Como Lake Preschool was founded in 1952 by Mrs. A Bennie and Mrs. Ellen Iveson in a rumpus room in the Sapperton District of New Westminster. When Mrs. Iveson moved to Coquitlam in 1954, the play group became more formalized and was relocated, first to a rented garage, then to the Como Lake United Church. The first teacher was hired in 1956 for morning classes of about twenty four and five year old children. In 1964, the preschool relocated again to the Scout Hall in Blue Mountain Park, where it remained until its dissolution. Como Lake Preschool operated as a parent participation preschool, which involved parents cooperating to run the preschool with qualified teachers.

Burquitlam Elementary School was founded in 1970 and was located at 550 Thompson Ave, Coquitlam, British Columbia. It was responsible for providing public education from preschool to Grade 7 to members of the neighbourhood of Burquitlam and also offered a daycare program and programs and services to children with special needs. Throughout its history, Burquitlam Elementary School was faced with three probable school closures (in 1979, 1984, 1987) and finally closed in 2003 due to budget cuts in the School District. Currently, the Mediated Learning Academy is housed in the old Burquitlam Elementary School building.

School District No. 43 (Coquitlam) or SD43 is one of the sixty school districts in British Columbia. The district is the third-largest in British Columbia with 45 elementary schools, 14 middle schools, and 11 secondary schools. School District No. 43 (Coquitlam) serves the Tri-Cities, including the cities of Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, and the villages of Anmore and Belcarra.

The original school district of "Junction" was created on April 8, 1891, "commencing at the north-east corner of Lot 385, Group 1, Block 6 North, Range I. West, New Westminster District; thence due east to the Pitt River; thence south-westerly, following the shore line to the mouth of the Coquiltam River; thence in adiret line north to the point of commencement."

In 1938, under School Trustee E.G. Daniel's leadership Coquiltam Junior High School was built to serve the growing need for schools in the community. The school served students from Grade 7-9. In 1944, new rooms were built for a High School. In 1946 grade 11 was added and in 1947, grade 12 was added.

Colonial settlement of the area between New Westminster and Pitt River along the Fraser began in the 1920s in the pursuit of trapping, fishing, and logging. Industry and more intensive colonial settlement began with the opening of the Fraser Mills sawmill on the north bank of the Fraser in the last years of the 19th century.

Coquitlam comprised an area of approximately sixty-five square miles that had been surveyed by Royal Engineer A.L. Breakenridge in 1863. In the late 1880s, the landowners and pre-emptors living in the area petitioned the province to incorporate as a Municipal District.

The area was incorporated by letters patent dated July 25, 1891 as the Corporation of the District of Coquitlam. The letters patent called for the nomination of five councillors and a reeve and the first meeting of a municipal council were assembled in Kelly’s Hall on August 22nd, 1891 at Westminster Junction, now within the City of Port Coquitlam. The first reeve was R.B. Kelly and the first councillors were E.A. Aitkins, James Fox, S.W. Lehman, James Morrison, and J. Shennan. The first City Clerk was R.D. Irvine.

In 1894, a portion of the Maple Ridge Municipality between the newly formed Corporation of the District of Coquitlam and the Pitt River was added to the Coquitlam municipality, following a petition by the landowners to the province.

In 1913, the land owners in the area known as Westminster Junction wished to limit their tax liability for the development of the rapidly growing district and to establish their own tax base. A petition was sent to the province and the area seceded from the Corporation of the District of Coquitlam, forming the City of Port Coquitlam.

In the same year, The Canadian Western Lumber Company decided to incorporate the area surrounding Fraser Mills and the Corporation of the District of Fraser Mills was incorporated by letters patent in 1913. The Corporation of the District of Coquitlam and the Corporation of the District of Fraser Mills amalgamated in November 1971, when both districts revoked their letters patent and new letters patent was issued incorporating the area as the District of Coquitlam. Supplementary letters patent were issued in 1973 and 1986 to reflect changes in municipal boundaries.

Effective December 1, 1992, the District of Coquitlam’s status was changed by new letters patent to that of a city municipality and it became known as the City of Coquitlam. Today, it is bordered by the municipalities of Port Moody, Port Coquitlam, Burnaby, and New Westminster as well as the Fraser River to the south, the Pitt River to the east, and the Coastal Mountains to the north. It includes the community of Maillardville, a region near Fraser Mills settled by French Canadians in the early part of the 20th century.

