This year’s BC Heritage Week from February 19 to 25, 2024 asks us to dig into the theme “Layer by Layer”, layering stories that describe the uniqueness of a community’s past and present while informing the future.
Read on to peel back the layers of the Steveston Tram’s history, and how Interurban trams helped shape Richmond’s transportation as we know it now. The last of this three-part series looks at the place names that remind us of the Interurban tram’s past presence.
Steveston Station
On the southern side of the Steveston Tram building across Moncton Street is an apartment and commercial building called “Steveston Station.” The Steveston Tram building is almost on the same footprint as the first Steveston Station. That building was a CPR-designed and built rail station and quite grand for a small town like Steveston. Unfortunately, it burned down in 1928. The new Steveston Station was built on the other side of Moncton Street from its predecessor. Unlike the original Steveston Station, the new one was little more than a three-sided shack.
Railway Avenue
Layers of history are all around us. The names of places, towns, suburbs, and even roads are rich with meaning. Not far from the Steveston Tram is Railway Avenue, named because the rail line that once carried Tram Car 1220 and its sister trams ran alongside it. Today, the rail line has been replaced by a paved bike and walking path. The tram stop stations where locals once stood waiting for the next tram to appear, are now remembered by their painted names and schedule times as decorative additions on the black-top paving.
These are a few of the historic remnants relating to a piece of our recent transportation history. Throughout our communities are echoes of yesterdays; if we only know where to stop, look around, and take a moment to peel back the past, layer by layer.
Read Part 1 and 2 of Heritage Week “Layer by Layer” – Tram Car 1220 and the “Sockeye Limited”, Steveston Tram and the BCER
