Victoria in the dawn of a new century — 1901


Click on the image to see Government Street looking south from Fort Street, c.1901

"Victoria in the dawn of a new century" is the work of Dr. Patrick Dunae and his British Columbia history class at Malaspina University College. Working in groups, students looked closely at the central business district of Victoria and adjacent residential areas in 1901. They considered some basic questions: How were different parts of the city utilized? What areas functioned as commercial, industrial or residential space? Who worked and lived in city spaces like the one shown in the photograph on the left? [Click on the image to enlarge it.]

To answer these questions, they used the 1901 census of Victoria (available online at the viHistory.ca web site), a 1901 alphabetical directory of Victoria, and a 1902 street index of Victoria (also available online at the viHistory.ca web site).

The summary reports have been formatted as web pages. To read them and learn about Victoria at the start of the twentieth century, click on the image map.