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The Early History
In the beginning there was nothing - but trees and more trees and
mosquitos and rivers and streams and Native Indians and a few trappers'
residences and a few stores.
The Gold Rush
March of 1858 the bubble burst. Gold had been found in the lower
Fraser Valley (Hope to Lilloet). The California gold rush was over
and the gold running out but the word of the Fraser Valley strike
had spread like wildfire to the California communities. It was not
long before peoples of very mixed ethnic and social backgrounds
were pouring into British Columbia.
This had such an effect on basic law and order (however much
there was in those pioneer times...) that the then Governor, George
Douglas, requested that England send over troops to help maintain
law and order; to lay out the new capital city; and to survey and
build new roads across British Columbia so as to facilitate the
gold rush and improve communications with the interior of the
colony.
 The
Royal Engineers
The Royal Engineers commanded by Colonel John Moody were an elite
hand picked group of Sappers whose many skills varied from
surveying to carpentry. They were dispatched from England to
arrive at Fort Langley in the winter of 1859.
The Site
 In
the summer of 1859 the Sappers toiled in the rain and heat and
mosquitoes to clear the area of trees, and started to build their
camp - on the hill overlooking the Fraser River.
In the 5 years that the Royal Engineers were
camped on this
site, they had laid the infrastructure for New Westminster -
building roads, schools, administrative buildings, etc. They also
surveyed much of British Columbia.
More detailed information about the early history can be found at the
New Westminster Public Library Heritage site.
The Penitentiary
What does all this have to do with the penitentiary and The
Pen Cafe you may well ask? The Royal Engineers' camp is the site
where the Penitentiary would eventually be built and which is now
the site of a modern housing estate and two heritage buildings:
the Governor's offices (the Gatehouse) and the Old Gaol. The fact is that the
piece of land where the penitentiary once stood is most probably
one of the most historic pieces of real estate in B.C.
Officially opened in September, 1878, the B.C. Penitentiary housed
23 inmates in its first year, 11 transferred from Victoria Gaol,
and 12 from the Provincial Gaol in New Westminster. The first
warden, Arthur McBride, had been governor of the Victoria Gaol for
the previous 14 years.
The original prison was housed in a building of heavy stone
construction with a mansard roof.
It became increasingly clear in the 1960's and 70's that the
stone fortress no longer lent itself to modern penal approaches.
There were a number of serious prison riots. The worst was the
riot of 1976 when the inmates destroyed the East Wing.
It was decided then to close the Penitentiary and on February
15, 1980 the last of the inmates were moved to other facilities.
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