Description of Historic Place

The Mahal Cranberry Farm, operated by Mahal Farms Ltd., is a 73-acre property of mixed farming (cranberries, vegetables and nursery stock) located within the Agricultural Land Reserve in East Richmond, B.C. The historic place includes the early 1900s George Rathburn farmhouse.

Heritage Value

The Mahal Cranberry Farm has historic, cultural, aesthetic, economic and scientific value as the enterprise of three generations of South Asian farmers in British Columbia.

Operated by Kalvinder and Lavina Mahal since 1949, the Cranberry Farm has historic and cultural value for exemplifying the strong connection between the South Asian community and the agricultural industry in B.C. South Asian Canadians have made significant contributions to agriculture and food production in B.C.'s economy, an industry that reflects their hard work, ingenuity and expertise.

The place is noteworthy as a farm that has been continuously operated by one family for nearly 70 years, and is one of the few remaining early farms representing the contribution of the South Asian farming community, and other immigrants, to Richmond and its agricultural industry.

A pioneering farming family, the arrival of the first generation of Mahals in 1908 is important for the connection to an influx in immigration from the South Asian community in the early 20th century. The family represents those early South Asian immigrants who came from the rural farming classes in their home countries to the then Township of Richmond, a community where many South Asians first worked when arriving from India. Easily accessed from Vancouver, South Asian Canadians picked berries, cultivated potatoes or worked in the agricultural fields in Richmond until they were able to purchase their own farms or find work in the nearby Fraser River sawmills.

The Mahal's commitment to the cultivation of cranberries has historic value for its connection to a crop that has been continuously grown and thrived in the peat bogs of East Richmond since the 1920s. The family is one of a handful of Richmond cranberry growers supplying 90% of the total Canadian production of a crop that has become an agricultural and economic symbol for the city.

Constructed circa 1911, the original Rathburn farmhouse has historic and aesthetic value because it is one of the few remaining early farmhouses that illustrate a typical Richmond farm of the early twentieth century that were characterized by a large farmhouse with an associated barn and outbuildings set in an agricultural landscape. The house is an Edwardian- era gable-front house, a style prevalent in B.C.'s Lower Mainland prior to World War I, a common style of building at that time that represents the everyday lives of farmers or the middle class.

In addition to their contribution to the continuing viability of agriculture in Richmond, the Mahals are committed to the protection of the Rathburn House from demolition, relocation and exterior modification.

Character-Defining Elements

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