Then & Now is a weekly feature brought to you by the Langley Advance Times, in partnership with the LangleyCentennial Museum & Archives.
If you have a Langley Then & Now submission you’d like to share, please email in to:editor@langleyadvancetimes.com.
.
LOOKING BACK IN LANGLEY’S HISTORY BOOKS:
Did you know that during this week in Langley history…
Eighty Years Ago
March 16, 1939
• Council decided to press for an inter-municipal, east-west road, suggesting either Sunnyside Road or Wilson Townline Road. Project backers suggested that the necessary construction work, with financial backing from the provincial and federal governments, would help ease unemployment.
• Langley defeated Chilliwack 4-3 in the Royal Standard Cup semi-finals in Abbotsford.
Seventy Years Ago
March 17, 1949
• A delegation of Langley Prairie businessmen threatened to obtain a court injunction if the lane at the rear of their highway shopping area was built with a right-angle turn at the western end. The delegates claimed that their land had been deeded to council with an assurance that the lane would run straight.
• B.C. Electric Co. announced that the closure of its inter-urban service, which was to be replaced with expanded bus lines.
Sixty Years Ago
March 12, 1959
• Fort Langley’s post office opened Thursday morning, March 12.
• Aldergrove Chamber of Commerce wanted blinker lights installed at the corner of Fraser Highway and Otter Road (248th Street). Council also asked for the lights, in the wake of several serious accidents, including three that resulted in the deaths of two pedestrians and a motorist.
Fifty Years Ago
March 13, 1969
• Jail sentences of two months each were handed to criminals who had stolen two packs of cigarettes and a pair of sunglasses from a car parked in Langley.
• Only 12.1 per cent of eligible voters cast ballots in a referendum that approved construction of a college in B.C.’s largest regional college district. Langley’s vote was strongest in favour, with 75.2 per cent yes.
• Fort Langley Junior Secondary started using a new four-unit expansion that was said to be the first open-area classroom at the junior high level in B.C.
Forty Years Ago
March 14, 1979
• Alderman Art Brooks donated his 100th pint of blood at a Red Cross clinic in Aldergrove.
• Police suspected a connection between a series of fire bombings in Vancouver and a similar attack on the Bank of Nova Scotia in the Highland Mall shopping centre.
• A coroner’s jury was told that golfers at Fort Langley were upset that they weren’t allowed to play through after a replica First World War fighter plane had crashed into the course. The pilot had been killed instantly.
• A three-year-old child drowned in the Nicomekl River near his 207th Street home.
Thirty Years Ago
March 15, 1989
• The Langley schools budget rose $22 million – 34 per cent – over the previous year, to pay for more portable classrooms, special programs, teachers, and less students per classroom.
• The Langley Mustangs Track Club said it would disband if money wasn’t raised to re-surface the Langley Secondary School track.
• Langley MLA Dan Peterson was appointed parliamentary secretary to Regional Development Minister Elwood Veitch.
Twenty Years Ago
March 16, 1999
• Doctors’ plans to close their shut down their offices for a week had Langley Memorial Hospital scrambling in anticipation of a doubled patient load.
• A 200-gallon sodium hypochlorite spill sent eight people to hospital and forced evactuation of a portion of Walnut Grove.
• Township council offered a $1.3-million matching grant to help build a new Langley Community Music School in Langley City.
