This Station now EJ’s Place
Painter E.J. Hughes’ friends and family walked down memory lane Friday after Duncan’s late artistic icon had a street named after him.
Station Street’s west end became E.J. Hughes Place — the first street decorated by council’s new $33,000 way-finding sign revamp.
“I know Ed is so happy to see E.J. Hughes Place, which is unmistakably Ed,” said Hughes’ long-time friend and agent, Pat Salmon.
She noted how Hughes always remarked about other street names, including Victoria’s Fern Street, which reminded him of his beloved wife, Fern.
Hughes, who died at age 93 in 2007, would have turned 100 on Feb. 17.
The Order of Canada and B.C. recipient still has a few relatives, including niece June Simpson who visited Totem Town from West Vancouver.
“This is wonderful,” she said of the street naming.
“I’m so happy his memory is being kept this way,” said Simpson, after public-works staffer Al Scholz erected the sign — made by Mark’s Sign Shop — fronting Government Street.
A second Hughes Place sign sits at the Somenos Street intersection.
Town crier Ben Buss, and Janet Martinez of downtown’s E.J. Hughes Gallery, also cheered the occasion.
“Ed always talked about himself in the third person,” Simpson said of her modest uncle, “so he’d say ‘This (sign) is good for Hughes’ work.’”
Hughes other relatives included sisters Irma and Zoe, and brother Gareth. He also has a niece named Virginia, and a nephew named Andy.
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