1927 Twelfth of July Celebration
Mission City, British Columbia, Canada
On July 12, 1927, the North Fraser County No.C-104 Loyal Orange Association (LOL), assisted by lodges from Chilliwack and New Westminster held their annual 12th of July celebrations in Mission, marking the “237th anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne.” Due to an “accident” to the Fraser Valley Record’s linotype the previous week’s newspaper was unable to print the poster or program planned so some of the details about the event are lost to history.
A front page story published a week following the event describes how the “streets were lined with hundreds of gaily bedecked men and women ready to do their part in fittingly celebrating the glorious traditions of the order.”
The event began with a grand parade starting at the corner of todays First and Horne and finished up at the “Agricultural grounds” (site of today’s Leisure Centre complex) where following some speeches, “the day was then given up to a full line of sports…” The evening dance to be held at the Masonic Lodge (today houses the Fraser Valley Academy of Dance) was cancelled out of respect for the “sudden death of Edward Moorehouse of Mission City and a member of the L.O.L. 1629.”
The posted photograph shows the parade approaching the corner of First Avenue and Grand Street. It documents the elaborate archway erected on First Avenue along with some of Mission’s pioneer businesses. On the left is Stephen’s Drugstore and on the right is the Plumridge General Store & Post Office and Maebelle Studios. In the foreground is the first traffic control device installed in Mission nicknamed the “Silent Policeman”. The photograph was donated to the Community Archives by Joan Gutch (nee Lambard) who led the parade riding on a white horse carrying a staff flying the Union Jack (visible in image).
(SOURCE: Fraser Valley Record July 7th and 14th, 1927).
A front page story published a week following the event describes how the “streets were lined with hundreds of gaily bedecked men and women ready to do their part in fittingly celebrating the glorious traditions of the order.”
The event began with a grand parade starting at the corner of todays First and Horne and finished up at the “Agricultural grounds” (site of today’s Leisure Centre complex) where following some speeches, “the day was then given up to a full line of sports…” The evening dance to be held at the Masonic Lodge (today houses the Fraser Valley Academy of Dance) was cancelled out of respect for the “sudden death of Edward Moorehouse of Mission City and a member of the L.O.L. 1629.”
The posted photograph shows the parade approaching the corner of First Avenue and Grand Street. It documents the elaborate archway erected on First Avenue along with some of Mission’s pioneer businesses. On the left is Stephen’s Drugstore and on the right is the Plumridge General Store & Post Office and Maebelle Studios. In the foreground is the first traffic control device installed in Mission nicknamed the “Silent Policeman”. The photograph was donated to the Community Archives by Joan Gutch (nee Lambard) who led the parade riding on a white horse carrying a staff flying the Union Jack (visible in image).
(SOURCE: Fraser Valley Record July 7th and 14th, 1927).