Mathews Cash Grocery Store, Front View.

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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

Object Name

Photograph

Object ID

2015.020.001

Artist

Christian, Kobi

Title

Mathews Cash Grocery Store, Front View.

Date

Sep. 2005.

Description

1 Photograph : colour ; 10 x 15 cm. This photograph depicts the building which housed Mathews Cash Grocery Store in Murrayville, as it was in September 2005. The front of the building is visible in the photograph. The building is white with a dark roof, steps leading up to the front door, a cover over the door and the steps, and three windows: one above the door, one on the left of the door, and one on the right of the door. There are some trees and shrubs surrounding the building, and a stop sign with a sign reading "48 Ave." on top Is on the left. The road is in the foreground.

People/Subject

Mathews Cash Grocery Store

Mr. S. E. Mathews started his grocery business in the Murrayville Cash Grocery Store, which was actually the back half of the Traveller's Hotel that had been moved foward to front onto 48 Avenue. Samuel E. Mathews acquired the empty lot located on the south-west corner of the Five Corners intersection in approximately 1931. The new store was built in 1933/1934 complete with living quarters at the back and upstairs. Two male customers, possible last names Mortice and Greenside, who were carpenters helped build the new store. Inside, the back of the store was built a foot higher than the front because its was built into a hillside. The front was lower to provide easier access for the customers. The new store was 28' x 46'. The original store configuration had two porches on the east side (facing 216th Street), one at the back of the house and one at the front (closed-in circa 1980). The new store was opened in 1934. The Mathews sold the store to the Bishop family in 1950. It was restored in 2007.
See Also: Murrayville Cash Grocery
Term Source: HPC Record (LCM 996.048.002, aka, Folder No. HPC-484/1251)

Murrayville (B.C.)

Paul Murray was born in Ireland in 1811 and immigrated to Canada with his family at the age of eighteen. the Murray family settled in Oxford County, Ontario, and ten years later Paul married Lucy Bruce. They bought land in Zorra and had seven children together. In May 1874, after his children were grown, Paul left Ontario and relocated in B.C., accompanied by three of his sons. Their first home in Langley was a roughly built shelter they made for themselves from a gigantic fir tree, and after his wife and two of hisdaughters arrived, they all lived there together. After these humble beginnings, Murray opened a hotel on Old Yale Road to service travelers making their way into the interior, building up a reputation as one of the finest carpenters in the area. The corner where the hotel was eventually came to be known as Murray's Corners, as the family had 160 acres of land on each corner. Murray's Corners eventually came to be known as Murrayville, and all of Paul's sons worked on Old Yale Road, building more hotels and other businesses to increase commerce. Paul was an ordained church elder, dring a time when there were no official churches and services were held in a small schoolhouse on the corner of Glover Road and Old Yale Road. Holding the title of founder of Murrayville, Paul Murray died in 1903. Murray's Corners did not officially become Murrayville until 1911, when the local post office changed its name to Murrayville Post Office.

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