Hope MacPherson with Noel, Gertrude, Mark and Valara Booth outside their Service Station.

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salishan Place by the River currently maintains a collection of over 9000 photographs, 2000 archival documents, 9000 objects, 500 works of art, and 300 oral history recordings. This collection, spanning hundreds of years, is a wonderful window on the past and present life of our community.

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Object Description

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Object Name

Print, Photographic

Object ID

3364

Title

Hope MacPherson with Noel, Gertrude, Mark and Valara Booth outside their Service Station.

Date

[194-?].

Description

Hope MacPherson with Noel and Gertrude Booth and their children Mark and Valara outside their Service Station. The 6th person is unidentified. A gas pump can be seen, and the sign on the top of the overhang appears to read "BOOTH'S Service Station". A sign below is blocked by a pillar but seems to read "FERNIRDGE & GLENWOOD".

People/Subject

Booth, Gertrude Lillian (nee Osterberg)

Gertrude Lillian Osterberg was born August 21, 1900, in Gleichen, Alberta. Travelling as a young person, she returned to Vancouver in 1916 with her family and worked as a stenographer and bookkeeper at a wholesale jewelry company in Vancouver. In 1918 she began a four year courtship with Noel Booth, who she had met through her father. On June 1, 1921 Noel and Lillian were married at the First Lutheran Church in Vancouver. The newly weds arrived in Fern Ridge in the fall of 1921 by the B.C. Electric Interurban Railway and were assisted by local farmers over the rough roads to their new home. Mrs. Booth began running the Fern Ridge post office when they arrived, while Noel commuted to his plumbing business in Vancouver until the mid-1920s. By that time a small store was added to the post office, and eventually the Booths' developed a small fleet of travelling stores. By all accounts, Mrs. Booth was the one that ran the show, as Mr. Booth concentrated on his political career. The couple had two children: Mark and Valara. Gertrude Booth died in Langley on October 13, 1973.
Term Source: Donna J. MacDonald's "The Booth Travelling Store"

Booth, Mark

Mark Booth was born on June 2, 1923, in Vancouver to parents Noel and Gertrude Booth. As a teenager, he worked in the family business, driving the travelling store vans and trucks of the Noel Booth General Store. Mark enlisted in the army in 1943 and ended up serving in England, Europe, and Jamaica. In about 1945, Mark returned to the Fraser Valley and continued his involvment in the family business. Mark eventually moved to Vancouver and continued his career driving, although now it was for a trucking firm. Mark died of a heart attack on January 31, 1970, in Vancouver, at the age of 46.
Term Source: Donna J. MacDonald's "The Booth Travelling Store"

Booth, Noel Bowman

Noel Bowman Booth was born in Nottingham, England on May 23rd 1897. He came to Canada as a 14 year old. He travelled a bit, became a commercial fisherman on the B.C. Coast and he served in the First World War. He married Gertrude Lillian Osterberg (1900-1973) in 1921 and they moved to Langley to operate the Fernridge post office. He grew the general store which was attached to the post office, expanding it to a fleet of five mobile stores. The Booth General Store was a community hub. Booth ran a library from his store, let adults and children gather around its fire, and for a time he had the only phone for miles. His business closed in 1970.

Outside of work Booth was a Reeve (1933-35, 1946-47), Councillor (1945, 1949, 1956, 1959, 1967), Alderman (1968) and School Trustee. Booth initiate the local Douglas Day celebration during his term in office and he started the Fraser Valley Regional Library. Booth also donated the land on which Glenwood School stands. He became a Freeman of Langley Township in 1977.

He had a daughter, Valara (Val) Nichols (1928-1994) and a son, Mark (d 1970). A local park and school are named in Booth's honour. He died on May 22,1979.

MacPherson, Hope

Hope MacPherson started working at the Booth General Store in 1938 and worked there at different jobs on and off until 1948. As a young lady, Hope had arrived in Fern Ridge from Alberta to live with an aunt and uncle, and the Booth's offered her a job as a housekeeper. When she showed an interest in the store, the Booths' transferred her there as a clerk. Hope usually worked in the store, but occasionally clerked in the travelling stores. In 1945 Hope took on the bookkeeping as well, and this got her interested in getting an education in this field. She took office training in 1945-46 and returned to the Booth Store as an official bookkeeper. In 1948 she left the store to pursue her career full-time. Hope retired from her work as a bookkeeper with MacMillan and McKinnen Barristers and Solicitors in Cloverdale in 1980, and moved to Armstrong, B.C.
Term Source: Donna J. MacDonald's "The Booth Travelling Store" p.34-35.

Nichols, Valara (nee Booth)

Valara Booth was born in Langley on May 15, 1928, to parents Noel and Gertrude Booth. She assisted in the operations of the family business (the Noel Booth Store and travelling stores) as a clerk in the store and travelling stores, and pumping gas. After finishing school, Valara travelled to Smithers and Terrace to begin a teaching career. She stayed in the Northern part of the province during the late 1940s and early 1950s. In 1954 she married Frank Nichols, and in 1960 the couple and their four children moved to Edmonton. Valara returned to Fern Ridge with her six children in 1970 after a divorce with Frank. A building at the back of her parents property was turned into a residence for Valara and her kids. Back in Langley, she renewed her teaching certificate and taught as a substitute teacher for a number of years in the Langley School District. Valara had already retired by the time she passed away on September 25, 1994 in Langley.
Term Source: Donna J. MacDonald's "The Booth Travelling Store"

Noel Booth Store and Gas Station

The Booths arrived in Fern Ridge, south Langley, in the fall of 1921 to continue operating the local post office there. Mrs. Gertrude Lillian Booth assumed the role of postmistress while Mr. Booth commuted to Vancouver to his plumbing business until the mid 1920s. The Booths expanded the services of the post office soon after (a temporary partition was built to accommodate two services, the post office and a small grocery store). Initially a limited number of goods were offered for sale, due largely to the limited floor area. The post office ceased operation in 1926. The gas station at the Booth Store was built in the early 1930s, a small building with a covering for the pumps. There were two pumps - gas and coal-oil. Coal-oil was used extensively for lighting and heating prior to electricity in rural Langley. The store underwent a major renovation in 1936 when the Booths contracted the services of the Smith Brothers, a local construction company. The renovation changed the store layout from an "L" to a linear design. After the renovation the store was now called N. Booth's General Store. The Booth's expanded in 1940 and 1941, adding stores in Whalley and White Rock. The White Rock store closed for economic reasons, and the Whalley location after its manager enlisted in the army. During the Second World War the Booths' established a fleet of mobile stores, at the height of their use between 1946 and 1947. The service was decreased to a one vehicle operation in 1947, and the last remaining vehicle, a Diamond "T", remained in service until 1963 when the traveling grocery was cancelled.
Term Source: Donna J. MacDonald's "The Booth Travelling Store"; Inventory of Historic Buildings in Langley by the Langley Heritage Society.

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