For the past couple of years Janet Pavlik has led the research for a sequel to Echoes Across the Inlet, a book published in 1986 by the Deep Cove Heritage Society. The book covers the early years of the Mount Seymour/Deep Cove area and members felt there was enough interest to produce a second one that starts in the 1950s where the first book left off.
Volunteers have now scanned over 3,700 photos gathered mostly from the scrapbooks of early residents of the area. Pavlik and Pat Morrice have interviewed, recorded and transcribed interviews of more than 60 old-timers who have shared their family histories and memories.
The society has a collection of fascinating old postcards with scenes dating back as far as 1911 and photos of different sizes for sale at reasonable prices. Vickie Boughen, the coordinator, says the most popular photo is a 1950s shot looking down Gallant Avenue—it was 2nd Street then—and displayed in the lobby. “People come in and say ‘that’s the view that I remember,’ and that photo really catches people’s imagination,” she says.
The office shares its space with the Deep Cove Shaw Theatre and art gallery and is on the same site as the first home in the area, built in 1919 by the Moore family. It’s also opposite the heritage Panorama market, built around 1920.
Boughen also has the odd visitor bearing interesting artifacts. Recently a local brought in one of the original chairs from the Wigwam Inn at Indian River to be photographed. The chair quite possibly dates back to 1910 when Alvo von Alvensleben opened up a Luftkurot ( fresh-air resort). In those pre-war days, four different sternwheelers ferried guests up and down from Vancouver. Guests included American millionaires John D. Rockefeller and John Jacob Astor, the year before he died on the Titanic.
The book is still a work in progress and taking much longer than anyone expected, but the intention is to cover the 19 individual neighbourhoods that make up the area east of the Seymour River. Boughen says that the plan is to eventually flip the photos and the interviews onto the Internet.
In the meantime, anyone researching their home’s history will benefit from a visit to the office. Keep in mind that the office is only staffed part-time, so call ahead 604-929-5744 or check www.deepcoveheritage.com before heading out there.
© All rights reserved. Unless otherwise indicated, all blog content copyright Eve Lazarus.
7 comments on “Deep Cove Heritage Society”
Hello, I lived at 195 Caladonia Ave. from late 1943 to 1949. We were foster kids living with Mr. Charels Stansfield Jones. The house was known as Tall Timbers. I have a lot of memories from Deep Cove, such as starting grade one in the Deep Cove Yacht Club, as there was no school built yet. I went to Burrard View School for grade five when it first opend. It would be just great if someone from the Historical Society would contact me.
I currently live at Red Deer Alberta. phone, 1 403 343 8138 or e mail me. thank you.
Larry Brown.
Hi Larry:
I’m not sure that they’ll see your note here, but I’m sure they’d love to hear from you. Why don’t you contact them at 604-929-5744 or through their website at http://deepcoveheritage.com/?page_id=182
Cheers,
Eve
– In the late 1950’s and early 1960’s (for about 6 to 7 years) my grandfather who was a shipwright – also named Peter Jensen lived in a two room cabin with a large covered outside deck on the west side of the smaller southern island in the Twin island’s chain. He built a wharf in the most unlikely place on the East side of the southern island anchored to the mid island east side vertical rock face that was used to moor his boat and that of any visitors. He roughed out a trail along the top of the rock face and had a wooden ladder that you had to climb down to get to the wharf. As a youth I (and many of my member of my family & relatives) spent many memorable Summer weekends with him living on the island and sailing around Deep Cove on several of the two sailboats he built. He called them both “MANANA” – SPANISH FOR “TOMORROW”.
The cabin he lived in as well as the other two cabins/houses on the property are all gone now – I took my last picture of his cabin while on a 20 year High School reunion cruise in 1987 – we happened to turn around in front of it and the picture shows it was leaning over due to vandalism I later was/told heard that was attributed to the Camp Howdy kids ripping it apart for firewood during their camping trips to the island. At the south end of the island there was a small gray colored cabin that had a large sign attached to it that prominently displayed it was “HOME OF THE BURNABY DRINKING TEAM” – the other building was located adjacent to the water on the small bay between the islands and it was the largest of the 3 buildings at 2 storeys in height. I remember one summer when family came to the island and they fixed up the 2 storey house to make it livable and spent the entire Summer there.
When we were there we fished for crabs off of his wharf (the crab fishing was very good) and I also always fished off of the rocks connecting the two islands when the tide was low – casting out into the eastern channel and always catching several rock cod on the first few retrievals – then the cod got smart (I guess when they realized their buddies were disappearing) and the bites always died off – I remember my method of fishing worked almost all the time on any new low tide. On one of our visits we were trolling along the West side of the northern island and my father caught a 35 pound ling cod using one of the rock cod I had caught earlier as bait. It was the biggest fish I had ever seen when I helped him land it – kind of shocked me when it surfaced as to how big it was with it’s mouth wide open.
My family and relatives have pictures of this Twin Island and Deep Cove history – not sure of the overall extent as I have never asked them to show me what they have but if your society is interested I will do a followup and send what ever I find to you.
My grandfather lived there during the late Spring to early Fall months during those wonderful, memorable years and then wintered in Mazatlan, Mexico for the rest of the year – returning to Twin islands each Spring. He eventually moved to Mazatlan to live year round where he passed away in 1983 at the great age of 102 after falling in the shower and breaking his hip. My wife and I were the last of our family to visit him less than 2 months before he had the accident from which he passed away as a result.
Hello Peter: What a wonderful story – thank you so much for writing! I’m not actually part of the Deep Cove Heritage Society, but I’m sure they would love to hear from you. Their website is http://deepcoveheritage.com/ and the phone number is 604-929-5744. Eve
Is anyone familiar with a machine shop, general store and long 120 feet private float all owned by the same family that might have been located in the area during the early 1970’s? I’m trying to follow up leads on a dear friend that wrote about that area having moved there as an American war resister during that period where he found community with similar young people.
Hi Linda, if you haven’t already, please get in touch with the Deep Cove Heritage Society. Their website is http://deepcoveheritage.com/ and the phone number is 604-929-5744. Eve
I was born in Deep Cove, along with my two older brothers. My family lived there from about 1942 to 1955. Our house was located at the entrance to Deep Cove and we also owned an Esso Service Station right next to us. We went to Burrard View school. I was a little majorette, so took part in parades. We bought one of the very first VW buses in North America and it was so cool. People used to crowd around it as they had never seen one. We loved the Cove and had close friends there, so would have stayed, but my Dad got lung cancer, so when he passed away in 1955, we had to move closer to our family. Vancouver, which we also love, became our new home and it’s wonderful, but we still visit Deep Cove from time to time. We checked out the Heritage Society but didn’t see any photos or information about our service station and no photos of our home. However, there was a photo of me in the parade. We might be able to supply the Heritage Society with a few old photos if they are interested. BTW, Eve, I always enjoy your stories.