Archives: Locations
The British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) Aerospace Technology Campus has been training aircraft maintenance engineers, gas turbine and jet engine technicians, airport operation specialists, and commercial pilots since it opened in 2007. The jewel of the campus is its 40,000-square-foot see-through hangar. If you peer through the glass, you are likely to see BCIT […]
Burkeville has always been a tight-knit community. Over the years, residents have supported the creation of playgrounds, a church, a school and a community centre. This building, originally Ernest Cooney’s barn, was given new life as the Sea Island Community Centre. It was the heart of Burkeville and hosted many memorable events. A newspaper report […]
The first Sea Island School opened in 1890 at the corner of McDonald and Grauer Roads, on land donated by the McDonald family. At the time, children were expected to help out during harvests and other busy periods on the farms, so their attendance at the one-room school depended on the season. The original school […]
Burkeville was a planned neighbourhood based on wartime need and the best planning practices of the time. Houses were available in three designs, with three different exterior colours and four roof colours. All were small, between 700 and 900 square feet, and had either four or six rooms. They would have been especially cozy given […]
The 328 houses in this neighbourhood were built to address a World War II housing shortage. Gasoline and rubber were in short supply during the war, so it was important to house aviation workers and their families close to the airport, rather than have them waste valuable resources on long commutes. From Burkeville, workers could […]
The Brighouse Station once stood here, near the northeast intersection of Granville Avenue and No.3 Road. The station was a key stop on the Interurban tram line which connected Richmond to Vancouver, and beyond to Chilliwack. On race days, trams known as “Specials” ran from downtown Vancouver across the Fraser River and directly to the […]
This McDonald’s was the first to open outside the United States on June 1, 1967. The original restaurant at this site was a reproduction of the hundreds of similar futurist-style McDonald’s drive-ins that could be found across the United States. When it opened, customers lined up to order 18-cent hamburgers at the small drive-in and […]
General Currie School was named after General Sir Arthur Currie, the first commander of the Canadian Corps in World War I, and opened as a one- room school in 1919. Built in a Tudor style with Craftsman Influences it is the only protected heritage school in Richmond and is still in its original location. The […]
Brighouse Park was a gift from Richmond’s Agricultural and Industrial Society. The Society, formed in 1891 and within a decade began organizing agricultural fairs and May Day celebrations for the citizens of Richmond. In 1923, they purchased this six-acre parcel of land to use as an athletic field, later donating it to the municipality in […]
Richmond’s first town hall was a one-room building on Sam Brighouse’s property near the corner of Cambie and River Roads, which he donated to the municipality for this use. Later, Brighouse swapped the original town hall property for another site in his vast land holdings, at No. 3 Road and Granville Avenue. The second town […]