Oakalla Prison fonds
https://search.heritageburnaby.ca/link/archivedescription100561
- Repository
- City of Burnaby Archives
- Date
- 1911-1953
- Collection/Fonds
- Oakalla Prison fonds
- Description Level
- Fonds
- Physical Description
- 6 cm. of textual records.
- Scope and Content
- Fonds consists of records created by the Oakalla Prison Farm, including administrative correspondence related to staff appointments and wages, and a staff shortage when employees left to fight in World War I. The records pertain only to staffmembers of the prison and are not directly related to any…
- Repository
- City of Burnaby Archives
- Date
- 1911-1953
- Collection/Fonds
- Oakalla Prison fonds
- Physical Description
- 6 cm. of textual records.
- Description Level
- Fonds
- Record No.
- 66669
- Access Restriction
- No restrictions
- Reproduction Restriction
- No restrictions
- Accession Number
- 2022-13
- Scope and Content
- Fonds consists of records created by the Oakalla Prison Farm, including administrative correspondence related to staff appointments and wages, and a staff shortage when employees left to fight in World War I. The records pertain only to staffmembers of the prison and are not directly related to any prison inmates.
- History
- The Oakalla Prison Farm was a model prison farm on 185 acres (75 ha) of land next to Deer Lake, Burnaby. The Oakalla Prison Farm was a full-service facility that originally opened on September 2, 1912, and was initially designed to hold 150 men and women. The first inmate was William Daley, sentenced on July 31, 1912 to serve a year of hard labor for stealing some fountain pens valued at over $10. By April 30, 1913, some 328 prisoners had passed through the jail's doors. In 1916, the women's section officially opened, and in 1942, the women's unit opened on the grounds as a separate facility. It was renamed as the "Lakeside Correctional Centre for Women" in 1979. The original women's unit was expanded in 1953, and consisted of two cottage-style buildings. By the 1950s, the population was well over 1000. As a working farm, the prison had its own dairy, vegetable gardens, and livestock. Executions in British Columbia were primarily carried out in Oakalla; after 1919, it was the sole penitentiary where executions took place. The first execution was that of 25 year-old Alex Ignace on August 29, 1919. 44 prisoners were executed by hanging at Oakalla from 1919 until the death penalty was abolished in 1959. In 1959, the last execution in British Columbia took place at Oakalla, with the hanging of former sailor Leo Mantha, aged 33. Oakalla was also one of the locations that undertook the experiment of performing cosmetic surgery on inmates to remove deformities that made prisoners "more likely to offend". The experiment was led by Dr. Edward Lewison, and continued into the mid-1960s. Procedures were conducted on 450 inmates, voluntarily. In 1970, the prison was renamed as the Lower Mainland Regional Correctional Centre (LMRCC) The farm portion of the prison, providing work for the inmates and food in the prison, closed in 1979 and 64 acres of land were transferred to the City of Burnaby. This land was included in the existing Deer Lake Park that was adjacent to the prison. Originally designed to house a maximum of 484 prisoners, Oakalla's population peaked in 1962-1963 at 1,269 inmates. With population averages of over 600, overcrowding was always a problem. In the institution's final years, two nationally-spotlighted events occurred. 13 maximum security prisoners escaped on New Year's Day, 1988, following an uprising on December 27, 1987, and on November 22, 1983, a violent and costly riot took place. Rioters caused more than $150,000 damage in a two-day spree. Oakalla was closed down on June 30, 1991, and was developed into a new residential housing development and an expansion of the park. Prisoners from Oakalla were then moved to various other Correctional Facilities in British Columbia, including but not limited to the Vancouver Pretrial Services Centre (VPSC), the Fraser Regional Correctional Centre (FRCC), and the Alouette Regional Correctional Centre (ARCC), later Alouette Correctional Centre for Women. Source: https://wikimapia.org/8004045/Former-site-Lower-Mainland-Correctional-Centre-Oakalla-Prison-Farm Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oakalla_Prison
- Media Type
- Textual Record
Warren Mulligan fonds
https://search.heritageburnaby.ca/link/archivedescription71783
- Repository
- City of Burnaby Archives
- Date
- 1963-1974
- Collection/Fonds
- Warren Mulligan fonds
- Description Level
- Fonds
- Physical Description
- 12 ledgers (hardcover) ; textual records
- Scope and Content
- The fonds consists of ledgers created by Warren Mulligan, containing his daily logs while on duty at Oakalla Prison Farm.
