Zuckerberg in Winter

I came across these today, having forgotten they were on my computer. They were taken this past winter by my dad, who hikes even in the snow!

The meeting of the Kootenay and Columbia Rivers, from Zuckerberg Island.

The house/museum is closed during the winter, but the island remains available for walking around.

The (sort of) famous suspension bridge.

The mighty Columbia, from the island.

Zuckerberg Island

On a hot, sunny Saturday afternoon, my dad and I walked to this local historical site, where my sister-in-law is working for the summer. Fuller story here. Information about the site can be found here.

Suspension bridge to the island, which my dad helped build when he was in the military. It's fallen into disrepair now, but might be repaired in the future.

Zuckerberg's house.

Detail of the front porch, and the famous "mask" that adorns the archway above. Creepy.
Remnants of the pit houses used by the Sinixt people who originally inhabited the island.

Rossland's Bank of Montreal

A couple of months ago, I posted about Rossland's historic Bank of Montreal building, which is currently for sale. I've come to love old buildings and old architecture, and today I had the opportunity to go inside this old beauty for the first time in nearly 15 years. I used to bank at this location until I left town, but that was before I learned to appreciate a historic building for what it was, and well before our digital camera era.

This weekend is Rossland's annual Spring Wing Ding, and the old bank is being used for an art exhibit featuring local artists. I am not the biggest art aficionado in the world, so I was trying to discretely take pictures of the interior detail the bank is so well-known for while trying to be interested in local artists. Some of the art was actually OK; some of it was God-awful.

Exterior of the building.

This is an example of some of the original plasterwork in the main part of the old bank. Also, note the arched windows, which are very cool.

This is the fireplace in the manager's office.

Someone remarked that this would make an awesome bar.

The foyer, looking out the front door.

More pictures here.

Conversions

The Reno Rage is upon us, we all know it. I've heard that the new houses being built nowadays are only meant to last 20 years - which doesn't surprise me because they seem to be made primarily out of plywood and glue. But what do you do with a building that was built a century or so ago, that may have outgrown its original purpose?

You get creative.

McLean School Annex. The original McLean School was a very cool old building that burnt down in 1980, when I was attending grade one there. Arson, but no one was ever charged. The school was K-7, so there were lots of displaced students. What wound up happening was that grades 1-4 were housed in the annex, and the district came in and built dividers to create four separate classrooms. I spent about a year and a half as a student in the basement of this building. The Annex is now a Francophone school with a flourishing student population.

Rossland's historic, copper-roofed Courthouse, a very famous building around here. Still used as a courthouse, but it's ancillary services have gradually been cut back over the years. I went to my dad's citizenship ceremony here. My parents' divorce trial was here...

...But the basement used to be a jail way back in the day. Then, many years later, the jail was converted into a public library. The entrance is just under the granite archway you can see at the bottom of this picture. I remember going here regularly to check out kids books - I loved Curious George best of all...

...Then the library outgrew the space in the basement of the courthouse, and a garage from the 1930s or 1940s on Columbia Avenue was converted into what remains to this day the Rossland Public Library.

Then we have this building. It was Mater Misericordiae Hospital. I had my appendix out here when I was seven. This was also the ambulance service's local HQ and a long-term care home before it gradually lost funding and all of its services were pulled (though there is an ambulance bay on the property, just out of view in this picture). The building went up for sale and about two years ago it was bought, and just very recently it's been converted into condos. I would not live here. I can't imagine living in a converted hospital...The energy must be very strange...