Maple Ridge has updated its list of historic places, adding 51 sites with stories of the city’s past.
The update process of the Heritage Resources of Maple Ridge was a two-year project that sought public input, resulting in a current total of 122 sites.
Included now is the old Spencer Milk Farm house along Jim Robson Way and on the Albion fairgrounds, built in about 1922. The building was designed to be well ventilated in order to keep the milk cool before it made it way to Spencer farms in the Lower Mainland.
The Mussallem Residence at 22548 Royal Cres. is also on the heritage inventory. It sits on property recently bought by B.C. Housing for construction of 55 modular homes for residents of the Anita Place Tent City.
Former MLA George Mussallem, son of Solomon Mussallem, a three-term mayor of Maple Ridge and founder of Mussellem Motors, built the house in 1937.
The City of Maple Ridge has asked that B.C. Housing pay for all of the costs to move the old house, possibly to the Maple Ridge Cemetery, in order to preserve it.
Another building new to the list is the old Turnock-Morse residence at the foot of 223rd Street, just across from Anita Place Tent City.
That is being preserved under a heritage renovation agreement with the City of Maple Ridge, which will see new condos built on the site, along with the renovated old home.
The updated Heritage Resources of Maple Ridge includes more heritage sites consisting of old farms, roads and parks, in addition to old buildings.
The list is merely an inventory of old places within the city and doesn’t convey any legal protection of the locations from redevelopment.
The city also has a Maple Ridge Community Heritage Register, a smaller list of 28 more significant historic locations.
None of those are protected either, but being on the list does allow the city to delay a demolition permit for 60 days in an attempt to work out an arrangement to preserve the property.
