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Looking for some Happy Hour conversation starters on your patio this summer? Or a way to keep the family distracted during a ferry lineup? Either way, we have you covered with this made-in-North Van history trivia contest! Who can come up with the answers first – or at all? We’ll let you decide if googling is permitted!

Questions:

1. Lynn Valley Elementary has been schooling local children since the first decade of the 1900s. You likely know about the early wooden structure (now home to the Parent Participation Preschool) and the later stone building that was built in 1920, which now contains the North Vancouver archives. But the original LV Elementary predated both of these. Where was it located, and what happened to it?

2. Speaking of school, there is something fundamentally wrong with the name “Lynn Valley.” What is it?

3. Fred Varley was a painter who lived on Rice Lake Road in the 1930s. Why is he so famous?

4. Leaping ahead to modern history, what local landmark was featured in the 2025 season opener of famed TV series The Last of Us?

5. “Old” Mountain Highway was originally a paved toll road leading from the top of Mountain Highway to a chalet built by W.C. Shelley on Grouse Mountain in the mid-1920s. People loved motoring up the mountain for some R&R at the chalet, but the fallout from what worldwide event put an end to Mr. Shelley’s business not long after?

6. What famous local landmark did the Olympic torch cross in 2010?

7. The Cedar V was a much-loved little theatre built in 1953, on the site of what is now the parking lot by the Dairy Queen on Lynn Valley Road. What was novel about its building style?

8. In February 2020, the last sporting events were held in what well-known local structure?

9. The Lynn Valley Library is the anchor tenant at Lynn Valley Village – but who remembers where the library was located previously?

10. In 1909, at the corner of Lynn Valley Road and Hoskins, Harry Holland began building what was intended to be the community’s first hotel and beer parlour. For good or for ill, however, he wasn’t granted a liquor licence! But he did introduce another new “first” to the neighbourhood – what was it?

Answers:

1. The first schoolhouse in Lynn Valley was located just east of “Tote Road,” later known as Lynn Valley Road. After a new, larger schoolhouse was built at Mountain Highway and Harold, the old schoolhouse became home to the newly established social club, the Lynn Valley Institute. (Early Days in Lynn Valley by Walter Draycott, page 54)

2. It is misspelled. Settlers (re)named the area after the Linn family that had been given a 150-acre Crown grant between the Seymour River and what later became known as Lynn Creek. (Early Days, p.22)

3. He was a founder of the famous Group of Seven, Canadian landscape artists who achieved renown in the early decades of the 20th century. Check out Eve Lazarus’s super interesting article here!

4. Clement’s Anglican Church on Institute Road

5. Shelley’s endeavours were lost in 1934 in the aftermath of the great crash in the stock market in 1929 (Reflections: One Hundred Years, A Celebration of the District of North Vancouver’s Centennial by Chuck Davis,

6. The Lynn Creek Suspension Bridge – just ask Bob McCormack, longtime local volunteer who was thrilled to be carrying it!

7. The Cedar V was a quonset hut, made from arched corrugated steel sheets. Another interesting article from Eve Lazarus is right here!

8. On February 14, 2020 Argyle Pipers hosted the basketball finals in the secondary school gymnasium before the building was demolished for a rebuild.

9. The Lynn Valley Library was for many years located above the Esso station on 27th Street, behind Lynn Valley Mall. It is now the site of one of The Residences buildings, built by Bosa Developments.

10. The first automobile! He had a one-cylinder Oldsmobile, and its licence plate was 94. It occasionally resisted the muddy Lynn Valley Road and had to be pulled home by a horse!

Looking for more?

There’s always something fun and exciting happening in Lynn Valley. Check out our Community Events Calendar or learn more about Local Activities, Mountain Biking or Hiking and Walking Trails.