An Ashcroft artist had no idea, when she moved to the village in 1973 and began painting some of its historic buildings, that she was not only preserving the past; she was creating a legacy that would live on for all to enjoy.
“When I moved here and began painting, people said ‘Why don’t you enter your works in the Ashcroft Art Club show?’” says Esther Darlington. So in 1974 she put five or six of her paintings—which depicted then-current buildings around Ashcroft—into the show, then took the paintings to a shop in Kamloops and had them framed.
Then—-inspired by the construction of a new library in Ashcroft—she paid a visit to Harry Newsom, who was head of the Thompson-Nicola Regional District Library System.
“I offered to donate the paintings to the new library in Ashcroft, and he was delighted,” says Darlington. We are sitting in the Ashcroft Library, where a photo from the November 1975 ribbon cutting of the library hangs above the desk. Darlington is there at the left of the picture, smiling as the new library is officially opened.
“Mr. Newsom asked me to be at the ribbon cutting,” says Darlington. “I wanted to make a donation to the Ashcroft Library, because I love libraries, and it’s such a lovely building.”
Ten of Darlington’s paintings are now on permanent display as a collection in the library. When The Journal arrives to speak with Darlington, a man is sitting in the reading area where seven of the paintings are on display and is studying them closely. Unprompted, he remarks on how striking the artwork is, singling out a painting of a yellow building, with a child pulling another one on a sled in front of it.
The painting is a particular favourite of Darlington’s. It depicts a building that once stood on Railway Avenue across from the Heritage Park, in the vacant lot adjacent to the Wellness Studio, which was used as a hotel.
Another painting depicts the long-gone house of Dr. George Sanson, who served as the first permanent doctor in Ashcroft for more than 30 years at the turn of the last century. Sanson’s house and clinic were at the corner of Brink and 5th Street—where the Irly Bird yard now stands—until it was destroyed by fire in the mid-1970s.
“Sanson was the first permanent medical doctor in town,” says Darlington, who has always had a keen interest in local history. She was a member of Ashcroft council when it was decided that the then-current pool park, just off Tingley Street, be named Sanson Park. “Then the new bridge was built [in the early 1990s], and that was the end of Sanson Park.”
Several of the paintings show still-extant houses on Bancroft Lane, including one called “Hazel’s New Hat” that shows Hazel Tuohey (“She loved her hats,” says Darlington with a chuckle) walking north along the lane toward the old laundry building on 3rd Street.
Over the years Darlington added paintings to the original collection, including one of a Chinese noodle house on Railway Avenue that was painted for May Chow, who worked at the Wing Chong Tai store that was owned and operated by her husband and his brother. Another painting depicts the building displaying the Nabob Tea sign that stood at the corner of Railway Avenue and Highway 97C.
As she talks about each piece, Darlington’s passion for both history and painting is evident. She recalls details such as the fact that towards the end of his life when he could no longer get about, Dr. Sanson liked to sit in the front yard of his house, where the high board fence gave hom some privacy. She also describes the painting process, saying that she took a little artistic licence with some of the details as she saw fit.
“When I painted the yellow building at 6th and Railway, there was no one in front of it,” she says. “I put the figures [which include a dog] in because I thought it looked nice.”
In June 2017, Darlington received confirmation from Judy Moore—chief librarian of the Thompson-Nicola Regional District Library System—that the paintings will be treated as a collection and kept together at the Ashcroft Library in perpetuity. Moore wrote that “This reiterates the original letter from then director of libraries, Henry E. Newsom, and board minutes delivered in 1975, to accept the donation and house them permanently.
“We thank you again for your generous contribution to the TNRD Library System and understand the historical interest that they hold for the residents of the district, particularly the Ashcroft area.”
Darlington says that she was relieved to get the confirmation about the collection’s permanence at the Ashcroft Library, and relieved that the collection of streetscapes will remain intact as exhibited in the library.“It’s such an important history of Ashcroft, as so many of the buildings I painted are gone.”
