Influenced by Russian Orthodox country chapel architecture, this house is built in its style and setting as a reflection of the painting ‘Beyond Eternal Peace’ by the Russian mystic and painter Isaac Leviton. Alexander Zuckerberg was an Estonian, educated in Czarist Russia as a civil engineer, a self-taught cabinetmaker and sculptor.
After Alexander Zuckerberg’s death in 1961, the island and its buildings deteriorated for 20 years until it was purchased by the city in 1981. In the spring of 1983 the Castlegar Rotary Club began developing it as a park.
From Zuckerberg Island
Long ago the Columbia River carved through the Selkirk Mountains forming a major valley. The ice age buried the river and mountain tops with glaciers. As the ice melted into the valley the Columbia River had, at times, many river channels. Zuckerberg Island may have been formed as a lag deposit within this channeling.
The island formation and unveiling after the ice age invited rich and diverse vegetation and wildlife communities. The relatively wet and mild climate supported this rich environment which attracted native inhabitants who prospered by the local bounty. These Indians settled on the island during the winter using their stored food reserves of salmon. Even as explorer David Thompson surveyed this area of the Columbia River in 1811, the Indians were still inhabiting the island during spring fishing and winter camp.
The attraction of the island drew Alexander Zuckerberg to establish his special island home. And even today, as a unique river front park, Zuckerberg Island remains not only a place of beauty but also a legacy to its historical past.
From Columbia River