10 folders of textual records + 3 rolls of microfilm
Scope and Content
Subseries consists of committee records for the Committee Administration including directories, terms of reference, commissioner appointments, committee applications, successful candidates, and delegations.
10 folders of textual records + 3 rolls of microfilm
Description Level
Subseries
Scope and Content
Subseries consists of committee records for the Committee Administration including directories, terms of reference, commissioner appointments, committee applications, successful candidates, and delegations.
History
Committee Administration is responsible for the administrative management of Burnaby's various committees, commissions, and boards.
Subseries consists of committee records for the Family Court and Youth Justice Committee including agendas, minutes, correspondence, committee reports, terms of reference, and youth diversion court.
Subseries consists of committee records for the Family Court and Youth Justice Committee including agendas, minutes, correspondence, committee reports, terms of reference, and youth diversion court.
History
The Family Court and Youth Justice Committee was established in 1985.
The Committee’s name was changed from the previous Family Court Committee (also referred to as Justice Council / Family Court Committee).
On January 13, 2003 the Family Court and Youth Justice Committee disbanded due to the recent closure of the Burnaby Family and Youth Court. Any matters relating to family court and/or youth justice were turned over to the Community Policing Committee.
7 folders of textual records + 2 rolls of microfilm + 1 videocassette
Scope and Content
Subseries consists of committee records for the Family Court Committee including agendas, minutes, correspondence, committee reports, and terms of reference.
7 folders of textual records + 2 rolls of microfilm + 1 videocassette
Description Level
Subseries
Scope and Content
Subseries consists of committee records for the Family Court Committee including agendas, minutes, correspondence, committee reports, and terms of reference.
History
The Family Court Committee was established in 1964.
The Family Court Committee was mandated to examine the resources of the community for family and children’s work, in order to assist the officers and Judges of the Court when required.
The Committee's name was changed from Family Court Committee to Family Court and Youth Justice Committee on April 9, 1985.
5 folders of textual records + 5 rolls of microfilm
Scope and Content
Subseries consists of committee records for the Parks and Recreation Commission including Hart Mansion, facility and equipment user fees, appointments, mileage and expenses, and miscellaneous.
5 folders of textual records + 5 rolls of microfilm
Description Level
Subseries
Scope and Content
Subseries consists of committee records for the Parks and Recreation Commission including Hart Mansion, facility and equipment user fees, appointments, mileage and expenses, and miscellaneous.
History
Parks and Recreation Commission was established on December 30, 1957.
This Commission was responsible for maintaining Burnaby's parks and recreational outlets, and was the successor to the Board of Parks Commissioners.
In 1999, the Commission was renamed Parks, Recreation and Culture Commission.
7 folders of textual records + 1 roll of microfilm
Description Level
Subseries
Scope and Content
Subseries consists of committee records for the Pollution Committee including agendas, minutes, correspondence, and terms of reference.
History
The Pollution Committee was established on April 8, 1969.
The Committee reported on matters such as landfill operations, municipal sewage, and individual property concerns.
The Committee was renamed the Pollution, Refineries Safety and Security Committee in 1981, then renamed the Pollution Committee again in 1982
The Pollution Committee became the Environment & Waste Management Committee on December 7, 1987.
42 folders of textual records + 28 photographs + 3 rolls of microfilm
Scope and Content
Subseries consists of committee records for the Transportation Committee including agendas, minutes, correspondence, committee reports, a comissioned photograph, and terms of reference.
42 folders of textual records + 28 photographs + 3 rolls of microfilm
Description Level
Subseries
Scope and Content
Subseries consists of committee records for the Transportation Committee including agendas, minutes, correspondence, committee reports, a comissioned photograph, and terms of reference.
History
The Transportation Committee was established on February 13, 1978.
From 1973 to 1977, this committee was known as the Transit Committee. It was expanded in 1978 to encompass the role of a Transportation Committee. From 1990 to 2002, the Transportation Committee was named the Traffic and Transportation Committee, also referred to as the Traffic and Transportation Committee (Transportation and Transit Division.) On January 13, 2003, the committee was once again known as the Transportation Committee.
On February 20, 2017 the Transportation Committee was integrated with the Public Safety Committee.
6 architectural drawings : pencil and ink on paper ; 52 cm x 77 cm and smaller + 1 p. of textual records (40 cm. x 31 cm.) + 1 plan : col. ; 55 cm x 75 cm folded to 28 cm x 10 cm + 1 map : diazo print ; 39 cm x 28 cm.
Scope and Content
Fonds consists of maps and plans created and collected by Jack Disney.
