The Millar Addition is a suburb of

Prince George, British Columbia Prince George is a city in British Columbia, Canada, situated at the confluence of the Fraser River, Fraser and Nechako River, Nechako rivers. The city itself has a population of 76,708; the metro census agglomeration has a population of 89,490 ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. It is named in honor of its developer,

Charles Vance Millar Charles Vance Millar (June 28, 1854 – October 31, 1926) was a Canadian lawyer and financier. He was the president and part-owner of the Toronto brewery of O'Keefe Brewery. He also owned racehorses, including the 1915 King's Plate–winning ...

, who later became famous for leaving behind the most notorious

will Will may refer to: Common meanings * Will and testament, instructions for the disposition of one's property after death * Will (philosophy), or willpower * Will (sociology) * Will, volition (psychology) * Will, a modal verb - see Shall and will ...

in Canadian history, which was the catalyst for the Stork Derby.

History

When the construction of the

Grand Trunk Pacific Railway The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway was a historic Canadian transcontinental railway running from Fort William, Ontario (now Thunder Bay) to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, a Pacific coast port. East of Winnipeg the line continued as the National ...

was announced in the early 1900s, many new towns were built and promoted along the proposed route. Some were built by the railway themselves, while others were built by land speculators, who were hoping to get in on the ground floor before the railway was completed. Sometimes this created a great deal of rivalry. In Prince George, then known as Fort George, there was more rivalry than usual. By the time the railway was ready to purchase land for a townsite there in 1910, two rival ones had already been built,

South Fort George South Fort George is a suburb of Prince George, British Columbia, Canada. Before the arrival of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway in 1914, the Prince George area was known as Fort George and was a Lheidli T'enneh village and Hudson's Bay Company st ...

and Central Fort George, each of them bordering a

Lheidli T'enneh The Lheidli T'enneh Band also known as the Lheidli T'enneh First Nation and historically known as the Fort George Indian Band is the First Nations in Canada, First Nations band government for the Lheidli T'enneh, a subgroup of the Dakelh people ...

village and reserve. Not wanting to buy into either of these rival townsites, the Grand Trunk Pacific began negotiating to purchase the

First Nations First nations are indigenous settlers or bands. First Nations, first nations, or first peoples may also refer to: Indigenous groups *List of Indigenous peoples *First Nations in Canada, Indigenous peoples of Canada who are neither Inuit nor Mé ...

property, but were continually foiled by Central Fort George's promoter, George Hammond, who invited the Chief of Fort George "to tea" on two separate occasions to make sure the Chief knew just what the land was worth to the railway and advised him not to sell. As the negotiations dragged on, an agent for Charles Millar, then the owner of the BC Express Company, successfully made a deal with the Chief and their spokesman, Father

Nicolas Coccola Nicolas Coccola (December 12, 1854–March 1, 1943) was a French Oblate missionary in British Columbia, Canada from 1880 until his death in 1943. He spent 63 years in different regions of the province, working among the Shuswap, Kootenai, Da ...

. When the railway learned that yet another townsite was going to be built on the very land they wanted the most they appealed to Ottawa and Millar's deal was negated. In the end the GTP settled out of court and sold Millar of the property for $59,296, which Millar subdivided and promoted in 1914. It has been theorized that the railway resented having to sell the land to Millar and struck back by building low-level bridges on the upper

Fraser River The Fraser River () is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Blackrock Mountain (Canada), Blackrock Mountain in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia just south of the City of V ...

, effectively blocking one of Millar's sternwheelers, the ''BC Express'', from working on her profitable route from Fort George to

Tête Jaune Cache Tête, head in French, may refer to : * ''Tête'' (sculpture), a 1912 work of art by Amedeo Modigliani; one of the most expensive sculptures ever sold * "Je danse dans ma tête", a 1991 song from the Dion chante Plamondon album by Céline Dion * ...

Modern day

Today, Millar Addition is primarily a residential area and is home to some of the city's oldest heritage homes, some dating back to the early 1920s.

References

External links

The Village of Lheidli1914 in Prince George from Settler's Effects
{{coord missing, British Columbia Neighbourhoods in Prince George, British Columbia