Renowned architect and historian Trelle Morrow has been awarded Prince George’s Freedom of the City, the highest honour a municipality can bestow on an individual.
He was given the award by Mayor Simon Yu at the start of city council’s Monday night meeting.
“It's an honor to as a mayor tonight to award one of the most distinguished citizens of Prince George -- Trelle Morrow -- the Freedom of the City on behalf of the city council,” said Yu.
“The council recognizes Mr. Morrow’s contribution to the community over many decades with this award. Mr. Morrow is best known as an architect, a living artist, a notable documentarian of the region's history. His architecture career spans over 40 years, and he designed many notable buildings here in Prince George.”
He designed such notable buildings as Sacred Heart Cathedral, Quinson Elementary School, and the former Prince George Citizen building on Brunswick Street, which is now the head offices for the Lheidli T’enneh First Nation.
“The freedom of city award is a reflective of our exceptional merit and public contribution and Mr. Morrow is truly a worthy recipient and we're so happy he's here with us.”
He is also a four-time winner of the Jeanne Clarke Local History Award from the Prince George Public Library in recognition of his books on his local history and his longtime service with the Prince George Heritage Commission.
Morrow has also received the Alice Box Memorial Award in recognition of his lifetime contributions in support of arts and culture in Northern B.C.
“What a rich honour to be selected from so many people that have come all of these years before me. It’s glowing terms [Mayor Yu] uses I’m not sure they apply at all. I think there's always a certain amount of exaggeration,” said Morrow after he accepted the award.
He then told a story about when he first came to Prince George in the early 1950s.
“It was a really expanding city when I came, that's a long time ago,” he said, adding that 70 years ago he happened to see an advertisement in a newspaper from an architect in Prince George who wanted hired help for this office.
Morrow was working for an architectural firm in Victoria at that time and his wife Alison was a home economics teacher at a junior high school.
They decided to go “have a look” at Prince George, which was a two-day drive in those days. When they arrived Alison went to the school board office and was offered a job straight away and Morrow landed the job at the architectural office.
“I was offered a job because of my experience at architectural offices in Victoria and it didn't take very many minutes to confirm that. So, the rest of the day here in Prince George, my wife and I decided should we be coming up here or not? We decided to have a look at it, decided to give it a shot and see what happens,” said Morrow.
“Alison and I decided we would move to Prince George and she finished up at Oak Bay junior high and then I came up worked for a month and got our cabin started.”
He finished his speech by telling a story about building his log cabin “out in the jack pines” beyond Central Street, on what is now Gillette Street.
