by Judy Barlow, Citizen Journalist

In 1913, workers laid down their tools, declaring work on a formidable structure in the remote primarily agricultural Wilkinson Valley completed. Built of red brick, terracotta, and reinforced concrete with 144 steel-barred cells, BC taxpayers paid the bargain-basement price of only $240,000 (approximately 4.82 million today) for architect Colonel William Ridgway-Wilson’s now famous masterpiece known as the Vancouver Island Regional Correctional Centre. The facility has been in use for 100 years – arguably a good return on any investment.

Enormously popular and prolific in his day, Ridgway-Wilson projects like St John’s Anglican Church (1912), South Park School (1894), the Bay St Armoury (1912), and the privately commissioned Spencer Mansion of Moss Street have stood the test of time. Built in 1889, the Spencer mansion is home to the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.

The Gothic-revival “Wilkinson Road Jail” sits on ten beautifully landscaped hectares facing Wilkinson Road. A handsome fountain and crenellated parapets and towers add romance to the castle-like structure. You’ll find its sandstone keystone “birth certificate” inscribed “1913” at the main entrance. Along with a stone barn and surrounding stone wall, all are designated Heritage Sites.

“The jail has a great deal of cultural significance. There’s a rich history there,” says Saanich Councillor Vicki Sanders, herself a heritage house owner, recipient of a Hallmark Society Award of Merit for her painstakingly authentic restoration of “The Holly Farm”, and Chair of the Arts, Culture and Heritage Committee.

She’s right. Architectural beauty notwithstanding, much of the heritage value lies in the building’s history.

Opening as the provincially-owned Colquitz Gaol in 1913, over the next fifty-plus years, the males-only facility served as the Saanich Prison Farm, the Colquitz Centre for the Criminally Insane, the Colquitz Provincial Mental Home, the Oakalla Prison Farm, Vancouver Island Unit, and finally, in 1966, reverted to its original purpose as the Vancouver Island Regional Correctional Centre, home to inmates sentenced to less than two years, or those awaiting trial. Regardless of its name, “Wilkie” remains known as the place where bad boys go.

Unfortunately its history is not without violence and tragedy. In 1915, Robert Suttie achieved infamy as the only inmate executed at the prison, and in 1960 Constable Robert Kirby was killed in a shootout with an escapee, the only Saanich police officer killed in the line of duty. The Kirby Room at the Saanich Police Station is named in his honour.

Throughout the years, the government has found other innovative uses for the spacious grounds and structure. During World War One the building also housed both prisoners of war and offenders against the Naval Discipline Act. And from 1918 – 1919 its farmland served as the Provincial Government Pheasant Farm before moving to property near the present-day Royal Oak Burial Park.

Councillor Sanders registers surprise. “A pheasant farm! … I thought I knew all about the jail, but this is new to me.”

Some of the heritage value also lies in its location. Settled in the 1850s by Hudson’s Bay Company officials and British farm settlers, prominent pioneer neighbours included Dr. John Sebastian Helmcken and Kenneth McKenzie, Craigflower Farm founder/bailiff. The arrival of the British Columbia Electric Interurban Railway in 1912 sparked wild land speculation.

“The building boom of 1913 is represented as the largest number of heritage homes in Saanich’s Heritage Register,” says Councillor Sanders. The imposing structure remains a testimonial to efforts of the day to redefine the rural community and administer to its growing needs.

In 1985 extensive reconstruction and a façade facelift breathed new life into the aging facility.

Today the building sits in stately splendour in the heart of a residential neighbourhood. Crawling past the gates during the rush-hour gridlock, one can’t help but notice that Wilkie is looking pretty good.

But with Saanich celebrating 1913 heritage structures in September,  Evelyn Wolfe of the Saanich Archives has a nifty suggestion for those wanting a closer look at the iconic facility; a heritage bus tour hosted by author, historian, and Times-Colonist Editor-in-Chief, Dave Obee.

The Sunday September 15th event includes a special tour of the grounds and (cross your fingers) the lobby. Expected to be a sellout, a few lucky people might yet score a ticket on the Saanich website or at Saanich Recreation Centres, online, by phone, or in person.

At $30 per ticket, it’s a steal that will get you sent to Wilkie the easy way, and (here’s the important part) out again in time for dinner.

Happy birthday Wilkie. Here’s lookin’ at you.