- Repository
- City of Burnaby Archives
- Date
- 1963-1974
- Collection/Fonds
- Warren Mulligan fonds
- Physical Description
- 12 ledgers (hardcover) ; textual records
- Description Level
- Fonds
- Access Restriction
- Subject to FOIPPA
- Reproduction Restriction
- Reproductions subject to FOIPPA
- Accession Number
- 2011-03
- Scope and Content
- The fonds consists of ledgers created by Warren Mulligan, containing his daily logs while on duty at Oakalla Prison Farm.
- History
- Warren Mulligan, son of Julia Mulligan and brother of Maurice Mulligan, was born in Semans, Saskatchewan, in [1921] and moved to Langley, British Columbia, in 1934. During his youth, he attended Langley High School and was a member of the first Tuxis group at the United Church in Langley. He was also an Assistant Scoutmaster of the Milner Troop under Reverend Daniel Donaldson. During World War II, he spent seven years serving in the Royal Canadian Navy and retired in 1947. In 1949, Warren married Mary Beulah Bush, who was also from Langley. They had two sons. Warren joined the B.C. Jail Service in 1949 as a guard at Oakalla Prison Farm, later becoming the Chief Custodial Officer for the Young Offenders' Unit. He also had experience in the Westgate Area. In 1955, he was named Deputy Warden of the Prince George Provincial Jail. He was appointed as Warden of the Prince George Provincial Jail in 1956. During his time at the P.G. Jail, Warren was involved in administration and professional program training. In 1963, he was appointed as Warden of Oakalla Prison Farm, a position he served in until 1974. During his time within the B.C. Provincial Jail Service, Warren was credited with innovations in the provincial penal system, particularly in relation to prisoners' group therapy and relations between prison staff and inmates.
- Media Type
- Textual Record
- Creator
- Mulligan, Warren
- Notes
- MSS163
Ed Brown family fonds
https://search.heritageburnaby.ca/link/archivedescription97218
- Repository
- City of Burnaby Archives
- Date
- 1912-1920
- Collection/Fonds
- Ed Brown Family fonds
- Description Level
- Fonds
- Physical Description
- 12 photographs: 7 b&w jpgs.; 4 sepia jpgs., 1 med. b&w print.
- Scope and Content
- Fonds consists of photographs that belonged to the Brown family. Photographs depict Ed Brown, his wife Jennie, and their children at their homes on Royal Oak Avenue and McKay Avenue; Brown's trucking company; and other Burnaby locations and events.
- Repository
- City of Burnaby Archives
- Date
- 1912-1920
- Collection/Fonds
- Ed Brown Family fonds
- Physical Description
- 12 photographs: 7 b&w jpgs.; 4 sepia jpgs., 1 med. b&w print.
- Description Level
- Fonds
- Access Restriction
- No restrictions
- Reproduction Restriction
- May be restricted by third party rights
- Accession Number
- 2008-03
- Scope and Content
- Fonds consists of photographs that belonged to the Brown family. Photographs depict Ed Brown, his wife Jennie, and their children at their homes on Royal Oak Avenue and McKay Avenue; Brown's trucking company; and other Burnaby locations and events.
