History Renewed
by Sherry Wota
If you’ve been a long time resident
of Nanaimo, you may remember the
dilapidated buildings at the corner
of Fitzwilliam and Wallace St. in
the Old City Quarter. Without the
sympathy of George Ewing, owner
of G.E.M Fabrications and Gates
and Gifts, those buildings would
have been demolished long ago. Renamed
the Shoppes at Gallery Row,
the buildings are now an eye-catching
pop of colour with gorgeous
wrought iron detail in an otherwise
drab downtown Nanaimo.
In 2001, George Ewing and his
wife Laura began renting the building
that housed G.E.M Fabrications
to expand their wrought iron gate,
fencing, and decor business, which
has now been active for 24 years. In
2006, the couple bought the entire
row of run down old storefronts.
Ewing saw a great potential in
the circa 1900s “sad and sagging”
structures. He soon partnered up
with Chris Scholberg, head of the
Nanaimo Heritage Society, and appointed
an engineer to discuss making
his high hopes for the block into
reality. Once the plans were set in
stone, contractors were hired and
a construction crew set to work on
raising and revamping the buildings.
The former site of Paulson
Batteries and later Pedal Pushers
Bicycles—now located on Cliff
St—is now occupied by Sartorial
Boutique, a hip, high-end fashion
store owned by Tashe Vitaly. When
Ewing started the renovation, the
bright and airy space was nothing
more than a dungeon-esque cellar
used to store bikes for Pedal Pushers.
The ceiling was raised by 17
inches, the floor lowered and replaced,
and glass blocks added to
the brick foundation to add natural
light. After giving the finished interior
a fresh coat of paint and some
decorative touches, including an ornate
stark white sales-counter, the
space is light years away from what
it used to be.
All of the stores except for Jakeob’s
Ice Cream were given a complete
revamp, and Ewing took great
pains to make sure that all of the
facades matched the vision that he
had for the Shoppes. The roofs of all
of the shops have also been restructured
and massive cosmetic changes
have been made inside and out. The
wooden siding was replaced and
the shops have been divided up
with beams painted a crisp black
to allow each store to stand alone.
Each shop has also been painted in
vibrant, trendy hues. The façade of
Ewing’s showroom boasts a trendy
mixture of turquoise and sunny yellow,
paired with a red door.
The shop used to be home to
Everchanging Crafts and Gifts in the
1990s and before Ewing and his wife
started the G.E.M business there, the
facade was a blank blue wall with a
sad-looking wooden sign. Nowadays,
Ewing has outfitted the store
with his own wrought-iron handy
work. So many details hide in every
little nook and cranny of these shops.
Signage is now lit up with spotlights
and old-fashioned looking lanterns.
Even the small gallery of local art—
the namesake of Gallery Row—has
been given a new home in decorative
wrought-iron frames. From left to
right, businesses now include Love
Your Hair, a brand new hair salon,
Matheson Jewellers, Gemella Landscaping
and Design, G.E.M fabrications,
New York Pizza and Pasta, and
Sartorial Boutique, located around
the corner.
Ewing has received a Downtown
Nanaimo Partnership Grant for the
most improved facade, as well as
a Heritage Rehabilitation Award
from the City of Nanaimo.
He has big plans for the workshop
at the back of the showroom,
explaining simply, “I love a challenge.”
The workshop is the original
structure from the early 1900s,
and the wood floors resemble the
flooring and siding in old shipyards.
There is an anomaly at the
back of the shop; what appears to
be a construction project gone very
wrong. Cheerfully, Ewing says that
the corner of a house from the 1800s
was built right into the workshop.
You can actually step into this small
nook which is large enough to fit a
table and chairs, and step back into
a house from the 1800s.
In behind the shops, in an area
that Ewing wants to make into a
courtyard, a farrier’s pit remains
from when a blacksmith lived and
worked in downtown Nanaimo in
the early 1900s. This blacksmith
was likely employed to maintain
the horseshoes for the horses used
for the Nanaimo RCMP, long before
police began driving Ford Crown
Victoria’s.
The farrier’s pit is just another
piece of Nanaimo’s history that Ewing
has preserved by saving these
buildings. Following a short winding
path, you can stand at the top
of the hill behind the shops for
one of the best views of downtown
Nanaimo available. Ewing explains
that another pipe dream of his is to
build an apartment for him and his
wife for their later years, and perhaps
a small apartment complex to
rent out. This site probably could
have been a prime spot for another
high rise condo with supreme ocean
views, but I for one am glad that another
part of Nanaimo’s intriguing
heritage has been rescued.