It seems that all the hydrants in downtown Quesnel have been artfully painted, each one recreating a figure representative of the surroundings, like a newsboy in front of the Quesnel Cariboo Observer newspaper, a blacksmith in front of a former blacksmith shop and this pilot in front of the Quesnel Cenotaph.
Standing in the sidewalk in front of the cenotaph, this hydrant "
was painted as a World War 1 pilot to commemorate all the brave men and women that fought for the right for us to enjoy peace and freedom". Each hydrant has a sponsor; the Hairdresser's sponsor is
The Royal Canadian Legion
The quote above was taken from the
Little People Walking Tour Guide. The "Little People" project was a city beautification project undertaken by the City of Quesnel to have many of the city's fire hydrants dressed up as citizens of the city from days gone by. In 2001 the city asked artist Leigh Cassidy to beautify their hydrants and this is what she came up with. To date 22 hydrants in the downtown area have been transformed into "Little People".
In 2001 the Quesnel Downtown Association asked me what could be done with their fire hydrants. My suggestion was to turn the hydrants into local historical figures. The sponsors got to choose or were offered who from our local history could represent their business and away we went.
This year, 2013 will be 12 years the hydrants have been enjoyed by tourists and locals alike. They do have an anti-graffiti coating I purchase from Canadian Building Restoration. The hydrants do get touch ups every couple of years as they are in the near vicinity to just about everything including the salt trucks, the plows and of course dogs.
It has been a very pleasurable job sitting on street corners painting the little guys and gals. I get people from just about everywhere asking about them and their history.
From Leigh Cassidy's Little People Page
Across the street is St. Andrews United Church, Not only is St. Andrews United Quesnel's oldest church, built in 1911, it is also Quesnel's oldest non-residential building still used for its original purpose. The Gothic Revival church has obviously been well maintained during its life of continuous use as a church. Occasional Methodist services took place in Quesnel as early as 1868. The first Presbyterian services in the Cariboo began with the visit of the Rev. G. A. Wilson to the Cariboo in 1894. Since that time, Presbyterian services were held fairly regularly over the following years. A little "union church", built in Quesnel in 1895, was used by all the denominations. In 1911, St. Andrew's Presbyterian opened their own church building. While it remained a Presbyterian Church for 14 years, in 1925, with
Church Union in Canada, the Methodist and Presbyterian churches amalgamated to form St. Andrew's United Church.