Burnaby North and Burnaby South were the first high schools built in the City. Before the high school opened, Burnaby students had to travel to Vancouver if they wished to pursue education beyond an elementary level. In 1921, arrangements were made to use the basement of the Presbyterian Church for instruction of local students. By 1922 the Burnaby North High School opened at its first permanent location (4375 Pandora Street - which is now Rosser Elementary). In 1945, the Willingdon Avenue site was built and was used until a new building was constructed in 1961 on Hammarskjold Drive. From 1962, the school was used as Burnaby Heights Junior High school, but it closed in 1982 and the junior high students went to the new Burnaby North on Hammarskjold.
According to Tsleil'wautuh Chief Len George, as many as 10,000 band members once lived along both sides of the Burrard Inlet, but disease took its toll in the 1400s and Europeans brought smallpox in the 1800s. In 1792, Captain George Vancouver charted this inlet of the Pacific Ocean.
The Capitol Hill Community Hall was designed by local architect Harold Cullerne (1890-1976). After Cullerne returned from service during the First World War, he joined J.H. Bowman in a partnership that lasted from 1919 to 1934. After Bowman retired in 1934, Cullerne practiced on his own, continuing to work on schools and institutional buildings, such as the Art Deco Hollywood Theatre in Vancouver. In 1944, Cullerne designed a community hall for Capitol Hill; the scheme was delayed, and redesigned before it was finally built after the end of the Second World War. A simple front gabled roof hall structure, this hall is a monument to community spirit, erected by community members on a volunteer basis, and used for community events for over half a century. The hall replaced two earlier structures, both destroyed by fire, that had served the same purpose.
Although the Hastings street-car extension to Ellesmere opened in 1913 and there had been much speculation in the area during the real estate boom of 1909-1913, development in Capitol Hill did not really take off until after World War One when workers in Vancouver started to look to Burnaby for affordable but centrally-located neighbourhoods in which to build their homes. The 1913 one-room school had to be replaced in 1923 and in 1948, members of the community came together to build a new Community Hall.
Real estate ventures became quite active in the Vancouver Heights and Capitol Hill areas of Burnaby by 1908. Brokerage firms and agents who bought large tracts, subdivided and sold them off in parcels and by 1909 had adopted the name "Capitol Hill" to describe Burnaby's newest neighbourhood. In his book, History of Burnaby and Vicinity," historian George Green explains that the term "Capitol Hill" was taken from ancient Rome where the civic centre was built upon the Capitoline Hill, one of the seven hills of the eternal city. In 1909, the Scott Brokerage Company advertised the sale of lots on Capitol Hill, calling it "one of Vancouver's swellest suburbs."
The Capitol Hill Neighbourhood remained a primarily residential neighbourhood after the population boom of the 1950s and 1960s. The commercial focus remained the Hastings Street corridor, while the City of Burnaby moved to protect a conservation area on the north side of Capitol Hill and dedicated parkland throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
This school was originally designed by Bowman & Cullerne as a two-storey, four-room school building in 1923, with a two-room addition completed in 1926 and another in 1927. Originally designed in the Arts and Crafts style, it has been altered, with the addition of stucco over the original siding and replacement windows, but has retained its original form and massing, as well as its roof-top ventilator and front gabled entrance with grouped columns. Bowman & Cullerne specialized in school design. After Harold Cullerne (1890-1976) returned from service during the First World War, he joined J.H. Bowman (1864-1943) in a partnership that lasted from 1919 to 1934. The firm’s other school designs included Seaforth School (1922, now relocated to Burnaby Village Museum), Burnaby North High School (1923), and Nelson Avenue School (1927).
The City of Burnaby Archives officially opened on Saturday, November 10, 2001. The Archives is Burnaby's first municipal archives, and is located in the McGill Branch Library. The City Archives functions as a branch of the Office of the City Clerk and operates as the official repository of Burnaby's municipal records, containing records dating back to Burnaby's incorporation in 1892. In 2007, the City of Burnaby Archives expanded its collection mandate to include private as well as public records. On February 14, 2007 an agreement was signed with the Burnaby Historical Society and, as a result, the Archives accepted into its custody the collection of community records that had been maintained and managed by the Historical Society since the 1950s. In the Spring of 2007, these records were transferred from the Burnaby Village Museum to their permanent home in the Archives facility.
North Burnaby’s first park began its life as the Capitol Hill subdivision during the land boom of 1909. In 1914 the boom went bust and many owners of unoccupied lots failed to pay the property taxes owing and the land became the property of the Municipality of Burnaby. By 1922, Burnaby had so many lots that it decided to reserve land for future park use and dedicated a narrow 26 acre site adjacent to the ravine. During the 1920s, the Heights area boomed again and many new residents wanted a playground for their children. A local women’s group took on the cause and enlisted local residents and businesses to raise the necessary funds. On June 25, 1927 crowds gathered to officially dedicate “Confederation Park” named in honour of the Diamond Jubilee of Canada’s Confederation (1867-1927).