What is the View Royal Community Association?
The View Royal Community Association exists to help make our community a vibrant, engaging and inclusive place. From hosting our own community programs to providing a rental space for other events, our priority is encouraging our neighbours in View Royal to connect with one another.
VRCA also acts as stewards of the community hall, which is over 80 years old! While the building nears the end of it’s life, the association will explore opportunities to see how the land and space can best serve View Royal.
The VRCA Board of Directors is volunteer-run and consists of local residents that want to make a positive impact in our community. All residents of View Royal are welcome to join the Board as committee members, especially if there’s an area that you feel passionate about. We also welcome residents to become members of the Association, which only requires a $5 yearly fee. Please see our Membership page for more info!
As a not-for-profit BC society, the stated purposes of the association are:
to own, maintain and operate a community hall and ancillary equipment for the promotion of social, recreational, economic, political and general welfare of the taxpayers and residents of the town of View Royal;
in the event of emergency or civil disaster, to make the community hall and other association resources available, free of charge, to established municipal, regional, provincial and/or federal emergency defence or disaster control agencies;
to control allocation of use and rental of the community hall to appropriate outside users in a manner consistent with primary purposes above; and
provide a meeting and forum where matters deemed of importance to the View Royal community can be debated and where the voice of the community at large may be heard.
Residents of View Royal built the View Royal Community Hall in 1943 to provide the community with a social and emergency centre. The Craigflower Women's Institute helped pay for the cost of the hall from its own 'hall fund'. The Women's Institute held weekly meetings in the hall each Thursday for 65 years until the group was disbanded in 2008.
The basement of the hall was originally occupied as the first fire hall for View Royal. It was also occupied by the View Royal Library, which was moved to the Town Hall when it was built in the mid 1990's. The View Royal Preschool now operates in the basement of the Community Hall.
The View Royal Ratepayers' Association has administered the hall as a gathering place for the benefit of the community since 1943, until February 1, 2007, when it became the View Royal Community Association. Before the incorporation of the Town of View Royal in 1988, the Association also served an important local government role by holding responsibility for View Royal representation on the Capital Regional District Board.
Our History
With government and volunteer help, the forerunner of View Royal's Community Hall at 279 Island Highway was built in 1943. It was then an Air Raid Precautions (ARP) centre against the threat of air attack. After the war it remained headquarters for View Royal's first fire protection until there was a formal fire department. Here, with government inspectors (dark coats) are, L-R: Alex McKay, Jack Palmer and Jim Pilgrim. Photo courtesy View Royal Archives