A composite image showing the former caretaker cabin at Neck Point Park. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW illustration)

By Ian Holmes

memory lane

Demolished caretaker cabin at Nanaimo park marks end of an era

Oct 28, 2021 | 5:25 AM

NANAIMO — A cottage which stood at Neck Point Park for decades is no more after crews demolished the dilapidated structure perched above the parking lot.

The cottage was torn down earlier this year, while the City confirmed it has no plans to replace the structure or the ambassador program provided by its caretaker.

Nanaimo Community Archives manager Christine Meutzner said around 40 to 50 cabins dotted the coastline of modern day Neck Point Park beginning in 1931, while most of the homes were built between the 1940’s and 60’s.

“These were rustic cabins that people built for summers, weekends and fishing, a typical family vacation. By the early 70’s they were all burned down to make way for new development.”

Earlier visions of development at Neck Point Park didn’t materialize.

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The City acquired the first 33 acres of the area for park land in the mid 1990’s, followed by buying a final three acre piece located in the southeast corner of the site in 2009.

“It’s wonderful that in fact the development didn’t go forward and it became a park and Nanaimo residents can enjoy it en-mass,” Meutzner told NanaimoNewsNOW. “It’s just a shame that the little quint, picturesque part of the cabins is no longer there.”

Meutzner said a Nanaimo Community Archives scrapbook outlines various anecdotes about life at the site before it became the prized waterfront park it is today.

“Apparently the Piper family owned all that property and you could rent the land that your cabin was on and it was $15 a year in the early 1940’s. That sounds incredibly cheap, but maybe not if you factor in inflation.”

In today’s money, rent was around $300 a year.

The removal of Neck Point Park’s final cottage concludes the City’s final caretaker program.

The Neck Point caretaker, profiled previously profiled by NanaimoNewsNOW, lived rent free in exchange for serving as a park ambassador and providing various daily physical tasks to assist the City.

Charlotte Davis, Nanaimo’s manager of parks operations, said two other live-in caretaker programs functioned previously at Westwood Lake Park and Bowen Park.

She said the land where the Neck Point caretaker cottage stood will be further restored with Garry oak trees to be planted in the future.

Interpretive signage marks the former cottage site just up the hill from the Neck Point parking lot.

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ian@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @reporterholmes