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Schlick Hardware
Circa 1930 and 2007
Pitt Meadows, BC, Canada


Credits:
Top Image photographed by Benjamin Schlick
Bottom image photographed by Joanna Karczmarek, before and after graphic by Joanna Karczmarek

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Schlick Hardware

The Schlick building dates to the very early 1930's when Benjamin Schlick built the garage and blacksmith shop at the intersection of Harris Road and the then brand new Lougheed Highway. In 1931 the building was little more than a warehouse structure that grew to its present size over the years the Schlick family owned it. Early on gas pumps were added to the site and shortly after W.W. II second story living quarters were added to accommodate Benjamin Schlick's new wife, Ida, and her young son. Sometime later the family added a full service hardware store to the business. In 1977, a few years after the death of Mr. Schlick, the family sold the building with the new owners continuing to operate it as a hardware store. Since then it has had many different functions including a fabric store (when some of the more decorative details were added), a flea market, a produce market and, today, a restaurant on one side and a hairdresser on the other. At the time of its construction the building had the benefit of being at the intersection of the two principal roads in and through Pitt Meadows, Harris Road and the newly constructed Lougheed Highway. This high profile location would have been a boon to business even though both roads were unpaved and saw very little traffic. Today this is the intersection of a four lane east west highway through the community and a four lane main municipal road. The Schlick building maintains its high profile location standing at the gateway to the downtown core of Pitt Meadows.

Benjamin Schlick was also a photographer and spent many hours documenting both his building exterior as well as other sites in Pitt Meadows. In 2002 the Pitt Meadows Museum received the donation of a large number of copy images from his family. They have helped us document the transformation of this building and its surrounding location on Harris Road.