The Parksville and District Community Society was established in May 1923 to preserve Parksville’s community park area near the beach for public use. The first Board of Directors consisted of several community leaders, including Robert Craig, Robert H. Hickey, Col. W.B. Creig, Fred Shelly and James E. Kingsley. Largely through community fund raising, the Society purchased the land from Joseph Hirst. Over the years, the Society improved the Community Park through fund raising, sports days, picnics and dances. In 1947, the Society purchased a surplus army building and moved it from Nanaimo to the Community Park where it was reconstructed, opened in 1948 to serve as a Community Hall. The Society transferred the Park to the City of Parksville in 1963 and disbanded its activities.
published
Full
Revised
CHP
Title based on the contents of the fonds.
BCAUL control number: CHP-2050
The fonds consists of minutes and occasional reports from Directors,1923-1944, 1950-1956, constitution & by-laws, balance sheets, 1926-1961 (incomplete), correspondence, membership lists and lists of subscribers, petty cash book, receipts and expenditures for Community Hall, records of sales of bonds, membership receipts, 1959-1962, lists of volunteer workers and visitors to the Park, and notes and copies of original documents compiled by J. E. Kingsley in the 1970s on the formation & early history of the Society. The fonds includes a map of the Community Park, 1955.
Arranged in five series: 1 Minutes & by-laws. 2 Financial records. 3 Correspondence & other records. 4 Map of Community Park. 5 J.E. Kingsley collected documents.
The collection remained in the custody of James E. Kingsley, a founding member after the Community Society disbanded in 1963. Kingsley transferred the fonds to the Parksville & District Historical Society in 1993.
There are no restrictions on access or use
Series and item level finding aid available at the Archives and online via MemoryBC