century spanned the formative years of the City of North Vancouver. Practically
every prominent feature of the present city had its origin then.

The “North Vancouver” post office was established in 1902 in a store operated by
E. H. McMillan, father of the present postmaster. It stood on the south side of
Esplanade, about where the entrance to Pacific Drydock now is. In 1905 both store
and post office were moved to a new building, built by Mr. McMillan and ‘Pete™
Larson. It stood on the northwest corner of Esplanade and Lonsdale, facing south.
In 1908 the post office moved a few doors west.

At that time the mail was delivered three times a day. A two-wheel gig drawn
by a single horse came across on the ferry with it, after gathering up mail in Vancouver.
The mail would consist of about two sacks of papers and half a sack of letters.

In 1911 the post office was moved into the Aberdeen Block, where it remained one
year. In 1912 it was moved into the old City Hall recently vacated, where it remained
until 1948. It is back in the Aberdeen Block at present awaiting the completion of
the new modern building being erected on the old site.

The first school, taught by a Miss Clapp, was at 125 W. First. This gave place to
a two-room school, later called the Central School, with F. W. Templar as principal.
Here the children all drank from the common dipper that sat in the pail of water
drawn from the well, and here John Cates, now Hon. J. H. Cates, Minister of Labour
for B. C., won the Honour Roll ‘in 1906. In 1907 it was a four-room school. In
1908 the Moodyville school was closed and the Lynn Valley one opened. The first
High School opened in the Morden Block, S$. E. corner of Eighth and Lonsdale, in
August, 1910, with J. H. Kellar as principal. In 1912 the old Central School became
the City Hall. By 1918 the school enrolments were Ridgeway 381, Queen Mary 395,
Lonsdale 321, N. V. High 149.

The first church, St. John’s Anglican, was opened on October 28, 1900. The
present St. John’s was opened July 29, 1909. St. Andrew’s Presbyterian was com-
pleted in November, 1904. The Methodists opened their first building October 27,
1907. Their more permanent structure, now the Northshore Lutheran, was built in
1910. The Baptists opened their first church in December, 1908. St. Edmund’s
Roman Catholic was opened in 1910, but St. Paul’s on the Indian Reservation dates
back to 1886.

In June, 1908, a residence at the corner of Fifteenth and St. Andrew's was rented
as a hospital by the Misses Dawson. In the first annual report it was stated that 18
patients had been treated in 18 months. Two years later they built a sixteen-bed
hospital, the present nurses’ residence, on Twelfth Street East. In 1912 the Harbour
View Sanatorium, with twenty-five beds, was opened on East Second Street. It
eventually also became the property of the Misses Dawson, and ceased to function
during the First World War. In 1919, during the great “flu epidemic, the Dancing
Pavilion at Mahon Park was handed over to the Sixth Field Engineers as a con-
valescent home. In 1929 the present 80 to 100-bed hospital, with its homey
atmosphere, was opened.

In 1906 the first newspaper, The Express, commenced publication. In it North
Vancouver was constantly referred to as “The Ambitious City”. Gas street lighting
had started to burn in 19045, and the first street cars appeared that same year. The
North Vancouver Land and Improvement Company had, jointly with A. St. G.
Hammersley, donated Victoria Park, and the citizens turned out to clear it, Pete
Larson of the hotel working side by side with Rev. J. D. Gillam, the Presbyterian
minister. The same company, through their agents, also gave the Boulevard and
Boulevard Park, and Mahon Park. The Bank of British North America was first
of the banking fraternity on the scene. The Board of Trade was organized in
1906, with 100 members.

The real estate companies were of course having a big time. In November, 1907,
the N. W. corner of Lonsdale and Esplanade was sold for $20,000. Block 171,
between Moodyville and Lonsdale Gardens, brought $70,000. The Erwin ranch at
Point Atkinson sold for $42,000 in June, 1909. In August of that year F. C. Wade
purchased 100 acres in Capilano at $350 per acre. The Lonsdale Gardens were
purchased by J. C. Keith from the N. V. Ferry and Power Company for $75,000 in
June, 1909. In 1910 eleven blocks of D.L. 553 sold to J. J. Woods & Company for
$55,000. Ninety-five acres of D.L. 575 sold to a syndicate for $100,000. In
November, 1911, the Capt. Foreman property, 100 feet of waterfront immediately
east of the ferry, sold for $130,000.

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