A lifetime’s hometown story collection

Boom Times in Chilliwack: Memories from the Post-War Years
by Merlin Bunt

Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2025
$38.95 / 9781998526369

Reviewed by Steven Brown

*

Merlin Bunt was born and raised in Chilliwack, BC. For those who might not know, Chilliwack lies in the central Fraser Valley straddling Highway 1, a half-hour drive east of that other Fraser Valley town that has seen a lot of growth, Abbotsford. The City of Chilliwack is about an hour-and-a-half drive east of Vancouver.

Boom Times in Chilliwack without question represents Merlin Bunt’s great love for his hometown, as he states in his introduction. As a chronicler of that hometown, Chilliwack could not ask for a more devoted one. Chilliwack’s current population is a little over a hundred thousand. The book is the result of Mr. Bunt’s years of compiling stories about his home town and filing them on his Facebook page dedicated to the subject, and on other Chilliwack-related sites.

In fine detail, places, people, and events in Chilliwack’s post-Second World War years are detailed. Many towns have put together volumes of local history but these efforts are usually worked up by volunteer committees who finance some sort of private publishing of these histories into book form. It’s less common to see an established imprint like Harbour Publishing bringing out a book like this. There are many towns and small cities and many volumes of local history.

Having spent teenaged years in another Fraser Valley town (this one just east of Vancouver about an hour’s drive west of Chilliwack), the City of Langley, this reviewer can attest to some of the small town things Boom Times in Chilliwack goes into. Motorvating on a Saturday night between two drive-in restaurant franchises at either end of town, or heading to the old swimming hole, in Langley’s case the gravel pit south of town, before a modern municipal pool came along, are just two familiar memories. Chilliwack, for people in Langley, was that meaningful place up the Valley, a little more significant than Abbotsford.

In Chilliwack’s case the swimming hole was a place called Dayton’s Pool, like the Langley gravel pit free of lifeguards or much of anything else in the way of civic intrusion. Of course, Chilliwack also had nearby Cultus Lake and still has it. The history of the Cultus Lake Pavilion, opened in 1939, finally demolished in 1991, is interesting. The Pavilion became a cultural hub in its prime hosting many events.

Other significant buildings get their hearing, a modern fire hall, the public library, post office, courthouse. The Chilliwack Coliseum, finally triumphing over funding problems, held its first event in 1955. Seating was in place, the building had electricity and a roof, but either end of the building was still exposed to the elements. The show went on anyway. The north and south ends of the building were completed soon after.

The Agricultural Hall opened prior to the Second World War. That made sense as the Fraser Valley and Chilliwack were agricultural hubs and remain so. The airport arrived in 1946. The construction of the first ten houses of the new Menzies subdivision, the first in the area, began in 1948. The Paramount movie theatre opened in 1949, its large sign dominating the downtown area for many years. The premier movie was Bob Hope’s new epic, Sorrowful Jones. A drive-in theatre seemed inevitable. Chilliwack’s Drive-in Theatre opened in 1950. Plans for a modern bus depot with its own imposing sign were greenlit in 1950.  Boom Times in Chilliwack covers it all.

Another thing covered is the Fredrickson haunted house. Built in 1909, the house was three stories and had fourteen rooms including six bedrooms. An interesting feature was a corner turret with a conical roof reminiscent of a witch’s hat. In 1965, a lady artist, Hetty Fredrickson, bought the house and moved in with her new husband and their children from their previous marriages, two of hers, three of his. There’d been rumours about the house for years. Aside from being very tall for a woman, over six feet, Hetty acquired a reputation for being slightly eccentric, driving around in her car with thin cuts of logs with faces painted on them hanging from each side and smoking cigarettes with a two-foot-long cigarette holder.

When Hetty and her husband were renovating the house, a hidden room was discovered blocked off by a false wall. At night footsteps on the stairs could be heard, sometimes a baby crying. In an upstairs bedroom an old iron bed that had been left by previous owners could be heard moving around. The drawers to a dresser in the same room could be heard opening. An apparition appeared to Hetty accompanied by the strong smell of perfume.

The upshot was the Fredricksons lived only a year in the house. They didn’t sell it right away. It was rented out for awhile then sold and those buyers spent only a year there. The house burned to the ground in 1975, the cause apparently a hot water heater that malfunctioned. There was no word on the fate of the ghost or ghosts.

If you wish to brush up on your Chilliwack history this book is for you. There are a host of black and white images from different eras but the transfer to this format isn’t entirely successful. Many of the images are a little dark. The book has been given a nice hardcover treatment with dust jacket.

*

“Books have ruined my life,” jokes Steven Brown. A professional in the book trade for decades he’s managed to hang on to a lively interest in good books that began in his preschool years and has never quit. His reviews of fiction, non-fiction and poetry have appeared in newspapers, literary journals and he has donated reviews to worthy causes. [Editor’s note: Steven has reviewed books by Derek Hayes, John Horgan with Rod Mickleburgh, Robert J. Muckle, Peter Smith, Jonathan Swainger, and Bruce McLellan for The British Columbia Review.]

*

The British Columbia Review

Interim Editors, 2023-26: Trevor Marc Hughes (non-fiction), Brett Josef Grubisic (fiction)
Publisher: Richard Mackie

Formerly The Ormsby Review, The British Columbia Review is an on-line book review and journal service for BC writers and readers. The Advisory Board now consists of Jean Barman, Wade Davis, Robin Fisher, Barry Gough, Hugh Johnston, Kathy Mezei, Patricia Roy, and Graeme Wynn. Provincial Government Patron (since September 2018): Creative BC. Honorary Patron: Yosef Wosk. Scholarly Patron: SFU Graduate Liberal Studies. The British Columbia Review was founded in 2016 by Richard Mackie and Alan Twigg.

“Only connect.” – E.M. Forster