Month: February 2024

Today we are looking at the formation of South Aldergrove School District, home to South Aldergrove School, later known as Patricia Elementary. As you can see, Miss Christina Shortreed was the first teacher at the school, which we already knew, but further confirmation of facts is always good. =)

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Aldergrove 1886 - the year the first formal school was built on land donated by Finlay Shortreed. The first teacher was Miss Margaret J Murchie. Mention has been made in other sources that previous to this school, classes had been held in a log community hall at what is now 272 & Fraser Highway. It may have been an informal school, as thus far no mention of it has been found in provincial reports.

Information in the images (except for the map) is from the Annual Report on Public Schools in the Province of British Columbia 1886-1887. As you can see, the Aldergrove School District extended far into Matsqui (Abbotsford).

#localhistory #storiesmatter #schooldays

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School Report Cards - not for the students, but for the schools themselves. It seems that the inspectors were not impressed with the Langley School in 1873-1874, which is the earliest report I've found thus far. These annual reports have loads of useful information and charts which allow for the relatively easy tracking of teachers, schools and more. Also in today's images are the first mentions of Otter School in the annual reports, as well as a look at its early years of operation.

#localhistory #storiesmatter #schooldays #bigdataisfascinating

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All of the Doc Java's Neighbourhood Coffee House photos have now been scanned and they are a great visual documentation of Aldergrove in the 1990s. The original photos that were in Doc's "Big Book of Photos" have also been put in new protective sleeves - a few years in a coffee shop made the former sleeves a bit sticky and we wanted to make sure the photos were in great shape for anyone coming into the archives for a look at them.

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1997 Photos from the Aldergrove Star Collection show just some of the many activities and groups that add layers to our community's culture and history.

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I don't know about you, but this looks it was a memorable day at school...

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Two different interior views 45ish years apart. Today the building is home to Pet Junction.

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A look into Aldergrove Centre Mall, 1995-1997. Businesses are just one of the layers that contribute to a town's sense of community - they offer local employment, meet needs of residents and quite often stock a variety of treasures.

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In the early years of Aldergrove, there wasn't an in-town doctor nor a maternity hospital, or even a municipal hospital for that matter, and there certainly weren't any telephones to request a house call from the doctor at Fort Langley or Langley Prairie when one's baby was about to join the community.

Expectant mothers often relied on the expertise and assistance of their female neighbours and relatives in delivering their babies. Today we're adding another layer to Aldergrove's history by learning the names of local women who often served as midwife (as well as the names of residents and their newly arrived off-spring).

Sometimes family stories talk about great-great-grandma having been a midwife, and my family had such a story. It was a great feeling to see "Mrs. JP Swanson" on a birth registration and know the stories were true, adding another verified fact - and layer - to my …

Welcome to #heritageweek, which is sponsored by Heritage BC. The theme for 2024 is Layer By Layer - the peeling back of the many, many layers that are present in a community's history. We make use of a myriad of documents and stories from several sources in order to work our way through those layers and to find the many truths that come together to help us understand the history of the places in which we live.

These layers help us to follow the movements of individuals on their journeys through time and how our changing society impacted them all, from those whose people have inhabited this region for centuries to those who, through whatever sets of circumstances, came here as explorers and settlers. The timeline isn't always pretty and many times it is painful, but by working through the layers it is possible to recognize the lessons needed to …

Today we'll begin looking into another land development company from the early 1900s - the Glen Valley Land Company, which was incorporated in the fall of 1906 and managed by Rand Brothers, a company we posted about earlier this year.

Glen Valley Land Company owned a good portion of the Beaver Creek and north Bradner area. Looking into these land companies such as Rand Brothers, Western Home Improvement and others provide links to the development of our community after the governments of the day decided the crown owned the bulk of the land.

#storiesmatter #ourcommunity

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The Western Home & Improvement Company was incorporated (or 'gazetted' as it was referred to in earlier years) in March 1907, operated by a Board of Directors responsible to the company's shareholders. FJ Hart was a major part of the company, and the articles below demonstrate their participation in the creation of Aldergrove's downtown core as well as the marketing of both townsite and farmlands throughout the Fraser Valley.

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Totally random Friday - here are a few photos from the Aldergrove Star Collection, donated to your #communityarchives by the Langmann family.

#storiesmatter #localhistory #everyphototellsastory

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Otter Neighbour Fred Elmore was very well known in the Scout and Sports circles in this community, especially where boxing was concerned.

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A little while ago someone asked if we had a map of the White Fence Farms subdivision - we found one in the Aldergrove And District Newspaper (Aldergrove Star), along with a few more articles about the development.

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Today's neighbour is Mr. Emery Fraser. A newcomer to Aldergrove in 1968, Mr. Fraser was the branch manager of our Royal Bank (when we still had one). He was quick to get involved in the Aldergrove community by joining the Aldergrove Chamber of Commerce, and many of us attended school with Mr. & Mrs. Fraser's children.

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Today's neighbour is Cliff Davidson, a man whose family is very well known in these parts.

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Our Neighbour story featuring teacher Robert Gubbe and a totally unrelated story but one that I found amusing. Hopefully some of you can remember this giant hot dog feast or maybe even have some photos of the event.

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Here are some more memories from local schools in the early 1960s, including the formation of Mr. Green's Weatherman Club and the bane of every generation - New Math. Loads of well-known names in all of these columns. =)

#storiesmatter #localhistory #schooldays #SD35

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Today's "Our Neighbour" (note that the Advance spelled it correctly this time 😉 ) is Bob McCubbin. Also included is a photo from 1956 featuring both Mr. Angrignon and Mr. McCubbin as well as a complete list of #SchoolDistrict35 teaching staff and where they were placed for the 1962-1963 school year.

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Today we'll visit with Aldergrove neighbour Mr. Albert Angrignon, whose news feature I just came across this morning.

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A few more items from the Doc Java's collection. We'll have to scan the card again, as the bottom has a wee bit cut off, but it doesn't diminish the message at all. We definitely miss those "mile high" sandwiches and apple pie.

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Aldergrove happenings 80 years ago in 1944.

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One of yesterday's scan tasks was to begin digitizing the Doc Java's Collection, which consists of photos, menus, drawings, news clippings and the famous Doc Java's coffee card. Doc Java's and Lorne's Fish & Chips shop are two establishments that are greatly missed - they weren't "just a coffee shop" or "just a restaurant" - they were full of personality and were fully immersed in the goings-on of our community.

#storiesmatter #localhistory

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We haven't posted very much about Coghlan School - mainly because we don't seem to have an abundance of information in our digital files about its history. We also appear to be lacking in class photos from its opening years. Hopefully we will find more as we continue our digitization process.

#localhistory #storiesmatter #schooldays

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