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This: is: he 63 second part in 1 the

_ Terrace Review's series detailing
the memories of Terrace. old- -
. timer Elsie Smith. ,

“Elsie Smith ‘remembers. the.
early years of Terrace as a com--
munity isolated from the world.

— river or rail provided the only
access. But isolation didn’t pre-
vent it from being a happy,
close-knit community with a so-

‘cial life all its own. By the

1920’s, possibly a little earlier,
there was a small two-block
business community on Kalum

St., and the downtown residen-

tial area on Lakelse Ave. wasn’t
much larger. Most other area
residents lived either in Kitsum-
gallum to the west or were scat~
tered on pre-empted farm land
from Lakelse to Kalum Lakes.
George Little’s first home
(now the Osborne Guest Home
on Hall St.) was always referred
to as the ‘green cottage’, Smith
remembers. ‘“‘It was west of the

hardware storeat the corner of .

Lakelse and: Kalum,’’ and,
**Dud Little’s home was further

~ along.”? But Dud Little’s home

was also moved in later years
and two others, those of George

Dover and the the Kenney fami-.

ly have disappeared... lost mem-

ories of our past.

Social life centered around the -

community’s two churches, the

Presbyterian, on Lakelse Ave. .

just east of where Twin City
Meats is now located, and the
Anglican, overlooking the fledg-
ling community from Atwood
St. near the present location of
the B.C. Telephone building.
Smith remembers how everyone
was accommodated by the

Presbyterian Church holding

morning services and the

arrace , Review — — -Viednedey, March 8, 1989

ee

vices. “And in- betwern, ‘United
Sunday: School. was” open .to -
“those of all. faiths - at - the
- Anglican Church at. 2:30.i in ‘the
afternoon... |
‘There were also a. variety of -
community halls. In the very
early ‘years, there was.a‘“‘hall’?

above Dad: Weeks’ store in Kit-
sumgallum.. This was followed
by the Progress Hall,. just west
of the Presbyterian Church. The

‘hall was built about 1911, ‘later

became the Oddfellows Hall,
and a few decades after was
destroyed by fire. Next came a
hall built by. the War Veterans’

Association - across the street -

from the Progress Halt, but due

to a lack :of participation -

reverted to the mortgage holder,

O.T. Sundal, in 1928 and was -
converted to office space. And .

finally there was a hall built by
the Orangemen across the street
from George Little's ‘‘green cot-
tage’. -

Smith remembers the Orange-

man’s hall for its dances, a

place to play badminton in--
doors, and later, as temporary

housing for. soldiers in the early

40’s while barracks were being -

built. After the war. her hus-
band, Jim Smith, bought the
building, lowered it to street
level, and turned it into office
space that still exists today.

The Progress Club, recalls
Smith, was a true community
project: the people of the town
paid $25 a share to build it, and
it became ‘‘the social center of
town'’.

from her early teens . when
George Minchin used the Pro-
gress Club to put on Saturday .
night movies. ‘‘I played the pi-
ano during the changing of the

She describes a time.

_ reels for 50 ‘cents pet nighi," " she

“says. ‘My repertoire was very

limited, but J. remember. two -

“pieces | ‘that’. I played, “Moon |

Winks and. ‘Three O:Clock i in the

. Morning. .Then I?d-dash back-

into the ‘audience till the.end. of |

‘ the next reel.”’

And then, the outside world |
began to catch up to the tiny
village of Terrace. ‘‘The first car

to arrive here was owned by Mr.
_E.G. Large and was also used as

a taxi-in about 1919,’" recalls
Smith. ‘The first road out,
other than to the two lakes, was
built during. the depression... —
mostly by men on relief in. the -
late thirties. It was wonderful to
be able ‘to-drive out eastward,

even though the road was pretty 7

grim except in summer time.’

But people: living in more
accessible communities to the .
east didn’t understand this eu-
phoria. “People in the east
could not visualize living any-
where without a road going out.
It used to cost the same to ship.a

ear to Hazelton, the end of

the road, as to buy a ticket: on

_what we called ‘the - ‘triangle
tour’.”? The’ triangle tour con-

sisted of a train ride to Van-
couver via Jasper, and a return
trip by boat to Prince. Rupert,
with the final 90-mile leg of the

_Journey being made again by

train.
“I only remember two cars

going out by train,’’ says Smith. °

The first was owned by her

uncle, E.T. Kenney, and the
‘other was a duo of women who

brought back other childhood

recollections. “One was a little
: pickup .owned by Mrs. Danina

Lanfear and Miss Ethelwyn
French,” says Smith. This pair,
she remembers, farmed with

Lanfear’s ‘daughter, Margaret,
‘with no outside. help, on the -
‘North, Thomas - -property. now
owned ‘by. Fred. and: Mamie
‘Kerby. wo

. “They were ‘two rugged wom:
en,’’ claims Smith. But they are.

_ remembered for their cultural

contributions as well. When
they weren’t farming, Lanfear
‘and French were teaching music
to our local youth of the day.

The first taught singing while
the latter complemented . this
with piano lessons. And prior to
her days. playing piano during
reel changes. at the Progress
Hall, Smith remembers climbing
“that hill’? ‘every week for
- lessons. .

Smith has other stories of our
roots, and some of these as well
asa look at her family tree and
‘how. our city’s founders are still
very much a part of our commu-
nities life will be covered in
future articles. But before clos-
ing, Smith has one more story,
stemming from the days of the
first cars. This story could possi-
bly describe’ the city’s very first
committee decision, or maybe
the result of the very first traffic

study carried out by the city

fathers — all in good humor of

carly 1930's - —a es la more than’

10 years after the: first-carar-°

Tived. It seems, for. ‘no: apparent
‘reason: that ‘Smith can’ recall, .

someone saw fit to install two of © 7
. what: she. calls,. “silent. cement
policemen”, one in the center of .

the Kalum/Lakelse’ intersection

and the other ‘by the hotel close”

to what is now the Kalum/Greig,
intersection. She explains that
these silent policemen were

nothing... more. than - ‘cement. «

blocks roughly a foot anda half :
square and one foot high.

The ‘life of these” “‘police- no

men’’, however, was apparently
very short. It seems that a local
merchant, whom ‘she | didn’t
name, stopped off at the hotel
one night and got a. little
“tight”, Later,- while driving
home and possibly trying | ‘0
take the shortest ‘route, -

straight line, the merchant van

into one of these cement mon-
sters and cither damaged or
destroyed. his car: And accord-
ing to §mith’s s story, it-was‘only

-a short time later that the silent. —

policemen disappeared, never to
be seen again.

Ravens growing fat

‘TERRACE _ Alderman Dave
Hull has asked city administra-
tion to look into the problem of
overflowing dumpsters...

At the, Feb. 27 meeting of
council Hull suggested that -
crows, ravens:and rats feed on
refuse in and around the dump-
sters and added that on one trip
down Lazelle, “‘I saw the fattest
raven I’ve ever seen.”

Mayor Jack Talstra suggested .

there may be a. need. for more
dumpsters at the site or locks on
the‘ones already there, Ald: Bob
Cooper said that shopping cen-

«ter merchants may not be the

source of the problem. Accord-
ing to Cooper, some of those
merchants don’t even use - ‘the
dumpsters and city residents us-
ing the dumpsters as a conven-

ient neighborhood garbage:

dump may be the cause...

earn ie

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NODES

~ Enter before’ :
5: 00 p.m. Saturda
7, March 11, 1989

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q +, SS: * tae

_ THERESA

manager

LISA

—;

CINDY

635-6181

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