Please help us to welcome our new Programs Coordinator, Brianne Egeto. Brianne is an archaeologist who has a passion for local history. She has years of experience working in collections and project management and is excited to join the Port Moody Station Museum.

Have you met our new Collections Assistant Jessica Poland and our new Exhibits Assistant Lauren Vanderdeen? If your answer is no,  they would love to meet you!

Jessica is an archaeology student, who loves history, travelling and being outdoors. She is excited to work with the collections at the Port Moody Station Museum and looks forward to learning more about her community.

Lauren is a history student, who loves meeting new people, learning new languages and has some great ideas for future exhibits. She has volunteered at many of the Port Moody events throughout the past year and loves seeing how the community comes out to support these events!

We are still waiting to hear back from Young Canada Works in Heritage Organizations which would sponsor a third summer student for Programs. Please come down to the Port Moody Station Museum to introduce yourself, they would love to hear your stories!

This will be my last post for the Port Moody Station Museum. For those of you who haven’t heard, I have a new position at the Gulf of Georgia Cannery National Historic Site which begins next week. I have greatly enjoyed my time here. I’ve made many friends and learned much about what makes a museum tick. Thank you to the board of the Heritage Society and to the Port Moody community for making me feel so welcome. Thank you also to the manager of this museum, Jim Millar for his kindness and bestowing on me some of his expertise in heritage management. I will miss you all but take with me many wonderful memories. Please come see me sometime if you’re ever in Steveston.

Sincerely,

Rebecca Clarke

P.S. If any of you are interested or know someone who is, the position of Program and Events Coordinator has been posted. You can check it out here.

Sunday, March 31 10am-2pm

Get your Easter fill at the Port Moody Station Museum this Easter Sunday!

Admission allows you to:

• Hunt for marbles and exchange them for chocolate eggs. (special area reserved for toddlers)
• Visit with the Easter Bunny – Bring your own camera to capture the moment.
• Make your own Easter basket.
• Be amazed by magician Dennis Hewson, juggler Yuki Ueda and Paws 2 Dance dancing dogs. Click here for performance times.
• Take a chance at the duck pond or fishing games. You’re sure to win a prize!
• Get your face painted like a bunny by the talented folks at Theatrix.

Win a prize at the Duck Pond!

Free coffee provided by Rocky Point Ice Cream. Prizes provided by Pajos Fish and Chips. Hot dogs, popcorn ice cream and drinks available for sale on site.

The hunt is on all day rain or shine, so come any time. Parking available next door at Rocky Point Park.

Admission is $5 per person CASH ONLY. No reservations or advance tickets.

Proceeds support the Port Moody Heritage Society and Port Moody Station Museum.

For more information, please contact us at info@portmoodymuseum.org or 604-939-1648.

Most of what visitors see when they come to the Port Moody Station Museum are artifacts donated by generous folks in the community. These donations of objects and archival materials help the Heritage Society preserve Port Moody’s past and share the stories with community members for years to come. Recently the Heritage Society has received some significant donations.

Last month we received an interesting collection of archival materials relating to the Pacific Shingle Mill from the granddaughter of one of the mill’s directors – Melville Fitzgerald Thomson. While we knew of the mill’s existence, we had little information on its years of operation or much else. Thanks to this donation we can put another piece of the puzzle in place. You can find a photo of the mill in our book Tracks in Time: Port Moody’s First 100 Years.

Another significant donation, received last week, was from the daughter of the late Raymond Duey. Ray was a telegrapher for Canadian Pacific and in retirement, an active member of the Morse Telegraph Society. He was a collector of all things related to the telegraph and we are lucky to receive many of the items he collected. This donation will help preserve telegraphy history for a long time and allow us to continue to teach visitors how the telegraph system worked.

Lastly, we received a large donation of archival material from Al and Nellie Sholund. The Sholunds are long time Port Moody residents and Al worked at the Ioco refinery for decades. Both have taken an active interest in preserving Port Moody and Ioco history and Al has served as Port Moody’s historian for many years. The donation included over a dozen boxes of photographs and archival materials. Much of this documents the early history of the Ioco Refinery and town. We look forward to delving into this history more deeply and drawing from this collection in the creation of a new display on Ioco for its centennial in 2014. Also included were some significant pieces of Port Moody history such as a program from the Alderside Regatta, two journals of Guy Flavelle and a Port Moody police badge.

Thank you to all these folks and others who think of us when looking for a new home for old things.

Tracks in Time Contributors

Had a chance to read through some of our new book Tracks in Time: Port Moody’s First 100 Years? Interested in hearing more amusing and touching stories from Port Moody’s past?

