Front of the Noel Booth Store.

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Object Description

Object ID

2005.054.002

Title

Front of the Noel Booth Store.

Date

14 Jan. 2005.

Description

Colour photograph of the storefront of the Noel Booth Store, as it looked in 2005. The building is white with metal roofing, which has some icicles descending from it, and three visible windows: two on the front of the building with a white door in between them, and one on the right side, beside a white door. The windows and doors are trimmed in blue. The front of the building has a white rectangle above the door, between the metal roofing, and is blank with one light coming out of it, centred above the door. The blank sign is trimmed in black. There is a white metal bench below the right front window, and assorted objects along the side of the building: a basket, a small tree, and other objects. There is a wooden fence coming out perpendicular to the building, which has an opening in it through which a small yard with a white lawn chair and other objects can be seen. There is snow on the ground and some of the objects, including the bench.

People/Subject

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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