Viewing Object

Object Description

Object ID

2019.015.009

Title

I.G.A. Heritage Market in Fort Langley.

Date

30 Jan. 1995.

Description

Colour slide of the I.G.A. Heritage Market in Fort Langley, with Peter Lee standing in front of the entrance (the back, east side entrance, from the parking lot). The building has a flat roof with angled wood shingled covering around the building. There is a white and green striped awning above the door that reads "HERITAGE MARKET." Peter is below this awning, wearing a white shirt and dark vest and holding his hand out in front of him. There are two shopping carts in front of him. There is a green and white striped umbrella to his left, beside a wooden barrel; the umbrella reads "MARKET GARDEN." There is a neon "OPEN" sign in the window to the left of the front door, and several pallets stacked to the right of the door. Some of the parking lot, including concrete blocks and a bike rack, are visible in the foreground.

People/Subject

IGA grocery store (Fort Langley)

The Fort Langley IGA is on the site of Coulter and Berry's General Store, built by David Moss Coulter and John W. Berry in about 1897-1898. The men owned another store in Murrayville, and while Berry ran the other location, Coulter ran this one in Fort Langley. While this store was being built, Coulter rented the old Hudson Bay Co. store for a few months, and he and his family lived above and behind it as well. When this new store was built, Coulter and his family moved into the Drummond House (next door where Frontier Hardware is) for a couple of years before their house was built just south of the store. A small post office is later built between the store and the house, and Coulter is later known to be the only postmaster to be in charge of 3 different post offices all in the same building as the name changed - Langley, Langley Fort, and Fort Langley.

The Coulter and Berry partnership dissolved in 1916. Coulter sold the store in about 1923, but remained the postmaster until June 29, 1926.

The next store owner, F. C. Jones, became the Postmaster on September 17, 1926. The store burned down in the late 1920s but F. C. Jones rebuilt and remained the Postmaster until April 15, 1944.
Louis Poelvoorde took over the store in or before 1944, and his wife, Mrs. J. M. Poelvoorde became the Postmaster from May 1, 1944 until December 22, 1947.

A 2,880 square foot warehouse was built in 1969 and was Tommy's Lucky Dollar Store. This was followed by the construction of a 7,268 square foot retail store in 1970, which became the IGA in 1975. The IGA burned down on January 4, 2011.

IGA opened in about 1975.

Argus v4.3.6.40 - Langley Centennial Museum