Community History of Chase River

Ever wonder about the story of your community? Here's a brief history of the neighborhood we live in. It is interesting stuff! You can read the original here.

In 1852 Governor James Douglas’s militia pursued and caught one of two murder suspects along a creek south of Nanaimo, and thus the name “Chase River” was born.

Apart from aboriginal settlement, Finnish immigrants were the predominant settlers of Chase River in the last half of the 19th Century. They made their living working in the coal mines and forests, as well as farming. In 1910 they worked together to build a community centre, the “Finn Hall”, at the site of the present Moose Hall.

Chinese settlers, who had come to work in the mines, had market gardens in the present Cinnabar Valley area. Louis Stark, a black settler, farmed a 500 tree orchard on the present school site, and his original barn still stands near the Stark’s Railway Crossing.

The first school, Southfield, was built in 1891 on Haliburton Street and still exists as a private residence. A second school was built on Cedar Road at Fielding in 1898, but it burned down in 1942. The present school was opened in 1951 with two classrooms. A Methodist Church, later to become a United Church, opened its doors in 1912 on 13th Street east of Cranberry Avenue. A volunteer Fire Department was organized in 1949 and still serves the community today as Station 4 of the Nanaimo Fire Department.

The present commercial centre is located in the approximate area of the original village core.

From 1949 until 1975 Chase River was an autonomous District of Nanaimo and extended from Robins Street in the north, and bounded by the communities of Cedar, South Wellington and Extension to the south. In 1975 Chase River was amalgamated with the City of Nanaimo.