Hammond

The Hammond Brothers, William (aged 19) and John (aged 26) arrived in Maple Ridge from Fenstanton, England in 1862. In 1872 they pre-empted 120 acres on the north shore of the Fraser River. The ambitious Hammond Brothers gave the Canadian Pacific Railway several acres of land for the rail line, station and yards - on the condition that Hammond be the first railway station in Maple Ridge. Construction began in 1882; labourers poured into the area, including many Chinese immigrants. Other local residents also joined in th15 activity; Thomas Haney acted as a construction foreman, and Samuel Robertson sold supplies to the crews. William Hammond acted as a surveyor for the line. As a result of this boom, Hammond boasted three hotels, seven bars, and a number of boarding houses.

Many of the Chinese immigrants built shacks along Wharf Street and along the corner of 2O7th Street and Maple Crescent, and stayed on after the railway was complete, working as field hands or house servants.

On August 3, 1883 Hammond townsite was registered in the New Westminster Court House as Port Hammond Junction; Hammond was legally known as Township 9.

The first train station was completed that year, in anticipation of the railway's arrival. In 1885 the Hammond Post Office opened, and on November 8th of that year the first transcontinental train pulled into Hammond.

The mill has been an integral part of the life of Hammond since 1910. First called the Bailey Lumber Company, by 1912 it was the Port Hammond Lumber Company, by 1916 it was the Hammond Cedar Mill, and in 1946 was taken over by B.C. Forest Products. The mill had two large water towers, and its own wharf on the Fraser River; the lumber was moved by barges as well as by the railway. It was at one point the largest Red Cedar mill in the world, and is still in active operation today.

Electricity first came to Hammond and Haney in 1912, supplied by the Stave Lake Power Company. The second train station, on the north side of the tracks, was built in 1912.

In 1916, most of the business section of Hammond was destroyed by fire. The post master saved the post office by covering the outside walls with wet bedding. The telephone exchange was also saved, but many other buildings were destroyed.

Harry Residence

20591 114 Avenue
1928

Located on a large corner lot, this bungalow features an inset front verandah with square columns, and a projecting bay to the side. This property was sold by C.W. Helmer to Floyd Harry in 1921, who built this house several years later. The assessed value for the house at the time it was built was $1,000. The property has been well-maintained, and is landscaped with sympathetic plantings that provide a complementary setting.

Hammond Elementary School

11520 203 Steeet
1912; Later Additions.
District of Maple Ridge Heritage Advisory Committee Plaque

In August of 1899 the three school trustees met to chose a site for the first public school in Hammond. They held a public meeting to determine whether or not it should be located on John Hammond's property or on Harris' Hill in Pitt Meadows. By a vote of 25 to 15, Hammond's property was chosen, and here has been a school at this site continuously since that time.

The first school was a one room structure. Peter McTavish, formerly of South Lillooet School, was appointed as the first teacher. Parents in Pitt Meadows still felt that this school was too far away for their children to attend, and when its location was again approved and a new, larger school built in 1912, a separate School Board was established in Pitt Meadows.

The original part of the current structure was a two room structure that has been enlarged with several later additions. As now constituted, the main part of the school features a central entry with a high gabled porch supported on heavy columns, with decorative brackets and an open timber gable screen. Originally there were open verandahs at each end of the school, since removed. Banks of tall double hung windows, four panes over four, provided natural light to the classrooms. A detailed landscape plan was prepared for the original school, including a tennis court, perennial borders, a garden, and barberry bushes to hide the wood shed and the outhouse; this elaborate plan was unfortunately never executed.

McFarlane Residence

11395 205 Street
Circa 1920

This area of Hammond was known as "Swede Row," for the Swedish families and bachelors that lived along this street. This was one of a series of houses built right after the First World War (on Town Lots 655-665) for mill workers who had served overseas. The houses were built by the Hammond Cedar Company, and title remained with the company for a number of years. The houses reflected the Craftsman style, which was the most popular residential style at the time. This house features a full open front verandah with tapered porch columns and bases. This was the home of Mr. McFarlane, a sawyer at the mill until he retired.

Olson Residence

11406 205 Street
1923

C.K. Olson bought this corner lot in 1922, and built this charming Craftsman bungalow the following year. Olson was one of the Swedish carpenters who worked at the mill, and it is assumed that he built the house for himself. It was later home to the Whitehead Family.

