Langley Centennial Museum
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Object Name
Print, Photographic
Object ID
2011.001.001
Artist
Forsythe, Mark
Title
Fire truck at the Fort Langley IGA fire.
Date
4 Jan. 2011.
Description
Fire truck at the Fort Langley IGA fire, taken at approximately 6:15am from the parking lot of the IGA facing west.
People/Subject
Fire
fire department
Langley's first fire department began as local neighbourhood "volunteer" fire departments in the 1930s. Previously, Langley residents were responsible for fending off fires close to their own properties. By the 1930s, however, "volunteer" fire departments became a necessity due to the growing population of Langley. Each neighbourhood's "volunteer" fire department enlisted the help of local men to answer emergency calls. Various neighbourhood departments included North West Langley, Murrayville, Brookswood, Fort Langley and Aldergrove. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, Langley's volunteer fire departments partnered with local ratepayers to build new fire halls throughout the Township and purchase fire trucks with attached water hoses. To this day, the Township of Langley employees both paid full-time and volunteer forces.
Fort Langley (village)
IGA Grocery Store (Fort Langley)
The Fort Langley IGA is on the site of Coulter and Berry's General Store, built by David Moss Coulter and John W. Berry in about 1897-1898. The men owned another store in Murrayville, and while Berry ran the other location, Coulter ran this one in Fort Langley. While this store was being built, Coulter rented the old Hudson Bay Co. store for a few months, and he and his family lived above and behind it as well. When this new store was built, Coulter and his family moved into the Drummond House (next door where Frontier Hardware is) for a couple of years before their house was built just south of the store. A small post office is later built between the store and the house, and Coulter is later known to be the only postmaster to be in charge of 3 different post offices all in the same building as the name changed - Langley, Langley Fort, and Fort Langley.
The Coulter and Berry partnership dissolved in 1916. Coulter sold the store in about 1923, but remained the postmaster until June 29, 1926.
The next store owner, F. C. Jones, became the Postmaster on September 17, 1926. The store burned down in the late 1920s but F. C. Jones rebuilt and remained the Postmaster until April 15, 1944.
Louis Poelvoorde took over the store in or before 1944, and his wife, Mrs. J. M. Poelvoorde became the Postmaster from May 1, 1944 until December 22, 1947.
A 2,880 square foot warehouse was built in 1969 and was Tommy's Lucky Dollar Store. This was followed by the construction of a 7,268 square foot retail store in 1970, which became the IGA in 1975. The IGA burned down on January 4, 2011.
IGA opened in about 1975.
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Argus v4.4.2.32 - Langley Centennial Museum