkeeper for Sproat & Co and moved to San Francisco in 1869. He returned to Victoria several years later and in 1871 he established his own firm R.P. Rithet and Co, importers and commission agents for liquor and groceries. Rithet became a prominent figure in Victoria and one of Victoria’s foremost businessmen. In 1875, he married Elizabeth Munro, the daughter of retired Hudson’s Bay employee Alexander Munro. The Rithets had three children and built ‘Hollybank, a large house on Humbolt Street with tennis courts, formal gardens, and stables.29
Rithet also maintained other business interests and was a partner in Welch, Rithet & Co. The 1882 directory listed the staff of Welch, Rithet & Co. to include a cashier, a bookkeeper, a salesman, an employee, and two clerks.30 The two businessmen were agents for the Moodyville Sawmill on Burrard Inlet and imported groceries and liquors into the province. Rithet also founded the Victoria Wharf and Warehouse Company for the primary purpose of building the Outer Docks in James Bay in the 1890s. The outer wharves enabled deep-sea ships such as the CPR Empress to dock in Victoria, as the Inner Harbour was too small to accommodate these larger vessels.31 Rithet imported sugars from Hawaii into North America. He also maintained important business and insurance connections, including California and Hawaii Sugar Refining Company and Welch & Co in San Francisco. Rithet was an advocate of the British Pacific Railway Company and maintained shares in the Canadian Pacific Navigational Company. Rithet also had a boat named in his honour.32
Aside from his commercial business interests Rithet maintained sizable farms in Delta and Victoria. Rithet was a president of the Victoria Board of Trade, served as mayor of Victoria from 1885-1886, and represented Victoria as a member of the legislative assembly from 1894-1898. Rithet died in his home in 1919 at age seventy-five.33
Portrait of R.P. Rithet - 1862
Hollybank- Rithet Family Home on Humbolt Street - 1880
Staff of Welch, Rithet & Co. ca. 1900
Ss. R.P. Rithet in Victoria Harbour - 1882