Langley Centennial Museum
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Object ID
2013.022.005
Title
George Porter and his daughter Barbara standing in front of their Murrayville home.
Date
[191-?].
Description
1 photograph, b&w; George Porter and his daughter Barbara standing in front of their Murrayville home; the house appears to be white and has a gothic cottage-style peaked roof; there is a small balcony above the central front door, and plants growing up each end of the balcony; George is standing on the left, wearing a cap, and has his hands on his hips; his daughter stands beside him in a high-waisted, just-below-the-knee length skirt, with light, possibly white, coloured tights and shoes.
People/Subject
George Porter House
The George Porter house, called the "original" Porter house in Murrayville by historian Norm Sherritt, was located at 22726 Old Yale Road. The home was built sometime between 1894 and 1896. George Porter (1857-1921) and wife Margaret Elizabeth ( -1911), purchased 60 acres between 224 Street and 232 Street, where he built the house sometime between 1894 and 1896 and ran a blacksmith shop. In 1907, the Great Northern Railway purchased 2.5 acres of the property for its right-of-way, cutting the back half of the farm into two sections. George Porter lived and worked there until his death in 1921. Dr. Jimmy Smith, a chiropractor and George Porter's son-in-law (having married George's daughter Georgina), owned the property after this time. In 1952, the Schultz family purchased the property from Smith, and up until 2000, Lina Schultz was still living in the house. The Schultz family added Tudor-style exterior and did other renovations in the 1970s. They tore down the blacksmith shop and built a machine shed. They operated a dairy farm on the site until 1985. The railway grade is still (in 2000) visible. One acre of the property was sold to the Township of Langley for a water tower.
Information source: The Langley Times, March 26, 2000: "This Old House."
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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Argus v4.4.0.36 - Langley Centennial Museum