Last year I took on the challenge of the first-ever Local History Advent Calendar! For 24 days in a row, I presented random historical tidbits I’d collected over the previous year and presented them in the form of “treats” for my 2018 Local History Advent Calendar. This year, the “Heart of Mount Pleasant” was number 1 on Heritage Vancouver’s Top 10 Watch List for 2019.  So I decided to choose Mount Pleasant as the theme for the Vanalogue Local History Advent Calendar for 2019.  Each day you can “open” a new historical treat. Think of them as holiday cocktail party fodder – 24 facts about Mount Pleasant history that can be used as conversation starters at your next social event.

Next time you are walking by one of the many historic brick buildings in Mount Pleasant, I want you to take note of the colour of the brick.  You will find that many of the  buildings are made from a yellowy-beigey-browny brick. These distinctly Mount Pleasant bricks come from the Clayburn Brick Plant near Abbotsford, B.C.. They are quite a refreshing contrast to the more familiar and traditional red brick. In the first half of the 20th Century, the Clayburn Company dominated the brick industry in BC.

Charles MacClure founded the Vancouver Fireclay Company Ltd. and established a brickworks in the newly created village of Clayburn, in 1905. Clayburn, located in Abbotsford, was founded as a company town.  By 1909, the firm’s name was changed to that of the town – Clayburn.  (Clayburn was also the brand name of one of the firm’s major lines of brick). The brick plant in Clayburn closed in 1931. There were several other locations for the brick manufacturing plant until 1949 when they moved to a state-of-the-art plant on Pine Street in Abbotsford. In 2011, Clayburn Industries Ltd. permanently closed its Abbotsford manufacturing plant on Pine Street, thus ending over 100 years of brick manufacturing in the Fraser Valley. Clayburn village is now a historic site.

Here are some of the Clayburn brick buildings that are located in Mount Pleasant. You will notice there are several colours of bricks ranging from brown, to buff, to yellow. So, next time you are out walking in Mount Pleasant see how many Clayburn Brick buildings you can spot.