Burnaby Historical Society Disbanding After 61 Years

Photo: Roger Whitehouse and Margaret Matovich, board members with Burnaby Historical Society It counts legendary Vancouver archivist J.S. Matthews among its first members. Historian Margaret Ormsby and provincial archivist Dr Willard Ireland were early speakers at gatherings. Created in 1957, the Burnaby Historical Society was the brainchild of Barry Mather, a columnist for the ?Vancouver Sun? and ?Province? newspapers. In the summer of ‘57 he phoned his friend Fraser Wilson, a ?Sun? cartoonist, to suggest they form a Burnaby historical society. Others joined in, including neighbour Roy Long, Q.C. and Rolf Macey, editor of New Westminster’s ?The Columbian?. Dr Walter Sage who was chairman of the British Columbia Historical Association was consulted, and soon 25 people gathered in the basement of the Burnaby Municipal Hall to launch the new society. Now, 61 years and many accomplishments later, Burnaby Historical Society is disbanding. Board member Roger Whitehouse was drawn to the [...]

2020-05-27T05:59:54+00:00November 20th, 2018|

Our Friends at the Museum of Surrey

Tour the newly expanded and updated Museum of Surrey. The current dinosaur exhibit and new children's Explore Zone are pulling in families, and the museum's collection looks fantastic in new display galleries. Photo Mural project features 2,000 photos submitted form the Surrey Community. The river motif illustrates some of the 1,400 kms of rivers and streams in Surrey. This guy moves and roars -- and pulls in the kids. Indigenous Hall. A space for gatherings, story telling and exhibitions. (Katzie, Kwantlen & Semiahmoo) The Textile Centre has a number of working looms and spinning wheels. It's named after Honey Hoover, a Surrey weaver and mentor -- who helped people with special needs and injured soldiers returning from WW II. The 128 year old Anniedale School has been saved by the Surrey Historical Society and has been moved to the grounds at the Museum of Surrey. It's one of the few [...]

2020-05-27T05:59:54+00:00November 20th, 2018|

Douglas Day 2018

  Langley Heritage Society's annual Douglas Day Dinner was a smashing success. Michael Kluckner regaled members with the story of Julia Henshaw a novelist, socialite, botanist and World War I ambulance driver. His new graphic novel Julia explores her story.                               

2020-05-27T05:59:54+00:00November 19th, 2018|

Murrayville Remembrance Day

Langley Heritage Society member Glenn Disney shares the images below from Murrayville's ceremony, which has been successfully revitalized over the last two years.

2020-05-27T05:59:54+00:00November 14th, 2018|

A Love Story: War Bride Arrival

A world at war brought them together. Lois Cross met Canadian air gunner Ross Bowling while he was serving overseas with 422 Squadron. Lois worked in the payroll department at the Beighton Colliery at Sheffield, she loved to dance, (her future husband did not) and experienced her share of catcalls and whistles from American servicemen stationed in the city. She was not amused. Eventually she met Ross, a cousin of family friends. A whirlwind romance ensued, and they married on July 1st 1944.  (His sister-in-law, Christine Cross, has remarked this was the fastest decision she ever saw him make.) A large trunk inside the waiting room at Fort Langley CN Station tells the next part of the story: when Lois stepped off the train in 1946 she became the first war bride to arrive in Fort Langley. Some 48,000 young women met and married Canadian servicemen during the Second World [...]

2024-11-21T06:07:16+00:00November 10th, 2018|

A Month of Remembrance

On November's edition of Valley Voices, military historian Paul Ferguson discusses how we remember the two World Wars, and recounts an air training disaster that claimed 11 lives on a Fraser Valley mountaintop. Also, from the Langley Centennial Museum archives: Mildred McDonald & Hugh Davis were children when WW II broke out, but they never forgot its impact. Listen to Valley Voices with former CBC broadcaster and member of the Langley Heritage Society, Mark Forsythe HERE.  Valley Voices airs each Wednesday morning at 11:00 on CIVL Radio 101.7 at the University of the Fraser Valley.

2020-05-27T05:59:54+00:00November 6th, 2018|

The Chapmans

"Fort Langley House, Chapman's" is scrawled in pencil on the back of this photograph. Antiquarius Bookseller's Bernard Spring of Falkland sent it to us earlier this year. The house appears similar in design to others from this era (e.g. Lattimer and Moir Houses built around 1910 and restored by the Langley Heritage Society). Anyone have information about the Chapman family pictured? email to: [email protected] The photo has been donated to the Langley Centennial Museum. Thanks Bernard! Thanks to Kobi Christian, Curator at the Langley Centennial Museum for sharing the Marr Map. The late William (Bill) Marr documented families and businesses in Fort Langley between 1925 - 1927 on this hand-drawn map. (It appears the Chapmans have left by this point. ) Go full screen to see the original location of the CN Station, wharf, Town Hall (Community Hall), the Haldi Butcher Shop, Chinese laundry, Charles Reid - Blacksmith, James Mackie's [...]

2020-05-27T05:59:54+00:00November 4th, 2018|

Michael Kluckner at Douglas Day Dinner

  The annual Douglas Day Dinner was attended by a full house at the Fort Langley Community Hall on Friday November 16th. Artist, writer and historian Michael Kluckner (and former president of LHS) presented the life of Julia Henshaw; novelist, journalist, botanist, explorer and World War I ambulance driver who won the French Croix de Guerre 100 years ago. Douglas Day was declared in 1946 to honour the former governor who proclaimed the new colony of British Columbia at Fort Langley in 1858. James Douglas statue at Fort Langley National Historic Site.          

2020-05-27T05:59:55+00:00November 1st, 2018|

Before GPS: Mile Markers on the Fraser Highway

  Langley Heritage Society's Jim Foulkes helped locate the original mile markers in Langley.  It was a treasure hunt that paid off. The Township of Langley and its volunteer Heritage Advisory Committee located the original concrete mile markers that once stood beside the Fraser Highway. Mile O began at the historic Main Post Office (1905) at Main & Hastings in Vancouver, and moved eastward through the Fraser Valley. Seven of nine original  mile markers erected in the early 1930s in Langley Township were located with the help of historic surveyor (and Langley Heritage Society board member) Jim Foulkes. The originals were restored and two replicas were created to replace the two missing markers. Nine mile markers now stand on the south side of the Fraser Highway between Murrayville and Aldergrove, a visible link to the region's modern transportation history, which began with the gold rush trails in 1858, and later [...]

2024-11-27T00:11:30+00:00November 1st, 2018|

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