Just across Moray Bridge and down Miller Road is the shuttered Sea Island elementary school, which recently became a little less deserted.
Surrounded by memorabilia providing glimpses into the history of the Sea Island community — including a potentially haunted poster that refused to stay on the wall — the Sea Island Heritage Society took the Richmond News on a journey down memory lane.
The Sea Island Heritage Society started out small in 1995 with about half a dozen of members including its president Eunice Robinson. The goal was simple — to save Sea Island’s history.
Robinson lived in the Cora Brown subdivision — on the north end of Sea Island — until she was expropriated along with the rest of her neighbours in 1974 for the expansion of Vancouver International Airport.
“We were raised by a village. You did anything wrong, and by the time you got home, your mother knew all about it,” said Robinson.
The small Sea Island community wasn’t insular by choice, she said, as it used to be much more difficult to get off the island back in the day.
“We didn’t have ways off the island. When I was growing up, the Two Road Bridge wasn’t built. The Moray Channel bridges weren’t built, not (even) the Dinsmore,” Robinson explained.
The only options were the Marpole Bridge and the Lulu Island Bridge. As such, Sea Island residents were more likely to go to Vancouver for grocery shopping rather than Richmond.
Not only did most of the community go to Sea Island United Church, but kids in the neighbourhood also helped bring everyone together.
“I’m walking my child to school, you’re gonna walk your child to school, we walk together, eventually we start talking and, ‘Oh, why don’t you come on over for tea or something like that?’” said Robinson.
And this sense of community is why people are still moving to Sea Island, she added.
Memorabilia brings stories
The Sea Island Heritage Society moved into its new home, a classroom in Sea Island elementary, back in January. The school shuttered in 2019 and some of the classrooms were assigned to the Continuing Education Program.
One of Robinson’s first tasks as soon as the society got a new home was to migrate her museum of Sea Island memorabilia.
The collection was originally stored in Robinson’s basement, and when someone wanted to look through the memorabilia, they would have to call her to arrange a time and place to meet.
Most of the collection is still with Robinson because she wanted to make sure everything was digitized before she moved them to Sea Island elementary.
“Heaven forbid if we ever lose anything, it (won’t be) devastating,” she explained.
The collection includes pictures from schools, brownies and scout groups, sports trophies, a swing seat from the old Cora Brown park and Air Canada memorabilia.
Some artifacts even date back to the 1940s.
“We’re collecting anything and everything Sea Island,” said Robinson. “Because any kind of memorabilia will bring stories.”
Coming back together after being torn apart
When the Cora Brown residents moved away, they didn’t stay apart for long, as they began holding reunions from 1978 until 2002.
And although there used to be a rivalry between Cora Brown and Burkeville residents, they managed to put their past differences aside and hold a joint reunion last year welcoming past community members from all over the world.
“It’s amazing, finding people who lived on Sea Island. As we say, five minutes or 15 years, it doesn’t matter,” said Robinson.
This year’s reunion, which was held earlier in the year, proved to be extra special as Robinson was able to tour Sea Island elementary with her first-grade teacher.
With the annual reunion out of the way, Robinson has been working on documenting people’s stories.
“The biggest regret is that we have missed some of the older people who have now passed and getting their stories,” she said.
The society is also working on documenting every house that was built back in the day and writing up biographies of teachers who taught at Sea Island elementary.
Robinson, who’s also a family historian at the British Columbia Genealogical Society, said it has been “wonderful” connecting with community members past and present.
“And I would say, everybody that we’ve been in touch with, for the most part, is really happy. They’re happy we’re doing it as well as there’s a place for them to donate things that they have,” she said.
Family history and local history go hand in hand, Robinson added, and she’s motivated to help people reconnect with their pasts.
“Knowing how valuable some of this stuff is, if I was looking for my ancestor, like even my mother, or class pictures out there… It drives me from that angle that this is what I would dearly love to have for my own family,” she said.
For more information and to connect with the Sea Island Heritage Society, visit the official website.
