Alex Houston House circa. 1909 (Houston Trail - Derby Reach Park)

            Langley, BC Canada

Derby Reach is recognized as the site of the first contact between people of the Stó:lõ First Nation and Europeans working for the Hudson’s Bay Company. 

The Hudson Bay Company built a fort here. One of BC’s first townsites was laid out in the park and later, a pioneer named Alex Houston built his house 
on land that is now part of the regional park. Houston is credited with starting the Cariboo Gold Rush and is suspected of claiming the fortune of Billy Miner, BC’s most infamous train robber. 

DESCRIPTION OF HISTORIC PLACE

The Alex Houston Residence consists of a modest 1 1/2 storey wood-frame house on a country lot. It is within view of the Fraser River and is located in the Greater Vancouver Regional District's Derby Reach Park in NW Langley, British Columbia.

HERITAGE VALUE

Built in 1909 by Alexander Houston, the Houston Residence is important for its historic significance in terms of its association with the Houston family, its location, and the period in which it was built. It is also an important example of a community-led restoration that combined the resources of the Langley Heritage Society and the Greater Vancouver Regional District.

The Houstons were an important family in British Columbia's history. Alex's father, James, is credited for being the first European to discover gold along the Fraser River, the first independent farmer in the Fraser Valley, one of 33 men to petition the government for an incorporation of the district, and one of the first councillors when Langley was incorporated as a District in 1873.

Alex took over the family cattle and dairy farming business in 1902 (after the death of his father). He was the only son of James and was himself an important pioneer in the Derby area. His family was very active in the community until the 1950's, having established and hosted the community May Day celebrations and donating land for a commemorative cairn across the street from his house, marking the site of the first Fort Langley.

The farm site stands on what was originally land occupied by the first Hudson's Bay Company Fort (1827) and later by the Townsite of Derby (1859). It is a focal point for Derby historical interpretations.

Sources: Derby/Edgewater Bar Guide; Langley Centennial Museum Heritage Files; HistoricPlaces.ca

This image is best viewed in Large screen.

Thank-you for your visit, and please know that any faves or comments are always greatly appreciated!

Sonja

Taken on: January 9, 2022

Tags:

Langley

Township of Langley

Canada

Alex Houston House

Hudson Trail

circa. 1909

Winter

2022

Langley Heritage Society

Historic Site

Historic Building

Historical

Derby Reach Regional Park

Alex Houston

Heritage

Heritage House

Heritage Registered Property

Heritage Building

Nikon

Nikon D7500

Sonja Peterson Photography

Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR

Peterson Photography

Construction

Architecture

Greater Vancouver Regional District

Derby Area

1909

Fraser River

Hudson's Bay Company

Townsite of Derby (1859)

Houston Residence

Houston Family

Pioneer

Farm Site

Black & White

Black & White Photography

SNOW

BC History « less

Sets appears in: • Black & White Photography (2022) • Fort Langley/Township of Langley (2021-2022)

Stats: 739 views

close tools panel

Badge creator

Use Flickriver Badge Creator to create a badge linking to your photos, your group or any other Flickriver view.

You can place your badge on your Flickr profile, Blog or Website.

Add to your iGoogle or Netvibes page

Flickriver widget for iGoogle or Netvibes can display almost any Flickriver view - most interesting today, by user, by group, by tag etc. Once added to your personalized homepage, just edit widget settings to select your desired view.

Clickr on one of the buttons below to install:

Embed on your Web site

To embed this view, Copy and Paste the following HTML code:

Black background (preview):

White background (preview):

Firefox and Chrome addons

Adds a 'Flickriver' button to your browser. While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on this button to open the same view on Flickriver.

Install in Firefox
Install in Chrome

Search plugin

Add 'Search on Flickriver' to your browser's search box. Works with Firefox and Internet Explorer. Install search plugin

"View on Flickriver" Greasemonkey script

A Greasemonkey script that adds Flickriver links to various Flickr photo pages - user photos, favorites, pools etc, allowing to quickly open the corresponding Flickriver view.

Also, allows quickly viewing any Flickr photo on black background in large size.

Install "View on Flickriver" script

Bookmarklet

While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on the bookmarklet to open the same view on Flickriver.

To install: drag and drop the following link to your Bookmarks toolbar.
IE users - add the link to your Favorites under the Links folder