515 Silica Street - Nelson, B.C.
Posted by: 
T0SHEA
N 49° 29.447 W 117° 17.516
11U E 478857 N 5482057
The oldest documented house in Nelson, this building originally sat at the corner of Victoria and Stanley Streets.
Waymark Code: WMHM8D
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Date Posted: 07/22/2013
Views: 2
Built about 1891, this 2 1/2 storey house was moved about 2 1/2 blocks to its present location when the YMCA Building (now the Legion) was built in 1909. Besides being the oldest house in Nelson, it is noteworthy for its association with the husband-and-wife physicians Drs.
Edward Charles and Isabella Arthur, MD., as well as being an Alexander Carrie design, one of many in Nelson.
Edward graduated Trinity College as a physician in 1888 and he and Isabella were married in 1889. Edward went west as a physician with the CPR and in 1891 settled in Nelson as its first physician. He and the Reverend Rogers were responsible for creating Nelson's first school, in May of 1891. Isabella enrolled in the Portland, OR School of Medicine and graduated in 1897, returning to Nelson to hang out her shingle. Over the years the two doctors were responsible for fundraising for the first firehall, the first hospital and many other projects so badly needed by a new and quickly growing town.
The house occupies number 20 on the Nelson Heritage Register 2011 update.
Description
515 Silica Street is a front gabled 2 1/2 storey wood framed house mid-block on the north side of Silica Street between Ward and Josephine Streets, in Nelson B.C.
Value
Constructed c. 1890, the heritage value of the house at 515 Silica Street is found primarily in its age, its physical relocation, and its association with the important husband-and-wife physicians Drs. Edward Charles and Isabella Arthur, MD.
As the oldest extant documented house in Nelson, 515 Silica Street is important as part of the story of Nelson’s drive for respectability and culture. The simplicity of the design displays a pioneering, serviceable character rather than the concerted effort at refinement that became the hallmark of housing in the Uphill neighbourhood just a few years later. Moved to its Silica Street location from its original lot in 1909 to make way for the construction of the YMCA building (now the Royal Canadian Legion) at 402 Victoria Street, the house was subject to the fairly common practice in the early years of western towns of relocating and reusing housing stock rather than opting for demolition. The ability to move buildings was facilitated by the relative lightness and integral strength of early wood-frame houses.
The house is important for its association with the physicians Drs. Edward Charles and Isabella Arthur, MD. Considered one of the important pioneering families in the city for their early championship of education in Nelson (the first school located was in this house), they also opened the first drugstore in the city. Dr. Isabella Arthur, MD was Nelson’s first female physician, and its first School Medical Health Officer; as the City Health Officer, and shepherded the community through the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918. Dr. Edward Charles Arthur, MD became the district coroner, medical health officer, and school trustee.
Character Defining Elements
Site
¶ Location near (1 1/2 blocks away) its first site at 402 Victoria Street)
¶ Location near the commercial centre of town
Buildings
¶ Simple gable-roofed form
¶ Remaining original wood windows
¶ Remaining original exterior trim and details