Attention of the BC Electric Railway Company to Be Called to the Flooding Caused by the Ditches Being Blocked Along the BC Electric Railway Company (Eburne Line)
"W227" [writen on front endpaper and front flyleaf, crossed out]
"This book is the property of the"
"Mainland Fire Underwriters'"
"Association of British Columbia,"
"and is loaned to" [typed in black ink, plaque glued to front endpaper]
"Henry O Guhr Esq." [handwritten in black ink, signed on dotted line on plaque]
"for personal use only." [typed in black ink, part of plaque]
"New Westminster"
"Philadelphia Underwriters" [handwritten in black ink on bottom of plaque]
"Sl_ _ah"
"6" [handwritten in pencil on back flyleaf, inside a handwritten box]
[some writing throughout]
[illegible writing on cover in pencil]
The North Pacific Lumber Company in Barnet was one of Burnaby's first industrial developments and one of the largest in the British Empire. Partners James MacLaren and Frank Ross built the mill in 1889 (activated in 1899) as a requirement for obtaining 84,000 acres of timber rights in northern BC. Due to the mill's isolation, the firm built homes for its employees with families and bunkhouses for the bachelors which separated Caucasian workers from Chinese and Sikh workers. Barnet became a distinct company town with its own general store, school, post office, community hall and telephone exchange.
In 1911, the Vancouver Daily Province reported that “Mr. Harrison D. Morrison is building a twelve-room house of two stories and an attic, with stone basement, on Dundas Street, at a cost of about $4,500.” Harrison Donald Morrison (1864-1944) was a life-long contractor who lived in Burnaby with his wife Beatrice Amanda (née Smith, 1875-1954), until his death in 1944. This Edwardian-era house displays many holdover elements of the Queen Anne Revival style, particularly the elaboration of wall surfaces. In this example, the use of bay and cutaway bay windows, and integral first and second storey verandahs–now removed or altered–add visual interest. The distinct dual pitch of the roof is also a transitional characteristic, used in the late days of the Queen Anne Revival style. A later coat of stucco now covers the original ground floor siding.
This front gabled residence is characteristic of workers houses from the Edwardian era. One of the oldest houses in this area, it retains numerous original architectural elements such as its double-hung windows with multi-paned upper sashes, triangular eave brackets and a glazed front door with applied ornamentation. It was built for Isaiah Poirier in a subdivision that was created adjacent to the Rayside station of the Burnaby Lake interurban line of the B.C. Electric Railway.
The Sperling Avenue School was opened in 1914 to service the growing community around the B.C. Electric Company's Pole Line Road (Sperling Avenue). This school replaced the one-room Duthie schoolhouse.
Account of Proceedings Before the Board of Railway Commissioners re Broadview Ratepayers Association and BC Electric Railway Railway Fares and Service on Burnaby Lake Line