A postcard depicting Nanaimo's harbour in 1900. Construction started on the Bastion in 1853 by the Hudson's Bay Company. The building is Nanaimo's undisputed most recognizable landmark. (Nanaimo Community Archives)

By Ian Holmes

Stories of the past

VIDEO: Passionate Nanaimo historian concludes impactful career

Feb 10, 2025 | 6:51 AM

NANAIMO — Possessing an encyclopedic knowledge of Nanaimo’s past and undeniable charm, a leading local history buff is calling it a career.

However, she’s not going quickly, or quietly for that matter.

Christine Meutzner, who managed the Nanaimo Community Archives for 27 years, recently switched from a full-time role to a one-day-a-week schedule until her formal retirement in June.

Credited with playing a critical role in collecting, preserving and modernizing public access records on Nanaimo’s vast history, the ever-engaging Meutzner is proud of their extensive historical written text, maps and imagery database between the 1850s and the 1980s.

“Photos are probably our most asked for item and we have tens and thousands of them. They’re not equally useful, but one man’s photo of a sewer line is gold depending on what you do for a job,” Meutnzer told NanaimoNewsNOW during a recent in-depth interview.

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Meutzner has long had a deep appreciation for Nanaimo’s grand institutional heritage structures like the courthouse and Great National Land Building.

One of Nanaimo’s most prolific landmarks, the courthouse on Front. St. home to supreme court proceedings, was constructed between 1895 and 1896. (file photo/NanaimoNewsNOW)

The Great National Lands Building, constructed in 1914, anchors the intersections of Commerical/Church and Chapel streets. (file photo/NanaimoNewsNOW)

While Meutnzer still has a clear affinity for those grand iconic buildings, she became enamoured by the many humble small miners’ cottages which still dot Nanaimo’s landscape from the south end to the Wellington area.

Those homes represented the hard-working, blue-collar roots of a bygone industry, but Meutzner is quick to point out coal mining established the foundation of the Nanaimo we know today.

“Seeing those little houses planted everywhere reminds you of that, you can see them in Northfield for instance, there is a couple in the Wellington area, there’s some in the south end of town. They are everywhere.”

Meutzner cites Gillespie St. as one of her favourite areas of the city, with its old homes serving as a snapshot in time of what a typical, modest Nanaimo residence looked like 100 years ago.

Nanaimo’s Wellington neighbourhood, primarily located just west of Diver Lake, was home to a bustling coal-mining settlement, which also included short-lived Black community, according to Christine Meutzner. (Nanaimo Community Archives)

Structures and historical sites play a primary role in telling Nanaimo’s story, however Meutzner said it’s the people, past and present, she finds most fascinating.

A city with a long history of volunteerism, Meutzner said people devoted their free time to housing projects, healthcare, recreational, and educational projects among many others to improve the community’s quality of life.

She said contributions by volunteers were essential as needs exploded, as did the community’s population.

“The mayors, councillors and functioning of the City is very important, but that only represents a small part of the community,” Meutzner noted.

She said the projects and impact of the city’s volunteers are documented by NCA.

Members of Nanaimo’s first bicycle club pose for a picture in 1891 (Nanaimo Community Archives)

As Meutzner reflects on her career, she said Nanaimo’s downtown holds a special place in her heart.

She said the old buildings represent a grounded, deep-rooted community.

Downtown Nanaimo is home to some of the oldest structures in the province, Meutzner pointed out.

In her words, Downtown Nanaimo signifies “something substantial, comforting” and far removed from a boom-and-bust town.

“It’s really helpful for people to feel part of their community if they know the history, otherwise they’re just kind of unmoored from it and they’re not going to engage in it because they don’t know anything about it,” Meuntzner said.

City of Nanaimo community heritage planner Chris Sholberg said he’s indebted to Meutzner’s work to preserve Nanaimo’s past to benefit the present and future.

In an era of incredible growth in Nanaimo, its history could be easily forgotten, however Sholberg said Meutzner’s knowledge and diligence early in her NCA career proved to be instrumental.

Meutzner helped launch the City’s Community Heritage Register, a database home to some 170 buildings and sites of historical value.

“We very much relied on Christine to develop that information for us and we use that for our purposes of evaluating buildings for providing financial assistance for heritage conservation work,” Sholberg said.

Created in 2002 and incrementally expanded in subsequent years, Sholberg said the Community Heritage Registry rekindles Nanaimo’s history.

“These buildings tell a lot of stories and it’s important for us to have that information and have those sites in existence for future generations to tell that story.”

More information on the non-profit Nanaimo Community Archives can be found on the organization’s website linked here.

Nanaimo Community Archives, located on the Wharf St. entrance of 150 Commercial St., includes a public reading room and on-site research opportunities by appointment.

View of Commercial St. in Oct. 1967 (Nanaimo Community Archives)

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