Port Mann

townsite A townsite is a legal subdivision of land for the development of a town or community. In the historical development of the United States, Canada, and other former British colonial nations, the filing of a townsite plat (United States) or plan (Ca ...

was created in 1911 in the municipality of

Surrey, British Columbia Surrey is a city in British Columbia, Canada. It is located south of the Fraser River on the Canada–United States border. It is a member municipality of the Metro Vancouver regional district and metropolitan area. Mainly a suburban city, Surr ...

. The new town was to adjoin the new railway yard and roundhouse forming the terminus of the new trans-national rail-line operated by

Canadian Northern Railway The Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) was a historic Canadian transcontinental railway. At its 1923 merger into the Canadian National Railway , the CNoR owned a main line between Quebec City and Vancouver via Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Edmonton. Mani ...

. It was named for

Donald Mann Sir Donald Daniel Mann (March 23, 1853 – November 10, 1934), who was also referred to as "Dan" or "D.D." before his knighthood, was a Canadian railway contractor and entrepreneur. Biography Born at Acton, Canada West, Mann studied as a Metho ...

, a partner in the building of the

. Newspaper quoted that the town was intended to be a model town. Purchase of sections had been completed by 1911 and clearing of the forest had begun. The sale of lots began in March 1912 and by June 1912 all land in the townsite had been sold. Four million dollars worth of land was sold in Port Mann. Borrowing from mid-nineteenth century notions of

Baron Haussmann Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knigh ...

’s Paris, Port Mann was laid out by landscape architect Frederick S. Todd with streets radiating from a central circus in the residential section. The business sector was to cluster around a large open square. In June 1912 the Toronto World also published that Port Mann would be the site of a large scale steel mill by

Carnegie Steel Company Carnegie Steel Company was a steel-producing company primarily created by Andrew Carnegie and several close associates to manage businesses at steel mills in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area in the late 19th century. The company was forme ...

of Pittsburgh as well as the site of flour mill, and grain elevators by International Milling, and the site of a large dry dock and shipbuilding yards.

Failure of the port

Neither the model town of Port Mann nor the extensive industrial investment was ever fully realized. Immigration to Canada dropped sharply in 1913. The population of Vancouver declined from 120,000 in 1912 to 75,000 in 1916. Building permits in Vancouver dropped from a high of $20 million in 1911 to less than $2 million in 1914. Building permits would only reach $20 million again in 1929.Bruce MacDonald (1992) "Vancouver, A Visual History", Vancouver: Talonbooks The railway never terminated in Port Mann; instead the Canadian Northern Railway negotiated running rights with

Great Northern Great Northern may refer to: Transport * One of a number of railways; see Great Northern Railway (disambiguation). * Great Northern Railway (U.S.), a defunct American transcontinental railroad and major predecessor of the BNSF Railway. * Great ...

across Fraser Railway Bridge to Vancouver to terminate at what is today

Pacific Central Station Pacific Central Station is a railway station in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, which acts as the western terminus of Via Rail's cross-country ''The Canadian'' service to Toronto and the northern terminus of Amtrak's '' Cascades'' service to ...

. Soon after the sale of land at Port Mann, Canadian Northern Railway was involved in a similar development near Montreal where the

Town of Mount Royal Mount Royal (french: Mont-Royal, officially Town of Mount Royal, french: Ville de Mont-Royal, abbreviated TMR, french: VMR) is an affluent on-island suburban town located on the northwest side of the eponymous Mount Royal, northwest of Downtown M ...

was created in 1912 and construction was started on the

Mount Royal Tunnel The Mount Royal Tunnel (french: tunnel sous le mont Royal, tunnel du mont Royal) is a railway tunnel in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The tunnel is the third longest in Canada, after the Mount Macdonald Tunnel and the Connaught Tunnel, and connects t ...

on July 8, 1912. On November 5, 1916, due to inability to pay its debt obligations, the Government of Canada acquired 510,000 shares of 600,000 to take ownership of Canadian Northern Railway. From December 20, 1918, Canadian Northern Railway, in combination with the

Canadian Government Railways Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

, was officially referred to as

Canadian National Railways The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I railroad, Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern United States, M ...

Geography

The area of the townsite encompassed an area from what is today 130th Street to 152nd street and from the Fraser Foreshore to 108 Avenue. Old map showing boundaries of Port Mann Townsite

References

{{coord, 49, 12, 36, N, 122, 49, 30, W, type:landmark_region:CA, display=title Neighbourhoods in Surrey, British Columbia