The buildings are very substantial, and also quite striking, having been constructed with very thick walls of heavy stone in 1900. These buildings were the first two to be designated as heritage structures in the city in or shortly after 1978.
The business of the Coke and Gas Works was to import coal and export refined products, including coke, tar, roofing pitch, creosote, preserving oils, paint and tar paper. As such, its location adjacent to the railway, for economical transportation, was a given. The gasworks part of the name came from its business of supplying the town with coal gas for heating and cooking. The arrival of natural gas pipelines in 1957, however, spelled the end for the gasworks.
From the Nelson Heritage Register, 2011, number 15, page 28:
Description
A complex of stone buildings on the west side of the 600 Block of Railway Street near the western foot of Baker Street. The buildings form a line parallel to the street and Cottonwood Creek on the industrial flats at the west end of downtown Nelson, B.C.
Value
The buildings, constructed by the Nelson Coke and Gas Works Corporation, are important for its location, its design and materials, and for illustrating the history of the development of an economically
powerful and advanced city in an isolated mountainous region.
Built in 1900, the Nelson Coke and Gas Works, together with the Canadian Pacific Railway station (1901) claimed this flatland area of Nelson for its industrial sector. The location allowed the company
to conveniently import its coal and export its products (coke, tar, roofing pitch, creosote, preserving oils, paint and tar paper) via continentally-connected rail lines, and to utilize nearby Cottonwood Creek for the water required in the gasification process.
With the establishment of the gas works, which involved contracting with the Economical Gas Apparatus Construction Co. Ltd. of Toronto and London England, the city had developed a critical piece of infrastructure that would power its aspirations as the economic centre for the Kootenay region. The new technology involved the delivery of residential and commercial gas by means of a low pressure system via a ‘gasometer’ structure. With the required pressure increased in the uphill areas of the city by decreasing the pipe diameters, fuel for heating and cooking was provided throughout the “Queen City”.
Designed and engineered by L.L Merrifield and David Morris, the Gas Works building complex is important for its use of indigenous materials including red brick and granite from the quarry near the
Hall Mines Smelter. The masonry construction also ensured that the extraction machinery was protected in a structure that was both safe and impervious to fire. Placed by masons into irregular coursings to create up to two-foot thick walls, the granite structure is valued for the creative use of masonry which relates materially and visually to the major cultural and commercial buildings in the city core, while exemplifying British Columbia’s early industrial architecture.
The buildings are important for being one of the earliest examples of community-led heritage conservation. The arrival of natural gas to Nelson in 1957 leading to the eventual closure of the plant.
In 1978 the visionary Nelson & District Heritage Conservation & Recreation Society began renovations on the rectangular Retort building. At the same time, the former Administration Building next door became the regional headquarters of the Inland Natural Gas Company, including a complete renovation to its exterior and ground floor interior. These buildings were the first two voluntarily
designated heritage structures in the city, a contrast to the earlier removal of a portion of the Retort Building for ease of traffic flow.