Description of Historic Place

The Nanaimo Pioneer Bakery is a two storey, false-fronted, frontier style building located on a major thoroughfare in downtown Nanaimo. The historic place is confined to the building footprint.

Heritage Value

Believed to have been built in the 1870s, the Nanaimo Pioneer Bakery building is significant as a very rare surviving example of the predominant form of commercial architecture in Nanaimo until the turn of the 20th century. Until the erection of more sophisticated buildings later in the 19th century, commercial buildings in Nanaimo were carpenter or owner built, wood framed and clad and false-fronted. These boomtown fronts made buildings appear more substantial and provided a convenient area for signage. Although there have been alterations to the building over time, its essential frontier character is very much intact.

The Nanaimo Pioneer Bakery building illustrates the very early importance of Victoria Crescent as a commercial district. The building has been in continuous use as a commercial building for over 125 years, the longest known continuous business use of any building in the downtown area.

The Nanaimo Pioneer Bakery building, which follows the curve of the street, is part of a significant grouping of historic buildings in this area.

Source: City of Nanaimo, Development Services Department, file #6800-20-H01-02/39-45 Victoria Crescent

Character-Defining Elements

Character defining elements of the Nanaimo Pioneer Bakery include:

-all of the elements of the Boomtown style as expressed in the simple form and massing, the horizontal lapped wooden siding, double hung windows, the false front, cornices, storefront sash elements and paired brackets and pilasters

-the building's location within a grouping of historic buildings in one of Nanaimo's earliest commercial districts.