Fairfield is a neighbourhood of

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

. It is bounded by the

James Bay James Bay (french: Baie James; cr, ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, Wînipekw, dirty water) is a large body of water located on the southern end of Hudson Bay in Canada. Both bodies of water extend from the Arctic Ocean, of which James Bay is the southernmost pa ...

, Downtown, Harris Green, Fernwood, Rockland, and Gonzales (Foul Bay) neighbourhoods, and meets the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the south.

Community

Fairfield is the southernmost neighbourhood in the city of Victoria, on southern

Vancouver Island Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are of land. The island is the largest by ...

. It is Victoria's largest community by population and area, when considered together with the adjacent Gonzales neighbourhood. Fairfield is a residential community with a mix of low-rise apartments and single family homes on well-maintained, tree-lined streets, such as Wellington Avenue. It is bounded to the east by

Oak Bay Oak Bay is a municipality incorporated in 1906 that is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is one of thirteen member municipalities of the Capital Regional District, and is bordered ...

, to the north by the community of Rockland, to the west by

Beacon Hill Park Beacon Hill Park is a 75 ha (200 acre) park located along the shore of Juan de Fuca Strait in Victoria, British Columbia. The park is popular both with tourists and locals, and contains a number of amenities including woodland and shoreline trail ...

and to the south by the ocean shoreline of the

Strait of Juan de Fuca The Strait of Juan de Fuca (officially named Juan de Fuca Strait in Canada) is a body of water about long that is the Salish Sea's outlet to the Pacific Ocean. The international boundary between Canada and the United States runs down the centre ...

. Fairfield features the historic

Ross Bay Cemetery Ross Bay Cemetery is located at 1516 Fairfield Road in Victoria, British Columbia, on Vancouver Island, Canada. Many historical figures from the early days of the province and colony of British Columbia are buried at Ross Bay. History The ceme ...

, as well as many heritage buildings dating from the late Victorian and Edwardian periods. The Fairfield Gonzalez Community Association (FGCA) serves "to enhance the quality of life in Fairfield by involving community members in identifying and acting on the needs of area residents". The FGCA operates from and maintains the Fairfield Community Place, Fairfield's only neighbourhood centre. Its various committees help organize special events, recycling programs, beach cleanups, emergency preparedness programs, review and publicize planning and zoning changes, increase public awareness of community impacts from development, etc. Significant population growth and demographic shifts are expected for southern Vancouver Island. The City of Victoria has prepared a neighbourhood profile from 2001 data.

History

Having founded the Hudson's Bay Company's (HBC) Fort Victoria in the 1850s, Sir James Douglas acquired for himself a large property between Fort Street and Clover Point, which he called Fairfield Farm. To the east lay the lands of

Joseph Despard Pemberton Joseph Despard Pemberton (July 23, 1821 – November 11, 1893) was a surveyor for the Hudson's Bay Company, Surveyor General for the Colony of Vancouver Island, a pre-Confederation politician, a businessman and a farmer. He was born in 1821 i ...

(which stretched into what would become

) and Isabelle Ross, BC's first female land owner (the location of

, land mistakenly thought to have been owned by her husband and HBC chief factor Charles Ross). "Fairfield", at 601 Trutch Street, was built in 1861 by

Joseph Trutch Sir Joseph William Trutch, (18 January 1826 – 4 March 1904) was an English-born Canadian engineer, surveyor and politician who served as first Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia. Early life and career Born in Ashcott, England, Tru ...

, who would later become the first Lieutenant Governor of

. Although some houses in the western areas of Fairfield date from the 1880s, it was shortly after the turn of the century that much of the neighbourhood was developed, in a residential housing boom that ended in 1913. It was in the early part of the twentieth century that the original Sir James Douglas Elementary School and the present Margaret Jenkins Elementary School were built to serve the community. One of the oldest structures in central Fairfield is located at 1263 Richardson Street, a gothic gabled building from the 1860s (now strata-titled) that was moved down the hill from Rockland Avenue in the Rockland neighbourhood to make way for a much grander residence that today stands beside the Langham Court theatre.

Landmarks and Parkland

City Parks in the Fairfield neighbourhood include: * Beacon Hill *Clover Point *

*Moss Rock (Fairfield Hill) Park *Robert Porter Park *Brooke Street Park *Eberts Street Park *Pioneer Square as well as several other smaller parks, playgrounds and greenspaces. The popular scenic destination Clover Point offers views south to Washington State's

Olympic Mountains The Olympic Mountains are a mountain range on the Olympic Peninsula of the Pacific Northwest of the United States. The mountains, part of the Pacific Coast Ranges, are not especially high – Mount Olympus is the highest at ; however, the easte ...

, east to the impressive snow clad

Mount Baker Mount Baker (Lummi: '; nok, Kw’eq Smaenit or '), also known as Koma Kulshan or simply Kulshan, is a active glacier-covered andesitic stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the North Cascades of Washington in the United States. Mount ...