6 architectural drawings : pencil and ink on paper ; 52 cm x 77 cm and smaller + 1 p. of textual records (40 cm. x 31 cm.) + 1 plan : col. ; 55 cm x 75 cm folded to 28 cm x 10 cm + 1 map : diazo print ; 39 cm x 28 cm.
Description Level
Fonds
Access Restriction
No restrictions
Reproduction Restriction
May be restricted by third party rights
Accession Number
2016-03
Scope and Content
Fonds consists of maps and plans created and collected by Jack Disney.
History
John Howard "Jack" Disney served as Burnaby Surveyor from 1911 to 1919.
This portion of the interview pertains to W.H. "Harry" O'Brien's involvement with the formation of the Army of the Common Good Credit Union (now the South Burnaby Credit Union).
This portion of the interview pertains to W.H. "Harry" O'Brien's involvement with the formation of the Army of the Common Good Credit Union (now the South Burnaby Credit Union).
Date Range
[1932]-1936
Photo Info
Harry and Gertrude (Sutherland) O'Brien on their wedding day, October 12, 1940. Item no. 315-005
Recording is a taped interview with W.H. "Harry" O'Brien by SFU (Simon Fraser University) graduate student Bettina Bradbury. Major themes discussed are: the Army of the Common Good, the Union of the Unemployed and the Common Good Credit Union (now the South Burnaby Credit Union). To view "Narrow By" terms for each track expand this description and see "Notes".
Biographical Notes
W.H. “Harry” O’Brien was born in the coal mining town of Nanaimo, British Columbia on October 20, 1914. He came to Burnaby with his parents and five siblings in 1927. Harry’s mother, a school teacher, wanted her children to live closer to school in order to obtain a better education, so the O’Brien family settled at Inman Avenue, Burnaby. Harry's mother, Mary Anne Crossan, was Gilmore Avenue School's first teacher.
Harry left school in June of 1929. Harry’s father worked as the caretaker at Central Park around this time and Harry helped him to clear brush, plant trees and enforce the land clearing and wood cutting permit regulations held by men who were on script.
Although too young to vote by just over a week, Harry O'Brien worked as a scrutineer for the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) during the 1935 Federal Election.
On October 12, 1940 Harry O'Brien married Gertrude Sutherland at St. John the Divine in Burnaby. The Sutherland family came to Burnaby from Winnipeg in 1933 and settled at Nelson Avenue.
Harry began his involvement with the Unemployment Organization in Burnaby by participating in an organised protest against the municipality for homeowner evictions brought on by unpaid taxes. The South Burnaby Union of the Unemployed organised in order to protest rules around receiving Relief. Harry became involved, eventually becoming one of the spearheads of the organization, taking over as secretary by 1936.
Harry was an original member of the Army of the Common Good, helping to produce over one hundred and twenty-five tons of vegetables from its own gardens to feed Burnaby citizens suffering from the lack of resources during the Depression years. The members of the Army of the Common Good who cut wood for consumption or worked in the gardens were given credit for their work through LU (Labour Units) which they could then use to buy groceries and that at the Army's Cooperative stores, one of which was at McKay Avenue, where Harry began working as Manager of Groceries in 1937. The Credit Union movement of British Columbia was also organized by Harry O'Brien and his fellow Army of the Common Good members.
W.H. "Harry" O'Brien died July 1, 1992.
Bettina Bradbury teaches history and women's studies at York University. She is the author of Wife to Widow. Lives, Laws and Politics in Nineteenth-century Montreal. (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, June 2011), 520p; Working Families. Age, Gender and Daily Survival in Industrializing Montreal. (Toronto: Canadian Social History Series, McClelland and Stewart, 1993); (Republished Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1996) (3rd edition, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007). These interviews were undertaken after she completed her MA at Simon Fraser University in 1975 with the support of an LIP grant.
Interview was digitized in 2010 allowing it to be accessible on Heritage Burnaby. The digitization project was initiated by the Community Heritage Commission with support from City of Burnaby Council and the BC History Digitization Program of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, University of British Columbia. It was recognized by the Heritage Society of BC with an award in 2012.
This interwar bungalow is beautifully preserved and retains many original features. Symmetrical in design, with two steeply-pitched front gables that flank a central arched gable over the front entrance, it also retains its narrow arched windows and projecting purlins in the front gables. Narrow sidelights flank the front door. The matching front elevation windows are typical of the period, with double-hung sash flanking a plate glass “picture window” with a curved transom; the upper panes are cross-leaded. This house was built by Agnes Michie and Elizabeth D. Michie.
Built for Annie Barrett-Lennard, this British Arts and Crafts residence has retained many of its original features, such as its stucco and half-timbering exterior with a cat’s slide roof over the front entrance. The steeply-pitched gables, asymmetrical half-massing, leaded windows and pegged joinery are all references to traditional British antecedents.