The house is distinguished by its tapered front porch piers and columns. The window transom panels throughout have stained art glass panels. There is a square projecting bay to the south, and an early garage at the front property line. Triangular brackets highlight the cave line, and paired dentil blocks are used in a decorative frieze above the porch. The large corner lot is landscaped with mature shrubs and trees.

Residence

11414 205 Street (Street Address)
11406 205 Street (Legal Address)
Circa 1923

This small cottage is on the same lot as the Olson Residence, and may have been built by C.K Olson at the same time as the main house. Rectangular in plan, it features a small front entry porch. Despite its size, the house exhibits sophisticated detailing, including multi-paned upper sash in the front windows, and a stained glass panel at north side with an etched unicorn inset. The long side of the cottage sits beside the alley frontage of this large lot, and there is a large mature mountain ash in the front yard.

Smith Residence

11391 207 Street
1921
District of Maple Ridge Heritage Advisory Committee Plaque

The land on which this house sits was originally owned by William Hammond. The property was owned by Elizabeth Lytte from 1903 to 1913; by Fannie Dale from 1913 to 1919, then by William Smith from 1919 until 1959. Mr. Smith, who built this house in 1921, also built the Hammond Hotel. It features an inset open front verandah, supported on tapered square columns. The roof is hipped, with hipped dormers to the south and east sides. Set close to the street on a corner lot, the house is now owned by the Dhami family, and has been beautifully restored.

Thompson Residence

11329 Dartford Street
1910

This charming Edwardian bungalow features a bellcast hip roof and a full open front verandah with square columns. Originally built for John S.D. Thompson, it was later acquired by Dr. Laurence Broe, the first doctor in Hammond, who built the larger adjacent house as his residence, while retaining this building as his office. It was later used as a rooming house.

Dr. Broe Residence

11339 Dartford Street
1927

Dr. Laurence Broe was the first doctor in Hammond, and the second in all of Maple Ridge. He acquired this property in the mid-1920s, and built this elaborate Colonial Revival residence for his family, while retaining the original smaller house as his office. Located on a prominent corner site, this was one of the more impressive homes in Hammond at the time. The unusual gambrel roof is a typical feature of the Colonial style. The Broe Residence remains in substantially intact condition, with the major change to its appearance being a later coat of stucco over the original wooden siding.

Omura Residence

20233 Dewdney Trunk Road
Circa 1926

Located at the corner of 202 Street and Dewdney Trunk Road, adjacent to Maple Ridge Christian Reformed Church, this bungalow sits on land subdivided in 1926. The property was acquired by C. Omura, who most likely built this house in about 1926. It features a steeply pitched roof and wide lapped wooden siding. Sympathetic modern plantings provide a complementary setting for this well-maintained house.

Ito Residence now St. Luke's Catholic Church Manse

20285 Dewdney Trunk Road
Circa 1932

This Craftsman bungalow was most likely built about 1932 by K. Ito, and originally sat on a ten acre farm site. The house features a south-facing open front verandah supported on square columns. The triangular cave brackets are typical of the Craftsman style. The dormer has a banked series of triple assembly windows that provide generous lighting to the upper floor rooms. The new landscaping is very sympathetic to the house, which is in very good condition.

Roman Catholic Oblate Missionaries had begun regular visits to Maple Ridge as early as 1875. By 1881 there was a small Catholic church in Port Haney, and by 1920 there were enough Catholics in Pitt Meadows to warrant the opening of a mission chapel; in 1944 the congregation, renamed the Most Pure Heart of Mary, moved into a rebuilt Chinese bunkhouse in Hammond donated by the Mill. This structure burnt down just three years later, and a new church was built with the insurance money. The building was moved in 1963 to this site, and the original farmhouse was retained as the manse; soon after the move the name of the parish was changed to St. Luke's.

Khaluck Residence

20340 Lorne Avenue
1925

A small house was built on this lot for Mrs. Vera Olson in 1925, but it burned down shortly afterwards. The Khaluck Family then built this bungalow, which features a full open front verandah with square columns, and a shed dormer facing north. Set on a large corner lot at Lorne and Eltham, the house is surrounded by a mature cedar hedge and sympathetic modern plantings.

Renstrom Residence

20540 Lorne Avenue
1929

Modest in scale and detail, this bungalow was built for V.E. Renstrom; the assessed value of the house at the time of construction was $800. It is designed with inset corner porches at front and rear, with a single tapered porch column and pier at the front. Located on a large corner lot, the house has survived in substantially intact condition. It later became the home of the Dodd family.

