Framed or unframed, desk size to sofa size, printed by us in Arizona and Alabama since 2007. Explore now.
Shorpy is funded by you. Patreon contributors get an ad-free experience.
Learn more.
Circa 1903. "Government Street -- Victoria, British Columbia." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
The sheer number of glass electrical insulators on those poles is almost mind boggling! 14 per horizontal slat, 7 rows of (doubled) slats, plus 4 farther down makes TWO HUNDRED per pole! That's only counting the larger poles on the left.
Makes you appreciate how much they've been able to simplify the system since then.
From the summer of 2013. My eye was drawn at a similar angle to the same stretch, but only to one side of the street.
I'm in awe of the consistency of the plumb utility poles.
Completed in 1897. 1200 Government Street at Bastion Square, opposite View Street.
Against all odds, E.A. Morris, the tobacconist at the far left of the photo, survives to the present day in the same location, albeit in a different building. I visited Victoria recently from my home in Vancouver, and a feature of this shop is a gas flame with a moustache protector that burns continuously for lighting tobacco products. Cuban cigars are still available, since Canada did not sever its diplomatic relationship with Cuba.
On Shorpy:
Today’s Top 5