Association facilitates land use discussions (between developers, residents, and the city), oversees emergency preparedness and safety issues, operates the two neighbourhood allotment gardens, and provides meeting space in Little Fernwood Hall for various community gatherings including Cafe Sympatico and recovery support groups. Fernwood is known throughout the city as a particularly warm, creative, and engaged neighbourhood. Fernwood is sometimes referred to as 'funky Fernwood' for its creative spirit and community vibe. The 'Fernwood Murder' of crows roosts on Walnut street before nightfall during the summer and is noted on the Fernwood Community Map. History The Fernwood area was part of the territory originally inhabited by the Songhees prior to the establishment of Fort Victoria. It is believed that a Songhees village may have been located at what is today Cadboro Bay. With the establishment of Fort Victoria, a trail linking the fort to Cadboro Bay ran through the area that would become Fernwood and was used by aboriginals and Europeans. Bishop Edward Cridge described the area as it was in the 1850s as "open country without a house or field till we arrived at the Company's farm [Cadboro Bay Farm]". Early European settlers in the area included John Work, born in Donegal, Ireland who developed the Hillside Farm on the northwest edge of today's Fernwood, and Benjamin Pearse. Pearse owned land between Denman Street and Pandora Avenue, bounded by Fernwood Road on the west and Belmont Avenue on the east. His home, Fernwood Manor, constructed in 1860, gave its name to the neighbourhood. After Pearse's death in 1902, Pearse's second wife, Sarah Jane Pearse resided there until her death in 1954. Fernwood Manor stood at Vining and Begbie Streets for 109 years before its demolition in 1969. Historically, a spring in Fernwood supplied Victoria with its main source of water, hence the earlier name of the neighbourhood, Springridge. In 1875 Victoria began piping water from Elk Lake, and in 1885, the site of the original springs became the location of the Empire Brewery. Residential development began in earnest in the 1890s, and many homes in western Fernwood and along Fernwood Road itself date from this era. In the early 1900s a large area west of Fernwood Road was used as a sand and gravel pit to supply construction materials to local builders, to the dismay of many early residents. The problem was partly solved by the construction of the present