Nelson’s Railtown before the highway interchange

Photos of what is now called Nelson’s Railtown neighborhood prior to the construction of the Highway 3A-6 interchange in the early 1970s are inexplicably scarce.

The project resulted in the relocation of some homes and demolition of many others, as well as the loss of a rock wall, a set of stairs on Silica Street, and the portion of Falls Street that used to descend into the area where the Cottonwood Market is now. It drives me crazy that the Department of Highways does not seem to have photographed the buildings it destroyed. Nor can I find an exact number of casualties.

Here are two ca. 1910 postcard views that show the now-vanished section of Falls Street, as well as several houses that were lost.

The card above is by Victoria photographer J. Howard Chapman, while the one below is unsigned.

Here is what the neighbourhood looked like on an August 1938 fire insurance map (in two pieces that do not quite fit together).

Below is a fire map from 1959, which does not look all that different.

The next photo was taken by Ellis Anderson sometime between 1963 and 1969, and shows many of those lost features. (The bridge in the background, built in 1957, was painted orange in 1969-70.)

Here is a key to what’s since disappeared and what’s still there.

The photo below was taken circa 1969-71 (the bridge is now orange) and published in an unidentified magazine. It shows several empty lots where there were once buildings. One of the remaining homes was only torn down sometime between 2010 and 2018.

Between the time the two photos were taken, several homes were demolished and replaced with Bee Building Supply, which is now home to Pacific Northwest Garden Supply and Kootenay Woodstoves.

Due to how much the trees have grown up, it’s difficult to impossible to take a comparison photo today from the same angle. At least my efforts were unsuccessful.

Greg Scott found this fascinating ad in the Nelson Daily News of March 27, 1969, inviting bids to demolish seven buildings in the neighbourhood to make way for the new building supply.

When it came time to build the new highway interchange, not everyone went willingly. The strongest holdout was Carmelia Lupien, who lived at 1212 Hall Mines Road, in a home that had been in her family since 1928. (The property had also been home to a bar from the Sandon Hotel. Carmelia was born in Sandon.)

In October 1971, the Nelson Daily News reported that the large house was “surrounded by a sea of mud” as a highway crew worked on pushing through the new interchange. Crews had “skirted through her land on the south side and bulldozers have plowed through her back yard.”

She had been given four weeks to leave her house, but her lawyer applied for an extension. In the meantime, she stayed put. It wasn't that she was refusing to move entirely, it was that she felt that she felt the government was lowballing her with its offer.

“I’m not against the new highway, I knew it was coming, but I’m not going to give my land away,” she said.

She owned five lots and said that in the late 1940s, Greyhound had offered her mother $16,500 for the property to build a machine shop. Now, more than 20 years later, the ministry was offering $13,500.

She said her neighbour, John Gerno, received $11,900 for considerably less land.

Lupien and her lawyer asked for $26,500, but the offer was rejected. The government said the assessed value wasn’t that high.

Carmelia Lupien is seen in the Nelson Daily News of Oct. 1, 1971.

Also unhappy was Roger Stallwood of the Jolly Roger Motel (today’s Alpine Inn) who was offered $1,200 for a piece of land. He proposed a land swap, but the highways department said it would set a precedent.

“If it’s fair, then why not set the precedent?” Stallwood asked. “I wasn’t against the interchange but the way they deal with you is just horrible.”

A Vancouver lawyer intervened and convinced the department to make the land swap.

Carmelia Lupien, on the other hand, was branded a “difficult person to deal with” and faced expropriation. On Nov. 26, 1971, her garage was emptied and burned and the trees were removed. The home was soon demolished.

The Nelson Daily News, July 2, 1970 depicted a house near the corner of Falls and Silica Street being burned.

For more on a Railtown home that was lost much more recently (and that I somehow have no memory of), click here.

What was left of the neighbourhood became known as Railtown in 2011. Prior to that it was known as the CPR flats, or perhaps Cottonwood Creek. For a long time, it was the most ethnically diverse neighbourhood in Nelson, home to Chinese laundry operators and market gardeners, Doukhobors, and Italians. Now only a few homes remain, and a couple of those, at 710 and 712 Railway, are vacant and appear doomed.

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Another interesting note about the Anderson photo on this page is that it shows the back of the Royal Hotel and Oddfellows block. (The latter name has long since fallen out of use, but it’s the building now home to Dr. Matt Ospechook and Comishin and Astle accountants.) It’s surprising to see so many windows at the rear.

Additions to both buildings have covered up most of those rear windows. The Royal’s backside is wrapped up in a concrete cocoon (this is the squash club — read Stephen Harris’ comment below), while only a few windows peek out from atop the Oddfellows block. Here’s what the buildings look like today from behind.

Updated on March 7, 2019 to add the 1969 demolition ad. Updated on May 1, 2026 to add the info and images of Carmella Lupien and the other house being burned. Updated on May 5, 2026 to add the 1938 fire insurance map and on May 8, 2026 to add the 1959 fire insurance map.