History of the municipality’s bylaws indicates both the perceived remoteness of the region and its rapid urbanization. Road taxation began in 1897, the sale of liquor was first regulated in 1909, and municipal health regulations were first passed in 1912. Coquitlam had electricity by 1911, and plans for running water began in 1916. The building of a separate fire hall in 1946 and expansion of water service in the mid-1950s indicate a particularly vigorous period of population growth. The municipality assumed responsibility for paved roads and sidewalks by 1961. Zoning changes in the 1970s and 1980s reflect a change in land use from agricultural to single-family suburban residential and low-density apartment housing. An average of two development permits was issued every month by the early 1980s.

The town centre, developed in the 1980s and 1990s, provides cultural and recreational facilities and includes the Coquitlam Centre Mall, the Evergreen Cultural Centre, the Public Safety building, City Hall, the Pinetree Community Centre, the City Centre Aquatic Complex, the Coquitlam Public Library, the City Archives, and Douglas College. The population of Coquitlam has more than doubled from the 1970s to the present day.

City Clerks, District and City of Coquitlam
R.D. Irvine 1891-1899
John Smith 1899-1913
A. Haliburton 1913-1917
Robert Newman 1918-1927
Alan M. Shaw 1928
William Russell 1928-1947
F.L. Pobst 1947-1972
R.A. Leclair, acting clerk, 1965, 1966 1967
H.F. Hockey, acting clerk, 1967
Ted Klassen, acting clerk, 1967
Ted Klassen, 1972-1991
Sandra Aikenhead, 1991-1994
Warren Jones, 1994-2000
Trevor Wingrove, 2000-2002
Sonia Santarossa, 2002-2008
Jay Gilbert, 2008-present

Reeves and Mayors, District and City of Coquitlam
R.B. Kelly 1891-1896
E.A. Atkins 1897-1903
Ralph Booth 1904-1908
D.E. Welcher 1909-1910
James Mars 1911-1913
L.E. Marmont 1918-1922
George H. Proulx 1923
R.C. MacDonald 1924-1941
J.W. Oliver 1942-1944
L.J. Christmas 1945-1969
J.L. Ballard 1970-1971
James L. Tonn 1972-1983
Louis Sekora 1984-1998
Jon Kingsbury 1998-2005
Maxine Wilson 2005-2007
Richard Stewart 2008-present

On May 25, 1987, Alderman Ray Mitchuk proposed a motion to Council to create a publication to celebrate Coquitlam’s Centennial. The motion read as follows:

“Inasmuch as the District of Coquitlam will be 100 years old in 1991,

And Inasmuch as an integral part of the celebration of such an anniversary is often the publication of a special book containing pictures and entertaining and nostalgic and informative data and history of a community,

Therefore Be It Resolved that Council appoint a committee of lay people, Fine Arts Council, professionals and members of the Public Library, to begin laying the groundwork for such a publication, to be funded by an advance of say $5,000 to meet initial expenses, and thereafter be marketed, and excess funds from sales be earmarked for a charitable purpose, or to meet library operating costs. The book will augment or replace the only written history of Coquitlam and Fraser Mills written by Harry Monk and John Stewart, and permission to use excerpts from that publication be sought. The published books will remain the property of the District of Coquitlam.”

The Committee members included: Ted Nikiforuk (chairman), Kathy Bach, Pat Cooper, Craig Hodge, Charlotte Lonneberg, Stan Pukesh, Larry Rose. The committee members served on a volunteer basis and meetings were conducted on a consensus basis. Originally, the concept for the book involved having Centennial High School students conduct the interviews; however, this proved too challenging to organize so reporters from the Coquitlam Now (including Hazel Postma) did the interviewing, transcription, and editing. Craig Hodge coordinated the collection of photographs, which were gathered from a variety of sources including archives, businesses, public and religious institutions, and members of the public.

6900 copies of the publication were printed by Hemlock Printers Company in 1990.

Coquitlam Minor Hockey Association, established in 1963, is a Tier 1 minor hockey association in the Greater Vancouver area within the Pacific Coast Division. Their mission is to provide the children and young adults of Coquitlam with the opportunity to play recreational hockey in a safe, enjoyable, and challenging environment.

Riverview Hospital was a Canadian mental health facility in Coquitlam, British Columbia. It operated as the Province’s specialized psychiatric hospital from 1913 until it closed in 2012. The hospital is located on səmiq̓wəʔelə in Halkomelem language, the Place of the Great Blue Heron, where Kwikwetlem First Nation took shelter for thousands of years. By the beginning of the 20th century, traditional healing knowledge in the area was supplanted by settler colonial medical practice.

