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Let the Historic
Tour Begin!...
You can start
at either Cates Park or Deep Cove. There are washrooms in Cates
Park, Myrtle Park and Panorama Park. The round trip will take
you about one and a half hours, and is approximately 7km. A shorter
2km. route is available by starting in Deep Cove to Myrtle Park,
loop through Myrtle Park to hook up with Banbury and follow the
map back to the Cultural Centre.
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3.
Two big lumber mills
existed in the vicinity by 1919. The cement formation ('the Fort')
is the burner base from the Vancouver Cedarside Mill, whose parent
company was in False Creek, Vancouver. The mill existed until
1929
4.
Little remains of the once thriving lumber industry
in our neighbourhoods. The private residence which was the Dollar
Mill office is one of our best visual memories of those days.
5.
The Dollar Mill existed from 1917-1943.
It was a very modern mill and shipped lumber all over the world.
Robert Dollar built a small community around the mill site, complete
with a school, post office, community hall and store. The site
became known as Dollar's Town and then Dollarton, by which it
is known today.
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10. The Deep Cove Yacht Club
registered as a society in 1936 and took over the running of the
summer regattas in 1938. During WWII, the club doubled as a school
and home to the Ladies Air Raid Patrol and the Red Cross Auxiliary.
In 1984 a new clubhouse was built. The notice board on the side
of the front door is made from the floorboards of the original
club.
11. Granite Quarries Ltd. 1908-1924
was located at the northeast of Deep Cove just below where Quarry
Rock lookout is on the Baden-Powell trail. It was considered a
"big operation" with all the high-tech equipment of the day.
12.
When the Quarries Lodge closed in 1942, Art George turned
his attention to the water taxi business and developing a marina,
first known as the Deep Cove Marina.
13. In the late 1930s Mr. Moore
after losing his home on Gallant Avenue purchased some lots at the
northwest corner of Mt. Seymour Parkway and Deep Cove Road, and
once again the family cleared the land and built a house and grocery
store! This time he was very successful and lived there for years.
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1.
Sleil-waututh translates to "People of the Inlet".
Galiano was the first white man to travel Indian Arm in 1792 and
wrote in his journals about seeing natives in the area. First
Nations people travelled up and down the Arm hunting and fishing.
One of the most famous members of the Burrard Inlet Band was Chief
Dan George who gained fame as a humanitarian promoting Aboriginal
rights. He also became a film star in his role as a Cheyenne Chief
in the movie "Little Big Man".
2.
Poet and novelist Malcolm Lowry
and his wife Margerie lived on and off in a squatters shack from
1940 to 1954 here in what is now Cates Park. Lowry won the Governor
General's Award for his novel "Under the Volcano".
Squatters
shacks were first evident in the 1930s along the beaches of Roche
Point, housing the Dollar Mill workers and people left destitute
by The Depression
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6. In the late 1920s, Jack and
Christina Gillis bought four lots on Harris
Avenue for $20.00 each. They felled the trees from Keith Hill
(now Mt. Seymour Parkway) and Jack built their log house "The
Homestead". Mrs. Gillis later started the Strathcona store which was still in operation until recently.
7. The dance hall was built in
the late 1920s by Mr. and Mrs. Corfield.
The surrounding gardens were beautifully landscaped with a terraced
lawn to the beach, fish pools and an aviary. A teahouse was on
the top floor of the building and rowboat rentals on the bottom
floor. Dances were Saturday nights at 9pm and were very popular
with the big band music of professional orchestras.
8. The
first permanent residents in Deep Cove
were John and Rhoda Moore and their five children. In 1919 they
bought two lots for $15.00 each, cleared the land themselves and
survived the first year on wild berries, fish caught in Deep Cove
and clams from Roche Point. They opened the first store in the
area for business in 1927 at the corner of Burns Avenue and Second
Street, what is now Panorama Drive and Gallant Avenue.
9.
The Deep Cove Cultural Centre
opened in April 1992 on the site of the Moore family's house/store.
The Centre houses the Deep Cove Heritage Society, Seymour Art
Gallery, and the Deep Cove Stage and First Impressions theatre
groups. It has a 134 seat theatre and an outdoor amphitheatre
for summer concerts.
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The one-room Roche Point school was built
in 1917. Its students were the children of the millworkers at the
Dollar Mill. A few families living in Deep Cove also sent their
children (by rowboat) to this school. Soon another school was built
next to it to house the growing student population. Both schools
were replaced by the Burrard View School in 1946.
15. In 1935 Robert Stirrat Jr.
opened a grocery store across from the Dollar Mill called the
Stirrat General Store. Robert and his wife Reta and children Robert
and Marion lived in the back of the store. Robert Stirrat Sr.
operated the grocery while Robert Jr. worked in downtown Vancouver.
In 1949, Robert Jr. relocated the general store to Dollarton Highway.
16. One of the earliest Roche
Point pioneers was Percy Cummins who lived
in the area for 46 years working at the Dollar Mill, then running
a dairy supplying milk to local businesses and later opening a
grocery store which became the main stop for the first bus service
in the area, Deep Cove Stages Limited. Percy was elected to council
and was appointed to a special committee to help find employment
for local men during The Depression. His idea (supported by Reeve
Julius Martin Fromme) was to build a road to connect Dollarton
to North Vancouver and Vancouver. This road became know as the
Dollarton Highway.
This information was published with permission
from the District of North Vancouver Heritage Advisory Committee
and was written by the Deep Cove and Area Heritage Association.
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