Draft:Oaklands neighbourhood, city of Victoria

The Oaklands Neighbourhood

Oaklands neighbourhood is one of 12 neighbourhoods that are in the city of Victoria [https://www.victoria.ca/community-culture/neighbourhoods[, British Columbia [https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/home] on the southern tip of Vancouver Island.  The Oaklands is approximately 173 hectares in area and is bordered by the Victoria neighbourhoods of Hillside/Quadra, Fernwood and North Jubilee and the district of Saanich [https://www.saanich.ca/#d=19&m=9&y=2024&v=month].  

The Oaklands name and Natural history

The Oaklands neighbourhood, takes its name from the Garry oak [Quercus garryana] tree, which predominates in an ecosystem of shady wood lands to open meadows with scattered trees.  Garry oak is uniquely adapted to the Mediterranean-like climate found in the rain shadow of the southern end Vancouver Island [https://www.olympicrainshadow.com/olympicrainshadowmap.html].  

The Oaklands within First Nations territory

The area was the traditional territory of the Lekwungen people (the Songhees and Esquimalt First Nations) [https://www.songheesnation.ca/community/l-k-ng-n-traditional-territory] for thousands of years.  The Lekwungen people used the shady woodlands and open meadows for food foraging, food cultivation and careful land management. This land continues to hold the lives, customs, art, and culture of those who have lived here since the beginning..

Water courses with the Oaklands

Two seasonal creeks are influenced by the Oaklands.  The more major creek, Bowker creek, flows year-round with flow rate increasing with winter rains.  Bowker Creek was known as an important water course by supporting populations of salmon and trout for the Lekwungen people who lived in the area. Bowker creek flows above ground from two starting points in the point in the municipality of Sannich, and when it flows through the Oaklands it is completely culverted. Bowker creek flows above ground through the neighbourhood of North Jubilee and the district the Oak Bay [https://www.oakbay.ca/] before exiting into Oak Bay.  The Bowker creek watershed drains the north west corner of the Oaklands [https://www.crd.bc.ca/docs/default-source/initiatives-pdf/bci-pdf/watershed-maps/watershed-map-bowker_creek_watershed_2007ortho.pdf?sfvrsn=9c329fc9_2].  The culverted section of Bowker creek has attracted some ‘Draining Adventurers” [https://blogbychris.net/archives/244].  Whereas the ‘Friends of Bowker Creek’ [https://bowkercreek.org] are committed in restoring the creek to once again being an above ground water course.  A second seasonal water course is the Rock Bay creek.  Although the creek did not directly flow through the Oaklands, the watershed for Rock Bay creek drained parts of the eastern side of the Oaklands.  The creek was culverted in the past to allow for land development but also to control the flow of high rain fall.  ‘The Rock Bay Revival’ is intent on daylighting the creek ([https://www.rockbaycreek.ca/about]. Damaging floods in the past (1935) along Haultain street [photo https://archives.victoria.ca/s-e-corner-of-belmont-street-and-haultain-street-during-the-january-flood], a street that borders the southern edge of the Oaklands.

Oaklands urban development

The Oaklands area was surveyed in 1850 and divide into large plots of land.  Large farms were established in the northwestern areas of the Oaklands.  A particularly intensive building boom occurred between 1910 and 1913.  The modest homes created at that time were advertised as being close of downtown but still maintaining a rural feel [pre 1920 https://www.arcgis.com/apps/View/index.html?appid=8759cbb4e9e84397b25f5dfde2842974], Future development included the Hillside shopping mall [https://hillsidecentre.com/], and more house infills.  

Today the landscape in the Oaklands neighbourhood is a mixture of single-family homes, townhomes and apartment blocks and retail areas. The Oaklands is a popular residential neighbourhood because of its parks, schools and proximity to downtown.  Oaklands has a population of around 7200 [https://www.areavibes.com/victoria-bc/oaklands/demographics/].  The neighbourhood is home to families and singles including people from a range of different social and ethnic backgrounds and of different genders and sexual orientations.  The Oaklands considers itself an inclusive community/neighbourhood.

Oaklands neighbourhood character via its architecture

The neighbourhood character of the Oaklands can be described through a combination of public and private spaces.  Every property makes a contribution, and it is the cumulative impact of all these contributions that establishes neighbourhood character.  The Victoria Heritage Foundation [https://victoriaheritagefoundation.ca/heritage-houses/] operates a register of 20^th-centuary architectural house styles and they have produced numerous publications on notable houses in Victoria. The Foundation identified one area in the Oaklands, the Oaklands Rise area in the northeastern corner of the Oaklands which displays many fine examples of Edwardian Vernacular Arts & Crafts houses (1904-1914) and Craftsman Bungalows (1900-1930).  The larger Oaklands neighbourhood has over the years preserved and also built many fine examples of different types of house architecture from all periods.

