Winter Fables at Haney House

This December the Haney House will be hosting a holiday event called Winter Fables, to launch our new winter tour, which highlights pieces from the collection that would have been used during these cold months of the year. From clothing to sleds and skates, to that extra quilt placed on the bed for warmth, the tour aims to paint a picture of what it would have been like having to cope with the different elements with far less resources than we’re used to having today.

In addition to the tour, there will also be storytelling between 2-3pm, with retired children’s librarian Babs McLaren, and her puppet friends, bringing classic holiday stories to life.

Adults and children alike can come out and enjoy an afternoon away from holiday shopping, sip a warm beverage, have some treats, and soak in the glow of the Noma tree lights, while listening to winter tales read in the parlour.

Sunday, December 13th from 1-4pm
Story telling from 2-3pm
Admission is $2

If you have any further questions, please contact Allison at 604-463-5311.

Maple Ridge Museum loses funding

Along with many other local community organizations, the Maple Ridge Museum and Haney House have lost a significant portion of their funding to the slashing of the Arts by the provincial government. We need your help. Please let your MLA know that this slash and burn approach to Arts and Heritage will have long term consequences that will be detrimental to our community. Further, please consider a tax deductible donation which can be made by clicking on the "Donate" button on our main page. Your receipt for the full amount will be issued immediately.

Thank you.

Music on the Wharf

Our 2009 season has completed and we have had another successful run of local performers on our Port Haney Wharf. Look for us again next year on the second and fourth Mondays of July and August.

Musicians who wish to participate should contact us through the web site beginning in March 2010.

Many thanks to our sponsors, our musicians, our volunteers, and our guests who make this such a special concert series.

Our Photo Collection On-Line!

We are working to get sample sets of our extensive photo collection on-line so that people can order copies of prints or make enquiries about further images on the same subject. Check us out at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrcommunityarchives/sets/

We will be putting up sets from each historic neighbourhood first. Let us know what you think.

Attention Genealogists!

Genealogists are people of passion. We appreciate your enthusiasm for your family stories and enjoy putting you on the scent of new facts.

At the Maple Ridge Museum & Archives, we average about 15 requests per week from all over the world from people seeking lost ancestors. We receive emails that sometimes give us too little of the information we need to be of any help.

You can facilitate our ability to serve and get a response out quickly, by putting your request concisely in terms of the following:

Who? – Full name and date of birth. Many families re-used the same names over and over so the key to the generation is birth date. If you have other details – like marriage date and partner’s name – include that too. If you are looking for an obituary, date of death is essential. However, if that is one of your questions, we have resources that may provide that information.

Other associated surnames can also be useful. If your person married into a long-standing Maple Ridge family, then our information is more likely to be associated with that other surname. Sometimes the names of neighbours can help.

When? – Include the time period you are interested in. When did your person live in Maple Ridge? We don’t need to know when they lived in Vancouver or Calgary – just Maple Ridge.

Where? – Maple Ridge is composed of a number of historic neighbourhoods which were anchored by their post offices. If you know the neighbourhood name associated with your person – like Haney or Whonnock or Webster’s Corners – include it. See our community history section for an outline of all the neighbourhoods.

What? – What question are you asking? It is tempting to say, “Everything you can possibly tell me about them”, but we haven’t got that kind of time. Focus your attention on one or two important questions. Once you have those answers, they may lead to other questions. It is better to work through a series of questions rather than try to do everything at once. We will spend up to one hour for free on a research request but after that our research fee of $50 per hour can really add up.

Finally, please share your compiled family history with the Maple Ridge Museum & Archives. We are happy to keep these records on file, and help you connect with other researchers.

Email your request to mrmuseum@gmail.com

Winter Hours

From September to June, the Maple Ridge Museum and Haney House Museum are open to the public on Wednesday and Sunday afternoons from 1 to 4pm. We do provide access at other times by appointment. We encourage schools to consider booking tours on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The reason for this is our small staff. If we know you're coming, we can bring in volunteers to help serve you better.

Check out our gift shop for local history books, Historical Society t-shirts, old-fashioned candy sticks and a wonderful new assortment of heritage toys including jacks, marbles, pick-up sticks, kazoos, and wooden model trains you can paint yourself.

See you soon!

Whatever Happened to Haney?

One of the first things a newcomer to Maple Ridge district will notice is that “Maple Ridge” is not the only name in use. People familiar with the area from childhood visits will ask, “Didn’t this used to be Haney?” Other frequently heard names are Hammond, Whonnock, Webster’s Corners, Ruskin, Albion, and Yennadon. These refer to the original historic neighbourhoods, each of which once had its own post office and community centre that included stores, schools, churches and halls.

WHY DID THEY CALL IT MAPLE RIDGE?

One of the earliest European settlers in the district was John McIver, a Scot, who homesteaded the land now known as the Maple Ridge Golf Course. As his property incorporated a fine ridge topped by Maple trees, McIver called his farm “Maple Ridge".

By 1874, several small communities had sprung up, consisting of a few families each, on the north side of the Fraser River in the areas that would become Haney, Hammond, Pitt Meadows, Whonnock, Albion, Ruskin and Webster's Corners. One of the problems of small isolated communities is that they tend to stay small and isolated unless some means is found to build roads between them.

It was with this problem in mind that a group of forward-thinking men gathered at McIver's farm to discuss incorporating the whole district between the Pitt River and the Stave to allow taxation for road building. The name for the district was taken from McIver's farm and so we became "Maple Ridge" in 1874.

THE COMMUNITY POST OFFICES

When the district incorporated in 1874, the total population was about 20 families with the majority located between Hammond and Kanaka Creek. The closest thing to a centre was the area that is now the foot of Laity Street where it meets River Road. This is where the first post office was established in 1876 with the name "Maple Ridge Post Office". All settlers had to travel to this location to get their mail, likely via the Dewdney Trunk which was the first trail/road to traverse the district.

In 1885, the completion of the CPR caused the community to rethink the location of their post office. It no longer made sense to have it up on the ridge when it could be near the railway. Three new post offices were opened that year in Haney, Hammond and Whonnock. The Maple Ridge post office was closed at that point and there wasn’t one of that name again until 1970 when Canada Post closed the small offices in favour of one central one in the downtown core.

The first post office located away from the river bank was opened at Webster's Corners in 1891. Post Master James Murray Webster had to walk to the Haney Station to get the mail and then carry it back to Corners. Ruskin’s post office opened in 1898.

In 1907, Albion got a new name along with its post office. Formerly known as East Haney, this was not distinctive enough for the postal service and so residents were asked to come up with a new name. The last post office in the district opened in 1911 and also required the adoption of a new name. The area we know as Yennadon was formerly called South Lillooet.

FULL CIRCLE: BACK TO MAPLE RIDGE

There was a series of major controversies over postal name changes which reflect how important the old neighbourhoods were to their citizens. In the 1950's, considerable conflict arose in Hammond when residents were informed that the price of door‑to‑door delivery was the indignity of having to change their postal address to “Haney, BC” where the sorting station was located. The final solution was to change "Haney" to "Maple Ridge" as the more neutral name.

As postal districts became larger and door‑to‑door delivery from a central station more common, all the local postal addresses were gradually taken under the umbrella of "Maple Ridge". The name of the first and most short‑lived local postal address [which had only applied to the area around the foot of Laity Street when first established] was to be applied to the whole district as of 1970.

While "Maple Ridge" was certainly less contentious than having "Haney" imposed over the entire area, we still see the Whonnock Post Office struggling to retain its own name. Whonnock is the last rural post office in the Fraser Valley to retain its postmaster and original name.