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.