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

The provision of mental health services had its beginning in October 1872 when the Royal Hospital in Victoria was designated as the first Provincial Asylum under the jurisdiction of the Provincial Secretary.

On April 1, 1950 the British Columbia Mental Health Service was formally established and various mental health activities were amalgamated including New Westminster Hospital (which became Woodlands School), Colquitz Provincial Mental Hospital for the Criminally Insane (in Victoria), Essondale (including Crease clinic) and the Home for the Aged (in Coquitlam, Vernon and Terrace).

In 1959, Mental Health Services was transferred to the Dept. of Health Services and Hospital Insurance. The name was changed in 1967 to Mental Health Branch and changed again in 1975 to Mental Health Programs. The name reverted to Mental Health Services in 1980.

Between 1959 and 1968 the positions of Director and Deputy Minister were held by the same person. In 1968 the positions were separated, with Dr. H.W. Bridge as the Director of Mental Health Services, located in Vancouver, and Dr. F.G. Tucker as the Deputy Minister, located in Victoria. In September 1971 the position of Director was terminated. The statutory obligations of the Director were assumed by the Deputy Minister.

Byron Charles Jennings was a commercial photographer working in Vancouver, B.C. He worked at the Columbian and Province newspapers before opening his own commercial photography business, which operated under the name B.C. Jennings Ltd.

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 sumiqwuelu, or 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 in British Columbia. 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 1889, the Ross, McLaren Mill was opened at Millside, an area near New Westminster, British Columbia. The mill had cost $350,000 to build, and was headed by President James McLaren, a Quebec timber investor and President of the Bank of Ottawa, and Vice-President Frank Ross. Production at the mill began in 1890. In addition to new facilities and a large amount of capital to support it, the mill also possessed the transportation benefits of frontage on the Fraser River and a spur line to the Canadian Pacific Railway system. However, despite these advantages, the mill soon faced several events that affected its production in a negative way. In addition to the death of McLaren, the mill also experienced a decreased demand for timber due to a general economic depression in 1892. Even when other mills began to recover in 1895, Ross, McLaren’s productivity was curtailed by the silting of the Fraser River, which made it impossible for large vessels to reach the mill.

All of these factors contributed to the company’s decision in 1899 to place the mill and its timber rights up for sale. An American investment syndicate, headed by Lester David of Seattle and Mr. Jenkins of Minneapolis eventually purchased the mill in 1903. The new owners sought to resolve the mill’s difficulties by dyking the area, and holding the federal government accountable for dredging the Fraser River channel and ensuring its accessibility to ships. Now called Fraser River Saw Mills, the mill was finally re-opened in 1905, as the largest mill in the Pacific Northwest. By 1906, the mill was already setting records for production levels and over 250 labourers were employed. As a result of the increased production levels and staff, both the mill and Millside were expanded; this included the construction of the Fraser Mills Sash, Door & Shingle Company Limited.

Production at the mill was so high by 1907, in fact, that the mill was nearly shut down due to a lack of available labour. The mill was taken over by an investment syndicate headed by A.D. McRae of Winnipeg and Senator Peter Jansen of Nebraska. The new owners instituted a major re-organization of the business. A half million dollar renovation and expansion of the original mill buildings was implemented and improvements made to increase transportation access to the mill via the Fraser River. The name of the town was changed from Millside to Fraser Mills.

The re-organization of the business culminated in 1910, with the purchase of enough timber rights in the Lower Mainland and on Vancouver Island for the company, now called the Canadian Western Lumber Company Limited, to be considered to have the largest private holdings in the world. Through direct or indirect purchase, the Canadian Western Lumber Company Limited acquired full or partial ownership of the following companies by 1916: Canadian Tugboat Company Limited; Coast Lumber & Fuel Company Limited; Coast Lumber Yards Limited; The Columbia River Company Limited; Columbia Western Lumber Yards Ltd.; Comox Logging and Railway Company; Crown Lumber Company, Limited; Fraser Mills Sash, Door, and Shingle Company Limited; Lumber Manufacturers’ Yard Limited; Security Lumber Company Limited.; and Western Canada Sawmill Yards Limited. Later acquisitions include The Golden Light, Power and Water Company Limited. In 1954, the Canadian Western Lumber Company, Limited was acquired by Crown Zellerbach Canada Limited. The immediate successor company to Crown Zellerbach Canada Limited was Fletcher Challenge Limited of New Zealand, which purchased the company in 1983 and, with further acquisitions, became Fletcher Challenge Canada Limited in 1987. In 2000, Norske Skog, a Norwegian paper company, acquired all of Fletcher Challenge's pulp and paper assets, and a majority interest in Fletcher Challenge Canada Limited. This resulted in the formation of Norske Skog Canada Limited.

