An Index of Langley Road & Place Names

When Langley Township moved to a numbered road system of streets and avenues back in 1946,  family names connected with roads disappeared. In some cases, multiple family names were connected to one road. (200 Street was known by 5 different names along various stretches.) Some pioneer names survive at Langley schools like Topham and Douglas; creeks and rivers, including Bertrand and Nicomekl --  and parks like Alex Hope, Noel Booth and James Kennedy. The Township’s largest bus interchange is named after Jack Carvolth, killed in action at Vimy in 1917. Some original names are also preserved in heritage road markers. Thanks to Maureen Pepin’s efforts, these original names are found in her book, Roads & Other Place Names in Langley, B.C. (1998). It’s an excellent resource to discover who Langley’s roads, historic communities and waterways were named after and includes many profiles.   Avenues Running East & West   Boundary…………………....0 [...]

2020-10-09T03:59:49+00:00October 7th, 2020|

Fort Langley CNR Station: A Story in Photos

Photos have a wonderful power to capture specific moments in time. The digital collection at Langley Centennial Museum is an excellent resource when hunting for images from Langley's past. We went searching for photos of the earliest days at Fort Langley's CNR Station, built by the Canadian Northern Railway in 1915 to its Class 3 standard. (The railway was later absorbed by the publicly owned Canadian National Railway after Canadian Northern went broke during the Great War.) The photo below shows workers laying steel through Langley in 1911.   Below: More levelling work in Langley to prepare the rail grade. Below: The first Canadian Northern (CNoR) train arrives in Fort Langley.     Below: The station, as it looked in 1926. The gardens have begun to mature, tended by station agents Richard and Mary Simpson who lived at the station from 1918 until 1929.  As Station Agent, Richard Simpson sold [...]

2020-10-02T22:35:09+00:00October 2nd, 2020|

Hidden Railways of Langley

Great Northern Railway crew at Hall’s Prairie in Surrey (Langley Centennial Museum photo) We recently received an intriguing question from Joan who lives in Langley: "We live on 40 Ave and believe a train used to cross through or next to our property. We have some ancient pillars in the creek at the back that probably held up the trestles. Would you have any photos or information on this train? Thanks!"   Joan lives just south of the Five Corners near Murrayville. (We'll refrain from giving the exact street address.) The map below is from 1911 and covers much the same area, highlighting various railway lines in the Fraser Valley (City of Vancouver Archives) The red line in the upper left marks the BC Electric Railway on its way to Chilliwack.  Zoom out (below) and the black rail line is identified as the V.V. & E. Railway (Vancouver, Victoria and [...]

2020-10-14T21:04:53+00:00September 15th, 2020|

When the Spanish Flu Hit Langley 

Maria, Herbert, Florence, and Harry Cassidy at home in Murrayville c. 1911. Langley Centennial Museum photo 0114 A century after the Spanish Flu swept across the world, Langley historian and author Warren Sommer recounts how the disease affected the people of Langley. Social distancing, self-isolation, and quarantine. Wash your hands and don’t touch your face. Each of these terms and instructions is now sadly familiar to all of us. The current Covid 19 pandemic has us worried about older friends and relatives, anxious about the economy, and wondering when we’ll be able to resume activities formerly taken for granted All of these concerns would have been easily recognized by Langley residents a century ago. In the spring of 1920 the global influenza pandemic, inaccurately known at the time as the Spanish Flu, had been underway for over two years. Its effects were devastating. Those who contracted the virus saw their skin [...]

2020-06-01T19:32:52+00:00June 1st, 2020|

Who is Glover Road Named After?

Sometimes we receive historically-related questions out of the blue, including  this one from Stephen Ng: “How did Glover Road get it’s name?” The answer is found in Roads and other Place Names in Langley by Maureen Pepin (and available at the Langley Centennial Museum).   Langley Trunk Road was renamed in honour of Lieut. Frank W. Glover, Langley’s Municipal Engineer who served with the Canadian Engineers during WW I. He died shortly after the war ended (like so many other veterans from that war). There were other members of the Glover family who served as well.   Frank Glover's name appears on the Fort Langley Cenotaph   The chestnut trees located beside the Fort Langley Cemetery were planted by Dr Benjamin Marr and fellow veteran Archie Payne to remember those lost during the Great War. Other street names like Allard, Wright and Bartlett honour those who gave their [...]

