Atlin Walking Tour

**ATLIN WALKING TOUR**
https://online.fliphtml5.com/vyvmb/frml/#p=1
Download the 2026 revised copy.
Can be viewed on computer or phone.
Copies available at the Museum. 24 pages

Below is information to supplement the pages in the Atlin Walking Tour. We have fleshed out the back story of the Museum and the Courthouse. We have included buildings that are not yet in the booklet.

For a small community, Atlin has many notable buildings. Some are historic, some not, but behind each front door is a fascinating story.

**THE ATLIN MUSEUM**
corner of Third and Trainor

When this school was finally built, one room held all grades for many years. Eventually a wall was built and split the building into two classrooms. Two teachers had cramped quarters in the basement and the School Board hired either two men or two women to work there at a time. The confining winters took their toll of the most tolerant of souls and married couples proved to be the most effective stalwarts.

In 1914, a fire levelled the town’s centre. The school was spared because it was located on Third Street. This school continued to operate until 1968, at which time it was the oldest operating school in Canada. Then, an ATCO-type trailer was hauled into town in minus 60-degree weather and it became the new school.

The old school building was condemned and about to be destroyed when the Community Club took it up as their new meeting hall. It was moved to the corner of Third and Trainor, and eventually the Atlin Historical Society took over ownership.

**THE COURTHOUSE**
Second between Pearl and Trainor

When the Courthouse was built in 1900, it was located on Third Street between Pearl and Trainor. In August of 1900 this important building was officially opened with an elaborate affair that included recitations, vocal renditions and speeches. It was the largest government structure in northern British Columbia, designed by Edward Garden, a talented young architect who came to Atlin with the gold rush stampeders.

The building is fifty feet square and the tower windows offer the best view in town. A long stairway in the central hallway leads to upstairs rooms, tucked under the roof, where the Gold Commissioner and his family once lived. Matters of law were settled in the Courtroom in the early twentieth century and still are today. In 1955, the building was abandoned. Maintenance and heating became too expensive, and it was too large for a smaller, older Atlin.

Private owners moved the Courthouse to its current location on Second Street, directly behind where it originally stood.
The building’s concrete vault was not moved with the rest of the building; it was left buried in the rubble of the old basement, but the steel door was relocated; it remains in the wall of the recording office.
Eventually the Atlin Historical Society became the owner of this remarkable building.

Restoration began in 1983; since that time the Courthouse has been rented by various organizations. The old Gold Commissioner’s apartment upstairs was often rented out during the summer months as office space to mining and exploration companies; the Mining Recorder’s office has been occupied by the Atlin Community Library for some years now; the Courtroom serves as an actual Courtroom for a day or two every month and it is also the venue for the Local Artists’ Co-operative during the summer months.

In recent years the building was in need of attention. The west side of the lot was damp and the wooden foundations were suffering. After years of hard decision-making and grant writing and fundraising, devoted Board members of the Atlin Historical Society had a raised basement built on the east side of the lot. They had the Courthouse moved onto it. A dry foundation is assured.

In the photos, note the position of the Canada flag. It indicates how far the building was moved.

THE BLACKSMITH SHOP across from the Courthouse 2026

The owner recently got a 8.5 x 11 inch pad of work order forms for “Pete Gabrio – Blacksmith”. He is the one who built the Blacksmith shop in 1920 and ran it for about 20 years. The Atlin Historical Society has copies. There’s a framed copy in the window. He’s buried in the old cemetery, location apparently unknown.

OTHER BUILDINGS WITH FASCINATING STORIES

Airport Webcam