For eighty years, a 185-acre prison farm stood beside Deer Lake. Inmates grew vegetables, milked cows, and were hanged in an abandoned elevator shaft. A doctor gave them new faces. A punk bassist served time in the cells. When the last inmates left in 1991, the city tore everything down and sold townhomes on the land. The bricks from the cellblocks line the new walkways.
Artom Butenko · 8 min read
Ocean View Burial Park was established in 1918 as Burnaby's first non-sectarian cemetery, receiving its first interments the following year. In 1929, it created a section for "any person of colour." Buried there: the first Chinese-born Canadian, a court interpreter who fought for rights he was never granted in life. Nearby, in a pauper's grave: the only Canadian-born world heavyweight boxing champion, five-foot-seven and ordained.
Artom Butenko · 7 min read
During the First World War, 460 workers assembled submarine hulls for the Russian Imperial Navy on a Burnaby beach. The official story was barges. Guards patrolled behind barbed wire. Three hulls were finished before the Revolution ended the contract in 1917.
Artom Butenko · 5 min read
3911 Frances Street has hedges, a mature tree, wrought-iron fencing, and no one living inside. Sixty-two metres below, a freight railway tunnel moves forty million tonnes of export cargo a year. The house is a ventilation fan disguised as a home.
Artom Butenko · 4 min read
In 1938, a South Asian lumberman needed a white agent to purchase land on his behalf. He built a sawmill on Burrard Inlet, employed hundreds, survived a catastrophic fire, and spent years fighting for the right to vote. His property is now Barnet Marine Park.
Artom Butenko · 6 min read
Afghan halal beside Serbian sausage beside Sudanese groceries beside Ethiopian injera. The most diverse neighbourhood in Metro Vancouver tells its story through food. Every storefront on this South Burnaby strip is somebody's first chapter in Canada.
Artom Butenko · 5 min read
A guide to outdoor hobbies in Burnaby — a fifty-year-old horsemen's club on the lake, a boat rental running since 1972, an archery range in the reeds, a miniature railway built by engineers who've been meeting since 1929. Spring is here. The city is wider than you think.
Artom Butenko · 6 min read
Every winter evening, up to fifteen thousand crows from across Greater Vancouver converge on a roost beside a Burnaby highway interchange. They have been doing this since the 1970s. Nobody fully understands why.
Artom Butenko · 5 min read