Danish builder Hans Jorgensen Hau (1878-1944) and his wife Anna (née Sorenson, 1874-1956), constructed this highly-distinctive Tudor Revival residence circa 1935. This was a time of entrenched traditionalism, and most domestic architecture reflected period revival styles. Tudor elements have been compressed here into a cottage form, including a distinctive front façade with half timbering and brick noggin; on the sides the nogging is rock-dash stucco. Casement windows contribute to the cottage appearance. The rear façade is clad with more utilitarian shingles. A prominent brick chimney exhibits angled and corbelled brickwork. Hau worked as a bricklayer and stonemason, and this house has common elements with the Moore Residence at 5165 Sperling Avenue, which Hau designed and constructed in 1943.
This house was built for Isac Hartvig Peterson “Harry” Gronning (1880-1955), a Norwegian-born butcher, and his wife Lilly Geneva (née Hatton, 1889-1978). The Gronnings married in Vancouver in 1913, and lived in this home until at least Harry’s death in 1955. Designed to simulate a Norman-style cottage, the most distinctive feature of this eclectic bungalow is its round entry tower with a conical roof. Other distinctive features include its rolled roof edges that simulate a thatched roof, and its rounded arch windows surrounded with imitation voussoirs. It retains its original wooden-sash windows with leaded panes.
Built at a time when historical styles were favoured for domestic construction, this charming cottage residence was built for Mary Seymour Sutcliffe (1870-1959), the wife of retired painter Arthur Sutcliffe (1863-1932). It was inspired by the British Arts and Crafts movement, as displayed in the half-timbering, rounded door hood and the picturesque, jerkin-headed roof with exposed purlins. While this house has a Boundary Road address, the house faces north instead of west, facing an elevated and extraordinary view of Burrard Inlet.
Local farmers William Alexander Mawhinney (1870-1953) and Annie Josephine Mawhinney (née Sutcliff, 1871-1956) built this residence as their retirement home. It was the last of several houses built in the immediate vicinity by members of the Mawhinney family between 1909 and 1930. Born in Ireland, William Mawhinney first came to Burnaby to help his brother Isaiah establish his fruit farm. Due to his farm management experience, in 1908 William became foreman of the Avalon estate at Deer Lake that was owned by F.J. Hart. When he retired in 1930, William had fifty years of experience as a fruit and grain farmer.This house is situated on its lot at an angle, rather than parallel to the street, to take advantage of the view of wooded Buckingham Creek that runs through the northeast section of the property. Complementing the picturesque character of the property is this charming cottage-style residence, which is an excellent example of an interwar Storybook Cottage. During the years between the two World Wars, domestic styles in North America were resolutely historicist. In order to display good taste, it was expected that a house would have an identifiable period revival style. As economics dictated that houses of the time were generally modest, they often assumed a cottage appearance that provided a romantic ideal of traditional domesticity. The American Sesquicentennial reinforced this historicist trend, and the most popular Hollywood movies of the time were swashbuckling costume dramas. With its distinctive roughcast stucco and half-timbering, this house is an excellent example of this housing trend. The rolled roof edges, with steam-bent cedar shingles, simulate a traditional thatched roof. Other picturesque features include a front porch with round-arched openings, battered wall buttresses, an oriel window and diamond-paned leaded casement windows.
Vancouver Heights remained an important residential and commercial centre in Burnaby throughout the 1925-1954 period. The area had its own Board of Trade and the North Burnaby Library was created to serve the residents. In 1949, the Hastings streetcars stopped running, but the area retained its reputation as one of the best shopping districts in the city.
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.
In the 1931 "Burnaby Year Book" the Lochdale neighbourhood is described as follows: "Lochdale…is situated at the intersection of the Hastings-Barnet road at the point where Sperling Avenue crosses…Situated at the intersection…there are an up to date service station and a general store, at which the Lochdale Post Office is situated. Immediately north of this is the seventy acres on which the Shell Oil Co. are to build an up-to-date refinery...On going south on Sperling Avenue can be found some lovely homes of the residents, all of which possess the most beautiful flower gardens, some of which are hobbies, and some being in the nature of a business. Others are engaged in chicken farming...while others find employment at the Barnet Mill about two miles east on the Hastings-Barnet Road."
In July, 1953, Burnaby's Municipal Council gave approval for the construction of a $12,000,000 residential and shopping development to be called Brentwood Park, located on the northeast corner of Lougheed and Willingdon. Plans called for about 400 homes and a 30-acre shopping centre to be built in this new subdivision - the first large residential subdivision in Burnaby to be developed with sewers and paved streets as well as other services.
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..."