2020-05-27T05:59:35+00:00March 24th, 2020|

Valley Voices: People, Places and Stories of the Fraser Valley

Valley Voices is a production of the Langley Heritage Society on CIVL 101.7 FM (based at the University of the Fraser Valley). Former CBC Radio broadcaster Mark Forsythe interviews people connected with Fraser Valley history and heritage, and draws on the Oral Histories collection at the Langley Centennial Museum.  (If you have difficulty playing a sound file, try opening with Google Music Player. CIVL Radio sound files of the show are HERE.) The show has been on hiatus during the pandemic, but links to broadcasts from 2018 - 2020 are below. The British Columbia Historical Federation (BCHF) awarded Langley Heritage Society’s Mark Forsythe the 2019 Best News and Media Award. March 2020: Meet Chief Dan George's great-grandson, Sam George, an Aboriginal Support Worker in the Langley School District who connect youth with their heritage. And Robert Reyerse gives us a tour of the Harrison Sasquatch Museum. Listen HERE. February 2020: Valley [...]

2021-11-15T23:07:28+00:00March 4th, 2019|

Marr Memories: Get Me To The Church On Time

Benjamin and Drew Marr (Langley Centennial Museum) Wedding Day Mishap As told by Ann Marr, granddaughter of Benjamin & Drew Marr “My grandparents were married on September 10th, 1913, on a Wednesday afternoon in the Presbyterian Church (now St. Andrews). This is the story of the events that I grew up with: The best-man was Dr. M.C. Bagnall, who arrived at Jardine Station from Vancouver on the B.C. Electric Railway. Grandfather was there to meet him with a spirited team of for the two mile trip back to Fort Langley. All went well and at a fast clip, until not too far from their new home, a trace broke causing the wheels to jam. The buggy flipped over throwing Dr Bagnall clear, but dragging Grandfather for quite some distance. Now what about the vase? This was the best-man’s gift to the bride. It too was in the buggy and thrown [...]

2020-05-27T05:59:50+00:00February 13th, 2019|

A Milner Timeline

Ellen Worrell (nee Monahan) is a longtime member of the Langley Heritage Society who moved to Milner in 1950 after marrying her husband Jack. She grew up in nearby Murrayville, where her father made deliveries for Porters Store. Ellen collects all things Milner, and has filled binders with photos, newspaper clippings and specific details about people, buildings, and community events. We're using that information to create a Milner Timeline. This rural community begin to take shape with the sale of the Hudson’s Bay Company farmlands in 1877 (in production since the 1830s). For a while, Milner was the centre of activity in the Langley region, boasting a general store, blacksmith shop, two churches, community hall, livery stables, B.C. Electric Station, B.C. Telephone exchange, cheese factories and numerous farms. Commercial agriculture in the Lower Mainland began here. Pioneer John Smith told the British Columbian Newspaper in 1910, “You can plough a [...]

2020-05-27T05:59:51+00:00January 20th, 2019|

1911 Cougar Hunt in the City

  As a young boy Langley's Max Michaud set out to cross a log over the Nicomekl River which flowed directly behind his parents' home, but the family dog would not let him continue.  It turns our that a cougar was waiting in the bush on the other side of the river, and for years, Max maintained the dog had saved his life.  He later grew into a crack shot, and legend has it that he could shoot a salmon leaping out of the water for a fly. Cougar Hunt in Stanley Park In October of 1911 Max found himself joining a Fraser Valley posse on the hunt for a cougar with an appetite for deer and goats at the Stanley Park Zoo. Vancouver police had unsuccessfully tried to track it -- as had a big game hunter and other local huntsmen. The Province newspaper offered a $50 reward to the [...]

2021-06-12T23:15:11+00:00January 1st, 2019|

Excelsiors Born Again: Fort Langley man builds 100 year old motorcycles from scratch

Not many people have a vintage Aermacchi racing motorcycle parked in their dining room. Fort Langley's Paul Brodie does. His life has revolved around building two-wheeled vehicles ever since grade 7 when he first fashioned a mini-bike powered by a 2 ½ horsepower lawnmower engine. Later came bicycle frames and his own brand, the Brodie Mountain Bike, which eventually earned him a place in the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame.  He moved on to motorcycle restoration work and more recently, hand-built vintage motorcycles.  Says Paul, “My shop is larger than my house.” His current project marks the 100th anniversary of the Excelsior racing motorcycle. Boardtrack racing in Los Angeles. A century ago, Excelsior was one of the Big Three in board track racing: “Indian, Harley -- and Excelsior was the underdog.”  Racers roared around tracks made from pine boards that ranged from half a mile to more than two miles [...]

2020-05-27T05:59:51+00:00December 11th, 2018|

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