Oak Bay is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

incorporated in 1906 that is located on the southern tip of

Vancouver Island Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are o ...

, in the Canadian province of

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

. It is one of thirteen member municipalities of the

Capital Regional District The Capital Regional District (CRD) is a local government administrative district encompassing the southern tip of Vancouver Island and the southern Gulf Islands in the Canadian province of British Columbia. The CRD is one of several regional d ...

, and is bordered to the west by the city of Victoria and to the north by the district of Saanich.

History

Oak Bay is part of the historical territory of the Coast Salish people of the

Songhees The Lekwungen or Lekungen nation (lək̓ʷəŋən often called the Songhees or Songish by non-Lekwungens) are an Indigenous North American Coast Salish people who reside on southeastern Vancouver Island, British Columbia in the Greater Victoria a ...

First Nation Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

. Evidence of their ancient settlements has been found along local shores, including Willows Beach, where an ancient Lkwungen seaport known as Sitchanalth was centred around the mouth of the river commonly known as Bowker Creek. Sitchanalth is hypothesized to have been destroyed by the great Tsunami of 930 AD. Much of this neighbourhood is built upon a First Nation burial ground. Oak Bay takes its name from the Garry oak tree, which is found throughout the region, and also the name of the large bay on the eastern shore of the municipality, fronting onto Willows Beach. John Tod in 1850 built on a farm what is today the oldest continuously-occupied home in Western Canada. John Tod was HBC Chief Fur Trader for Kamloops, one of the original appointed members of BC's Legislative Council. Originally developed as a middle class

streetcar suburb A streetcar suburb is a residential community whose growth and development was strongly shaped by the use of streetcar lines as a primary means of transportation. Such suburbs developed in the United States in the years before the automobile, when ...

of Victoria, Oak Bay was incorporated as a municipality in 1906. Its first Council included Francis Rattenbury, the architect who designed the Legislative Buildings and Empress Hotel located on the inner harbour in Victoria. Rattenbury's own home on Beach Drive is now used as the junior campus for Glenlyon Norfolk School. In 1912 the former farm lands of the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business div ...

were subdivided to create the Uplands area, but development was hampered by

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. After the war, development of expensive homes in the Uplands was accompanied by the construction of many more modest dwellings in the Estevan, Willows and South Oak Bay neighbourhoods. The Victoria Golf Club is located in South Oak Bay. It was founded in 1893, and is the second oldest golf course west of the Great Lakes. It is a 6,120 yard links course on the ocean side, and claims to be the oldest golf course in Canada still on its original site. The course is reported to be haunted. The Royal Victoria Yacht Club was formed on June 8, 1892, and moved in 1912 to its current location, at the location of the old Hudson's Bay Company cattle wharf. The Victoria Cougars won the 1925

Stanley Cup The Stanley Cup (french: La Coupe Stanley) is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, an ...

at the

Patrick Arena Patrick Arena was the main sports arena located in the Greater Victoria, British Columbia, area. The wood constructed arena was located in the suburb municipality of Oak Bay, on the north east corner of Cadboro Bay Road and Epworth Street (then c ...

in Oak Bay, the arena was destroyed by fire in 1929, the Victoria Cougars are today the

Detroit Red Wings The Detroit Red Wings (colloquially referred to as the Wings) are a professional ice hockey team based in Detroit. The Red Wings compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NHL), Atlantic Division in the East ...

. The Oak Bay Marina was built in 1962 and officially opened in April 1964. It replaced the Oak Bay Boat House built in 1893. The breakwater was built in 1959 and funded by the federal government. There have reportedly been sightings of a

sea monster Sea monsters are beings from folklore believed to dwell in the sea and often imagined to be of immense size. Marine monsters can take many forms, including sea dragons, sea serpents, or tentacled beasts. They can be slimy and scaly and are ofte ...

known as the

Cadborosaurus ''Cadborosaurus'', nicknamed Caddy by journalist Archie Wills, is a sea serpent in the folklore of regions of the Pacific Coast of North America. Its name is derived from Cadboro Bay in Greater Victoria, British Columbia, and the Greek root word ...

off Oak Bay, with both reports dating back to before European settlement in the area.

Demographics

In the

2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...

conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and cultur ...

