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Ralph Booth was one of the original landowners in Coquitlam. He and Brehaut owned District Lot 47 and he also owned District Lot 61, which was eventually incorporated into the District of Fraser Mills in 1913. The Booth Farm house is thought to be one of the original houses in Coquitlam and was purchased by the City of Coquitlam in 2013. Booth was a dairy farmer and his farm hosted many picnics for the local residents. He served as Reeve from 1904 to 1908.

George Hector Proulx arrived in Coquitlam in 1910 with his family. Shortly after their arrival, the Proulx family bought a store which was the first in the small village that became Maillardville. He was elected Reeve in 1923, but was defeated the following year. He died on May 9th, 1934 and was buried in Saint Peter's Roman Catholic Cemetery in New Westminster, British Columbia.

James Walker Ollivier first ran for Council in 1940 but was not successful. He was later elected Reeve of the Corporation of the District of Coquitlam in December of 1942 and served in this role until 1944. At the Council Meeting of December 5th, 1944 he tendered his resignation because he had disposed of his property and was therefore ineligible to be Reeve.

Leslie James Christmas was Coquitlam's longest serving reeve/mayor. He was first elected to Council in 1943 and was elected Reeve in 1945. He served in this capacity until his death in 1969.

Jack Ballard was elected Mayor in the election held in December 1969, following the death of L.J. Christmas in July. Ballard served as Mayor for a two-year term between 1970 and 1971.

Geoffrey (Geoff) and Margaret (Marg) Hortin became members of the Sports Car Club of British Columbia (SCCBC) in 1958. They assisted with the building of the Westwood Racetrack, and Geoff was an active racer. He first built his own race car, which was dubbed the "G.A.S.P." (Geoff's Available Spare Parts), and then went on to race for Clemente European Motors in a Fiat 850 modified. Geoff was active in the club until 1972.

Alexander Windram was born on February 21, 1881 in Eyemouth, Scotland. He immigrated to Canada in 1910 with his wife, Mary and young son, John, and began working as a steamfitter at Fraser Mills. While building their lives in the growing mill town, the family welcomed another son, Andrew, and a daughter, Elsie. The family had not long settled when the First World War broke out.

Windram enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force on February 22, 1916. According to his Attestation Papers, Windram was five foot seven and a half inches tall, with blue eyes and brown hair and with tattoos on both forearms. He arrived in Liverpool on November 11, 1916 and was taken on strength into the 7th Battalion in January, 1917.

He fought at the Battle of Vimy Ridge and was killed on the first day of the Battle, April 9, 1917.

The Coquitlam Star newspaper and publishing company were active between 1911–1915.

Margaret Krenbrink was a long-time Coquitlam resident who was best known for her community work as the President of the Ranch Park Ratepayers Association. She was heavily involved in local affairs and regularly attended Council meetings in Coquitlam and advocated for issues affecting the community.

Eleanor Martine (Larson) Ward was born in Fosston, Saskatchewan. She was an active and dedicated community volunteer who gave many years of service to a variety of organizations including the Girl Guides of Canada, the Red Cross, SHARE Society, the Justice Institute, and the GVRD Minnekhada Regional Park Association. She was a long-serving executive member of the Northeast Coquitlam Ratepayers' Association, and served as the President from 1983 to 1985 and then again from 1990 to 2000. The Eleanor Ward Bridge that spans the Coquitlam River and connects Coquitlam Town Centre with Burke Mountain, is named in her honour. She passed away on December 25, 2003.

The Westwood Plateau Community Association was formed in 1999 when the Westwood Plateau development was completed by Wesbild. A group of residents wanted to maintain a high quality of life on the Plateau and wished to see it be a safe and environmentally friendly place. A Mission Statement and Constitution were created and on April 17, 1999 elections were held for the first Directors of the newly created Westwood Plateau Community Association (WPCA).

Since its inception, the WPCA has sponsored a number of community events including garage sales, golf tournaments, public meetings, picnics, community dinners, and have prepared a community newsletter. The Association also involves itself in advocacy efforts for issues relating to Plateau residents. A major project of the association was the erection of a Reader Board at the corner of Johnston and David Avenue. The board enables the Association to keep residents informed of events.

Del Gachallan was born in the Phillipines and moved to Coquitlam. Gachallan is a retired engineer, musician and author. In 1991, he composed a song in honour of the city's centennial year, entitled "Coquitlam, My Town."

Croton Studio of New Westminster was established by brothers Don F. and Roy M. LeBlanc. In 1947 Don LeBlanc and his wife Dorothy arrived in New Westminster, and took up residence at 1011 Eighth Avenue. In 1948 Roy and his wife Violet joined him there. Croton Studio first appears in 1949, located at 911 Twelfth Street. One or both of the brothers were owners of the business at this time. Around 1960 the studio moved to 7155 Kingsway in Burnaby. By 1967 the business had been incorporated and the name changed to Croton Studios Ltd. Don LeBlanc was owner and had moved his residence to 116 East Sixth Avenue. In 1972 a Croton photographer, Bob Dibble, bought the business when Don LeBlanc retired. Dibble owned the business until his death in 1979.

Sharon E. (Jansen) Cavalier was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba on January 23, 1949. In 1955 she and her parents moved from Winnipeg to Burnaby. In 1961 they relocated to Coquitlam, where Sharon attended Austin Avenue School for the last 2 months of grade 6, Porter Street Elementary School for grade 7, and Como Lake Secondary High School for grades 8 through the first 3 months of grade 12. It was in late 1966 that Centennial Secondary School was completed and Sharon participated in the November 28, 1966 Trek to move to Centennial High School, becoming part of its first graduating class in 1967. Following graduation she attended Simon Fraser University, later transferring to the University of British Columbia where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. She worked most of her life in university administration, principally at the University of British Columbia and retired in 2016.

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.

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.

Donna Rodman is a registered landscape architect. Rodman is the founding principal of Our Designs Inc., established in 1992. Rodman holds a Diploma in Nursing (The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C.), a Bachelor of Arts in Urban Geography (The University of British Columbia), a Certificate in Building (British Columbia Institute of Technology), and a Master in Landscape Architecture (The University of British Columbia).

Peregrine Photographics was a photo studio at 35-Sixth St., New Westminster, British Columbia.

Joseph William Harris was born on April 29, 1876. He was a rancher and labourer from Handbury, England who immigrated to Canada in 1909 and lived in Grand Forks, B.C. before settling in Coquitlam. He was married to Hannah Hollingworth and they had two children, John Edward and Wilfred. Harris enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force on June 2, 1916 at the age of 40 and served with the 225th Overseas Battalion. He was discharged as medically unfit on January 22, 1917. He passed away on November 18, 1955. It is believed that Harris Ave is named after him.

Wilfred Harris was born in Grand Forks, British Columbia in 1911 to Joseph William and Hannah Harris. Wilfred worked as a lumber grader. He married Katherine Margaret Sitter in 1942 in New Westminster and they had a daughter, Linda Harris. Wilfred Harris died in 1998.

John Edward Harris was born in 1910 in Derbyshire, England, to Joseph William and Hannah Harris. They emigrated to Canada. Harris was a mill worker. He married Gladys Hannah Larson in 1936. He died in 1983.

Linda Harris is the daughter of Wilfred and Katherine Margaret Harris.