ARCHITECTURE:
This is a large, two-storey, flat-roofed, Romanesque-style, brick commercial building. The front façade has a round-arched entrance at the extreme left end. To the right is a symmetrical upper floor with two pairs of round-arched windows either side of a large round-arched window under a panel dated 1892. All the openings have pilasters below the arches. The bays are separated by brick pilasters. The basement level has two large entries and segmentally-arched windows. Because of the sloping site, the basement beyond the entrance bay is at ground level. A broad band of plain parging at roof level suggests a lost frieze; narrow metal capping survives. A tall square smokestack at the rear right corner is missing its corbelling. Right and left sides of the roof are parapeted.
ORIGINAL OCCUPANTS:
Designed by John Teague, Victoria mayor and architect of City Hall, The Powerhouse was built for $15,000 to generate electricity for the tram network(502-08 Discovery St, Burnside), after an earlier plant burned. Victoria Daily Colonist reported August 8, 18 2 that it was to be a “substantial structure of stone, brick and iron.” The company became Victoria Electric Railway Co in 1895 shortly before the Point Ellice Bridge collapsed under an overloaded streetcar, on May 26, 1896. It then became Consolidated Railway Co but soon folded. Sir Frank Barnard (1462 Rockland Av, Rockland) and Robert Montgomery Horne-Payne (b. London, ENG 1870-1929) had formed BC Electric Railway Co in 1892; BCER took over the powerhouse. They stopped producing electricity soon after WWI, and dropped “Railway” from the name by 1951. The Powerhouse was converted and produced coal gas until 1955. Natural gas conversion began and much of the powerhouse was used as workshops. Part of the second storey became a gymnasium for employees. BC Hydro, which evolved out of BCE, for many years used it for its electric meter department. The Powerhouse was vacant until a gas and boiler installation company, Apex Steel & Gas, moved into part of the building in 1989.
The Powerhouse, after extensive soil remediation, has undergone renovation for new uses.