City Hall (1902)
Greenwood History
  In 1891 copper and gold ore was discovered not far from the present city of Greenwood.  In 1895 Robert Wood purchased some land, built a General Store, and named the settlement Greenwood. With the discovery of rich copper ore Greenwood started to grow, and within two years the region became a booming city. In 1897 Greenwood was incorporated as a city, and by 1899 the population reached 3,000. The city had many fine hotels, a newspaper, an opera house, and other businesses that served many other mining camps in the area. Greenwood became the economic and social hub for the entire boundary region.
In 1901 a new smelter plant was commissioned at Anaconda (a town next to Greenwood) processing copper and gold ore from the nearby Mother Lode Mine and a few other mines in the area. The smelter's 121 foot brick smoke stack, which stands over the city, is one of the few left in the province. The stack, a mountain of black slag, and a few pieces of foundation are a reminder of the early days of mining. In 1918, the market died, the smelter closed, and Greenwood was virtually deserted.
  In 1942, with the start of the Second World War, over 1,000 Japanese/Canadians arrived by train to be interned in the vacant houses and shops at Greenwood. The City of Greenwood was saved from the ghost  town status that befell every other mining community  in the region. Greenwood was once again a bustling community until the end of the war, in 1945, when many residents again left.                                         
Today Greenwood's population is close to 650 and has evolved into a historic attraction. Many of the turn of the century buildings have been restored, including: the Post Office, Courthouse (which is now City Hall), MacArthur Center, as well as many of the businesses on main street. Greenwood's City Hall was built in 1902 and housed the Supreme Court of British Columbia until 1953. There is an old jail in the basement. The Greenwood City Hall was used in a court room setting for the movie "Snow Falling on Cedars".
Greenwood's Post Office was built in 1913 and with its brass mail boxes and original wickets is still being used today.                                                                                    
Greenwood Fire Hall was built in 1897 and known as #10 Building during the Internment years.
The Pacific Hotel was used as #1 Building and housed over 200 Japanese/Canadian Internees. This  building  was also called Harbor Hotel for the movie "Snow Falling on Cedars". The Windsor Hotel was called the San Piedro Island Inn in the movie "Snow Falling on Cedars".

The Rendell Building featured an elaborate turret during the earlier years which was removed in the 1950's. This building was the #4 Building and was used to house the community baths during the internment years. It was Fisk's Marine Supply and Hardware for "Snow Falling on Cedars", and also housed the production offices during the filming of the movie.  

Built in 1913 this tunnel went underneath the CPR trestle. It was then buried and a new  double tunnel was built to replace it. In 1992 the double tunnel was demolished and this tunnel was once again uncovered. In 1998, as a millennium project, committees and citizens of Greenwood  painted flags on the tunnel to hide the graffiti.



Sacred Heart Church (1899)
St. Jude's Anglican Church (1901)
The Phoenix Bird
Log House (1899)
Fort Greenwood
Here is a couple of videos on Greenwood
What used to be a box factory with sawdust burner
Steam powerplant which once supplied power to Greenwood
Jewel Lake Gems
(Courtesy of Bill O)
Most of the people living in the Greenwood district were honest,  happy-go-lucky, except for a few bad ones like Two Fingered Jack, Crazy Brown, Dirty George, Winchester Shorty and a few others that made it bad for the whole community.
With the coming of the railway, electric lights, the telephone, the opening of the smelters Greenwood had real reason to celebrate and celebrate they did. At the height of Greenwood's heyday there were about 26 hotels and the gambling and dancing went on forever. There were several churches which were well attended. At one point a Baptist decided that Greenwood should have a Baptist Church. After talking to the people and raising enough money a Baptist Church was built. It was found later that there were only half a dozen Baptists in the whole area and so it could not survive. A good hospital was run by the Sisters for many years. Greenwood had four banks (Bealey Trust and Investing Company, Bank of Montreal, Bank of British North America and the Bank of Commerce) all did good business. It all ended after the Great War.
Greenwood-Phoenix Tramway Bore
In 1908 Richard Armstrong ( representing a number of Chicago capitalists)  proposed to build a 9 by 9 ft. tunnel from Greenwood to the Granby Mines at Phoenix. The first 3000 ft of the tunnel would cut through seven veins and the next 3000 ft. would cut through eleven more veins. A couple of months later the Greenwood Phoenix Tunnel Company was established with a capitalization of  $5,000, 000.
May 1908 saw the start of the tunnel and within a week the company advanced 100 ft. into the mountain. By February of  1910 the tunnel was only 400 ft. long (must have been some problems).  In March of 1911 the tunnel had advanced to 1460 feet and 24 men were employed. But thus far no ore had been struck. Finally at the 1800 foot level some ore was struck. In September of 1915 the Chicago Company had a meeting about the tunnel, and as a result the tunnel was abandoned. Records do not indicate how much ore came from the tunnel or why they quit. But evidence points to high costs and low returns.


Deadwood Junction
Hotels built in Greenwood

There were 26 hotels built in Greenwood during the boom.
In 1896 the Pioneer, Windsor and the International were built. The Greenwood, Pacific, Rosland, Imperial and Commercial were built in 1897. In 1898 the Ottawa and the St, Charles were built. During the year of 1899 there were ten more hotels built, Kootenay, Alberta, Armstrong, Arlington, Central, Leland, Miner's, B.C., Log Cabin, and Queens.
Other Hotels that were built in Greenwood were the National, Norden, Royal, Victoria, Alhambra, and Temperance, but we could not find any record as to what year they were built.

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