Description of Historic Place

The Pitt Meadows Japanese Canadian Meeting Hall is a rectangular, one-storey, gable-roofed wooden building with a row of five windows located on Advent Road in Pitt Meadows, B.C. Expanded in size from its original form and now used as a church, the building has a gabled entry porch and a hipped-roofed steeple.

Heritage Value

The Pitt Meadows Japanese Canadian Meeting Hall has historic, cultural and scientific values, primarily as a tangible reminder of the former Japanese Canadian community in Pitt Meadows, for its representation of Japanese Canadian influence in the province's agricultural industry, and for the legacy of the World War II internment.

Built about 1928, the Japanese Canadian Meeting Hall has historic and cultural value as a rare physical reminder of the once-thriving and vibrant Japanese Canadian community that existed in Pitt Meadows until internment in 1942 when many Japanese Canadians were exiled to sugar beet farms on the prairies.

The Meeting Hall has historic value for representing the Japanese Canadian contribution to agriculture in the province and their innovation and industriousness in the industry. As a land shortage in Japan led to limited opportunities there, Japanese farmers moved to the arable land of Pitt Meadows in the early 20th century, sometimes renting already-established farms, but often reclaiming less-desirable land along the Fraser River to create mixed farms producing strawberries, raspberries and blueberries, radishes, cabbages and other vegetables. This land is still under cultivation today.

Built by the Japanese Canadian Farmers' Association, the meeting hall has economic and social value because of its primary use for the dissemination of educational information related to agricultural practices and skills, as a collective of Pitt Meadows and area farmers, as a social centre for the Japanese Canadian community, and as the home of a Japanese language school.

The Meeting Hall is a reminder of the integration of the Japanese Canadians into Pitt Meadows life, with their participation in community events, often relating to agriculture, such as May Day, Pitt Meadows Day and the Strawberry Carnival.

In 1928, the Farmers' Association consolidated with other similar organizations to form the Consolidated Farmers' Association of the Fraser Valley to promote the area's agriculture. The order to cease a successful and entrepreneurial organization along with the loss of economically viable Japanese Canadian farms after the start of World War II is a strong reminder of the impact of willful discrimination. The Pitt Meadows families were among the first Japanese Canadians in the Fraser Valley to be interned, often to sugar beet farms on the prairies. With their farms, homes, vehicles and equipment confiscated and sold, none of the Japanese Canadians returned to Pitt Meadows after 1949 making the Meeting Hall particularly valuable to the community as a source of social and cultural understanding.

The building has significance for being part of the Japanese Canadian section of the Pitt Meadows Heritage and Museum's "Buildings Through Time" exhibit, including a photograph of identified survivors, further assisting in the remembrance of Japanese Canadians in Pitt Meadows.

Source: Province of British Columbia, Heritage Branch

Character-Defining Elements

Not applicable