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January 1994 WEST VANCOUVER HISTORICAL SOCIETY Page 8 Linking Past to Present on the North Shore By: Eleanor Godiey FOR THIS third lecture at Elder College, we had the pleasure of hearing Rupert Harrison, for many years the municipal clerk for West Vancouver District Council. He was their longtime record keeper, and now in his retirement has the extra pleasure of organizing and annotating those same records for perpetual reference. They will serve as the foundation for the museum that West Vancouver citizens are determined to establish. They already have the perfect venue for it, in the house that Gertrude Lawson built, and are not too far away from being able to display those artifacts and salvaged records. Gertmde would have applauded this use of her home. She was a lady before her time, as it were, independent of both thoughts and action. She made her house into a shelter for women who needed time to themselves, flouting a social climate that preferred to bury, or ignore, female troubles. She was also a musician, a violinist, but mad for the pipes and the dancing that went with it She designed her living room so that there was ample space for reels, as well as a special step-up for the piper. Harrison’s tales of the early adventures on the west end of our inlet were in marked contrast to what we had heard in the previous weeks. Instead of men bent on wresting a living from the forests that came right down to the saltchuck, and establishing iron-works and shipyards and sawmills, we heard about a man who worked “to make a village according to the demands of Nature”. A man who was a student of Homer and who painted and sculpted and liked poetry. Francis Caulfeild came unguided to the area that bears his name, in that he and his daughter were on an extended exploration of the new world. Reprinted from the North Shore News, with permission. There are no photographs that anyone knows of to illuminate those early adventures. William Irwin was the only known non-aboriginal settled in the area. He kept the light of Point Atkinson and tended his orchard in Cypress Park. But this didn’t faze Francis - he hacked his way through the woods, built roads, put in a water system he would later sell to the new corporation, and surveyed the land he’d acquired for his perfect future village. The little church so much stUl admired was Francis’ work. He planned it and he built it and designed the lych-gate. His faithfiil assistants were Captain and Mrs. Kettle. Everything had to come by sea, of course, and this was a constant vexation to him, J.C.Keith had carried his road building a good distance fromDeep Cove, but it was still short of Caulfeild’s property and too high up tiie mountainside, to boot Caulfeild’s daughter was to report that as he lay dying he muttered, “Roads, roads, roads.” The Cannery was the only other early contribution to white settlement of the west shores. It was built before 1900 and had had a couple of owners before Mr. Millard acquired it and named it Great Northern Cannery. Inside the cannery’s fence there were the makings of a small town - homes for workers, a store and a restaurant besides all the cannery buildings. Millard’s specialcontribution was a floating cannery, the first to be seen on this continent, which proved most efficient. Now our view of the North Shore is being fleshed out in our minds. They had come west by train and had debouched in Vancouver, and it was Captain Cates, the original, who offered him a tour of the inlet and let him ashore at the lovely spot where Cypress Creek falls into Howe Sound. He was 54 years old, but he fell in love with the place, gave up England, and stayed faithful until he died in his new village in 1934. We’ve DoUarton and Deep Cove stiU ahead, and then we hear about logging development and its impact as well as the changes wrought by the building of the PGE. We’re linking the past to the present Eleanor Godiey is a Contributing Writer to the North Shore News and her regular columns appear on Sundays. - See the Editorial Comment on Page 4. WEST VANCOUVER PLACE NAMES Have you ever wondered where West Vancouver names came from? This letter from the John Lawson papers explains: ALTAMONT John F. Mahon 33 Cadogan Square London, S.W. 1, England 16th October, 1941. Miss Mac Haffie, The North Vancouver Land and Improvement Company Limited, 623 Pacific Building, Vancouver, B.C. Dear Miss Mac Haffie, I see that Mr. John Lawson of West Vancouver enquired (on behalf of the Archivist for Vancouver and the vicinity) as to the origin of the name “Altamont” given to that subdivision in West Vancouver. When I owned that property I named it after my brother-in-law, who held the title of Earl of Altamont from 1903 until 1913, when he succeeded his father, the 5th Marquess of Sligo. It may also be of interest to record that Weston (in West Vancouver), which also belonged to me, was named after a place where I resided for many years, namely Weston House, which is the dower house of the Mahon family estate at Castlegar, County Galway, Ireland. Yours sincerely, (Signed) John F. Mahon. Submitted by Mary Chapman Editor's Note: Altamont was also the name given to the PGE station which was located in what is now Altamont Park, located between 29th and 30th Streets. Until Park Lane was extended through the park in the 1960's there was no access between 29th and 30th Streets below Marine Drive.