, Oak Bay had a population of 17,990 living in 7,807 of its 8,168 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 18,094. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Religion

According to the 2021 census, religious groups in Oak Bay included: *

Irreligion Irreligion or nonreligion is the absence or rejection of religion, or indifference to it. Irreligion takes many forms, ranging from the casual and unaware to full-fledged philosophies such as atheism and agnosticism, secular humanism and a ...

(10,250 persons or 58.1%) *

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

(6,430 persons or 36.5%) *

Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the ...

(260 persons or 1.5%) *

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...

(170 persons or 1.0%) *

Sikhism Sikhism (), also known as Sikhi ( pa, ਸਿੱਖੀ ', , from pa, ਸਿੱਖ, lit=disciple', 'seeker', or 'learner, translit=Sikh, label=none),''Sikhism'' (commonly known as ''Sikhī'') originated from the word ''Sikh'', which comes fro ...

(120 persons or 0.7%) *

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

(85 persons or 0.5%) *

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...

(50 persons or 0.3%) *Other (280 persons or 1.6%)

Film studio

During the 1930s, Oak Bay, British Columbia was the original "Hollywood North" when fourteen films were produced in Greater Victoria between 1933 and 1938. In 1932 Kenneth James Bishop leased an off-season exhibition building on the Willows Fairgrounds was converted to a film sound stage to produce films for the British film quota system under the Cinematograph Films Act 1927 and films were produced with Hollywood stars such as

Lillian Gish Lillian Diana Gish (October 14, 1893February 27, 1993) was an American actress, director, and screenwriter. Her film-acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912, in silent film shorts, to 1987. Gish was called the "First Lady of American Cinema", ...

Paul Muni Paul Muni (born Frederich Meshilem Meier Weisenfreund; September 22, 1895– August 25, 1967) was an American stage and film actor who grew up in Chicago. Muni was a five-time Academy Award nominee, with one win. He started his acting career in ...

Sir Cedric Hardwicke Sir Cedric Webster Hardwicke (19 February 1893 – 6 August 1964) was an English stage and film actor whose career spanned nearly 50 years. His theatre work included notable performances in productions of the plays of William Shakespeare, Shakes ...

Edith Fellows Edith Marilyn Fellows (May 20, 1923 – June 26, 2011) was an American actress who became a child star in the 1930s. Best known for playing orphans and street urchins, Fellows was an expressive actress with a good singing voice. She made her ...

, Charles Starrett and Rin Tin Tin Jr. Film production was curtailed when the Cinematograph Films Act 1938 specified only British made films would be included in the quota. The Willows Park Studio films include:
1933 *''The Crimson Paradise'' ("Fighting Playboy" in the US) (The first all talking motion picture in Canada.) 1935 *''Secrets of Chinatown'' (Production Company was Commonwealth Productions Ltd. based on the out of print book ''The Black Robe'' by Guy Morton. Kathleen Dunsmuir invested $50,000 in the film. Before completion of the film Commonwealth Productions went bankrupt, Northern Films Ltd. completed post production of the film, Kathleen Dunsmuir lost all $50,000. The film is technically British it received British film registration number br. 11391. The film was seized by the police at request of the Chinese Consul with the claim it was offensive, the film was altered before its release. In Victoria Harry Hewitson the actor playing Chan Tow Ling would remind the audience with the warning it was fictional. In addition to Chinatown and surrounding downtown Victoria the Gonzales area is used in outdoor shots if *the film.) 1936 *''Fury and the Woman'' (aka ''Lucky Corrigan'') *''Lucky Fugitives'' *''Secret Patrol'' *''Stampede'' *''Tugboat Princess'' 1937 *'' What Price Vengeance?'' *''Manhattan Shakedown'' *''

Murder is News ''Murder Is News'' is a 1937 Canadian-American mystery film directed by Leon Barsha. Plot summary A rich businessman is murdered at his townhouse the night his wife plans to divorce him and marry a high-powered lawyer. One of four Quota Quicki ...

'' *''Woman Against the World'' *''Death Goes North'' 1938 *'' Convicted'' *''

Special Inspector ''Special Inspector'', also known as ''Across the Border'', is a 1938 Canadian/American international coproduction crime film directed by Leon Barsha. It stars Charles Quigley, Rita Hayworth and George McKay. This was Hayworth’s second Canadia ...

