Delta Heritage Society, formerly Delta Museum and Archives Society
4918 Delta Street V4K 2V2 Delta, BC, Canada

Friends, family, dignitaries and invited guests got a chance to pay homage to Doug Husband last Friday as the City of Delta hosted a small, socially-distanced gathering at a soft opening of Delta’s new cultural centre. Named the Douglas J. Husband Discovery Centre after the former mayor, a lifelong Delta resident, the city hopes to have a much larger public opening once COVID-19 pandemic protocols allow.

This is part two from The Delta Stageworks Theatre Society's post taken from a letter of local Ladner nurse Winnie Fisher who helped in the fight against the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918. She nursed in Vancouver and Ladner during the epidemic. Delta Heritage Society is interested in hearing your family stories handed down from your parents, grandparents or great grandparents about the 1918 Spanish Influenza Pandemic and how you feel it compares to today's COVID19 pandemic. Pl...ease feel free to share your stories in the comments section below. The letter continues..... "We had about a week of not so much work and my Mother phoned and said Ladner was so full of flu and they could not get nurses, could I come? I said no, I am only in training. But Dr. King phoned the Superior [at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver] next days and said it was so drastic could I come till they could get nurses. And Superior told me to go to Ladner. Really, I was supposed to help with Roy Benson and some others. His sister Elsie was nursing him. I slept at Mrs Wilson’s and we had a makeshift hospital in the old McNeely rooming house. I will never forget it. Twenty five patients came in and we had nothing to work with. Mrs. John McKee, regent of IODE came in and said what can I do for you Winnie? I said get us a cook and girls who are not afraid to come and mop the floors and take drinks and help to bathe patients. Most of them did very well after being shown. We need bedpans and we need serving trays. I think some of the things came from the old community hall. Mr Berry the town baker came and said, what can I do Winnie? Get more toilets and make things more comfortable. We were using the beds that were there. Some of the walls were knocked down so we could make bigger wards."

NEW! North Delta has its own History Book North Delta’s first history book, North Delta: History and Heritage is available now. This 190 page book tells you how North Delta developed from a forested slope to become the busy, vibrant community it is today. Edited by John Macdonald (author of The Kennedy Trail), this book is full of photographs seldom seen before, including aerial photographs. A special feature is the pull-out maps which let you compare what used to be with wh...at is here now. Starting with the earliest times indigenous people with their fishing camps along the Fraser River, you’ll see the arrival of fishermen from Norway, Japan and other countries. Logging companies employed people from India, small farms grew up on the cleared land. Then came houses and streets and schools named after pioneers Kennedy, Gibson, Gray and many more. North Delta: History and Heritage has the answers to so many questions where was the first school, first church, how did Strawberry Hill get its name? How did Annieville Park and Sunbury Hall get started? Who was our first fire chief and where did our first fire truck come from? The North Delta Advisory Group of the Delta Heritage Society is publishing this book based on research done by its members and the memories of some of our elders. The cost of the book is only $20 tax included. To get your copy of North Delta: History and Heritage contact: John Macdonald, book editor, NDAG, Delta Heritage Society member: [email protected] Nancy Demwell, NDAG, Delta Heritage Society member: [email protected] Barbara Baydala, Delta Heritage Sodiety president: [email protected]

A special thanks to Delta Stageworks Theatre Society for the following post taken from a letter of local Ladner nurse Winnie Fisher who helped in the fight against the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918. She nursed in Vancouver and Ladner during the epidemic. This is the first of four in a series. Delta Heritage Society is interested in hearing family stories handed down from your parents, grandparents or great grandparents about the 1918 Spanish Influenza Pandemic and how you fee...l it compares to today's COVID19 pandemic. Please feel free to post your stories in our comments section. "In 1918 the dreadful flu epidemic was with us. In November it was very bad. We had 16 Sisters very ill and 25 nurses. And every bed was full even in the halls. We only had 2 volunteers that came to take their place. So you can see what the staff of nurses were doing. The day staff were really crazy. So the night staff decided to come on at 6 instead of 7 and the following morning [it was] mostly 10am before we left to go to bed. We often worked 16 or 17 hours a night. And we were running most of the night. So many patients were going insane. It was so bad the Sisters closed the doors against new patients as some nurses were dying and Sisters also. In my wards I had some empty beds. Many got better and went home. But of course some passed away." Winnifred Fisher, a Delta nurse-in-training at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver, from her hand written memoir in the Delta Archives.

The Delta in the 1920s Car Rally that was scheduled for April 25th has been postponed until further notice. Stay tuned for updates!

In rare local community performances, Allen is performing his musical PIER 21, the next two weekends. This Saturday November 2 is at SD Baptist church at 7pm, ...as part of the writers conference: purchase tickets at- https://www.bardintheyard.org/pier-21-performance/ The second at Tsawwassen Arts center Saturday November 9th - see info on poster below. A glimpse into what immigrants and soldiers, during the period of the WWll, have gone through. Suitable for children.

Delta Optimist article on historic Port Guichon painting donation.

Dear Delta Heritage Society Members Please join us on Monday October 28, 2019 at 7 pm in Council Chambers at City Hall when John Horton’s painting "Arrival at Port Guichon" will be presented to the City of Delta. Mr. Horton will be in attendance and will present a donation to Delta Heritage Society.... We hope to have as many of you there as possible to show our gratitude to Doug Husband and his fundraising committee and to Mr. Horton for his generosity and to demonstrate support for heritage initiatives in our community. I look forward to seeing you there! Barbara Baydala President Delta Heritage Society