Burnaby Central School became the third high school to be built in Burnaby (following Burnaby North and Burnaby South). The increased school enrolments due to the rapidly growing population in Burnaby meant that the School District required this third high school to be placed between the other two. In its first year, 719 students attended Burnaby Central.
When staff outgrew the municipal buildings at Edmonds and Kingsway, a debate erupted over where to build a new municipal hall. North Burnaby residents argued against the Kingsway and Edmonds site as it was too removed for their needs, but South Burnaby residents were not prepared to accept a hall in North Burnaby. The debate was finally resolved when it was suggested that the new civic centre for the municipality be in the exact geographic centre of Burnaby. Fortunately, this meant that the new hall was to be built near Deer Lake, in the beautiful Central Valley setting. Burnaby voters accepted this decision and approved the $625,000.00 it would take to build the new structure and the official opening ceremony was held June 22, 1956 when then Reeve Charles MacSorley received the keys to the hall from the contractor.
Skating on Deer Lake and Burnaby Lake was the inspiration to form the Burnaby Winter Club in the 1950s. In 1958, the volunteer group opened an indoor ice facility, still operating today at 4990 Canada Way. Originally, the facility boasted 8 sheets of curling ice, that were used to capacity by the more than 500 family and individual members in the heyday of the Club. The Winter Club was a social centre: in addition to curling, it was a popular place for banquets and dances, and a place for families to spend time together. In the 1960s, the eight sheets of curling ice were reduced to five, to make room for a sheet of hockey ice for the members’ children. Volunteer coaches were committed to excellence, and the Club produced many professional hockey players. By 1964, the Club’s first future NHL player was playing: Pee Wee player Jack McIlhargey.
Came in with Oakalla Prison records and artifacts in 1991. Filmstrip was utilized by staff and inmates of Oakalla. Digitized by BVM into preservation and accessible formats in 2020.
Notes
Filmstrip (photographs and illustrations with subtitles) provides a brief synopsis of apprenticeship training for a motor vehicle mechanic. Segments include "Motor Vehicle Mechanic"; "Related Fields of Training"; "Opportunities in the Trade". Film was created in collaboration with the Occupational Analysis Section of the Department of Labour.
Film frame 36 reads: "For further information... read Monograph No. 10 in the "Canadian Occupations" series, consult your local National Employment Service office, teachers, counsellors and person familiar with the automobile trades." Accompanying sound recording is missing.
The Douglas-Gilpin Neighbourhood developed into a diverse area incorporating residential, business, educational and park districts in the period after 1955. The BCIT site was built in the early 1960s, shortly after the Burnaby Municipal Hall was located on Canada Way near Deer Lake in 1956. The construction of the Municipal Hall at this location fostered the creation of an administrative and business centre adjacent to the park, while the northern and central areas of the neighbourhood retained their primarily residential character.
When Simon Fraser University opened in 1965, approximately sixteen industrial properties had been developed in the Lake City Industrial Park. In addition, significant tracts of land in the western portion had been pre-cleared and graded in anticipation of additional development, while most of the eastern half remained forested. Some of the early companies to locate in the area were Nabob Foods, Volkswagen Canada, British Columbia Television Broadcasting, Simpson Sears, and H.Y. Louie Company Limited. Both Imperial Oil and Shell Oil established petroleum storage and distribution facilities in the area. Initially a heavy industrial area, by 1979, single family neighbourhoods south of Lougheed Highway and west of Eagle Creek had been largely developed. By the mid1980's, the Burnaby 200 multi-family development along Forest Grove Drive had also been completed.
In the 1980 "Residential Neighbourhood Environment Study," the Morley-Buckingham Neighbourhood is described as "perhaps Burnaby's most prestigious residential area. The lots are larger than most other areas of the Municipality and this, along with the new expensive housing developed over the past 10 years, has created a very desirable residential neighbourhood...The older area of Buckingham lies at the lower edge of the slope and here the homes and streets are more uniform and aged between 20 and 25 years old...to the east of Canada Way lies...a cluster townhouse development."
The Simpson-Sears store on Kingsway opened in 1954 and was the second Simpson-Sears to be located in British Columbia. The store helped to solidify the neighbourhood's growing reputation as a major commercial centre in the Lower Mainland and became a prototype for the company's large format stores across Canada.
On March 21, 1951 the Parliament of Canada granted the Trans Mountain Oil Pipe Line Company a charter. By May of the following year, the Corporation of Burnaby gave final reading to Bylaw No. 3203, which resulted in the conveyance of land in DL 142, 143 and 144 (Burnaby Mountain site) to the Trans Mountain Oil Pipe Line Company. Construction of the Burnaby Mountain tank farm was completed in October of 1953 and the site became operational as the first shipment of oil reached Trans Mountain’s Burnaby Terminal.
Willingdon Heights was another new subdivision developed in Burnaby during the post-World War Two building boom. A brochure about the development published in 1948 proclaimed "the Willingdon Heights 500 home development project in Burnaby fulfills its promise to provide a self-contained community for former members of the armed services and their families...the largest single veteran housing project in Canada as far as homes for individual ownership is concerned, Willingdon Heights development was planned by the Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation...At this date the earlier built rows of homes have passable roads and the owners are improving lawns and gardens in spare time...eventually additional stores and professional services will be installed and recreational projects will add to the amenities of a community of congenial residents..."
The convenient location of Willingdon Heights to the Trans Canada Highway, Lougheed Highway and Hastings Street has fostered its development as a primarily residential commuter neighbourhood. Characterised in the post-World War Two period by predominantly single-family developments, the neighbourhood has retained this identity despite some higher density apartment buildings now found there.
This church was built to serve a 500-home subdivision known as Willingdon Heights–Canada’s largest single veteran’s housing project created by the Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation and constructed by the Whitsell Construction Company in 1948. The church building was designed as a simplified Gothic Revival church with a tall front tower and Gothic pointed-arch stained glass window and entrance. This church was designed by Vancouver architects Twizell & Twizell. Both Robert Twizell (1875-1964) and younger brother George Twizell (1885-1957) articled at Newcastle, England’s Hicks & Charlewood before arriving in Vancouver in late 1907 or early 1908, with George working for Robert until they established a partnership a few years later. Their firm lasted for nearly half a century and was well known for its numerous church designs.