'' 1942 *'' Commandos Strike at Dawn''

Climate

Education

Oak Bay is the home of the

University of Victoria The University of Victoria (UVic or Victoria) is a public research university located in the municipalities of Oak Bay and Saanich, British Columbia, Canada. The university traces its roots to Victoria College, the first post-secondary instit ...

, a public research institution in the Capital Region District. While much of the

campus is located within the District of Oak Bay, parts of it are also located in the adjacent municipality of Saanich. Oak Bay also hosts a number of academically focused public and private secondary schools which are part of School District 61. There is one public elementary school, Willows Elementary, one public middle school, Monterey Middle School, and one public high school, Oak Bay High School, with the largest student population in the

Greater Victoria Greater Victoria (also known as the Greater Victoria Region) is located in British Columbia, Canada, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island. It is usually defined as the thirteen municipalities of the Capital Regional District (CRD) ...

School District. Residents in the South Oak Bay area may also register their children at the nearby Margaret Jenkins Elementary (in Victoria). In addition to public schools, there are two private schools located in Oak Bay,

Glenlyon Norfolk School Glenlyon Norfolk School (GNS) is an independent, co-ed, university preparatory day school in Victoria and Oak Bay, British Columbia, Canada. It was formed in 1986 with the amalgamation of Glenlyon School and Norfolk House. The school offers in ...

and

St. Michael's University School St. Michaels University School (abbreviated SMUS) is an independent day and boarding school in the municipality of Saanich, the largest and most populous municipality in the Capital Regional District and on Vancouver Island. Previous headmasters i ...

Neighbourhoods

* North Oak Bay *

South Oak Bay South Oak Bay is a neighbourhood located in the Municipality of Oak Bay, British Columbia, to the south of Oak Bay Avenue and lying east of the boundary between Oak Bay and Victoria, British Columbia. History The neighbourhood was originally the t ...

Uplands Upland or Uplands may refer to: Geography *Hill, an area of higher land, generally *Highland, an area of higher land divided into low and high points *Upland and lowland, conditional descriptions of a plain based on elevation above sea level *I ...

*Henderson *Gonzales *Estevan

Parks and recreation centres

''Parks'' *

Anderson Hill Park Anderson or Andersson may refer to: Companies * Anderson (Carriage), a company that manufactured automobiles from 1907 to 1910 * Anderson Electric, an early 20th-century electric car * Anderson Greenwood, an industrial manufacturer * Anderson R ...

- The

Vancouver Island Trail The Vancouver Island Trail (formerly also known as the Vancouver Island Spine Trail) is a near-completed 800 km-long hiking trail stretching the length of Vancouver Island, from its southern terminus on Anderson Hill in Oak Bay, to its northern te ...

's southern terminus is located here *

Uplands Park Uplands Park is located within the municipality of Oak Bay, in the Uplands neighborhood, adjacent to the city of Victoria, British Columbia. Uplands Park consists of of woodland trails and undeveloped natural reserve land, and includes Cattle ...

Cattle Point Uplands Park is located within the municipality of Oak Bay, in the Uplands, Greater Victoria, Uplands neighborhood, adjacent to the city of Victoria, British Columbia. Uplands Park consists of of woodland trails and undeveloped natural reserve ...

(a Garry oak ecosystem). * Willows Beach

Public safety

* Oak Bay Emergency Program * Oak Bay

Fire Department A fire department (American English) or fire brigade (Commonwealth English), also known as a fire authority, fire district, fire and rescue, or fire service in some areas, is an organization that provides fire prevention and fire suppression se ...

- The Oak Bay Fire Department was formed in 1937. * Oak Bay

Police Department The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and ...

- The Oak Bay Police Department was formed in 1906. * Oak Bay Sea Rescue (OBSR) -

Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue (RCMSAR) is a volunteer marine rescue service that saves lives and promotes public recreational boating safety throughout the coastal and some inland waters of the province of British Columbia and is associ ...

Station 33 (RCM-SAR) - Oak Bay Sea Rescue was formed in 1977, and is a volunteer organisation. The Unit's Boats are based out of Oak Bay Marina

References

''Oak Bay, British Columbia: in Photographs 1906-2006'' (book) ''Only in Oak Bay Oak Bay Municipality: 1906-1981'' (book)

External links

* {{authority control Populated places on the British Columbia Coast District municipalities in British Columbia Populated places in the Capital Regional District Greater Victoria