THE PROSPECTOR'S PICK

HISTORY OF THE 1900 CITY HALL BUILDING

The Sandon City Hall was constructed in 1900 after a devastating fire destroyed the original City Hall together with most of the business core of Sandon. Originally it housed the city offices, city police station, courthouse, jail and fire-hall. In 1920,the City of Sandon was bankrupt and disincorporated. The building was empty until 1925, at which time the building was bought by the School Board. It was stripped of its civic ornamentation and renovated into a 2-classroom school with living quarters for the teacher on the 2nd floor and a library on the 3rd floor. The school closed in 1954 and the building was sold for demolition. A last-minute arrangement in 1988 saw the building sold to its present owners who are now working to restore the building to its former glory.

Today, the ground floor houses City of Sandon interpretive displays and the Prospector's Pick store.

We invite you to explore the city's history in Sandon's historic City Hall. The displays are guaranteed to rouse your enthusiasm for this exciting historic site and allow you to understand the lure of the silver rush - not as well known but every bit as exciting as the Klondike gold rush!

Follow this with a browse through the Prospector's Pick store and take away with you a momento of your visit. The Prospector's Pick carries an amazingly wide selection of local history, railroading and nature books and, if you are lucky, you might meet Sandon's own local author, Veronika Pellowski, who wrote a fantastically readable history of Sandon entitled Silver Lead & Hell - The Story of Sandon. It is now in its third printing - clear testimony as to the book's popularity. The book comes highly recommended and is also available by mail order. The store carries a fine selection of arts and crafts by local Kootenay artisans, rocks and mineral samples, coins and tokens for the collector, quality sweatshirts to keep you warm and t-shirts and caps to protect you from the sun, postcards and stamps. Well worth a visit and something you won't find anywhere else. (All profits go towards the restoration of this priceless heritage building and steam locomotive #6947.)