Colonial Despatches

The very first literary meeting in Nanaimo was held in 1859 and netted 44 dollars to purchase books. Three years later, on 25 November 1862, St. Paul's Literary Society was founded in Nanaimo, British Columbia. Reverend John Booth Good was a founding member of the society.1

Two years after its founding, the society decided to build its own hall. Governor Arthur Kennedy officially opened the Literary Institute Hall in November 1864.2 After its creation, for an annual fee, members could use the reading room with its newspapers and periodicals from England, or they could borrow books. The literary hall in Nanaimo became the centre of social life of the community, as it accommodated approximately 250 people.3

• 1. Jan Peterson, Black Diamond City: Nanaimo, the Victorian Era, (Heritage House Publishing, 2002), p.192.
• 2. Ibid.
• 3. Ibid.