Bittancourt House Museum

The Bittancourt House Museum is located on the grounds of the Salt Spring Island Farmers' Institute and houses many artifacts of early life on the island.  Unfortunately the museum hasn't opened for the season, but if you're interested in seeing some of the displays, there's a rotating slideshow on the museum website.  The house is included as an historic place in the British Columbia Heritage Trust. 
The Bittancourts were among the first white settlers on Salt Spring Island.  Some interesting information is excerpted here from this website
"Estalon Bittancourt had a particularly romantic and interesting career. Born in the Azores about 1845 he developed a roving disposition and a longing to go to sea. At the age of about 15 or 16 he swam out to a sailing ship bound for the goldfields of Australia. Soon after, the lure of the sea brought him to Vancouver Island. Refused shore leave by his captain he waited until nightfall and swam ashore at Royal Roads. Purchasing a sloop, he did a good business for several months carrying sawdust from Mill Bay to Victoria. Then disaster struck; a driving gale piled his frail craft on the rocks at ten mile point just north of Cordova Bay; but fortunately his ability as a swimmer saved him after a hard struggle with the swift running current. Perhaps tiring of his adventures on the sea he took the advice of his fellow countryman, John Norton, who already knew something of Salt Spring, and established his land claims behind Vesuvius Bay.
...Estalon married, raised a large family of nine children, became a substantial businessman and farmer and developed the agreeable habit of building substantial homes for himself and his family. The earliest and the finest, his own home above the docks at Vesuvius, existed in its later days as the Vesuvius Bay (An annex was built in 1886 for son, Fred, and wife, Annie). This big house was the centre of Estalon's enterprise. Hero he ran a general store (supplied by a sloop with which he delivered goods to and from Victoria) and a friendly little neighborhood pub (a decent enough establishment, but still off limits to the strict Methodists at Central Settlement.). ...A major source of income for the growing Bittancourt family came from the operation of the sandstone quarries at Vesuvius, originally developed in 1860-61 by five partners who took of for the goldfields of the Cariboo in 1861....
The family home - turned hotel was destroyed by fire on 1975 but five houses still attest to the prosperity of this enterprising pioneer. Best known are the three "dowry houses" that ringed Vesuvius Bay..., built by Bittancourt for three of his married daughters.... A house built across the road from the wharf for his son, Fred, about 1892 was recently moved to the Farmer's Institute property on Rainbow Road and will serve the community as Salt Spring Island's first museum."