Heritage Tree Project

As the Harris Road underpass comes closer to reality, staff and volunteers at the Pitt Meadows Museum are making plans on how to minimize the impact of a move on our sites and the associated destruction of our land close to Harris Road. Towards that end, the Museum’s volunteer gardeners, Gerri and Kathy, have come up with the plan of crowd-sourcing other volunteers who will help us grow new trees to replace two heritage trees that are likely too close to Harris Road to survive.

First up is the old apple tree that sits off the southwest corner of the General Store site of the Museum. We are pretty sure this tree is approaching 100 years old as we have seen it in images of the site from as early as 1921 (included in the gallery below are pictures of the tree from the 1920s to 1997). The tree is lovely to look at, provides wonderful shade, and produces hundreds of apples each year. The apples are not much to write home about as they are small, light green, thinned-skinned, bruise very easily, and go brown immediately upon being cut. But they taste pretty good and were a favourite treat for some local horses whose owner used to come by to collect the one that fell on the sidewalk and into Harris Road.

You can help us preserve this tree by dropping by the Museum, taking away about 10 apples and a how-to sheet to help you retrieve, germinate and plant the seeds. Once you have a seedling(s) you would nurture them until the underpass is built and then bring them to the new Museum site where we will be establishing a new small garden area.

Later on, we will also start the more complicated project of growing walnut trees from the nuts that fall from the tree located at the northeast corner of the Hoffmann and Son site.

More information and apples are ready now and by late fall we should have some viable walnuts as well. You can get your supplies by visiting the Museum’s General store site or by emailing or phoning us to let us know you want to participate in Project Grow a Heritage Tree. We are at 12294 Harris Road and can also be reached at 604-465-4322 or at pittmeadowsmuseumandarchives@gmail.com

August 2019.

Photo of Robert Struthers as a child sitting with a dog. Likely shot in the early 1920

Robert Struthers and his dog sitting underneath the apple tree

Copy photo of Pitt Meadows Garage on Harris Road, 1920

Pitt Meadows Garage with the General Store in the background

Hans on tractor in front of General Store, with upper porch. 1950s

Hans Hoffmann on tractor in front of store

William and Jeannie Struthers posed with friends, Dr. and McCallum, on the south side of the General Store building. It is noted the living room windows are different from those in place today. 1924c.

Struthers posed with friends outside the general store

A colour image shot in the fall of 1997 and showing the front of the building as shot from the west side of Harris Road just to the south of the building. Shot on first visit to the site after the purchase in the fall of 1997.

Museums first visit to what would become the museum