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Cora Brown

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After World War II, tracts of land were set aside for the returning veterans under the Veterans Land Act. One of these was the Cora Brown subdivision, located at the north end of Sea Island.

Cora Brown houses

The original fifty houses were built from Grauer Road to Ferguson Road on Myron and Abercrombie Drives. Each holding consisted of a small two-bedroom house (no more than 800 square feet) and an acre of land. In early photos, all there was were these little wooden houses on a vast prairie of long grass.

small wooden house

The balance of the subdivision was also Veterans Land Act land but these people could build their own designs. Residents will recall the homes at the "top" of the subdivision near Grauer Road, such as Thomas', Elliott's, and the ones on Grauer Road, along Ferguson Road, west of McDonald, and all the houses in the "lower" end of Cora Brown (surrounding the Cora Brown Park).

About 1960, another smaller subdivision was built to the west of Cora Brown on the other side of McDonald Road - this was the Tapp Road Subdivision. The lots were smaller, the houses were larger than the original Cora Brown subdivision houses. Some of the Cora Brown residents moved into homes on Tapp Road.

Eventually, there was a need for larger education facilities as the number of children attending Sea Island School was stretching the limits of the classrooms. In 1962, the doors opened on Duncan McDonald School.

Life in Cora Brown

The first residents moved into their homes in 1946. The Cora Brown subdivision was like a small town, and due to its physical location, quite isolated. Most of the men worked in Vancouver and commuted to work every day. The women worked hard to make homes out of the original houses.

Originally, if the residents wanted to go to downtown Vancouver to shop, they had to walk approximately 2-1/2 miles down Grauer Road, cross the Eburne Bridge and catch the bus into Marpole in south Vancouver. For many, they would take the bus to the Woodward's store on Hastings Street to purchase their groceries, then return home.

drawing of front of Grauer's store

Sometimes, Sea Islanders would walk to the Grauer's Store located right by the Marpole and Lulu Island bridges, where they offered a delivery service to the entire island.

Going to school

The children from Cora Brown were bussed over to Sea Island School each day. The drive was quite long, stopping at many bus stops along the way.

After dropping the elementary children off, the bus would proceed over to Cambie High School. When the children were attending the RCAF Annex School, a stop would be made in there and then back over to Sea Island School, and on to Cambie School.

The children made friends with the children from the Burkeville subdivision and from the RCAF base, but due to the physical distance between the two subdivisions, many of these friendships were school-time ones. Once the children became more mobile, they would occasionally ride their bikes to their friends on the south side of the Island.

The final chapter

For the most part, the original residents stayed for many years. Strong bonds developed between the families. Everyone looked out for each other. When all the talk of expropriation started, the residents of Cora Brown became worried about what would happen to them and their neighbourhood, and where they would go.

gravel trail and trees

In August 1995, the final chapter was written for the Cora Brown subdivision. The Vancouver Airport Authority cleared the land south of the new Grauer Road to build the third airport runway.

Over the years, the road was paved, and a new walking trail – the Cora Brown Trail – was constructed, and the south side of Grauer and Ferguson Road was built up with businesses.