Trudi Tuomi subseries
https://search.heritageburnaby.ca/link/archivedescription126
- Repository
- City of Burnaby Archives
- Date
- [between 1937 and 1945]-1996
- Collection/Fonds
- Burnaby Historical Society fonds
- Description Level
- Subseries
- Physical Description
- 1 file of textual records and 5 photographs
- Scope and Content
- Subseries consists of photographs of the squatter community known as Crabtown that ran along the Burrard Inlet, accompanied by articles about growing up in that community.
- Repository
- City of Burnaby Archives
- Date
- [between 1937 and 1945]-1996
- Collection/Fonds
- Burnaby Historical Society fonds
- Subseries
- Trudi Tuomi subseries
- Physical Description
- 1 file of textual records and 5 photographs
- Description Level
- Subseries
- Accession Number
- BHS1996-20
- Scope and Content
- Subseries consists of photographs of the squatter community known as Crabtown that ran along the Burrard Inlet, accompanied by articles about growing up in that community.
- History
- Gustav and Aune Rintanen came to Vancouver from a mixed farm on the prairies in 1936 with the hopes of finding employment. The couple had two children: nine year old Aili (later Topalian) and eight year old Trudi (later Tuomi), when they moved to a “squatters shack” at North Burnaby’s waterfront Crabtown community in 1937. They paid 50 dollars for their two-room cabin, which was built on a platform and supported by pilings. Though the squatters’ homes that ran along the Inlet were commonly referred to as shacks and Crabtown a slum, in reality they were very neatly kept homes in a community. Crabtown residents rallied together to build a water supply system and trails up the steep bluff with stairs and banisters so children could go to school safely. Before Gustav found a job, he “busied himself with fixing up the place”: building a new chimney, railing, wood shed, clothes line and sauna for his family. By 1940, he was working at the mill near Windermere pool (now New Brighton Park). Aune worked as a dishwasher and prep cook at Ye Olde English Fish and Chips in downtown Vancouver. In 1946, they sold the cabin for two hundred dollars and moved to a small house. All Crabtown squatters were eventually evicted in 1959.
- Media Type
- Textual Record
- Photograph
- Creator
- Tuomi, Trudi Rintanen
- Notes
- Title based on contents and creator of subseries
- PC337, MSS144