The Oaklands and its tree cover

The name sake Garry Oak tree predominates as one of the principal tree of boulevards, parks and residential properties. Over the years and because of Victoria’s favourable climate for tree growth many non-native and native tress have been planted on city properties as well as on private properties [https://opendata.victoria.ca/datasets/36e90771770542baaa89afddce69195a_15/explore].   Because of tree planting efforts by the City of Victoria, the city has been awarded for 4 years running, the honorific of a “tree city of the world” [https://treecitiesoftheworld.org].  The total percentage for the city of Victoria that is tree covered is 27%, whereas a slightly higher percentage of tree cover (28%) is found in the Oaklands neighbourhood. [https://www.victoria.ca/media/file/urban-forest-master-planpdf].

Oaklands sport venues, past and present

In the past the Oaklands supported a boxing venue on a property in the 2600 block of Mount Stephen Avenue (see photos).  Baseball has been played since 1953 at the ballpark near the corner of Cook Street and Hillside Avenue in the Oaklands. The park is now called Jerry Hale Field, and the Victoria Nation Little League is the longest running Little League on Vancouver Island ].  Tennis and Pickleball courts can be found at the south end of Oakland Park, and Oakland Park also hosts seasonal baseball diamonds and a soccer pitch.  The area is also shared as an off-leash dog park [https://www.victoria.ca/parks-recreation/our-parks/dogs-parks [https://www.victoria.ca/parks-recreation/our-parks/dogs-parks]  

Oaklands neighbourhood, Public and not for profit Institutions

In the early years after the Oaklands area was surveyed, the BC protestant Orphanage was built in 1893 from the finds of a generous bequest, and it functioned as a 100 bed orphanage, at 1307 Hillside Avenue.  In 1970 the orphanage took on a new name, The Cridge Centre for Families, and it has become an organization offering support for families [https://cridge.org/about-us/].  The Oaklands School was built in 1913 to serve the surrounding families in the newly forming Oaklands neighbourhood.  The original school building and an addition continue to serve the families in the Oaklands. Today the school offers programs for Kindergarten to grade 5 for approximately 450 students.  The Oaklands Community Association is also housed the current school building and it offers day care, afterschool care and a wide variety of program and events throughout the year [https://oaklands.life/].  Aberdeen Hospital at 1450 Hillside Avenue provides care for adults with complex neurological challenges [https://www.islandhealth.ca/our-locations/long-term-care-locations/aberdeen-hospital].

Housing societies in the Oaklands neighbourhood

Safe and affordable housing is supplied in the Oaklands neighbourhoods through different housing societies or clubs.  The M’akola Housing Society provides safe, affordable and appropriate housing primarily for indigenous people and families [https://makola.bc.ca/].  The Kiwanis club operates the Kiwanis Village – seniors housing in the Oaklands[(https://www.kiwanisvictoria.ca].  

Cemetery on the Oaklands neighbourhood

Jewish Cemetery consecrated in 1859 oldest continuous operating non-indigenous cemetery in BC [https://jewishcemeteryofvictoriabc.ca].

Streets of note in the Oaklands neighbourhood

A short distance (approximately 6 blocks) of the Shelbourne street Memorial trees is in the Oaklands [https://heritagebc.ca/war-monuments-memorials/shelbourne-street-memorial-trees-saanich/].  From North Diary Road south to Haultain Street a mixture of London Plane [Platanus × hispanica] trees and American Mountain Ash [Sorbus americana] began being planted in 1921, and they are meant to honour and memorialize the war dead of British Columbia.  There are streets in the Oaklands named after notable people, i.e., Asquith Street name after a United Kingdom Prime Minister [H. H. Asquith], Avebury Street named after Baron Avebury [Baron Avebury], Haultain Street, named after Fredrick Haultain a Canadian politician [Frederick W. A. G. Haultain], Roseberry Avenue named after the Earl of Roseberry.  

Outdoor Art in the Oaklands neighbourhood

Art acknowledging the space it inhabits and the surrounding community of the Oaklands [https://oaklands.life/oaklands-outdoor-art]

Parks of the Oaklands

Pedestrian priority walkway in the Oaklands

A Woonerf is a living street created to be pedestrian priority street, but shard with bicyclists of all ages, all mobility aides, and to share with slow moving motor vehicles. A Woonerf has been and is being created in the Oaklands, starting in the Oaklands Rise area of Kings street with painted intersections, painted planters and plantings on the street conners, as well as, seating benches [https://oaklandsrise.ca/].