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Once the second largest settlement on the North Shore, Lynn Valley was isolated from the other communities on Burrard Inlet and so its citizens petitioned the government for the establishment of their own post office.
Lynn Valley was granted a post office under the name of “Lynn Creek” (Lynn Valley was already in use in Ontario). It opened on July 1, 1906 with Mrs. Alice Sugden in charge as postmistress. Sugden would drive her horse-drawn carriage, shown in this 1909 photograph, to Lower Lonsdale to pick up the mail and bring it back to the post office that was in her home on Kilmer Road.
For six years Sugden made her mail run every day, usually alone, accompanied only with a loaded revolver in case of a holdup or a run-in with a bear or cougar. When the centrally located Fromme Block was built in 1912, the post office was relocated there.
Click here for more information about the history of the North Shore and to learn about MONOVA: Museum of North Vancouver, opening in 2021.
Currently, the Archives of North Vancouver at 3203 Institute Rd. in Lynn Valley is open by appointment only. Contact: archives@monova.ca
