New Westminster is a historically important city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada, and is a member municipality of the Greater Vancouver Regional District. It was founded as the capital of the Colony of British Columbia (1858–1866).

Geography

New Westminster is located on the Burrard Peninsula, on the north bank of the Fraser River. It is 19 kilometres (12 mi) southeast of the City of Vancouver proper, adjacent to Burnaby and Coquitlam and across the Fraser River from Surrey. A portion of New Westminster called Queensborough is located on the eastern tip of Lulu Island, adjacent to Richmond. The total land area is 15.3 square kilometres (5.9 sq mi).

Demographics

The city has a total population of 58,549 (2006 Census).^[1]

Notable New Westminster natives include singer/actor Alexz Johnson, musician/producer Devin Townsend, actor Raymond Burr, actor Aaron Douglas, race car driver Greg Moore, astronaut Robert Thirsk, magician "Mandrake the Magician" Leon Mandrake, actress Crystal Dahl, professional baseball player Justin Morneau, the MacArthur award winning poet Daryl Hine, actor Nicholas Lea and retired professional hockey player Bill Ranford.

History

A view of New Westminster from theFraser River, circa 1865.

In 1859, New Westminster was recommended as the first official capital of the new Colony of British Columbia by Richard Moody, the Lieutenant-Governor, because of its location farther from the American border than the site of the colony's proclamation, Fort Langley. New Westminster, at a defensible location on the north bank of the Fraser River, possessed, according to Moody, "great facilities for communication by water, as well as by future great trunk railways into the interior".^[2] Governor Douglas proclaimed "Queensborough" (as the site was initially called by Moody) the new capital on February 14, 1859.^[3] "Queensborough", however, did not appeal to London and it wasQueen Victoria who named the city after Westminster,^[4] that part of the British capital of London where the Parliament Buildings were situated. From this naming by the Queen, the City gained its official nickname, "The Royal City". A year later New Westminster became the first City in British Columbia to be incorporated and have an elected municipal government. It became a major outfitting point for prospectors coming to the Fraser Gold Rush, as all travel to the goldfield ports of Yale and Port Douglas was by steamboat or canoe up the Fraser River.

Coquitlam City, of New Westminster

The location of New Westminster, at the edge of the forest, necessitated a large amount of labour and money to clear trees and lay out streets, which became a significant burden to the colonial budget when the imperial government shackled the colony with half of the cost of the Royal Engineers.^[5] Governor Douglas spent little time in New Westminster and had little affection for the city; and the feelings were amply repaid by the citizens of New Westminster, who avidly supported Colonel Moody's city-building efforts and castigated the governor, who preferred to remain for the most part isolated in distant Victoria.^[6] In contrast to Victoria, where settlers from England had established a strong British presence, New Westminster's early citizens were largely Canadians and Maritimers, who brought a more business-oriented approach to commerce and dismissed the pretensions of the older community. Despite being granted a municipal council, the mainlanders in New Westminster also pressed for a legislative assembly to be created for British Columbia,^[7] and were infuriated when Governor Douglas granted free port status to Victoria, which stifled the economic growth of the Fraser River city.^[8] Moreover, to pay for the expense of building roads into the Interior of the colony, Douglas imposed duties on imports into New Westminster.

In 1866, the colonies of British Columbia and Vancouver Island were united as "British Columbia". However, the capital of the Colony of Vancouver Island, Victoria, located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, was made the capital of the newly amalgamated Colony of British Columbia, following a vote in the House of Assembly. On the day of the vote one member of the assembly, William Cox (one of the colony's Gold Commissioners and a Victoria supporter), shuffled the pages of the speech that William Franklyn from Nanaimo (a New Westminster supporter) intended to give, so that Franklyn lost his place and read the first paragraph three times. Cox then popped the lenses of Franklyn's glasses from their frames so that the Nanaimo representative could see nothing at all of his speech. After a recess to settle the resulting uproar and allow the member from Nanaimo a chance to sort out his speaking notes and his spectacles, on the members' return to the House of Assembly, the Speaker John Sebastian Helmcken (from Victoria) refused to allow Franklyn a "second" chance to speak. The subsequent vote was 13 to 8 against New Westminster.^[9]