The Coquitlam Photo Studio is a commercial photographers located at #102 - 2849 North Road, Burnaby.

Established in 1910, McElhanney’s family of companies, including McElhanney Consulting Services Ltd and McElhanney Land Surveys Ltd, provide integrated surveying, engineering, mapping and specialty professional services to clients responsible for the development of resource industries, communities, and infrastructure across western Canada and beyond.

Long serving employee of the City of Coquitlam. Director of Planning (ca. 1969 to ca.1987). He served as the Acting Municipal Manager starting in 1988 and then Acting City Manager (when Coquitlam became a City in 1992) until ca. 1997. Buchanan Square at City Hall is named in his honour.

The Coquitlam Figure Skating Club was founded in the summer of 1963. The club is a community-based skating club that offers Skate Canada programming, and recreational and competitive lessons for figure skating, skating skills for hockey and ringette. The club has produced many high level national and international skaters in its history and has over 400 members. The club operates out of the Poirier Recreation Complex.

The Royal Canadian Air Cadets is a Canadian national youth program for young individuals aged 12 to 19. Under the authority of the National Defence Act, the program is administered by the Canadian Forces and funded through the Department of National Defence.

The first squadrons were established in 1941 to train young men for duties during World War II. The purpose has since changed to focus on citizenship, leadership, physical fitness, general aviation and stimulating an interest in the activities of the Canadian Forces.

Sunday's Photos (also appears as Sunday Photo) is likely the business of Fred W. Sunday who was active in Vancouver between 1940 and 1948.

Simon Barthelemie Charpentier was born in St. Brieux, Saskatchewan in 1913 and moved to Maillardville around 1932. Charpentier worked at Fraser Mills. He married Marie Celia Hinque on July 16, 1935 (B13769). They had seven children and lived in a house at 200 Hart Street. Charpentier died in 2006.

Fabian Jack Stiglish, more commonly known as “Jack” was born in Leask, Saskatchewan and grew up on a farm in Leask. He left the farm in 1938 and moved to British Columbia and met his wife Helen Mary Pietrasko in Invermere. In 1940, Helen and her family relocated to Surrey and Jack followed suit. He became a fisherman with his own boat and also worked in a mill. The couple married on December 5, 1942.

In 1943, the couple bought a mushroom farm at 1050 Keswick Ave near the Lougheed Highway. The farm had been established by W.T. Money around 1928 and is thought to be one of the first mushroom farms in B.C. The farm consisted of 4 acres of land, with one and a half acres devoted to growing mushrooms. Mushrooms were sold by the pound under the name “Money’s Mushrooms,” and mushroom manure was sold by the sack.

Jack and Helen were entrepreneurs throughout their lives. They briefly raised chinchillas for their fur, owned a brick business, and owned the 4 Acre Trailer Court at 675 Lougheed Highway from the 1950s until 1979 when the trailer court was sold to Walter and Dennis Hohn.

The couple built their dream home at 703 Edgar Avenue in 1969. Jack and Helen were avid square dancers and were enthusiastic members of the Vancouver Heights Square Dance Club in Burnaby. Jack was very community-minded and was an active member of the British Columbia Motels, Resorts, and Trailer Parks Association for many years. He was also one of the founding members of the Coquitlam Rotary in 1967. Jack and Helen spent their summers at a summer home in Whatcom Meadows in Washington State. Jack passed away on October 15, 1994 in New Westminster.

