Recollections
T . H . E . . E . A . R . L . Y . . Y . E . A . R . S
Personal memories
recall landscapes and lifestyles
of a bygone era
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Alexander Tait
Turn-of-the century dairy farmer |
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by Tom Miles
Great grandson of Alexander Tait and OBHS class of 1960 |
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Alexander Tait owned and operated a dairy farm in Oak Bay before the municipality was incorporated in 1906. He was one of the signatories on the petition for incorporation, a founder of the Presbyterian Church and one of the elders who built Oak Bay United Church.
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His land extended from Milton Street to Bowker Creek — immediately south of the junior high school. Tait's dairy farm operations continued into the early 1930s. A portion of his property was purchased by the school board to extend the junior high schoolgrounds.
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| T he farm was originally a dairy farm. One of my great aunts, Maude, used to tell us tales about delivering milk to people on Oak Bay Avenue at the turn of the century. |
| The farm was bordered on the west side by the houses on Foul Bay Road and the couple of small side streets. One of the old Chinese workers' shacks was still on the west side of the property. |
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My dad and my spinster aunts had an enormous garden at the south end of the property below their house.
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| The old house had been lifted in the thirties and one level taken off it. The milk rooms were still very deep under the house and none of us children would go down there alone. |
| A couple of old out buildings were still there when I was a child but they were torn down when I was in my mid teens. |
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[We'd go] down to the creek to see the muskrats, fish and ducks and to make small boats to sail. [There was] a trap line for otters in the creek.
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| Click on PROPERTY MAP to see Alexander Tait's property |
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The History of Oak Bay Website
A CENTENNIAL LEGACY PROJECT