John Hammond House

20541 Lorne Avenue
Circa 1893
District of Maple Ridge Heritage Advisory Committee Plaque

This was the home of John Hammond, who arrived from Fenstanton, England in 1862, at the age of 26. He acquired a mail order bride from Boston, but they had no children, and she returned to the United States shortly after his death in 1909. It is difficult to determine the date of this house from existing records, but there does not appear to have been a building on the site until about 1893. It is a simple building, designed in a modest unpretentious vernacular style. The original one-and-one-half storey structure was extended with a long addition to the rear. The horizontal wooden drop siding and tall double hung windows are original features.

The John Hammond House is an important link to the early settlement of the area, and was the winner of a 1996 District of Maple Ridge Heritage Award for Residential Heritage.

Hartnell Residence

11224 Maple Crescent
1920s

Before this house was built, this was the site of the store and house of Wo Lung, who had set up his business on this site about 1889. He supplied general merchandise, including opium to residents and the builders of the railroad. This large Craftsman house was built for D.M. Hartnell, the Superintendent of the Hammond Cedar Company for thirty years. The Hartnells were actively involved in the affairs of the community, and were generous in their support of local activities. The Hartnell Residence has survived to the present day in substantially intact condition, and is a superb example of the best housing of the 1920s. It remains one of the more impressive early homes in Maple Ridge.

B.C. Telephone Company Exchange

20605 Maple Crescent
1908

When it opened in 1908, this was the only telephone exchange in Maple Ridge. In 1928 the exchange contained the first automatic dial exchange in British Columbia, with 125 subscribers. This structure was built at an assessed value of $500.

Like many other early B.C. Telephone Company exchanges, this was a prefabricated structure ordered from the B.C. Mills Timber & Trading Company. This patented modular system used panels assembled from short ends of milled lumber, which were delivered by rail, and bolted together on site. It has now been converted for use as a private residence; the character of the building has been somewhat altered through the enclosure of the corner porch and the application of a later coat of stucco over the original siding. It remains as a tangible link to the early development of Hammond, and an example of an early prefabrication method of construction.

Bank of Hamilton later the Bank of Montréal

20617 Maple Crescent
1919
District of Maple Ridge Heritage Advisory Committee Plaque

The first bank in Hammond was the Bank of Hamilton, which opened in 1908. After the business district fire in 1916, the bank operated out of a private residence until this impressive new fireproof bank was built on Maple Crescent, at an assessed value of $6,000. The Bank of Hamilton amalgamated with the Bank of Commerce in 1924. During the Depression, the banks faced hard times, and in a 'saw-off' agreement in 1934 the Hammond branch became the Bank of Montreal. After one year in operation, it ceased operation and did not reopen until 1948; in the intervening years this building was used as a private residence. The Bank of Montreal then operated the bank from 1948 until 1992. The building has been adapted for retail uses, and has been very well preserved.

Katzie Cemetery

203 Street
1898

A municipal cemetery was established in Maple Ridge in the 1880s, and although there were several Kanakas interred there, the burial of Chinese or Indians was not permitted there. To remedy this problem, one acre was purchased from John Hammond in 1898 to be used as an Indian Cemetery. This small cemetery remains in active use.

Original Stand of Maple Trees

20818 Golf Crescent
Pre-1874
District of Maple Ridge Heritage Advisory Committee Plaque

When John McIver, a cooper for the Hudson's Bay Company in Fort Langley, decided to pre-empt on the north side of the Fraser River for a farm in 1859, he selected the land where Maple Ridge Golf Course is now located. This property was on a ridge facing the River, along which stretched a stand of Maple trees. McIver's daughter, J.C. McFarlane later wrote "This ridge of beautiful maple trees stretched for two miles along the river, from what is now Hammond to Slide Hill near Haney.

This distinctive feature was chosen as the name of the new District when it was incorporated in 1874. The first official Council meeting was held on Mclver's Farm on October 10, 1874, underneath these Maple trees, on a site that is now marked by a plaque.

Latvalla Lane

This alleyway retains the rustic look and ambiance of an early town road. It was named after Jacob and Lizzie Latvala, who lived in the house at the corner, at 20505 Westfield. Now heavily treed, Latvalla Lane is a unique feature that recalls the early character of Hammond.