The Burquitlam Lions Club was established in 1960. The Club was a part of Multiple District 19, Zone H-5 of Lions Clubs International. Like all Lions Clubs worldwide, the mission of the Burquitlam Lions Club was to create and foster a spirit of understanding among all people for humanitarian needs by providing voluntary services through community involvement and international cooperation.

Every individual Lions Club establishes its own service priorities in addition to programs supported and recognized by Lions International (typically programs focusing on Sight, Hearing, Diabetes Awareness, Youth Outreach and International Understanding). But Burquitlam Lions Club also supported local initiatives, notably organizing and collecting Christmas hampers for the needy, conducting social programs for the elderly, providing music bursaries (Mary Olfield), organizing Easter egg hunts and serving food at community events, and helping local families in need with projects such as wheelchairs, ramps, lifts, educational tools, and equipment. Additionally, at the Multiple District level, they aided in supporting Camp Squamish and Camp Horizon for disabled individuals.

The Burquitlam Lions Club was also responsible for funding two care centres: the Burquitlam Lions Intermediate Care Centre (1981-2016) and L.J. Christmas Manor Seniors Home.

During its existence, the Burquitlam Lions Club met the first and third Wednesday of every month at the L.J. Christmas Manor. However, due to decreasing membership numbers, the Club dissolved on July 1, 2018.

The Coquitlam Teacher-Librarians' Association (CTLA) was formed in 1964 as a chapter of the British Columbia School Librarians' Association. Between 1964 and 1984, it was referred to as the Coquitlam Chapter of the BC School Librarians' Association. The name was changed in 1985 to the BC Teacher Librarians' Association (Coquitlam Chapter) and then changed again to the Coquitlam Teacher-Librarians' Association in 1997, although it continues to exist as a local chapter of the British Columbia Teacher-Librarians' Association.

ArtsConnect Tri-Cities Arts Council is a non-profit society and regional arts council. It was originally formed in 1969 as the Coquitlam Fine Arts Council (CFAC), to promote arts and cultural activities in Coquitlam. During 1983–1991 it changed its name to the Coquitlam Area Fine Arts Council (CAFAC) when it expanded its services to Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, Anmore, and Belcarra. From 1992–2002 the organization was known as the ARC Arts Council, to reflect the Council’s role as an Arts Resource Centre. In 2003, the board changed the organization’s name to ArtsConnect.

ArtsConnect is dedicated to “connecting people through the arts.” They act as an arts resource, providing information about arts and cultural events and opportunities to the community at large. They achieve this by providing forums, workshops, professional development, and events that reflect the community’s diversity of culture, ages, and interests. Additionally, ArtsConnect fosters opportunities for artists to showcase their work at events, exhibitions and performances. ArtsConnect’s goal is to create and expand awareness of the beneficial aspects of arts and culture on the well-being of its community and advocate for arts and cultural development in the region. Throughout its history, it received funding from the Government of British Columbia, municipal grants, fundraising, membership, and donations.

Governance of ArtsConnect is overseen by a Board of Directors, responsible for the management of a Council for the purposes of achieving its objectives. The Council consists of a President, Vice-President, and a Secretary/Treasurer. The Council itself has three types of committees: an Executive Committee, Standing Committees, and Special Committees.

ArtsConnect has undertaken and sponsored many arts and cultural initiatives, including an arts resource centre and library, arts facility and program development, their Youth Matters! initiative, and provided scholarships and grants for students, individuals, and projects contributing to the literary, visual, and performing arts in the community. It held annual events, such as Works in 3D, Vernissage, Faces of the World Arts and Culture Festival and many other exhibitions and events, workshops, and educational programs. Additionally, it maintained a partnership with Tri-Cities Community TV and aired an eponymous television program that ran on the local Shaw TV channel 4.

Ronald Moyes was born in Vancouver on February 11th, 1926. His family moved to North Road, Coquitlam in 1929. Moyes attended Mountain View School and Coquitlam Junior High. He left Coquitlam in 1943, when training for the Royal Canadian Airforce took him first to Edmonton and then Quebec. Moyes served in the Second World War, and subsequent to the war continued his career in the RCAF in various roles around Canada and abroad. In 1974, Moyes left the RCAF to join the RCMP Forensic Laboratory as a firearms Technician. He retired in 1989.