With the entry of British Columbia into the Dominion of Canada in 1871, as the sixth province, New Westminster's economic prospects improved, but the Royal City would lose out again, this time to the new railway terminus town of Vancouver, when the Canadian Pacific Railway was extended to the shores of Burrard Inlet, even though a spur of the railway did reach New Westminster in 1886. In 1879, the federal government allocated three reserves to the New Westminster Indian Band, including 104 acres (0.42 km²) of the South Westminster Reserve, 22 acres (89,000 m²) on the North Arm of the Fraser River, and 27 acres (110,000 m²) on Poplar Island.^[10] A smallpox epidemic devastated the Qayqayt, reducing the band members from about 400 people to under 100. Many of the remaining Qayqayt were assimilated into other local reserves, such as the neighbouring Musqueam Indian Band. Their reserve on Poplar Island was turned into an Aboriginal smallpox victim quarantine area. For decades, the Poplar Island reserve was designated as belonging to "all coast tribes".^[11] In 1913 the federal government seized most of the New Westminster Band's reserve lands.^[12] In 1916 the remaining land on Poplar Island was turned over to the BC government. Eighteen years earlier, in 1898, a devastating fire destroyed downtown New Westminster.^[13]

In 1991, the New Westminster Armoury was recognized as a Federal Heritage building on the Register of the Government of Canada Heritage Buildings.^[14]

Chinatown

New Westminster's Chinatown was one of the earliest established in the mainland colony and also one of the largest. Originally located along Front Street, it was relocated to an area known as "The Swamp" at the southwest end of downtown, bounded roughly by Royal Avenue, Columbia Street, and 8th and 12th Streets (now a large shopping plaza area). Chinatown was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1898 and only partly rebuilt afterwards. Chinatown is not present in New Westminster today.

Columbia Street

Contrasting views of Columbia Street in 1932 and 2008.

Front StreetUntil the 1964 completion of the Highway 1 freeway, which bypassed New Westminster to its north, Columbia Street, along the city's waterfront, was the main commercial retail and service centre for the Fraser Valley and nearby areas of Burnaby and Coquitlam. Most major department store chains as well as long-established New Westminster retailers thrived in a time when road travel to Vancouver remained distant for Valley communities and daily interurban rail service to and from Chilliwack was still in place (the service ended in 1950). The quality of shops was such that even Vancouverities would make the trip by interurban rail or, later on, via Kingsway (originally called the Westminster Highway or Westminster Road), to shop on Columbia Street. In addition to the retailers, Columbia Street was home to major movie houses, the Columbia and the Paramount, rivalling in size and quality those on Vancouver's Theatre Row. The freeway is generally conceded to have "killed" Columbia Street, which has remained in a slump despite ongoing civic efforts to revitalize it. In October 2006, Columbia Street underwent reconstruction to change to one lane in both directions, with a bike lane and reverse angle parking. This was done to encourage more foot and bicycle traffic. Major high-rise or renovation projects are completed or nearing completion.

Originally a dockside street and market, and also the location of the original Chinatown, Front Street was converted into a truck-route bypass and elevated parkade during the 1960s in an effort to provide increased parking for adjacent Columbia Street. In recent decades it has been the focus of the city's thriving antiques and second-hand trade, which is also concentrated on 12 Street. It has also been used as a location in feature films such as Rumble in the Bronx (substituting for the Bronx), I, Robot (as a futuristic Chicago), Shooter (doubling for Philadelphia, with the Fraser River being the Delaware River), and New Moon.

Government House

The original colonial Government House was located approximately where Royal City Manor is now. It was originally occupied by Colonel Richard Clement Moody, who commanded the Columbia Detachment of Royal Engineers who established the city. Rarely used by Governor Douglas, its first full-time vice-regal resident was Governor Frederick Seymour.

New Westminster CPR Station

Adjacent to the New Westminster SkyTrain Station, the city's former Canadian Pacific Railway station has been renovated and converted into a branch of The Keg restaurant chain.

Queensborough

Queensborough was the name originally chosen for the colonial capital by Royal Engineer commander Colonel Richard Clement Moody. When Queen Victoria designated New Westminster instead as her new capital's name, the name Queensborough became applied to New Westminster's portion of Lulu Island, across the north arm of the Fraser from the southern end of the city. Queensborough is today a low- to middle-income housing area with its own distinct identity. Some new condominium complexes have been built adjacent to the Westminster Quay development. In the Chinook Jargon, "Koonspa", an adaptation of the name Queensborough, is the usual name for New Westminster as a whole.

A replica of a Queen Annehouse opposite Queens Park

There are now some big-box stores such as Walmart and Lowes, as well as the large Starlight Casino.

