Victoria Steam Bakery: Then and Now

By Ted Ross

Image B-02035 courtesy of the Royal BC Museum, BC Archives

In some cultures a statue, or at least a plaque would have been commissioned to commemorate the life of James Bay pioneer baker, Amos Rowe Smith.

Born in 1833, Mr. Smith, an Afro-American, came to Victoria at age 25 and started a small bakery on Yates Street. With his wife, and later his sons, they became, within a few years, the sole supplier of bread and cakes to the 3500 men the Royal Navy garrisoned in Esquimalt. In addition they supplied the many ships visiting Victoria, the sealing fleet based here, and many of the finer homes of colonial Victoria.

In 1890 he built the steam factory in the painting on the north side of Niagara between Ladysmith and Montreal. The location was convenient to the Outer Wharves, the electric tram and to his residence on Dallas Road. It was three-story and measured twenty-five feet by eighty-four. A flour mill in the area surely supplied the bakery and other ingredients would have come from local farms. It was said to be the largest bakery in the province, employing 28 bakers and labourers working two shifts around the clock.

We find an obituary in the Colonist, January 25, 1896, for "Moses Rowe Smith, a native of London, Ontario, aged 64 years." The operation of M. R. Smith and Company Ltd. was assumed with mixed results by his widow and children. In 1909 the steam bakery on Niagara Street burnt down. The final entry for M.R. Smith Bakery at 126 Niagara is in the 1911 Directory.

Mr. Smith, his wife Sarah Anna, daughter and two sons are all buried in the Ross Bay Cemetery.

Image C-09693 courtesy of the Royal BC Museum, BC Archives

Today, with the exception of the Edelweiss German Club at #108, Niagara Street has only apartments and condominiums along this treed block. The Todd Park tennis courts and playground sit where a bakery once thrived.

Bibliography

'British Columbia City Directories 1860-1955', Vancouver Public Library; 'Montreal Street', BC Archives photographs; 'Victoria Then and Now', Morgan, Roland and Emily Disher, 1977; 'Camas Chronicles', Camas Historical Group, 1978; 'Online Edition: 1858-1910', Victoria Times-Colonist; Ronald Greene, Victoria Historical Society Publication, #28, Summer 2011.