The Nelson Courthouse, at the northwest corner of Ward and Vernon Streets, was built in 1908. The most photographed building in town, this beautiful edifice has stood on the corner of Vernon and Ward Streets for 112 years now. It continues in use as the city's courthouse, now under a thick growth of ivy, resplendent through the summer months.
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The new Court House is by long odds the handsomest building in Nelson and is one to which the people of the city can point with pride."
Nelson Daily News, November 29, 1908
In 1962 the Nelson Courthouse was
fire bombed. If not for the timely and selfless efforts of a nearby cab driver, the courthouse may have been lost.
There is an information sign for the courthouse across Ward Street in front of the Nelson & District Credit Union. Following is text from that historical marker.
Nelson's Courthouse is an historic landmark, as well as an active hall of justice. Few Nelson buildings have been a subject for photographers as often, or have inspired such lasting community pride.
The building was designed by F.M. Rattenbury, famous for the British Columbia Parliament Buildings and the Empress Hotel in Victoria. Rattenbury used a composite of Romanesque and Chateau styles to create a structure of stately beauty combined with an imposing strength appropriate to its judiciary nature.
Contractor W.C. Gillett, who was mayor of Nelson from 1906 to 1907, used Kootenay Marble quarried from his own Kaslo site for the construction. He employed British Columbia Douglas fir for the interior woodwork, and the roof was constructed of slate taken from the west coast.
A building long admired for its fine design, the Nelson Court House stands as a testament to beauty and strength in a community that takes pride in its own living history.
Nelson Court House
DESCRIPTION OF HISTORIC PLACE
The Court House building on the site of the original wooden courthouse (1893) occupies the northwest corner of the intersection of Ward and Vernon Streets in Nelson, B.C. It is recognizable for its extensive use of stone, employed to effect an ornate fanciful appearance.
HERITAGE VALUE
The Nelson Court House is significant primarily for its aesthetic value, its landmark status, and its design by one of British Columbia’s most important architects.
The Court House is of central physical importance to Nelson both for its fanciful and ornate rendering in stone, and its highly visible location. Along with the Hume Hotel and Touchstones Nelson: Museum of Art and History (the former Post Office and Customs House) the Court House establishes the intersection of Ward and Vernon Streets as an important area of the city. The first Supreme Court sitting commenced on February 11, 1909, with the County Court opening on March 1 of the same year.
The building is important for its design by Francis Mawson Rattenbury, an architect renowned in British Columbia for such buildings as the Vancouver Court House, the Provincial Legislature building and the Empress Hotel in Victoria. The Clerk of the Works during the building’s construction was Alexander Carrie, a talented and prolific local architect who was responsible for the design of many of Nelson’s finest commercial buildings. The building is designed in a combination of Chateau and Richardsonian Romanesque style, The solid rusticated stonework, vertical massing and arched entryways give the building an imposing sense of importance.
The building design and site retaining walls manage the severe grade changes between the street intersection and natural grade to the northwest of the site.
From the City of Nelson Heritage Register, Page 37