Sapperton

Sapperton was originally a "suburb" of New Westminster, named for the Columbia Detachment of Royal Engineers ("Sappers"), whose camp was on the hill now occupied by the Fraserview neighbourhood. It is the location of the historic Fraser Cemetery, which rivals Victoria's Ross Bay Cemeteryfor the number of historically significant graves and monuments. Also located in Sapperton are the Royal Columbian Hospital, Sapperton Station, andBraid Station.

Uptown "6th and 6th"

Development of an uptown commercial area around 6th Street and 6th Avenue started in 1954, with the opening of Woodward's department store. Added momentum came with the relocation of the public library from downtown to uptown in 1958. In 1992 Woodward's was expanded and modernized into a shopping centre and took the name Woodwards Place. With the bankruptcy of Woodward's in 1993, the name of the centre was changed to Royal City Centre Mall.Moody Park is an important recreational area in the uptown area.

The West End

Opposite Sapperton's north end, New Westminster's West End was once fairly separate from the city proper, and has a neighbourhood commercial node along 12th Street and 20th Street approximately between London Street and Eighth Ave. The area features antique and one-of-a-kind stores and is designated as the art deco section of the city.^{[citation needed]}

Westminster Quay

The Westminster Quay

Westminster Quay was an Expo-era (mid-1980s) development to revitalize New Westminster and accompanied the development of the SkyTrain line to Vancouver. In addition to a large public market and a 2.5-diamond-rated hotel, The Inn at the Quay, a large condominium tower and townhouse complex was built, accessed from the older Columbia Street area of downtown by an overpass. The impetus provided by this project has spilled over onto the inland side of the rail tracks, with new tower developments focusing on the area southwest of 8th Street (the area known formerly as "the Swamp" and Chinatown). As of July 2007, the Quay's commercial component had noticeably decreased, with many vacancies, compared to the much more active Lonsdale Quay in North Vancouver. Responding to the decrease of business, the ownership group closed the Westminster Quay Market for renovations. The market re-opened in September 2010 with Donald's Market as the main anchor.^[16] Stores are still moving in with the latest being The Crab Shop. ^[17]

Commerce and industry

With the completion of the transcontinental railway in 1886, trade began to shift to nearby Vancouver. Nonetheless, New Westminster weathered the loss, and remained an important industry and transportation centre. The local economy has always had a mix of industrial sectors, but it has evolved over the years, moving from a reliance on the primary resources of lumber and fishing in the 19th century, to heavy industry and manufacturing in the first half of the 20th century,^[who?] to retail from the mid-1950s to the 1970s, to professional and business services in the 1990s, and finally to high-tech and fibre-optic industry in the early 21st century.^{[who?][citation needed]}

Arts and culture

The city has several live performance venues, ranging from the Massey Theatre adjacent to New Westminster High School, to the Burr Theatre, a converted cinema on Columbia Street, and two theatrical venues in Queens Park (One being the Bernie Legge Theatre, home of the Vagabond Players, which were formed in 1937.) The Royal City Musical Theatre, a long-established New Westminster tradition, uses the Massey, while comedy and mystery theatricals use the stages in Queens Park. Also in Queens Park is the Queens Park Arena, longtime home to the legendary New Westminster Salmonbellies professional lacrosse team, as well as an open-air stadium used for baseball and field sports. The Burr Theatre (originally the Columbia Theatre), named for New Westminster native Raymond Burr, was operated by the Raymond Burr Performing Arts Society who produced professional -quality mysteries and comedies between October 2000 and January 2005. February 2005 saw the theatre reopen as a vaudeville theatre with three major productions by The Heartaches Razz Band and in February 2006 collaboration with The Screaming Chicken Theatrical Society produced the first Annual Vancouver International Burlesque Festival. The theatre was sold by the City of New Westminster through a public request for proposal process to the owner of Lafflines Comedy Club. After extensive renovations to convert it into a cabaret style theatre, it is now called The Columbia, home of Lafflines Comedy Club. Douglas College also offers post-secondary training in theatre, stagecraft and music, as well as non-credit courses in music for all ages and ability levels, through the Douglas College Community Music School.^[18] Theatre productions and music concerts at Douglas College take place in the Laura C. Muir Performing Arts Theatre and the smaller, more intimate Studio Theatre from September to April.