The Dogwood Veterans Group is a seniors group at the Dogwood Pavilion seniors centre for veterans of the Second World War and the Korean War. The Group sets up the display, Veterans on Parade, at the Dogwood Pavilion where the public and school children visit and learn about the wartime experiences of veterans. The Group also sells Remembrance Day poppies around Coquitlam.

The Government of Canada declared 2005 the Year of the Veteran. In honour of the occasion the Dogwood Veterans Group collected and self-published personal narratives. Later, other narratives were collected and published by Veterans Affairs Canada.

The SCCBC began racing at the Abbotsford Airport from 1952 to 1956. In 1957 the membership raised funding through debentures and built a full service road course in Coquitlam on Crown Land leased from the Provincial Government. For the next 32 years the club operated the track known as Westwood Motorsport Park, and affectionately referred to as Mountain High Racing. Westwood gained recognition throughout North America and played host to such greats as Gilles Villeneuve, Bobby Rahal, and Michael Andretti. The annual Atlantic series races often drew over 10,000 spectators. The facility was closed in 1990 to make way for the Westwood Plateau housing development.

In July 1994, the Club opened its current racing venue, the road course at Mission Raceway Park, thanks to support from the BC Custom Car Association and Molson Indy Vancouver. The track, a tight two kilometer, seven turn course, provided a challenge to drivers and offered exceptional viewing for spectators.

Coquitlam's Library was originally housed in Centennial School before a 1976 referendum approved the development of a more extensive library system. Consequently, the Coquitlam Public Library opened in 1978 on Ridgeway Avenue. Branches in Burquitlam and the Lincoln Centre soon followed but they were closed when the main Poirier Street branch opened in 1989. The City Centre Branch was located on the ground floor of the new City Hall from the late 1990s until 2012, when it was relocated to 1169 Pinetree Way.

Managed by O.J. Rognon and F.P. Stevens in 1913 (Rognon continued as a photographer in 1914), then by Stevens alone between 1914-1915. W.F. McConnell and W.J. Moore managed the company between 1916-1921. H.H. Vinson worked here as a photographer in 1914 and H.E. Bullen was a photographer here in 1921-1923.

Crehan, Mouat & Co. Chartered Accountants and Municipal Auditors was established ca. 1908 by Matthew Joseph Crehan. The offices were located at 615 Pender Street, Vancouver. Crehan was born in Galway, Ireland in 1874 and arrived in British Columbia in 1892. He served as President of the British Columbia Institute of Chartered Accountants in 1912 and 1913. He married his first wife Annetta Etta Ward ca. 1895. Anetta died in Vancouver in 1905 and was buried in Mountain View Cemetery. Crehan married his second wife, Mercy Ellen Wilkinson in 1906.

Mercy Ellen Wilkinson arrived in Canada from England in 1892. She had been highly educated and had sat the Cambridge University examinations in arithmetic, drawing, and French before arriving in Canada. Upon her arrival in Canada, she became the first woman employed by the Canadian Pacific Railway west of Winnipeg. Between 1893 and 1906, she worked as a stenographer but was soon conducting accounting work for the Canadian Pacific Railway and then worked as a bookkeeper for the Hastings Lumber Mill. She helped her husband start his own firm of chartered accountants and later worked for the firm as a chartered accountant. In 1922, Mercy became the first female member of the British Columbian Institute of Chartered Accountants and the first woman chartered accountant in Western Canada.

Matthew Joseph Crehan died in Vancouver on March 22, 1930 and was buried in Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver. The company continued operations under the same name until 1937. Mercy died in 1953 and was also buried in Mountain View Cemetery.

Charles Francis Lobb was born in Toronto, Ontario on October 10, 1872. He became an auditor and moved to Port Coquitlam. He became the civic auditor for the City of Port Coquiltam around 1914, and later became an alderman in 1922. He married Janet Felicia Cowan in 1935. Lobb died on June 18, 1955.

John Graham was a Chartered Accountant in New Wesminster, British Columbia. He was born in Fossoway, Scotland in 1887 and emigrated to Canada a around 1910. He married Maude Mabel Sworder in 1913. Graham died in 1952.