The earliest reference to Christmas in the Seymour communities that I was able to find in the Deep Cove Heritage Society photo archives was a celebration held in 1911.
There is a series of several photos telling the story of that one Christmas festivity held at Granite Quarries Ltd., right in Deep Cove. Granite Quarries was a large operation that was located directly beneath what we now know as Quarry Rock.
The Cove area had two main industries back then, the quarries and logging. Granite Quarries employed about one hundred men at any one time, a few lived in cabins in the area but most stayed in the company’s bunkhouses located on the same property.
The photos of the Christmas celebrations in the Quarry Lodge main room, heated by a pot belly stove that is apparent in one photo (along with, surprisingly, a coffin-style telephone mounted on one wall), feature what appears to be Canada’s Red Ensign flags along with Stars and Stripes flags, electric Christmas lights and miles of green boughs that form arches and gracefully outline the room.
A handmade sign hanging from the ceiling proclaims either Happy or Merry Christmas. The small tree in the centre looks to be decorated with lights, tinsel garland, glass globes and other decorations. There are paper box chains looping across the ceiling.
The people in the photo look less than jolly, but we have to remember that cameras had long exposure times so folks had to stay very still in order to get a good picture, I am sure once the photos were taken the party would have begun!
The room featured several rows of very long tables with chairs on both sides and set with dishes, pitchers, coffee pots, bottles and bowls of fresh fruit, all promising a sumptuous meal. Apparently the company was known to treat its workers very well and this does look like an elaborate occasion.
Granite Quarries was in operation from 1908 until 1924; the other big industry in the area, Buck Logging, closed in 1922, the result of a huge fire on Seymour Mountain. With the big industries gone, Deep Cove undoubtedly became more of a summer cottage community.
Back in the archives, the next photos of Christmas I could find are from the 1950s, there are just a few and they have a very different feel to them from the earlier workers’ festivities; with the baby boom underway and folks winterizing homes to live in year round, these are more about kids — girls with dolls, a school play, children’s presents under a decorated tree and the Dryhurst Electric building at what is now the southwest corner of Gallant and Panorama with a single string of Christmas lights.
I do recall the Kinsmen club had an absolutely enormous (well, I was small at the time) Christmas tree set up one year on the empty lot that was the southeast corner right across from Dryhurst’s … but, there are no photos that we know of.
There are a few photos from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s depicting Christmas pageants, school plays and concerts, but there are surprisingly few photos in the archives so far.
Photos were not taken often during those earlier times, sometimes a roll of film would languish in a camera for over a year.
Developing film and having prints made was expensive. But I would think most families would have taken some photos at Christmas time. Maybe you have some photos you can lend the group to copy so that we can have a more complete record of what was happening in December in the Seymour area.
