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Person / Organization
- Bateman, Edwin W. 1
- Bateman, Mary Dale 1
- Bell, Flora 1
- Bell, William
- British Columbia Electric Railway Company 1
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- Burnaby Arts Centre 1
- Burnaby Mountain Centennial Rose Garden
- Burnaby South High School 3
- Burnaby Village Museum 2
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Bell's Drygoods Store
https://search.heritageburnaby.ca/link/landmark537
- Repository
- Burnaby Heritage Planning
- Description
- Bell’s Drygoods Store is a typical commercial false front, single storey, wood-frame building that has been relocated to the Burnaby Village Museum.
- Associated Dates
- 1922
- Formal Recognition
- Heritage Designation, Community Heritage Register
- Other Names
- Whitechurch Hardware Store
- Repository
- Burnaby Heritage Planning
- Other Names
- Whitechurch Hardware Store
- Geographic Access
- Deer Lake Avenue
- Associated Dates
- 1922
- Formal Recognition
- Heritage Designation, Community Heritage Register
- Enactment Type
- Bylaw No. 9807
- Enactment Date
- 23/11/1992
- Description
- Bell’s Drygoods Store is a typical commercial false front, single storey, wood-frame building that has been relocated to the Burnaby Village Museum.
- Heritage Value
- The value of the Bell’s Drygoods Store lies in its significance as one of the last remaining intact false front retail structures of its time to survive in Burnaby. Additionally, it remains as one of East Burnaby’s few surviving early commercial buildings and is representative of other typical commercial structures of the period. Originally located on Sixth Street in East Burnaby, in a small commercial district that served residents located along the streetcar line between New Westminster and Edmonds, its proximity to the streetcar served to draw customers into the store. This store also served as the location of the East Burnaby Post Office, one of a number of local post offices located throughout the municipality during the early twentieth century. Clifford Tuckey constructed the building in 1922, with a small lean-to structure on the back housing a kitchen and bedroom. The store was sold soon afterwards to William and Flora Bell, who then lived and worked here for a number of years. It represents a traditional relationship of the owner’s home to the store during this period, indicating the modest means of the owners and their commitment to running the business. The building was later sold to Maurice and Mildred Whitechurch, who ran it for many years as a hardware store. In 1974, the structure was relocated to its present site at the Museum. The heritage value for this structure also lies in its interpretive value within the Burnaby Village Museum. The site is an important cultural feature for the interpretation of Burnaby’s heritage to the public. Between 1993 and 1996 the building was restored to its 1925 appearance.
- Defining Elements
- The character defining features of Bell’s Drygoods Store include its: - rectangular form and simple massing - commercial false front parapet - front gable roof with cedar shingle cladding - horizontal lapped wooden siding - recessed main central entrance flanked by large storefront display windows - V-joint tongue-and-groove wood interior paneling - interior separation between commercial and residential space
- Locality
- Deer Lake Park
- Historic Neighbourhood
- Burnaby Lake (Historic Neighbourhood)
- Planning Study Area
- Morley-Buckingham Area
- Organization
- Burnaby Village Museum
- Function
- Primary Current--Museum
- Primary Historic--Shop
- Community
- Burnaby
- Cadastral Identifier
- P.I.D. No. 011-030-356 Legal Description: Parcel 1, District Lot 79 and District Lot 85, Group 1, New Westminster District, Reference Plan 77594
- Boundaries
- Burnaby Village Museum is comprised of a single municipally-owned property located at 6501 Deer Lake Avenue, Burnaby.
- Area
- 38,488.63
- Contributing Resource
- Building
- Landscape Feature
- Structure
- Ownership
- Public (local)
- Documentation
- Heritage Site Files: PC77000 20. City of Burnaby Planning and Building Department, 4949 Canada Way, Burnaby, B.C., V5G 1M2
- Street Address
- 6501 Deer Lake Avenue
Images
Interview with Merrill M. Gordon by Rod Fowler March 19, 1990 - Track 6
https://search.heritageburnaby.ca/link/oralhistory477
- Repository
- City of Burnaby Archives
- Date Range
- 1956-1990
- Length
- 00:13:27
- Summary
- This portion of the interview is about the circumstances behind Merrill Gordon’s founding of the Cliff Avenue United Football Club in 1956, his subsequent involvement and role as President of the club for 15 years, and the growth and history of soccer clubs in Burnaby. He also talks about his frien…
- Repository
- City of Burnaby Archives
- Summary
- This portion of the interview is about the circumstances behind Merrill Gordon’s founding of the Cliff Avenue United Football Club in 1956, his subsequent involvement and role as President of the club for 15 years, and the growth and history of soccer clubs in Burnaby. He also talks about his friend Mark Stockdale who was second president of the club for 16 years and creator of the rose garden on Burnaby Mountain.
