There won’t be a time-travelling DeLorean parked in front of Port Moody’s civic centre Saturday but visitors will still be able to get a taste of days gone by in the city as part of its Heritage Day celebration.
Vintage vehicles, including a 1957 bus that was in service in Victoria and Abbotsford until 1990 and has now been turned into a transit museum, will be parked in front of city hall (100 Newport Dr.) from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The trip into the past continues inside with free activities and performances such as old-fashioned games and a black-and-white photo booth with vintage props. Entertainers include the Squares Barbershop Quartet, Golden Spike Can Can Dancers, Beauty Shop,Dolls; children’s entertainer The Ta-Daa Lady as well as students from Port Moody secondary school.
The celebration of the city’s past isn’t confined to the civic centre. A shuttle bus will be available to transport visitors to historic Clarke Street, where hourly walking tours begin at 11:30 a.m. The street is the heart of Moody Centre’s heritage conservation area, which features more than 25 registered properties. Some of those include:
• the McLean residence that was built on St. Johns Street in 1908 but was moved to its current location at 2224 Clarke St. in 2001, where it now sits next to the CP Lumber Co. residence that was also built in 1908;
• the Joseph Coté residence at 2310 Clarke St. that was built in 1910 to house the city’s early mill workers;
• the BC Telephone Co. Exchange at 2317 Clarke St. that is now a private home but started its life in 1917 as the centre for the city’s growing telephone network to service a population of about 1,500 people;
• and Etter’s beauty salon and barber shop at 2335 Clarke St. that was part of Moody's original commercial and retail centre and features a raised parapet to increase the building’s apparent size and provide more space to accommodate signs; it was built in 1923 as the city’s local economy rebounded from the hardships of the First World War.
That war, and the realities of trench warfare, are featured prominently at the Port Moody Station Museum, where the shuttle bus will also make a stop. Visitors can get down and dirty in a section of trench recreated behind the museum, right down to the barbed wire and funk holes, the dirt cubbies cut into the soil where soldiers often had to sleep.
Inside, a display of sketches by renowned German typographer Rudolf Koch provide a rare glimpse into life at the other side of the WWI battlefield. As well, the museum features its regular displays of Port Moody’s history as a mill and railroad town.
For more information about Heritage Day in Port Moody, including a schedule of entertainment, go to www.portmoody.ca/heritageday.
