The Courtenay and District Museum board and staff would like to extend wishes to all for a wonderful and safe holiday!

Museum staff searched the archives cook book collection to provide a couple of recipes for the holidays. Both are from a book of "Personal Recipes" likely produced in the late 1950s as a fund raiser by the Ladies Auxiliary of the Canadian Legion Branch 17, Courtenay.

Local heritage lost an invaluable resource person with the recent passing of Lawrence Burns. Mr. Burns, the former chair of the Courtenay Heritage Advisory Commission, was awarded Heritage BC’s Award of Recognition in the Distinguished Service category for his commitment to heritage conservation in 2020.

Just last month, the Filberg Heritage Lodge & Park debuted a brand new addition to the Filberg Lodge, called Bob’s Office. The objects and photos in this historical room were curated alongside audio to transport visitors back to the time of hand logging in the Comox Valley during the 1920s and 30s.

The Courtenay and District Museum occupies the 100-year-old former Courtenay Post Office building. The original section was built during 1925, and the structure was doubled in size with an expansion in 1954.

In the early 1930s, brothers Guy and Darrell Smith began developing land in the Oyster River area as a show garden and seed farm. This story, briefly mentioned in the Courtenay and District Museum’s book Step Into Wilderness, deserved more attention.

The unique brick and sandstone Courtenay Post Office was built during 1925. Forty thousand faced bricks from Redcliffe, Alberta were used, as well as 100,000 common bricks from Victoria. These bricks certainly became a talking point in June 1946 when the building was damaged by a 7.3 earthquake!

One hundred years ago the corner of 4th Street and Cliffe Avenue would have looked much different from today. The Courtenay Post Office building, a mix of brick and concrete masonry, was under construction. Work began in late 1924, and the Post Office opened for business in January 1926.