—a dormant volcano—and west to the

Sooke Hills Sooke is a district municipality on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, Canada, by road from Victoria, the capital of British Columbia. Sooke, the westernmost of Greater Victoria's Western Communities, is to the north and west of the Sooke B ...

of southwestern Vancouver Island. The ocean waters off of the Point and along the Dallas Road waterfront are very popular with wind surfing and para-sailing enthusiasts thanks to strong on-shore winds. Clover Point is also the site of one of Victoria's two sewage pumping station's and a possible location for a sewage treatment plant mandated for the city by the BC government in July 2006.

Landmarks A landmark is a recognizable natural or artificial feature used for navigation, a feature that stands out from its near environment and is often visible from long distances. In modern use, the term can also be applied to smaller structures or f ...

and areas of special interest include: * YM-

YWCA The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) is a nonprofit organization with a focus on empowerment, leadership, and rights of women, young women, and girls in more than 100 countries. The World office is currently based in Geneva, Swi ...

of Greater Victoria * Christ Church Cathedral and School *Mount St. Mary Hospital *Beacon Hill

Montessori The Montessori method of education involves children's natural interests and activities rather than formal teaching methods. A Montessori classroom places an emphasis on hands-on learning and developing real-world skills. It emphasizes indepen ...

Pre-School *Fairfield

United Church A united church, also called a uniting church, is a church formed from the merger or other form of church union of two or more different Protestant Christian denominations. Historically, unions of Protestant churches were enforced by the state ...

Sir James Douglas James Douglas may refer to: Scottish noblemen Lords of Angus * James Douglas, 3rd Earl of Angus (1426–1446), Scottish nobleman * James Douglas, Earl of Angus (1671–1692), son of the 2nd Marquess of Douglas Lords of Douglas * James Douglas, ...

Elementary School *Ross Bay Villa (a.k.a. The Winter House) Fairfield is the site of popular commercial hubs, Cook Street Village, Five Corners and the Fairfield Plaza. Cook Street Village, a commercial area characterized by sidewalk-flanking

Horse Chestnut The genus ''Aesculus'' ( or ), with species called buckeye and horse chestnut, comprises 13–19 species of flowering plants in the family Sapindaceae. They are trees and shrubs native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere, with six species n ...

trees, low-height buildings and the absence of bisecting roads, is a popular shopping and social strip in Fairfield, with cafés, restaurants, small boutiques and grocery stores. Shops and services in the village include the locally renowned Pic-a-Flic video store, Moka House, Bubby's Kitchen and the Beagle Pub. In 2006, proposed developments within this part of Fairfield sparked concern and debate among local residents. Another small neighbourhood centre, known as Five Corners, is located at the intersection of Moss Street and Fairfield Road, featuring Sir James Douglas Elementary School, Fairfield United Church, Fairfield Bicycles, a general store, fish and chips shop, veterinary clinic and other services. This location has historically been a hub of community activity since the community's earliest days. The school yard of Sir James Douglas school is the site of the locally-famous Moss Street Market, which runs weekly from April until October. The Fairfield Plaza, a compact

strip mall A strip mall, strip center or strip plaza is a type of shopping center common in North America where the stores are arranged in a row, with a sidewalk in front. Strip malls are typically developed as a unit and have large parking lots in front. ...

, is another modest shopping area, situated near the Fairfield/Gonzales border. It is worth noting however, as having the first

Thrifty Foods Thrifty Foods (often shortened to Thrifty's) is a chain of supermarkets located in British Columbia, Canada. Background Thrifty Foods was founded by Alex Campbell and Ernie Skinner in 1977 when the first store was opened in Victoria's Fairfie ...

of the Thrifty Foods grocery store chain Thrifty Foods - Our Company / Locations / Victoria - Fairfield - 1590 Fairfield, as well as the Ross Bay Pub, the Ross Bay Health Centre, government liquor store, Home Hardware and other enterprises. Across Fairfield Road from the western entrance to the Fairfield Plaza is

Emily Carr Emily Carr (or M. Emily Carr as she sometimes signed her work) (December 13, 1871 – March 2, 1945) was a Canadian artist and writer who was inspired by the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast. One of the painters in Canada to ado ...

’s grave, in the

References

*Terry Reksten, ''"More English than the English": A Very Social History of Victoria, 1986: Victoria, Orca Book Publishers *Ken Roueche, "A FAIRFIELD HISTORY": The story of the many great Canadians who have called Fairfield home: the Father of British Columbia, the Hanging Judge and the Royal Family of Hockey, just to name a few. And, the events that shaped Fairfield including The Guns of Dallas Road, the 1909 real estate boom and the arrival of the streetcars. Trafford Publishing, 2005 *Martin Segger and Douglas Franklin, ''Victoria: A Primer for Regional History in Architecture'' Victoria: 1979: Heritage Architectural Guides

External links

*
City of Victoria Community Resources Inventory - Fairfield
– Local businesses & resources {{coord, 48.4164, N, 123.355361, W, display=title Neighbourhoods in Victoria, British Columbia