Selling Dirt in Victoria BC

The Historic Connection

Told by a History Buff

When I am out selling real estate with clients in my car traveling the roads and streets of Victoria and its neighboring villages and area, I often point out some historical fact pertaining to the neighborhoods we travel through.

I would say:” This road we are traveling on – is an old railway bed!” and continue explaining that Victoria until 1919 had not 1 but 3 railways going North onto the Peninsula. Then of course I cannot help but mention that I built my present house on such a railway bed.  I usually embellish the story with the anecdote of hearing train whistles at midnight!

When traveling around Panama Flats in Saanich West I mention that local land speculators sold lots, sight unseen, to returning World War I veterans in what to day is recognized as a flood plain. So of course I promise not to do such a thing to any of my present clients!

If you are a beginner at selling Real Estate or an Old-timer like me, it always makes for interesting conversation when you ask your clients what their hobbies are. Like do they golf, lawn bowl or play tennis? Then show them a few of the available facilities like the Ardmore Golf Course on West Saanich Rd or the Sidney Lawn Bowling Club on Lochside Dr. You will find Tennis courts in many parks!

Meanwhile back at the railroads. You just have to know that Interurban Rd was the railway bed for British Columbia Electric Railway called the Interurban Line. The Victoria & Sidney Railway or simply the V & S was the first train running North through Saanich to Sidney. To day we have the name V & S memorialized in the road Veyaness Rd! The last railway line to be constructed (during WWI) was Canadian Northern Pacific Railway’s spur line from Victoria to Patricia Bay at Sidney along Lochside Dr. Of course the arrival of competition from trucks and car made these lines uneconomical and by early 1920 they had finished their runs and the rails were actually lifted and shipped to Vancouver for use there!

So now a days when I travel the roads of the Peninsula it gives me great pleasure to think back on the days when no one had heard of Computers, handheld PDAs and don’t forget the dreaded Cell Phones! I believe that life here around Victoria was and maybe is something very special and it helps to take a historical perspective to really appreciate the ways it was!

Did I mention that there indeed was one Armed Holdup on the V & S? ……another time