The Story of Burkeville
As I mentioned, yesterday I drove out to the Vancouver Airport south terminal. As you head out that way, you pass the tiny community of Burkeville (here’s a map). I never hear anybody talk about this hamlet, so I did some research. I found this fascinating paragraph on its history:
Burkeville was laid out and built by the federal government during the Second World War to provide 328 houses for workers employed at the Boeing Aircraft plant. It was named for Stanley Burke, president of Boeing. The streets are named after airplane manufacturers. The plain, no-frills dwellings came in several standard sizes. Most have been altered to fit the needs of two generations of residents. After the War, Boeing sold the houses to returning veterans. The tightly-knit community, already encircled by airport uses, is currently threatened by the intended further expansion of roads and runways.” Ironically, the “plain, no-frills dwellings” were designed by McCarter and Nairne, who gave us the Marine Building. The name of the development was chosen in a competition among Boeing employees.
The entire community has about six streets, and flanked on one side by the airport runways and the other by a tributary of the Fraser River. Next time I’m out there, I must go early to stop and have a look.
L. H.