Description of Historic Place

The Nelson Courthouse is a four-storey rusticated stone building with an arched entryway, square corner tower and round turret prominently located at the northwest corner of the intersection of Ward and Vernon Streets in Nelson, B.C. It is recognizable for its extensive use of stone, designed to create an ornate and imposing appearance within the streetscape.

Heritage Value

The Nelson Courthouse is valued as the city's most significant architectural landmark, and as a representation of the esteemed judicial and administrative role that Nelson has held since its earliest years as a community.

Situated on the location of Nelson's first courthouse, the site of this building is significant as it was chosen for its prominence and dominance on the landscape, well suited to a house of legal governance and justice. Along with the Hume Hotel and Touchstones Nelson: Museum of Art and History (the former Post Office and Customs House) the courthouse solidifies the intersection of Ward and Vernon Streets as an important area of the city. Furthermore, its contiguous relationships to the provincial and municipal government building to the north and the former jailhouse to the west reflect the longstanding and ongoing purpose of this area of the city as its administrative and governmental headquarters. The ongoing use of this site for court purposes since 1893, and this building for the same since 1909, adds to the significance of this historic place as an important part British Columbia's legal system in the Interior of the province for over 125 years.

Architecturally, the Nelson Courthouse is valued as a prominent and important work of notable B.C. architect Francis Mawson Rattenbury. It also holds important associations with local architect Alexander Carrie and former mayor W. G. Gillett, who acted as Clerk of the Works and primary contractor on the building project, respectively. Deemed the handsomest building in the city at the time of it completion, its imposing and elaborate design is not only aesthetically pleasing, but didactic in nature; its solidity of materials and ornate design elements testify to Nelson's growing importance as a judicial centre at the beginning of the twentieth century. Overall, the design of the building and its adjacent stone and concrete retaining walls convey a sense of austerity and authority well suited to a building of such high regard and importance of purpose.

Source: City of Nelson

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of the Nelson Courthouse include its:
- prominent location at the corner of Ward and Vernon Streets.
- physical relationships to the Hume Hotel, Touchstones Nelson: Museum of Art and History, the provincial government building/City Hall, and the former jail building.
- Stone parapet walls defining the path to the building's front door.
- Hybrid design elements of both the Chateauesque and Baronial Styles, including rusticated stonework, arched entryway, cylindrical corner turret and square tower, dressed stone parapet caps and central window bay over main entrance.
- Use of native British Columbia building materials, such as coast Douglas fir for interior woodwork.
- Prominent and expert use of Kootenay marble as the dominant exterior building material, layered over brick set in 13- and five-inch courses.
- Ornate stone carvings over the main entrance.
- Wood windows, often of double-hung design.
- Brick chimney.
- Major retaining walls at the Vernon Street property line, and at Ward Street property line near the intersection.
- Evidence of climbing vines such as Virginia Creeper and Boston Ivy on stone walls.