- History
- The following is copied from an article written by Brown's grandson, Jim Ervin, for "Old Autos" in 2003, in an article entitled "Grandfather was a trucker...": The roots of my family run deep in Burnaby, especially on my mother’s side. It was her father, my grandfather, who started one of Burnaby’s first trucking businesses, E.S. Brown’s Transfer. I could find no record of when he actually began operations but I have pictures to show that he was using horses before he had trucks. One of my enclosed pictures dates from about 1910 since I know the birth dates of his two oldest daughters and they are in the picture as very small children. He met and married my grandmother, whose maiden name was Jennie Birtch, from Ontario, and I still have relatives back east from both branches of the family. They were married on Sept. 27, 1905. But where, I can’t say. They had their first child, Hazel, born April 2, 1908. Then came seven more daughters but no sons to help with the family business. The business was located at the family home at 3131 Royal Oak Ave. in South Burnaby. That was close to the top of one of the steepest hills in Burnaby and must have made for a real test of man and machine to drive it, especially in winter. The children loved it for sleigh riding but probably not father. My mother, Inez, was the second oldest daughter, born Oct. 9, 1909. She would have been born, along with her sister Hazel, in the big house shown in the picture and built by my grandfather. But this house was to later burn down. That’s when Edward Sadler Brown decided to move his family from the side of the hill to the top and much closer to the main road, Kingsway. Most of the area was forest at that time and one of Ed’s first jobs was to haul shingle bolts out of the forest, with a team of horses. Please don’t ask me what a shingle bolt is but my mother knew and used to have to grease the skids placed on the logging trails for the loaded sleds to be pulled out on. One time, as she told me, there was a huge forest fire and my grandfather barely escaped with his life and one last load. Later, when the area had been cleared, he helped to build the Oakalla Prison Farm, now replaced by town-houses on Royal Oak Ave. This job led to him becoming the first contractor to haul the license plates made by the prisoners. Some of these plates would be worn by Ed’s own trucks. The trucks, which he eventually acquired, included some pretty obscure makes such as Hufman, Garford, Stewart (which my mother often said was no good), Gotfredson and the more common names of Chevrolet and GMC. A Ford Model T would probably have been too light for the kind of hauling Ed was doing in the 1920s. I always thought that his main cargo was coal and coke, but I received quite a surprise with some recently discovered information. It started when I was removing boxes of general junk from the house to the garage to make more space. One of those boxes broke open and one item which came out wasn’t junk by any means. It was a copy of a business card for Brown’s Transfer, a company which hauled coal, coke, wood and did furniture moving as well. My mother often described my grandfather as a “go-getter” for business. I believe I see what she meant. Never was I so glad to have a cardboard box break open and to retrieve such an important item. My mother was a saver like you wouldn’t believe, a habit which the Great Depression drilled into her. In another box containing old receipts, I found a copy of one from Brown’s Transfer which offered even more insight into the company. The receipt isn’t dated but only the last number of the year required filling in on the form. And this dates it as issued sometime during the 1920s. The surprising thing is the amount of items sold by my grandfather. Not just coal, wood and coke anymore. Now he was into sand, gravel, cement, brick lime, tile and sewer pipe. Furniture moving seemed to be sort of a sideline, mentioned in smaller letters at the bottom. But notice some of the other items on the hand written receipt. There’s lumber, grass seed, paint, glass, a loan (spelled lone) on painting a house. I’m not sure that I understand that one or the payment on house or the one about the toilet. But it’s obvious that this was a man who knew how to make a buck in many ways. He was almost his own building supply store, it would seem. Also mentioned on the form is an office location at 4009 Kingsway. The building is no longer there but it did survive into my life time. Often, my mother would point out to me where the office once was on the north side of Kingsway, near McKay Ave. Still standing, though, ist he old family home at the former address (now changed) of 3131 Royal Oak Ave. That’s where my mother and all seven of her sisters were born. These were the “swampers” on dad’s trucks, a job hard enough for a man. Ed did hire men as well to work as drivers and even employed his own mechanic. But for the girls, it wasn’t really a paying kind of job. “Some times he would buy us an ice-cream cone,” my mother would say. In those days, parents wanted large families to help with all the work which needed doing. Payment in dollars and cents just wasn’t usually part of the deal. I never knew my grandmother, Jennie, who died in 1946 at age 61, an early age to go but likely reflective of a lifetime of hard work and too many children. However, I did know my grandfather who lived into his 70s.His company came to a rather sad end, as related by my mother, in the dirty 30s. Apparently a certain sister of my grandmother, great aunt to myself, reported to the local school board that grandfather was supplying them with an inferior grade of coal for the schools. Then the school board cancelled his contract and that put him into bankruptcy. Whether the story is true or not doesn’t seem to matter much any more since no one who could have known is still among the living. Ed Brown, the industrious, rugged individualist did make a small come-back in the early 1950s with his own plumbing business. The details of that enterprise, I don’t know. But I do remember his old International panel truck he used. People such as my grandfather made a great contribution to Burnaby.
- Media Type
- Textual Record
- Photograph
- Notes
- Title based on contents of fonds
- BHS298