mural 8

CHemainus 1891

Painted in 1983 by David Maclagan

The Artist

With over 40 murals to his credit, David Maclagan is no stranger to mural art. One of his larger undertakings is an historical tableau which measures 120 feet in length at the Yukon Territorial Legislative Buildings in Whitehorse.

Maclagan is from Ontario, where he graduated from the Ontario College of Art. He has been a professional artist, designer and instructor since 1957, and is currently a teacher at Capilano College in North Vancouver. David Maclagan’s paintings hang in many collections in Canada, the United States and Japan.

The gentle, warm tones of Maclagan’s panorama are rendered more powerful by the bold strokes of his broad brush. He has created a composite painting based on a number of sepia tone photographs from 1891, showing both the labour and the leisure of early residents.

The Art

The mural shows the original town of Chemainus, then know as Horseshoe Bay. Passenger cars of the famous Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway (E&N) steam their way across this scene of the settlement at Horseshoe Bay in 1891.

The large white house on the far left was the mill manager’s residence. The area is now Waterwheel Park. The predominant centre road is present-day Mill Street, with Saint Michael and All Angels Anglican Church, erected in 1891 by Rev. David Holmes, situated on the mid-right.

Across from the railway station, on the right side of Mill Street in the foreground was the Conway House and telegraph office. Heritage Square now occupies that site. Next Mural >