The Oak Bay Encyclopedia ^TM
T . H . E . .. E . A . R . L . Y . .. Y . E . A . R . S

A listing of noteworthy
people, places and things from
Oak Bay's early years

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Click on any letter, above, to visit specific section of encyclopedia

	F
	Fair Street see Street/Place Names section
	Fairclough, Miss M grocer 2559 Estevan Avenue (...1930–1934... phone books)
Miss Fairclough's grocery story would evolve into Estevan Grocery and Confectionery during the 1940s and 1950s before transforming into Estevan Fish and Chips, aka Willows Galley.
	Photos, artifacts and recollections welcomed
	Falkland Road see Street/Place Names section
	Ferguson, Mrs Margaret confectioner 2204 Cadboro Bay Road (...1930... phone book)
	Photos, artifacts and recollections welcomed
	Fernhurst Apartments 1950–1971 2227 Oak Bay Avenue
	William Fernie's elegant 1905 home reduced to an apartment block
	Oak Bay Archives | 1994-001-012 Fernhurst Apartments Click on image to view enlargement
	In 1950, William Fernie's stylish 1905 residence, Kimbolton, was radically converted to an unattractive apartment block, Fernhurst Apartments, which was subsequently demolished in 1971 to make way for the Monterey Centre and Library complex.
	see Kimbolton
	Photos, artifacts and recollections welcomed
	Fernie, William 1837–1921
	coal magnate and namesake of Fernie, BC / pioneer Oak Bay resident / signatory on 1906 petition to incorporate Oak Bay as a municipality
	RBCM & A | A-02146 William Fernie Click on image to view enlargement
	Profile under development
	Ferriday, W E
	Oak Bay's taxi, cartage and storage czar
	W.E. Ferriday started his transporting empire with Oak Bay Transfer and expanded his enterprise to include Oak Bay Taxi, Willows Taxi, Ferridays Taxi, Uplands Taxi, Jubilee Cabs, Acme Transfer, Ferriday's Transfer and Ferriday's U-Drive.
	Photos, artifacts and recollections welcomed
	Ferriday's Taxi 2013 Oak Bay Avenue (...1946–1947 phone books) 2019 Oak Bay Avenue (1947–1962... phone books)
	— ad in 1947 phone book
	see W.E. Ferriday
	Photos, artifacts and recollections welcomed
	Ferriday's Transfer 2019 Oak Bay Avenue (1949–1954 phone books)
	FOR YOUR NEXT MOVE MOVING, PACKING, SHIPPING BAGGAGE DELIVERED 2019 Oak Bay. . . . . . . . . B eacon-5311 — ad in 1949 phone book
	FOR YOUR NEXT MOVE – MOVING, PACKING SHIPPING – BAGGAGE DELIVERED Residence 2-3215 2019 Oak Bay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-5311 — ad in 1954 phone book
By 1955 Ferriday's Transfer had relocated to Victoria, moving from several city locations until its demise in 1960.
	see W.E. Ferriday
	Photos, artifacts and recollections welcomed
	Ferriday's U-Drive 2019 Oak Bay Avenue (1948–1949, 1953–1956 phone books)
Ferriday's U-Drive relocated to 812 Wharf Street in Victoria (1950–1952) and then returned to 2019 Oak Bay Avenue (1953–1956) and then returned to a succession of Victoria addresses from 1957. Oak Bay U-Drive had a short existence at 2019 Oak Bay Avenue during the 1950–1952 absence of Ferriday's U-Drive.
	see W.E. Ferriday, Oak Bay U-Drive
	Photos, artifacts and recollections welcomed
	Ferris Grocery 2517 Estevan Avenue (1957... phone book)
Subsequent location of Prior's Grocery
	Photos, artifacts and recollections welcomed
	Fisher's Confectionery 2205 Oak Bay Avenue (...1959–1964 phone books)
	FISHER'S CONFECTIONERY SCHOOL SUPPLIES SMOKING SUPPLIES YOUR FAVORITE CANDY 2205 Oak Bay Avenue. . . . . . . . . . .EV 5-6633 — ad in 1959 OBHS Oak Leaves yearbook
	"People throughout Canada and a large part of the United States suddenly learned that there was such a place as Oak Bay. Fisher's Confectionery on Oak Bay Avenue had a large cat named Smokey which frequented the store, usually being perched on a showcase or the counter. It was a great favourite with customers, especially children, and when the Medical Health Officer issued an order that the cat was not to be permitted on the store premises the resulting furore spread across the nation. Newspapers as far east as St. John, New Brunswick, carried the story and pictures of Smokey. It was also covered by a private television station in Vancouver. The CBC gave the story nation-wide coverage on radio and television. Following a personal discussion with Mrs. Fisher by the Reeve, it was agreed to keep the cat out of the store and the furore died down." — George Murdoch, History of the Municipality of Oak Bay
Former location of Usher's Confectionery Store
	Photos, artifacts and recollections welcomed
	Flora and Fauna
	back yards once teemed with life
	Monarch Butterfly Bumble Bee Two-striped Grasshopper
	"In the 1950s we had great adventures without wandering too far from home. Our back yards offered an immersive wonder-world of butterflies, garter snakes, grasshoppers, dragonflies and bumble bees. We used to play with these little creatures — catch them, study them, and then let them go, sometimes with a splat of "tobacco juice" on our hands courtesy of an irate grasshopper. We would dare each other to catch a bumble bee in our bare hands. Although they could sting, they weren't too aggressive. But unlike other bees, the bumble bee stinger was not barbed, so it could sting many times. You had to be careful. The most common butterfly was the monarch butterfly, and these delightful creatures were everywhere. But every once in a while we'd encounter a larger, truly magnificent butterfly. These never ceased to amaze. But today, I have to stop and stare whenever I see a butterfly — a poignant reminder that we now live in a very different world. As kids in the '50s our sense of wonder and adventure was provided by the natural world — trees, ponds, vacant lots, open fields and meadows. Today our sense of wonder and adventure is electronic and digital. Sure we can now see a butterfly in high definition. But it's not the same thing as watching this delicate creature fluttering its wings on your finger. The connection is gone." — Gary Wilcox, OBHS class of 1960
