416 Silica Street

Style: Late Victorian

This house is in the F. H. Latimer Survey- First Addition to the Town site 1891-1895.

Ralph Bradford and family, a local hotel keeper, built this house circa 1895. According to the Assessment Records of 1898 the house was valued at $250.00 with the lot assessed at $350.00. This was a simple house built for a working class family.

On October 21, 1907 Mary Elizabeth Benedict* purchased the house from a Mrs. Mott*. The assessed value was $1000.00 for the house and $600.00 for the lot. Mr. and Mrs. Benedict owned and operated a grocery store on the corner of Silica and Josephine Streets. After the death of his wife, in 1912, Charles Benedict moved to California.

Another resident of note was Alexander Gibson. Mr. Gibson was born in California, but by 1898 found himself in Rossland. B. C., working in the local mines. In 1910 he moved to Nelson and entered into a partnership with J.A. Smith and A.S. Hunden (B.C. Plumbing and Heating Company). Mr. Gibson was known throughout the Kootenays for his prowess as a baseball player. It was said his hobby was knocking in home runs!

Cast your eyes about and you will see high ceilings and heating grates, window and door frames, a banister and newel post, baseboards and even a hatch into a stone cellar that have been in situ for over a century. Near the front entry is the original electrical box from the time when the City considered using porch lights in place of street lights. The side walk stones have settled in place over the last 100 years.  

As you stand on the porch let your mind travel back to a time when Nelson was the newest City in the Empire and Queen Victoria was on the throne. To a time when a woman was considered flirtatious if one glimpsed a shapely ankle and a full course dinner could be purchased for 25 cents. This house was built in a time when the kitchen was the heart of the home and Sunday dinners were family gatherings. Now, if only the walls could talk.

This home was part of the 2008 Heritage Home Tour.

* In 1873 women who owned property in British Columbia became the first in Canada to secure the right to vote in Municipal Elections.

Indoor photograph coutesy of Margaret Stacey; Gibson Obituary, The Nelson Daily News, 10 August 1938.