Riverview Hospital was operated directly by the Province, originally under the Insane Asylums Act (1873), the Mental Hospitals Act (1940), and the Mental Health Act (1964) until 1988. A re-evaluation of contemporary approaches to mental health care through the 1960s to the mid-1980s brought about change to mental health service development in British Columbia. The Province created the British Columbia Mental Health Society (BCMHS) in 1988 and gave it the task of running Riverview pursuant to provincial health legislation. The BCMHS board began as Provincially-appointed trustees but by 1992, it was replaced by a community-based board of governors. After the establishment of the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA) in 2001, Riverview Hospital fell under the jurisdiction of its Mental Health & Addiction Services (now the BC Mental Health & Substance Use Services).

In 1904, the Province purchased 1,000 acres in Coquitlam for the construction of a new mental hospital (as well as Colony Farm) due to overcrowding at the Royal Hospital in Victoria and the Public Hospital for the Insane in New Westminster. Originally called the Hospital for the Mind at Mount Coquitlam, the hospital was named Essondale Hospital in honour of Dr. Henry Esson Young shortly after its opening. Young was the Provincial Secretary and Minister of Education and was responsible for establishing and managing the hospital.

The first building, West Lawn (then, the Male Chronic Wing) opened in 1913 to serve male patients. The patient population grew rapidly and soon led to more overcrowding. In 1922 the Boys’ Industrial School of Coquitlam (BISCO) opened to provide education, industrial training, and juvenile reform to boys sentenced to confinement by law. To accommodate more patients, Centre Lawn (then, the Acute Psychopathic Unit) opened in 1924. In 1930, East Lawn (then, the Female Chronic Unit) opened to ease crowding of female patients at the Public Hospital for the Insane in New Westminster.

After the First World War, more spaces for war veterans were needed to meet the overcrowding and West Lawn and Centre Lawn. Thus a new Veteran's Unit opened at Essondale Hospital in 1934. In 1936, BISCO was moved; the school underwent renovation and reopened as a geriatric care unit called the Home for the Aged (later, Valleyview). This unit was administered under the Provincial Home for the Aged Act (1935). After the Second World War, veterans were moved to the Riverside unit on Colony Farm grounds. The original Veteran’s Unit expanded and became the Crease Clinic of Psychological Medicine, which opened in 1949 and operated under separate health legislation than Essondale Hospital. The Crease Clinic allowed for voluntary admission of patients who could terminate their hospitalization at will. In 1950, Essondale Hospital changed its name to Provincial Mental Hospital, Essondale. North Lawn (then, the Tuberculosis Unit) opened in 1955 to stem the spread of the tuberculosis common in the hospital's other units. By 1956 there were over 4,700 patients at the Provincial Mental Hospital, Essondale, the Crease Clinic, and the Home for the Aged combined.

In 1959 the charge of mental health services was transferred from the Provincial Secretary to the new Department of Health Services and Hospital Insurance. That year, the Valleyview geriatric care unit opened. Five years later in 1964, the British Columbia Mental Health Act was enacted. The Crease Clinic amalgamated with Essondale Provincial Mental Hospital in 1965 to function as one facility named Riverview Hospital. That same year, the Riverside unit was converted to a maximum security facility and was renamed the Forensic Psychiatric Institute.

From the 1960s to the 1980s Riverview Hospital began to face changes because of deinstitutionalization. Patient populations declined at Riverview Hospital due to a move toward outpatient care and community based centres for mental health services. Although Riverview Hospital was given formal status as a teaching hospital affiliated with the University of British Columbia in 1974, by 1981 patient population had dropped and parts of the hospital were closed and sold off to developers. In 1983, West Lawn closed and farming operations at Colony Farm were discontinued. Next followed twenty years of unit closures: Crease Clinic (1992), East Lawn (2005), North Lawn (2007), and in 2012, the last patients were moved from Centre Lawn. That year Riverview Hospital ceased its operations.

Currently, the Riverview Lands are home to three lodges where long-term intensive psychological rehabilitation is provided for individuals, administered through Fraser Health’s Mental Health network of services.

In 1913, the offices of the Canadian Photo Co. were located at 512-518, 615 Pender St W and the company was listed in Henderson's Vancouver Directory with the names O.J. Rognon and F.P. Stevens. In 1914 and 1915, F.P. Stevens is listed as Manager and the address is listed as 512, 615 Pender St.In 1916, the company was taken over by W.F. McConnell and W.J. Moore and the offices were moved to 433 Seymour Street. By 1921, Wilfred F. McConnell is listed as the sole proprietor at 433 Seymour Street. By 1930, Mrs. W. McConnell is listed as a commercial photographer at 433 Seymour Street. 1933 is the final year the company is listed in the Directories but the address changed to 441 Seymour Street.