	* * *
	"Garter snakes, California quail, pheasants and Fawn lilies were common in Oak Bay in the 1940s and 1950s. When I was a child, living on Oak Bay Avenue near the Village, they were there for the looking, just outside the door..." — Erica Fowles, OBHS class of 1965
	see frog ponds, skylarks
	Your recollections are welcomed
	Florence Street see Street/Place Names section
	Floyd, J S
	pioneer resident / Oak Bay's first municipal clerk
	J S Floyd
	"In I888, James Sterling Floyd built his home at 1494 Beach Drive (then Mount Baker Avenue). He was a municipal auditor and accountant for the municipalities of Victoria, Saanich, Oak Bay and Esquimalt. In 1906, when Oak Bay incorporated, he became the municipality's first Municipal Clerk, Treasurer and Assessor. He married Esther Mary Johnston, the daughter of Philip T. Johnston, a nurseryman, about 1890, and had four children Eveleen, Thomas, Claude and Biddy. James Floyd died in 1922 and his wife Esther died in 1939." — George Floyd, great grandson of J S Floyd
	Fort Victoria
	strategic move puts HBC fort on Vancouver Island in 1843
	RBCM & A | A-00903 Fort Victoria Click on image to view enlargement
	Fort Vancouver on the Columbia River had been headquarters for Hudson's Bay Company operations in the Pacific Northwest since 1825, but America's westward expansion was weakening Britain's claim on the Oregon Territory1 at this latitude
	In a preemptive move to consolidate Britain's claim north of the 49th parallel prior to the Oregon Treaty of 1846, the HBC moved its headquarters north and built Fort Victoria at the southern tip of Vancouver Island in 1843.
	First called Fort Camosack, then Fort Albert (Queen Victoria's consort), the HBC's new, more-northerly fort was finally called Fort Victoria after Britain's reigning Queen.
	Hudson's Bay Company people, John Tod, Isabella Ross (wife of Chief Factor Charles Ross), William McNeill, Joseph Despard Pemberton — and the Company itself — were Oak Bay's five original landowners.
1 The Oregon Territory extended from California to Alaska, and was claimed by many countries including England, America, Spain and Russia.
	Foul Bay see Street/Place Names section
	Foul Bay Road see Street/Place Names section
	Fowl Bay Farm
	Isabella Ross' property at foot of Foul Bay Road
	Photos, artifacts and recollections welcomed
	Frank's Food Market 2002 Oak Bay Avenue (1970... phone book)
	Photos, artifacts and recollections welcomed
	Frank's Low-Cost Food Market 2002 Oak Bay Avenue (...1959–1969 phone books)
	Photos, artifacts and recollections welcomed
	Frederick Norris Road see Street/Place Names section
	Frederick Norris Place see Street/Place Names section
	Frog Ponds
	one of the many joys of early Oak Bay
	Frog Spawn
	After the last of the exhibition buildings had burned down or had been demolished by the late 1940s, the former Willows Fairgrounds lay dormant for several years before it was subdivided in the early 1950s
	In this interim, nature began to re-claim the land and soon there were meadows, small groves of trees and ponds full of life. Of particular interest to young boys in the early 1950s were the frogs and tadpoles in these ponds.
	Click on MEMORABILIA to view or contribute photographs, artifacts or recollections of the frog ponds
	see Flora and Fauna, Skylarks, Roller Rink
	Frost's Corner Store 2000 Oak Bay Avenue (1946–1970... phone books)
	popular confectionery 1940s —1960s
	. . FROST'S CORNER STORE . . 2000 Oak Bay Ave. .Confectionery. & Post Office — text from ad in 1959 OBJHS OBEJAY yearbook
	"Frost's Corner Store was the best place to buy comics, under the watchful eye of Mrs. Frost. Some of the boys used to sneak a peak at the "adult" magazines which were placed high up on the magazine rack. The magazine rack was in the corner of the store, on the left as you walked in. I seem to remember the old floors creaking as you walked from the rack to the counter on the right, to add some candy and dubble bubble gum and pay for it all — probably for under a dollar in those days." — Erica Fowles, OBHS class of 1965
Previous location of Henderson's Corner Store Stuart Stark's wonderful book, Oak Bay's Heritage Buildings: More Than Just Bricks And Boards, informs us that a house once stood on this corner lot at Oak Bay Avenue and Foul Bay Road. In 1930 it was moved around the corner (1547 Foul Bay Road) to allow for the construction of a commercial building which housed several retail stores.
	Photos, artifacts and recollections welcomed
	Fuller, Alfred Dixon
	early Oak Bay landowner and developer
	Shortly after John Tod's death in 1882, Fuller had acquired much of Tod's land in the Estevan area. On an 1890 map, the main access road to his property was Fuller Avenue, now Dalhousie Street.
	Photos, artifacts and recollections welcomed
	Fury and the Woman (aka Lucky Corrigan)
	1936 movie produced by film studio in Oak Bay
	... Production Still Lobby Card Click on image to view enlargement
	see Willows Park Studio, Lucky Corrigan
	This film is available as Lucky Corrigan in dvd format.
	Photos, artifacts and recollections welcomed

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