Saanich Pioneer Society - Central Saanich, British Columbia, Canada - Historical Society Headquarters on Waymarking.com

The society was founded in 1870, flourishing for a few years and then disappearing. On November 14, 1922 a social to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Mr. and Mrs W. Richardson (Polly and “old Bill”) was held in the Temperance Hall. It was a wonderful gathering of our neighbours and from it evolved the nucleus of the current Pioneers Society. Meetings were held in the homes of various members, but they wanted a home of their own where the society could socialize and at the same time store the memorabilia the members thought should be saved for posterity. From that came the present cabin which was built in 1933 with the first log being rolled into place by Dr. Simon F. Tolmie on Feb. 8. The hauling of logs and construction of the building was freely given by the Pioneers and their descendants and it was finished and formally opened July 1, 1933.

We are now an archives and museum housing collections from the pioneer families, both textual and in artifact form. We have a simulated pioneer kitchen; a handicraft corner with women's beautiful handwork displays; a library with a wide variety of books for loan and ongoing changing displays. There is also a good collection of First Nations artifacts and our verandah shows off a display of larger implements and domestic paraphernalia. We are fortunate to have a very hard working archival group that is putting information on computer for preservation and these records are available to the public upon request.