The neighbourhood of Thornhill on the south slope of Grant Hill in

Maple Ridge, British Columbia Maple Ridge is a city in British Columbia, Canada. It is located in the northeastern section of Greater Vancouver between the Fraser River and the Golden Ears, which is a group of mountain summits which are the southernmost of the Garibaldi ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, forms the western part of the historical community of

Whonnock Whonnock is a rural, naturally treed, and hilly community on the north side of the Fraser River in the eastern part of the City of Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Canada. It is approximately 56 kilometres east of Downtown Vancouver on the Loughee ...

. The lower part along the

Fraser River The Fraser River is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Blackrock Mountain in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia just south of the City of Vancouver. The river's annual d ...

attracted some early settlers, but the higher land only became populated after the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, when Japanese farmers were among the first to open its land for agriculture. After the Japanese were evicted in 1942, their lands became available to a growing community of young white families. "Thornhill: still a vibrant community,” ''Maple Ridge News'', 29 November 2006.
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Institutions

Thornhill Elementary School

As the Japanese children before the war, the children of the post-war residents attended – and still attend today – the Whonnock Elementary School. Only for a decade, from 1959 to 1969, did Thornhill have its own elementary school at the southwest corner of Spilsbury Street and 96th Avenue.

Thornhill Community Hall

After the opening of their own school the residents formed the Thornhill Community Association and raised funds for the building of a small community hall. The hall opened in 1965 and is still at the centre of community life.

References

Neighbourhoods in Maple Ridge, British Columbia Populated places on the Fraser River {{GVRD-stub