For those who have ventured to the very southern end of No. 4 Road, they are met with a pleasant surprise - a waterfront neighbourhood seemingly trapped in time.
About 30 residents call the collection of late 19th century wooden residences - some perched on stilts or floating on the South Arm of the Fraser River - home.
The community was founded by Finnish settlers, who had come to Richmond in the 1880s and made a living from the fishing industry.
And they chose the area because there was no dam at the south end of the slough and it was easy for them to take their boats up to their houses.
Apparently, one of the first and most important buildings constructed there was a sauna that helped the fishermen revive their aching bodies after a long day on the water.
As David Dorrington wrote on the Finn Slough website, the village developed without the organization of property boundaries, city ordinances, provincial regulations or any governing body.
"Even so, it has been an example of how a community can be carefully built and selfregulated to work in harmony with the environment, having as little impact as possible. village is not only a historical artifact, it is also an example of a possible way forward to find more creative solutions to the present destruction of the Fraser basin by non-stop urbanization."
While there are no individual significant buildings on the site, the City of Richmond deems the importance of the community stems from the cluster arrangement of the structures, their history as a group, and their development over time.
