Published 3:14 pm Monday, January 12, 2026
By Rod Link
Heavy equipment today demolished a Second World War structure on the Bench known as the Kin Hut. (Staff photo)
Heavy equipment today demolished a Second World War structure on the Bench known as the Kin Hut. (Staff photo)
Two pieces of heavy equipment made short work today of demolishing the Kin Hut building, one of the few remaining traces of the presence of the Canadian military in Terrace during the Second World War.
Located just north of Heritage Park, the building served as the kitchen to a large military hospital built on the Bench overlooking the city. The hospital was built to treat casualties should the Japanese mount an invasion of the North Coast.
Although the hospital was demolished and Terraceview Lodge and Heritage Park now sit on the site, the Kin Hut, which became city property, went on to serve as a public use building. That use ended, and the building became a city storage building.
An extensive report commissioned by the city in 2024 concluded that before any rehabilitation work could take place, it needed a proper concrete foundation to stop it from settling into the ground.
That realization set the stage for a council decision to demolish the structure based on the money that would be required to restore it to public use.
A budget of $110,000 was set aside for the work, and a demolition permit was issued at the end of November.
Once fully demolished, metal will be sent for recycling and the rest of the material taken to the regional district’s Forceman Ridge Landfill.