The Coquitlam Satellites were a senior girls hockey team, with members aged 16 and up. The team was coached and managed by Jim Hinds from ca. 1971 to ca. 1982 and during that period won the B.C. Provincial Senior Girls Hockey champions three times. The team practiced at the Coquitlam Sports Centre (now the Poirier Recreation Complex). Around 1978 the team was sponsored by Collegiate Sports and was known as the “Collegiate Satellites” for that year.

Russell Photo Studio was run by Vincent Calhoun Russell. It was located on Columbia St., Smith Block, New Westminster, British Columbia.

The Stride Studios was a commercial photographic studio located in New Westminster, B.C. operated by photographer Charles Stride (1890-1972). The studio was located at 657 Columbia Street, New Westminster.

Charlie Stride decided to become a photographer in 1920. In 1925 he opened Stride Studios, which became one of the best equipped commercial studios in the province. Stride Studios eventually had a staff of ten people and occupied the entire upper floor of 657 Columbia Street in New Westminster. The Studio was the official photographer for the provincial police department as well as departments in neighbouring municipalities, the Harbour Commission, the New Westminster Board of Trade, and the Royal Columbian Hospital, among others. in 1968, a fire in an adjacent building threatened the studio. When fire crews arrived, they doused the flames with water that destroyed the extensive collection of negatives. Charlie Stride died a few years later, in 1972.

On November 17, 1946, Rev. Ovila Meunier, an Oblate of Mary Immaculate (OMI), met with a group living on the west side of Lebleu Street to plan a new parish that would honour Our Lady of Fatima. During this meeting, John Lambert was elected as the President of the new Parish Council. Five acres of land were purchased on Alderson Street, which included two small houses. On December 8, 1946, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, the first Mass at Our Lady of Fatima was celebrated.

The Herald Newspaper was a weekly newspaper that covered the Tri-Cities area between January 1929 and December 30, 1980. Originally it was called the Coquitlam Herald but was renamed the Herald in 1975. During 1975–1980 it was published by W.E. Dunning Publishing Co. Ltd., publishers of The Gazette, The Herald, The Sunday Gazette, and The Sunday Herald. It amalgamated with the Enterprise Newspaper in June 1981 and became the Herald-Enterprise Newspaper. The Herald Newspaper ceased publication on October 9, 1984 after W.E. Dunning Publishing went out of business.

The Province is a Vancouver daily, founded 1898. The newspaper was launched in 1894 in Victoria, BC, as a weekly, called The Province, by Hewitt Bostock and his associates. In 1898 the Klondike Gold Rush started business booming in Vancouver and it was decided to transfer the operation there.

The first issue of The Vancouver Daily Province came out on 26 Mar 1898. Bostock soon bought out the interests of his associates and took into partnership Walter C. Nichol. When Bostock became involved in politics, Nichol became sole owner and, in 1923, the Southam organization acquired the paper from him. In 1952 the name was changed to The Vancouver Province and once again to The Province in 1956. The Province moved out of the evening field in 1957 and in 1983 went to a tabloid format. The Province caters to a different readership than its sister paper and rival, The Vancouver Sun which is also published by Pacific Newspaper Group Inc, a Postmedia Network, Inc. company.

The Canadian Federation of University Women - Coquitlam (CFUW Coquitlam) is a local chapter of the national Canadian Federation of University Women that was granted charter status in April, 1969. CFUW Coquitlam is a voluntary, non-profit, self-funded organization that offers a forum for educated women to meet for camaraderie, intellectual curiosity, involvement, and service to the community.

CFUW membership includes predominantly graduates from across Canada and abroad. CFUW- Coquitlam encourages informed and active participation in public affairs though education, advocacy, and action. Through Graduate Women International (GWI), the Canadian Federation of University Women provides leadership and support to women around the world to participate in decision making at the local, national, and international levels.

Over the years, CFUW Coquitlam has taken on several significant projects, including helping to establish the first Coquitlam Public Library. In its current incarnation, the club manages several bursary funds that assist with the costs of post secondary education. The club provides bursaries to each of the nine secondary schools in School District #43, as well as two art scholarships, and administers the distribution of the Millennium Bursary through Douglas College and a bursary for Simon Fraser University students through an endowment fund established by the club in 1996. CFUW Coquitlam also offers a number of interest groups and events to its members, including book clubs, education groups, lunch groups, movie nights, and walking groups, among others. Monthly general meetings feature guest speakers and the conduct of regular business.