Heritage

Irving House
Established	1865
Location	New Westminster British ColumbiaCanada
Type	historical house museum
Website	[1]

The main feature of the New Westminster Museum and Archives (NWMA) is the 1865 Irving House, which is the oldest intact house in the BC Lower Mainland. In the museum are treasures such as the 1876 coach used by Lord Dufferin, then the Governor General of Canada, to tour the new province of British Columbia including Barkerville via the Cariboo Road. The city's archives hold corporate and personal treasures such as 1859 maps of the city drawn by the Royal Engineers and official city records. Other heritage artifacts in the city include the 1937 Samson V paddlewheeler, the 1890s armouries, 1850s historic cannons, two of the old BC Pen buildings, numerous cemeteries, and dozens of heritage homes, many of which are from the 19th century. The Museum is affiliated with CMA, theCHIN, and Virtual Museum of Canada.

Hyack Festival and the Hyack Anvil Battery

May Day celebrations in 1913. Young girls dance around a maypole.

New Westminster's May Day celebration began in 1870 and continues today as an important civic tradition, lending the city the distinction of having the longest-running May Day celebration of its type in the British Commonwealth. (At least three other Lower Mainland communities still celebrate May Day: Port Coquitlam, Ladner in Delta, and Bradner in Abbotsford.)

The May Queen circa 1887.

Mayor Wayne Wright sets off an anvil shot during the 2008 Ancient and Honourable Hyack Anvil Battery Salute.

The May Day festival, held on the Victoria Day weekend and more formally known as theHyack Festival, is distinguished by the Ancient and Honourable Hyack Anvil Battery Salute, a tradition created by The New Westminster Fire Department during colonial times as a surrogate for a 21-gun salute. With no cannons available in the early colony, the Fire Department—known as the Hyacks, from the Chinook Jargon for "fast" or "quick", here derived from its use as a command for "hurry up!"— improvised by placing gunpowder between two anvils, the top one upturned, and igniting the charge from a safe distance, hurling the upper anvil into the air.

Each year, in preparation for May Day, local schoolchildren are taught to dance around a maypole with colourful ribbons. Elections are held at elementary schools in the city, and, from them one girl is selected to become the year's May Queen, and two students from each school to become members of her "May Queen Suite" and "Royal Knights." On a Wednesday of the festival, elementary school students gather at Queen's Park Stadium to dance, and the May Queen is crowned.^[19]

Educational institutions

Douglas College, a major community college, has campuses in New Westminster and Coquitlam. The college has an enrollment of 12,000 students and offers degrees, associate degrees, and two-year career and University Transfer programs to local, national and international students. The Justice Institute of British Columbia offers training to municipal police forces, fire departments, provincial corrections, court services, and paramedics with the British Columbia Ambulance Service. The Institute operates a Centre for Conflict Resolution, a Centre forLeadership and Community Learning, Executive Programs, a Public Safety Seminar Series, and the AboriginalLeadership Diploma Program.

Boucher Institute of Naturopathic Medicine (BINM), the only Naturopathic medical school in western Canada, offering the N.D. degree in Naturopathic Medicine in both 4-year and 6-year programs is located here.

School District 40 New Westminster has one high school (New Westminster Secondary School), two middle schools, and nine elementary schools.

[edit]Transportation

[edit]Road Network

The Pattullo Bridge (upper centre) connects New Westminster (left) with Surrey (right) across the Fraser River. Queensborough is in the lower left of the photo.

New Westminster Bridge

There are no freeways within New Westminster’s city limits, although the Trans-Canada Highway (Highway 1) is accessible from nearby Coquitlam, via the Brunette Avenue interchange, and Burnaby, via the Cariboo Road and Canada Way interchanges.

The Queensborough Bridge (part of Highway 91A) connects mainland New Westminster to Queensborough, Richmond, and, via the Alex Fraser Bridge, Delta. The Pattullo Bridge (part of Highways 1A and 99A) links New Westminster with Surrey. The lesser-used Derwent Way Bridgeconnects Queensborough with Annacis Island of Delta.

Public Transit

Public transportation is provided by TransLink. Along with a number of bus routes, the city is served by the following stations on the SkyTrainsystem:

• 22nd Street Station (Expo Line, Millennium Line)
• New Westminster Station (Expo Line, Millennium Line)
• Columbia Station (Expo Line, Millennium Line)
• Sapperton Station (Millennium Line)
• Braid Station (Millennium Line)

The city is located within Zone 2 of TransLink’s fare structure.