Viewing Object

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.

During the Presbyterian ministry of Reverend Alexander Tait in the late 1880's this site was donated by Henry Mutrie for the construction of a new church. The lumber was obtained from a mill located two miles to the east. The name for the church is taken from the Song of Solomon, chapter1, verse 2, "I am the rose of sharon and the lily of the valleys". In 1925, with the unification of the Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregationalist churches, this became the home of the United Church; those that remained Presbyterian constructed a new church on 216A Street. A new entry has been added to the simple form of the church, and a new hall built at the rear. It is, however, a well maintained local area landmark and provides the community with important link to it first settlement.