The Thompson-Nicola Regional District (TNRD) has approved a request to include the 70 Mile House Garage in the TNRD Heritage Register.
During the Feb. 20 TNRD Board of Directors meeting held in Kamloops, a heritage conservation application was brought forward by Timothy Haydon, who has lived in 70 Mile House for around 40 years. Haydon has owned the property since 1984 after his brother-in-law and sister sold the garage to him.
"I was between jobs at that time and automobile mechanic [was] something I had done earlier in my life. I decided it would be interesting to run the business for myself," Haydon said.
Haydon stated in his application that the 70 Mile House Garage had been valued as a "rare commercial building" that was built by local pioneer Matthew Porter.
In a letter about the history of 70 Mile House written by Haydon, he stated that in 1924 a plot of land had been purchased by Charles Marshall Porter (known as "Matt" to his friends) that included a boarding house, stables, and telegraph office. During the Second World War, as the U.S. military moved men and equipment north to build a new highway to Alaska in defence against the Japanese during the war, Porter noticed a new business opportunity emerge.
"Porter poured the cement for gas pump dispensers, originally hand-operated pumps that filled graduated glass cylinders to measure the fuel being sold for some 30 cents per gallon," Haydon explained
An additional statement of significance that was attached to the package, also written by Haydon, highlights additional historical information.
"While the owner of the 70 Mile stopping place during the 1940s and 1950s, Porter saved the community from being bypassed with a new route being surveyed by the Royal Engineers who were staying at his boarding house," Haydon wrote in his statement of significance.
In an interview with the simplymastery, Haydon expanded on what the Royal Engineers were planning on doing.
"The new route would [have gone] around a mile, I guess, to the west of us. And it would basically bypass the 70 Mile stopping place altogether, which Matt Porter was against. And so he started a petition among the local residents in the area." Haydon added that the petition probably still exists somewhere in the archives of the Ministry of Transportation, but he could not locate it due to the ministry's poorly kept records.
Two years later, in 1950, construction of the two-storey garage began, using fir trees that stood on the property. Some still stand by the original gas pump island today.
Haydon noted that the garage is important to history for its unique stucco exterior and rough timber roof supports, which have been mostly unchanged from its original construction from the locally-milled firs.
In addition, Haydon says that this is the last remaining heritage building that was part of Porter's business enterprise, as the 70 Mile boarding house burned to the ground in 1956.
The motion to add the 70 Mile Garage to the TNRD Heritage Register was passed unanimously during the Board of Directors meeting. Haydon said he feels happy that the site is now officially recognized as a heritage building.
"There was some work involved in getting it to that poin,t and I think that it is a contribution to the 70 Mile House community that it's now officially considered a historical site that should be preserved," Haydon said.
He plans on having the provincial and even the federal governments recognize the garage as a place of historical significance
"There may come a time when we want to do that, but there's still a few modifications and improvements before that happens that we'd like to make."
During the meeting, TNRD Chair Barbara Roden asked the TNRD's Chief Administrative Officer to prepare an informational fact sheet about the heritage register that can be circulated throughout the TNRD.
"I can see that being quite an economic boost — being able to produce a pamphlet or website page about all these Heritage Register sites — because people really like that sort of thing," Roden said.
