Then & Now is a weekly feature brought to you by the Langley Advance Times, in partnership with the Langley Centennial 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 23, 1939
Lady Tweedsmuir, wife of the governor-general, visited first the local library and later the bookmobile, which was at the Harry Berry Store east of Langley Prairie (at Fraser Highway and 232nd Street). She also stopped to talk to children at Aldergrove School.
Seventy Years Ago
March 24, 1949
Langley Kinsmen stepped in to sponsor the annual May Day celebration in Langley Prairie.
The first load of lumber for Langley Prairie’s new post office was off-loaded at the Douglas Crescent and Topping Road (204th Street) site.
Sixty Years Ago
March 19, 1959
B.C. Lieutenant Governor Frank Ross told the Langley Board of Trade that Langley must be prepared to become the hub on an industrial Fraser Valley in 25 to 50 years.
Nigel Richardson of the Lower Mainland Regional Planning Board told the Aldergrove Chamber of Commerce that Langley should institute strict zoning regulations on farmland, to control the cost of municipal services to built-up areas.
Fifty Years Ago
March 20, 1969
Bob Hubbard and Oscar Rees were named co-chairmen of the Southy Langley Community Planning Committee during a meeting at the Brookswood firehall. Eric Bloedow was elected secretary.
One of Langley’s largest-ever blood clinics drew more than 350 donors.
City council curtailed operating hours at the garbage dump, no longer having it open around the clock.
Forty Years Ago
March 21, 1979
Provincial consent was granted to buy the final piece of land to complete the Langley Bypass link to Fraser Highway east of Langley City.
City council turned down a petition calling for fencing the Nicomekl River. The petition followed the drowning death of a three-year-old boy a week earlier. Alderman Iris Mooney explained that it was the responsibility of individual property owners to provide their own fences where they deemed necessary.
A youth charged in connection with the St. Andrew’s Church fire was remanded for a 30-day psychiatric examination.
Thirty Years Ago
March 22, 1989
A full-scale strike started at all Langley schools after teachers cut short their settlement deadline and left the bargaining table.
A controversial application to build a McDonald’s restaurant at 88th Avenue and 204th Street passed third reading by Township council.
Twenty Years Ago
March 23, 1999
Bud Pope was put in charge of getting the controversy-beset and long-overdue Northwest Langley Arena up and running.
Unconfirmed cases of meningitis and necrotizing fasciitis were reported in Langley.
Colossus theatre was opening ahead of schedule, in time for movie-goers to take in the latest Star Wars offering, Episode One: Phantom Menace.