Photograph studio operated by Thorvald Horshauge.

Valda Vidners and Don Luxton of Foundation Group Designs Ltd. surveyed a selection of properties in the Maillardville and Fraser Mills areas on October 5, 1986. The surveyed properties were included in a combined document entitled "Heritage Maillardville: Building Inventory." The inventory was "intended to provide a starting point for the planning and implementation of future heritage policies in the Maillardville and Fraser Mills area."

The study divided the properties into the following categories: Primary, Secondary, and Support. "Criteria focussed on the architectural, historical and contextual significance of each structure. Buildings in the primary category were generally deemed to have merit in all three criteria, while secondary buildings were deemed to be strong in two of the criteria. Support buildings were either of architectural, historical or contextual merit."

"Architectural: means that the building is of interest due to style, materials, structure, detailing, design or architect."

"Historical: means that there are events, trends or people of civic, provincial or national interest associated with the building."

"Contextual: means that the building exists in conjunction with other historic resources or settings."

The Dunwoody family emigrated to Winnipeg, Manitoba from Belfast, Northern Ireland in March 1911. Eldest son, James Dunwoody, received his degree in Chartered Accountancy in 1914. After coming back from WWI, Colonel Dunwoody went back to his passion for accounting and started Dunwoody & Co. in 1921. Dunwoody and Co. expanded their accounting firms across Canada during the 1940s and 1950s, with an office in Vancouver. Dunwoody & Co. was part of the international firm of Lasser, Harmood-Banner & Dunwoody until 1991. In January 1992, Dunwoody & Co. and BDO Ward Mallette merged with BDO Guenette Chaput in Winnipeg and BDO Frazer Matthews in Edmonton to form one unified firm. Formerly known as BDO Dunwoody, the Canadian member firm of BDO International changed its name again in 2010 with the rest of BDO’s firms around the world to become known as, simply, BDO.

Robert Morton (b. 1856), a native of Glasgow, Scotland, immigrated to Winnipeg in 1911, then moved to Vernon, BC, for about five years, and then to Calgary. In 1931-32 Morton moved to Vancouver and took up residence at 2119 Maple St. He began publishing a sectional map booklet and street index of the city because an ordinary map of Vancouver was too bulky to be carried around. The booklet covered Vancouver, Burnaby, New Westminster, North Vancouver, West Vancouver, Surrey, Maillardville, Lulu Island, and Sea Island. Morton himself went door to door selling his booklets, and was still doing so at the age of 87 in 1942. Over time the operation became known as Dominion Map and Blueprint Co. (576 Seymour St.). Around 1957 it changed its name to Dominion Map and Blueprint Ltd. (1529 W. Pender St.), and by 1963 the company shortened its name to Dominion Map Ltd. (626 and later 571 Howe St.), and was now under the direction of M.J. Griffin. The company was wound up in 1981.

The Herald Newspaper was a weekly newspaper that covered the Tri-Cities area between January 1929 and December 30, 1980. Originally it was called the Coquitlam Herald but was renamed the Herald in 1975. During 1975–1980 it was published by W.E. Dunning Publishing Co. Ltd., publishers of The Gazette, The Herald, The Sunday Gazette, and The Sunday Herald. It amalgamated with the Enterprise Newspaper in June 1981 and became the Herald-Enterprise Newspaper. The Herald Newspaper ceased publication on October 9, 1984 after W.E. Dunning Publishing went out of business.

Club Bel Âge were a Francophone seniors group based in Maillardville, formed in 1964 as Maillardville Branch No. 86 - a local of the British Columbia Old Age Pensioners Organization. They were the only French Canadian group in the province. They successfully petitioned Council for a dedicated space in 1991, a hall at Place Maillardville on Laval Square. The hall became place where Coquitlam seniors could socialize, play cards, craft and celebrate community. They ceased to operate in 2019 when their hall was demolished and membership was in decline.

On March 25th, 1913, for economic reasons, the Municipality of Fraser Mills seceded from the District of Coquitlam and took 390 acres of land. The District of Fraser Mills was then incorporated on March 26th, 1913 under the Reeveship of Dr. R.B. Scott, with Mr. G. G. Stewart as Clerk. The District of Fraser Mills later re-amalgamated with the District of Coquitlam in 1971, with the first Council meeting of the newly amalgamated municipality taking place on November 1st, 1971.