- Date Range
- 1956-1990
- Photo Info
- Burnaby Alderman Merrill Gordon (second from right) following a candidates' meeting, 1973. Item no. 480-263
- Length
- 00:13:27
- Subjects
- Persons - Volunteers
- Sports - Soccer
- Interviewer
- Fowler, Rod
- Interview Date
- March 19, 1990
- Scope and Content
- Recording is of an interview with Merrill Gordon, conducted by Rod Fowler.Gordon Merrill was one of eleven participants interviewed as part of the SFU/Burnaby Centennial Committee's oral history series titled, "Voices of Burnaby". The interview is about Merrill Gordon’s childhood in the Depression, including his story about the family’s difficult trek to Burnaby from Alberta; his education, teachers and first volunteer activities at Grandview High School; his career at Fleck Brothers and the start of his own company Blaze Industries and later work in India; and his many volunteer activities in Burnaby. He describes how he started the Cliff Avenue United Football Club, the soccer club's subsequent growth and development, some of the people involved, and the founding of the youth soccer exchange. He also describes his work on the Parks Board and in the arts community, including the 1987 arts centre referendum, and involvement with the Burnaby Mountain Preservation Society (1988- ), and mentions his work for other groups including the New Vista Society, library board, and Burnaby Mental Health Committee. He also talks about his political career with the Better Burnaby Committee and Burnaby Voters Association, resulting in his 1972 election to Burnaby’s 1973 council. To view “Narrow By” terms for each track expand this description and see “Notes”.
- Biographical Notes
- Merrill M. Gordon was born in Saskatchewan in 1929 to parents farming north of North Battleford. After a fifth year of crop failure the family of four left the farm in 1934 to join relatives living near the corner of Union and Sperling in Burnaby. With little resources the family adapted as well as possible in the Depression years, moving often in the East Vancouver/North Burnaby area in an attempt to better their situation. Merrill’s father obtained work at sawmills including Kapoor’s Sawmill at Barnet, walking to work over Burnaby Mountain. After attending numerous public schools, Merrill Gordon eventually spent three years at Templeton School and then completed his education at Grandview High School of Commerce, majoring in accounting and commercial law. He worked a few years at Canadian Industries Ltd., then joined Fleck Brothers. In 1965 Merrill Gordon and his wife started their own company Blaze Industries of Canada that manufactured wood burning fireplaces, selling the company to AB Electrolux in 1980. After a short retirement, Merrill Gordon went back to work in 1981 for a company manufacturing solar panels, one project taking him and his wife intermittently to India over a four year period. Merrill Gordon helped found the political group Better Burnaby Committee, later the Burnaby Voters Association, with Alan Emmott and Bill Lewarne, ran for Burnaby Municipal Council and served one year as councillor in 1973. Merrill Gordon is well known for his over 40 years of volunteer work in Burnaby, particularly as founder in 1956 and director of the Cliff Avenue United Football Club, one of the largest soccer clubs in BC. He was also the founder of Burnaby Youth Soccer and the first youth soccer exchange with Washington State. His other volunteer work includes library trustee, Parks Commissioner (1987-1992), Director of New Vista Home for Seniors, Chair of campaign raising funds for building Shadbolt Arts Centre, and Chair of the Burnaby Mental Health Committee. In 1988 Merrill Gordon, Betty Gordon, Dean Lamont and several others formed the Burnaby Mountain Preservation Society, which advocated for the return of unused land to Burnaby from SFU and the subsequent creation of Burnaby Mountain Conservation Area. Merrill Gordon and Elizabeth Balfour (nee Leitch) (1926-2012) married in 1953 and had two children.
- Total Tracks
- 11
- Total Length
- 1:31:44
- Interviewee Name
- Gordon, Merrill
- Interview Location
- unknown
- Interviewer Bio
- Rod Fowler returned to university as a mature student in the 1980s after working about twenty years in the field of economics and computerization in business in England, Europe and Western Canada. He graduated with a BA from SFU in both History and Sociology in 1987, his MA degree in Geography in 1989, and his PhD in Cultural Geography at SFU. He taught courses in Geography, Sociology, History and Canadian Studies at several Lower Mainland colleges, before becoming a full time member of the Geography Department at Kwantlen University College.
- Collection/Fonds
- SFU/Burnaby Centennial Committee fonds
- Transcript Available
- Transcript available
- Media Type
- Sound Recording
- Web Notes
- Interviews were digitized in 2015 allowing them to be accessible on Heritage Burnaby. The digitization project was initiated by the Community Heritage Commission with support from City of Burnaby Council.
Images
Audio Tracks
Track six of interview with Merrill Gordon
Track six of interview with Merrill Gordon
https://search.heritageburnaby.ca/media/hpo/_Data/_Archives_Oral_Histories/_Unrestricted/MSS187-020/MSS187-020_Track_6.mp3