Kitimat's City Centre

In order to ensure that Kitimat's City Centre would become a key destination for residents, the town planners knew they needed to position it in a central location. This was easier said than done, however, since Kitimat's mountainous, wild terrain made choosing such a site nearly impossible. Geographically, the location of the Centre is not in the true physical centre of the town. But because of the gullies, furrows, and rivers which divide the land, City Centre is in a spot that travellers often pass through, regardless of where in Kitimat they are headed.¹
Locating the downtown here was one of the ways in which the city planners increased the prominence and importance of City Centre as Kitimat’s hub. They also made sure to build the City Centre before any of the neighbourhood centres, since they were worried that if they constructed the Nechako Centre first, it would instead grow to be the biggest centre in town as residents got used to relying upon it. This would "warp" the neighbourhood and throw the entire community plan into chaos.²
"Underdevelop the neighbourhood centre to start with, start your main centre at once with some of the shops that ultimately are needed in the local centre, form the habit of people going to the main centre; and only, a good deal later, when that is really on its feet, go back and round out the first local centre."³
The Centre would meet people’s household and personal needs. Business operations supplying industry and needing space would be located at the Service Centre across the river, closer to industry and away from downtown. In an effort by planners to keep industry and residential separate in the town plan, the highway was planned to come in at Service Centre, thus avoiding commercial vehicle traffic entering the residential part of town. B.C. Highways did not follow this plan, instead constructing the highway so that all traffic would pass through town before heading to Service Centre and the industrial sites.
Service Centre businesses included trucking, mechanics, laundries, bakeries, warehouses, and freight interchange yards, all "tucked away out of sight."⁴ Over the years, Service Centre did well, serving its purpose as an industrial business centre. It thrives today. As long as there are industries to supply, there will be businesses at Service Centre.

The original design for Kitimat’s downtown shopping centre was unique. City Centre consisted of separate buildings interconnected by covered pedestrian walkways and garden spaces. Parking was located on the outer perimeter. The orientation was a reversal of the traditional downtown street, which generally has shops, gardens, and sidewalk lining roadways, mixing pedestrian and vehicular traffic. City Centre was designed to separate the two, and public, cultural, and commercial buildings would stand together in an easily navigable space. This continued the overall theme of walkability that underlies Kitimat's Master Plan.
In 1974, the shopping centre was enlarged with a third floor and additional shops and was enclosed—a trend at the time to protect shoppers from the weather.
The downtown orientation was neither understood nor popular. Kitimat residents have long lamented the town's lack of a traditional main street, where shops line the road rather than garden space. "I think the only thing that really... made it more awkward and more difficult was having City Centre the way it was, which was [that] there was no main street ..."¹
Despite this criticism, City Centre has done well. Popular early businesses included the Bay, Shop-Easy, and Helen's Cafe, a busy community gathering spot. The cafe originally opened in Smeltersite beside the aluminum smelter in 1952 but moved to City Centre in 1957. It remained open until 1970.²

The Kitimat town planners hired sociologists to work with them, revealing their commitment to creating a community where people could be happy and productive. Lois Barclay Murphy was the main sociologist on the project, and she had many ideas for City Centre. She was worried that without cultural outlets, the people of Kitimat would grow bored and restless. She feared that "the lack of wealthy, public-spirited citizens to endow a library, a zoo, music, art, a theatre, a museum and the like" would create an atmosphere of monotony, and unhappiness, and disreputable behaviour would follow.¹
City Centre was meant, in part, to solve this problem. It was designed with an Italian piazza in mind, where shops would be broken up by community and public buildings.² A museum was worked into Kitimat's original Master Plan, along with two 800-seat theatres, though these were never built. The library was also meant to be built here, although it was originally established first at the Nechako Centre and only moved to City Centre later. This mix of culture and entertainment was intended to make City Centre a more enjoyable place to be and to lift the monotony of remote life.
Government and commercial office space also featured in the city plan, and recreation became a key part of the area. In Kitimat’s first years, a portion of the City Centre parking lot was converted each winter into a giant skating rink, and kids and their parents flocked to the City Centre on the weekends and holidays. Later, Kitimat Ice Rink with its distinctive curved roof officially opened. It was the town’s first enclosed sheet of ice.

Kitimat was built by its people. In such a remote place, everyone in the community had to take an active part in its improvement. Kitimat citizens had to work together to create a livable, thriving community. And in the early years, this often took the shape of events and celebrations. There was always something going on.
"You have to make your own entertainment in places like that."¹
Early Kitimat was filled with dances, sports competitions, concerts, parades, and specialized clubs. There was a Brush and Pallet Club, a Yacht Club, a Rod and Gun Club, a Pipe Band, and a Little Symphony, among other organizations. Everyone had a hobby and a group to be part of. Service clubs such as the Kiwanis Club, the Kinsmen, the Rotary Club, and the Elks formed in an effort to improve the town. There was a branch of the Royal Canadian Legion, a Professional Women's Club, and the Nechako Toastmasters. The Fine Arts Association brought travelling art shows to the town from across Canada, and the Kitimat Works Sports Association formed in 1956 and began hosting competitions in curling, softball, darts, bowling, and hockey. Youth groups such as Boy Scouts, Girl Guides, and Cadets kept children occupied and involved.
"That was the beauty of the early days, if you wanted something like that [Rod & Gun Club] everyone chipped in and you built it yourselves. And the result was that the Rod and Gun Club truly was looked after well because... you were kind of like an owner."²
Annual events in town included the popular Dominion Day celebrations (now Canada Day), during which large parades would move through town. Delta King Days, taking place on the May Long Weekend each year, involved the entire community with a host of events, including raft racing on the Kitimat River. Each Christmas beginning in 1958, a Christmas light contest brightened Kitimat's neighbourhoods.
One popular event was the Miss Kitimat Pageant, originally sponsored by the Elks Club. The first pageant took place in 1954, and it became an annual tradition after that. The winner would travel to Vancouver as Miss Kitimat to represent the town at Vancouver's PNE.
With all the activity, life certainly wasn't dull in Kitimat. The town planners' fears did not come true: Kitimat in the early years was neither lonely nor monotonous, though this may have been due less to the extremely detailed town planning and more to the ingenuity and community spirit of its residents. As one Alcan engineer reflected: "Institutions, plans, and buildings are only the framework of a community. It was the townspeople, not the planners or builders, who made Kitimat."³