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How Coquitlam men lived 100 years ago

Until Oct. 7, the Coquitlam Heritage Society will host an exhibit called A Man's World: 1900-1920, at Mackin House Museum
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Bottles used for making and carrying alcohol, which was banned during the Prohibition

If you want to get an idea of how boys and men lived in Maillardville a century ago, step inside one of Coquitlam's oldest homes.

Until Oct. 7, the Coquitlam Heritage Society will host an exhibit called A Man's World: 1900-1920, at Mackin House Museum — a display that offers local artifacts and imagines what it was like to reside in a sawmill town that was filled with French-Canadians, and Indo- and Asian-Canadians through the First World War and Prohibition.

The historical exhibit — designed by program manager Stefani Klaric, museum manager Jasmine Moore and society executive director Candrina Bailey — follows a showcase from earlier this year on women's lives during the same period, Moore said.

For this event, which opened June 6, the parlour in the Edwardian-built home has World War I pieces donated from the Canadian Military Education Centre Museum and from military historian Carey Price, a peacekeeper and medic. There is a metal helmet used in the Battle of the Somme, newspapers, a rum ration jug and a photo of an Asian solider, who likely would have returned home to Canada to face racial discrimination despite being a war hero.

In the kitchen are examples of how men got by without a wife (at the time, a good percentage of men were single as B.C. was rural and many were immigrants who were banned from bringing their families over to Canada). And with the Prohibition came law and order — shown in the exhibit with a black wooden baton used by Maillardville's police chief Emery Paré. 

The alcohol ban was especially gruelling for the Maillardville men who had come from Quebec where the Prohibition was not in effect.

Upstairs, the domestic lives of four fictional males unfold.

Grandpa's bedroom is sparse and has elements of Imperial pride, having fought in the Second Boer War for Queen Victoria. Grandpa has a sewing machine — as soldiers were expected to mend their own clothes — and other home comforts such as photos, a chessboard and a menthol "pipe for peace." Still, because the average life expectancy at the time was 52 years, Grandpa may have ended up at Essondale (later named Riverview Hospital) to receive elderly care in his final days.

In the next bedroom is a grooming display for a middle-aged man. The barber's chair belonging to Great War veteran and Fraser Mills worker Louis Boileau sits in the corner — an elaborate hydraulic-powered machine he had in his shop on the main drag, Brunette Avenue (then called Pitt River Road). There are other grooming tools used to make men look dapper such as Brilliantine hair polish, a watch and a three-piece suit.

The boy's bedroom includes a handmade quilt, toy soldiers and tanks, a baseball mitt and Scouting gear. Like most youth in Coquitlam at the time, he would have likely gone to Millside school then, instead of travelling to New Westminster every day for high school, followed his dad to work at Fraser Mills.

And, finally, in the fourth bedroom, the museum has a display called No Vacancy — a reflection of how Indo- and Asian-Canadian employees were treated as cheap labour at Fraser Mills. Most of the immigrants lived in bunkers on the sawmill property, which packed up to 40 men into one house (in the Mackin House hallway is a 1922 fire insurance map of the townsite that depicts the crammed quarters). 

During WWI, Fraser Mills temporarily shut down because of the number of workers who were on active duty, Moore said.

"What we are doing is showing the social and political events at the turn of the century, and how they manifested in Coquitlam," Moore said, adding, "We are pleased that we were able to bring out these items that have been in our collection for so long."

Mackin House Museum (1116 Brunette Ave., Coquitlam) is open Monday to Friday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the weekends. Admission is by donation. Coming up, the Coquitlam Heritage Society will host a Canadian military convoy on July 30 at Heritage Square and, on Aug. 15, historian Maurice Guibord will lead a walking tour as part of the A Man's World speaker series. Call 604-516-6151 or visit coquitlamheritage.ca to register for the programs.

jcleugh@tricitynews.com

@jcleughTC