51.1 | Spring 2018

British Columbia History

Discover British Columbia’s Past!

British Columbia History2 min read
School Memories
School, for better or worse, has had a lasting impact on many of us. It is not necessarily what we learned in the textbooks that shaped us but instead it was the environment inside those walls. As students we were inspired, bullied, bored, and someti
British Columbia History5 min read
Surrey’s Old Anniedale School to Begin a New Life
Surrey’s oldest remaining one-room school house has endured a long and sometimes challenging history. Following its life as a pioneer school it has served the community for a variety of uses; it has been relocated and suffered extended periods of vac
British Columbia History9 min read
The Origin of British Columbia’s First Common School
During the Colony of Vancouver Island’s formative years (1849–1853), three types of basic education evolved: church-run, Hudson’s Bay Company-controlled, and common schooling. Who taught in that first schoolhouse? Which type of education represents t
British Columbia History1 min read
Resources
Anniedale School Collection, 1904-1968, Textual Records. Surrey Archives Barry McGinn Engineering & Preservation Ltd., Conservation Plan, Old Anniedale School, (City of Surrey, 2016) Donald Luxton & Associates, Anniedale Area “A” Heritage Study, (Cit
British Columbia History3 min read
Old Marysville Schoolhouse
The Old Marysville Schoolhouse is the oldest intact structure remaining from the Village of Marysville, which amalgamated with the City of Kimberley in 1968. Very little alteration has been done to the building, the interior being restored to its ear
British Columbia History6 min read
The Schools of Squirrel Cove
At the beginning of the 1900s, Squirrel Cove on the east side of Cortes Island was a hub of activity for homesteaders, loggers, fishermen, miners, and trappers. They came from all the surrounding islands for supplies, groceries, mail, repairs, radios
British Columbia History3 min read
Endnotes
1. Conversion to current dollars is a rough calculation. 7 shillings in 1849 converts to approximately £33.32 in 2016 money. MeasuringWorth, 2017. accessed January 17, 2018. www.measuringworth.com/ukcompare/relativevalue.php. Second source: £33.32 co
British Columbia History4 min read
Duncan Elementary School 104 Years of Continuous Educational Service
In 1912, the newly incorporated city of Duncan was in dire need of a new elementary school. Its first school, Alderlea (later called Duncan Public School), which had opened in 1891 as a one room wooden schoolhouse, to which a second classroom had bee
British Columbia History13 min read
Lill’s Story
When Normal School was over, I had to face the problem of finding a job. This was in 1933, at the depths of the Depression, and there were few schools available, especially for new teachers without experience. Whenever there was a job advertised in t
British Columbia History11 min read
Eight Years at the Gray Creek One-Room School
When I started school in September 1934 at the age of six, I was fortunate to have Miss Evelyn Stoddart as my teacher. Miss Stoddart had previously taught at Chezacut, an isolated place in the Chilcotin west of Williams Lake, so Gray Creek with its d
British Columbia History2 min read
Endnotes
1. $1 CDN in 1934 converts to approximately $18 CDN in 2017 money. $60 ≈ $1,094. “Inflation Calculator,” Bank of Canada, accessed January 25, 2018, http://www.bankofcanada.ca/rates/related/inflation-calculator/. 2. The 1927-28 Gray Creek teacher Eliz
British Columbia History4 min read
Vancouver’s Carleton School and the WWII War Effort
In 1939, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited Canada to bolster trans-Atlantic support in the event of a war arriving in Vancouver on May 29. When the Royal schedule was publicized, plans were rapidly made for Vancouver’s Carleton School studen
British Columbia History3 min read
Japanese Language Schools Confiscated and Restored
In the spring of 2017, 75 years after Japanese internment, the BC Government officially recognized 56 historic Japanese-Canadian places in BC. These places were plotted on an interactive map by Heritage BC. Of these historic sites chosen as a record
British Columbia History4 min read
Residential School Goes from Tragedy to Triumph
For more than half a century, the hated brick building of the St. Eugene Mission swallowed up native children and spit them back out, traumatized and damaged from their years of family separation, cultural assimilation and worse. Even after the Catho
British Columbia History2 min read
An Oral History of TechBC Surrey Place Mall’s Forgotten University
On February 2nd, 1995, Premier Mike Harcourt announced the establishment of the new Technical University of British Columbia to be located in Surrey. By July 1998, the final site decision was revealed: the Surrey community of Whalley, where a new dev
British Columbia History1 min read
Open Concept
I had no preconception of what university was like, except for maybe the movies. But this was totally different from the movies. Some of my friends went to UBC and I’d go there and it was a completely different vibe. I liked how small TechBC was. Whe
British Columbia History1 min read
TechBV’s Period Of Uncertainty (late 2001/early 2002)
But I feel like it was weeks, maybe—I don’t know, it probably was months—but in my mind it’s like this time compressed time where everybody was in this malaise and a lot of things didn’t happen. Everything was in a bit of a holding pattern. Jane F
British Columbia History1 min read
Closure announcement (February 2002)
I liked saying “I go to TechBC”: that was cool. I didn’t know if I liked the idea of saying “Hi, I’m an SFU student”—that comes with a lot of preconceptions from people who already think they know about it. A lot of friends were quite happy about
British Columbia History1 min read
Transition to SFU (late 2002-2006)
And, I think ultimately, there were benefits to it, but there was a lot of friction and clash throughout the years. We’d get all these emails, updates about SFU, virtually none of it was applicable to us. It was all about Burnaby and a smaller part o
British Columbia History3 min read
Clinton Schoolhouse Museum and Archives
On Highway 97, about thirty minutes north of Cache Creek and the junction with Highway 1, you’ll find the small Village of Clinton. Clinton lies in the Cut-Off Creek Valley just below the start of the Cariboo Plateau, and so is officially designated
British Columbia History3 min read
Reviewing our Past
At British Columbia History, we are fortunate to follow in the footsteps of the historians, editors, and writers who have come before us and have produced the publications of the British Columbia Historical Association and today’s British Columbia Hi
British Columbia History2 min read
Classroom Facebook Page a Post-modern Cabinet of Curiosity
A Facebook page created by students about the history of their public school is a ‘cabinet’ of post-modern times, chock-full of text, visuals and comments. This teaching project began last year when I asked my Vancouver students to put away textbooks

British Columbia History

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