Come and visit some of the book’s contributors at the next Centennial event – “Living Heritage” at the Port Moody Library Saturday, March 2nd from 1:30-3:30pm. Have a chat with local seniors Valerie Julian, Shirley Robitaille, Orme Payne and John (Garry) Bugden or listen to Nancy Greenall share her experience as Miss Port Moody 1974. While you’re there, have a cup of tea and stop by to see our new listen station “Port Moody Memories”.

Port Moody Memories shares clips of audio recordings from three early Port Moody residents. Listeners can enjoy the stories while watching a slide show of photographs relating to each topic. Listen to Mary Jones arrival in Port Moody in 1912, Bert Flinn’s harrowing sawmill accident or Fred Laidlaw describe the many recreational activities of Ioco town. Thank you to our Exhibits Assistant Will McGraw for creating each video and volunteer Devin Jain for creating the computer application to make the process user friendly.

If you haven’t purchased your copy of Tracks in Time, it will be available to purchase at the event.

In honour of Port Moody’s Centennial year and to celebrate BC Heritage Week, the Port Moody Heritage Society is offering tours through ten homes in neighbourhoods around Port Moody Sunday, February 24th from 10am-4pm. Visitors will be delighted by costumed hosts at each home who will provide information on the architecture and family history of each home.

The self-guided tour includes many homes from the Moody Centre neighbourhood built between 1900 and 1930. To give visitors a full perspective of the development of Port Moody and the impact post-war neighbourhoods had on the city, homes from the Seaview, College Park and Glenayre neighbourhoods are also included. This contrasts traditional Edwardian style homes with the mid-century modern architecture seen in the 1950s and 60s.

According to Museum Manager Jim Millar, “People don’t often associate post-war homes with heritage. However, it is getting harder and harder to find these homes in their original state. The homes in these neighbourhoods reflect a unique style of architecture and a shift in thinking about what a home or neighbourhood should be.”

In addition to the house tours, participants will be served tea and treats at Moody Elementary courtesy of the school Parent Advisory Council.

Tickets are $30 including HST and can be ordered online or at the Port Moody Station Museum. For more information contact the Museum at info@portmoodymuseum.org or 604-939-1648.

Thanks to our sponsor Heritage Canada.

Happy New Year!

Well, 2012 was a busy year with a lot of interesting projects on the go. 2013 is shaping up to be even better. With the celebration of Port Moody’s Centennial, the Port Moody Heritage Society will be hitting the streets. Here are some of the places you can find us in the coming months:

January

Hope you had a chance to check out the photo exhibit and artifacts at the Centennial Launch event in Rocky Point. Thanks to the city of Port Moody for inviting us to participate!

February

We’ll kick off the month by launching our new book, Tracks in Time: Port Moody’s First 100 Years. We’ll be promoting the book at various Tri-City events through the year.

On the 24th we celebrate BC Heritage Week with a Heritage House Tour through Port Moody’s neighbourhoods. (Tickets on sale now!)

Later in the month, we look forward to the launch of our latest online photo exhibit Port Moody Development: CPR to Evergreen, hosted by the Virtual Museum Canada.

March

On the 2nd we will be at the Port Moody Library’s Human Library event to help them share the fascinating stories of Port Moody citizens.

At the Human Library event, we launch our new Living History listening stations, featuring audio clips from early Port Moody residents set to historical photographs.

On Easter Sunday we bring back our ever-popular Easter Extravaganza.

April

Look for the heritage display at the Port Moody Arts Centre and find us at the Special Council Meeting and community Arts Gathering on the 7th.

May

The local Girl guides will host the annual Mother’s Day Tea on the Train.

June

We will host the Port Moody Heritage Society AGM and member B-B-Q.

On the 22nd, find us in the Centennial Parade down Murray Street.

July

Canada Day weekend we welcome back the Vancouver Lego Club and the scale model designs of talented longtime resident Jim Buckley for our feature exhibit Port Moody: Yesterday and Tomorrow.

Find us at the Port Moody Arts Centre Celebration of Wood on the 20th. Learn how wood has shaped the history of Port Moody for the last 125 years.

August

The Port Moody Heritage Society joins with the CPR Museum train to offer rides to the public in honour of Port Moody’s Centennial.

On the 17th, find us at the Centennial Community Day Picnic in Rocky Point Park.

September

Ioco Days Festival kicks off with a big show at Inlet Theatre on the 29th. Enjoy the old fashioned tunes with a live vintage radio show.

October

Ioco Ghost Town Days is back better then ever. Look for your favourite booths plus much more!

We’ve got lots on the go this year. We’ll keep you posted on the details of each event. I hope you are as excited as we are to celebrate the last 100 years of this special city.

Want to help celebrate? Contact the Port Moody Station Museum at info@portmoodymuseum.org or 604-939-1648.

The Museum will be open over the holidays. Come and visit us and have a look at our feature display “Scouting: History in the Making”.

We will be open Dec. 27-30 from noon-4pm and January 2nd onward.

Have a great holiday, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!