Trudi Tuomi subseries
- 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
- Series
- Community Archives Collection series
- 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
Less detail
Trudi Tuomi papers
- Repository
- City of Burnaby Archives
- Date
- [1968] -1996
- Collection/Fonds
- Burnaby Historical Society fonds
- Description Level
- File
- Physical Description
- 1 file of textual records
- Scope and Content
- File consists of text written by Trudi (Rintanen) Tuomi on her reminiscences of growing up in the squatters' community known as Crabtown. Included in the file are typed and handwritten pages, drawings and correspondence.