The City of Victoria history

Victoria was among the original twenty-three counties established by the Republic of Texas on March 17, 1836.

Camosun would later be renamed as Fort Victoria in the year 1846, in order to pay homage to Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and quickly established itself in trading furs collected in what was known as New Caledonia.

On March 11, 1850, Richard Blanshard, the Chief Factor of the fort (a rank equivalent to a General Manager) was made governor of the Vancouver Island Colony.

In 1852, the town of Victoria was established.

Gold was discovered in 1855 on the Thompson River in British Columbia.

In 1858, news of the strike was spread to San Francisco when the then governor of the Colony of Vancouver Island, James Douglas, sent a shipment of ore to the San Francisco mint.

Thomas Harris was elected (by acclamation) as Victoria's first Mayor on August 16, 1862, and he presided at the City Council's first meeting held on August 25, 1862.

The Chief Factor of the fort, James Douglas was made governor of the colony, and would be the leading figure in the early development of the city until his retirement in 1864.

In 1865, Esquimalt was made the North Pacific home of the Royal Navy, and remains Canada's west coast naval base.

In 1868, the separate Crown Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia became one.

In 1871, British Columbia became the sixth member of the Canadian Confederation.

To the south is James Bay, which encompasses a portion of the Inner Harbour (including the Parliament Buildings [1897]), but its main orientation is to the Juan de Fuca Strait, on its south.

The world-class Butchart Gardens, begun in 1904 by the wife of a prominent cement manufacturer in nearby Brentwood Bay, features Japanese and Italian gardens and holds an annual flower count (February); the gardens and the Butchart residence have been designated a national historic site of Canada.

A lounge known as the Tea Lobby serves Afternoon Tea to more than 800 guests a day since its commencement with the opening of the hotel, January 20, 1908.

The architect of two of Victoria’s most famous buildings, the Parliament Buildings and the Empress Hotel, was discovered murdered in his home in Bournemouth, England in 1935, with his skull still bearing the blows it received from a carpenter’s mallet.