A birds eye view of Huntington and the Hotel Alexandera

Photograph is credited to the Reach Gallery Museum in Abbotsford, British Columbia

http://www.thereach.ca/photo/p4407

This is a view taken from the top of Moe Hill (just to the west of Huntingdon, B.C./Sumas, WA.) from a position near the international boundary, facing North East. The Reach Museum dates this photograph as from some time between 1910 and 1920.  The view is of early Huntington, British Columbia.  In the foreground running left to right is 'C' St.  In the right foreground can be seen the rear of the famous Hotel Alexandra (as seen in the previous 2 posts).  To the northeast, after the draining of Sumas Lake in 1923, Hops were a major crop cultivated for the Canadian beer industry.

Tomorrow, back to Sumas.



Hotel Alexandra and bakery, Huntington, British Columbia - 1915.

Photograph credited to the Reach Gallery Museum, Abbotsford Museum

http://www.thereach.ca/photo/p433

The description of this photograph according to the Reach Gallery Museum is as follows;

"Hotel Alexandra, C Street (now Sumas Way). Left to right: the dentist, Ruth Murphy, Mrs. Little, Michael Murphy, Hormidas Munroe. Hormidas was French and the "H" in his name was silent so he was often referred to and his name spelled as 'Armidas'. Ruth Murphy was a nurse. She died during the 1918 influenza epidemic while nursing relatives sick with the flu."

      

Continuing on from the last post, this is the second photograph featuring the Hotel Alexandra.  We are looking west. The buildings are fresh and clean with a fine wooden boardwalk.

According to "One Foot On the Border" published by the Sumas Prairie and Area Historical Society (page 144) :

"Mike Murphy was born near Cork,Ireland in 1870 and immigrated to America, arriving in Seattle in 1886.  After continuing on to British Columbia he took up a pre-emption on the Fraser River and settled where the old Whatcom Trail emerged.  He married Mary Cleary of Mission, British Columbia in 1893.  The couple relocated to Huntington, British Columbia where they started a livery stable and a rooming house. Around 1910, Mike built the Hotel Alexandra which he named after his daughter.  His wife Mary died in 1909 and his daughter Ruth died during the WW1 influenza epidemic while nursing ill relatives.  His daughter Alexandra survived the epidemic, passing away in 1997.  The Hotel Alexandra burned down in 1926. Mike Murphy died during an operation in 1935, two weeks after the death of his second wife. 

Please check in tomorrow for the third in the Hotel Alexandra series showing early life, just north of the border.

Hotel Alexandria - Huntington, British Columbia - Ca. 1915

Photograph credited to the Reach Gallery Museum, Abbotsford, British Columbia.

The photo description from the Reach Gallery Museum is as follows:  "C Street (now Sumas Way) showing businesses lining the street: Home Bakery and Restaurant and the Hotel Alexandria. Michael Murphy and daughter, Alexandra Murphy, standing in front of the hotel. As a railway terminus and border town it was believed that Huntingdon would become the "Chicago of the West" but drainage of Sumas Lake opened the way for improved road transportation and spelled the demise of the rail systems."

This is an interesting photograph taken on the Canadian side of the International Boundary, across the border from Sumas, WA in Huntington, B.C.  We are looking west and can see the familiar Moe's Hill above and behind the hotel. The buildings that make up Hotel Alexander on C St.are festooned with patriotic buntings and flags.  It might be either Dominion Day or Victoria Day.

According to Wikipedia, Huntington was named after Collis P. Huntington, a Union Pacific Railroad executive.  Collis Huntington was working with the Canadian Pacific Railroad with the intention of connecting the U.P.R. and the C.P.R., so there would be a continuous line from Vancouver to Seattle then onto California.  The Union Pacific Railroad, the Northern Pacific Railroad, the Milwaukee Railroad and the Great Northern Railroad built lines to Sumas with hopes of crossing the border to Vancouver.   As it turned out, only the Great Northern Railroad made the connection to the B.C. Electric Railway (and the Canadian Fraser Valley).

It is fascinating to have Huntington, B.C. so close that it feels like a continuation of Sumas, WA.  However, Huntington has it's own history and sense of community.  Even though the two towns are intertwined with a shared history, one cannot forget the International Border which separates us. 

This is the first of three pictures featuring the Hotel Alexandria (and attached bakery).  I will be posting the second in this set tomorrow night.  See you then.