LATEST NEWS

Pender Harbour Days: July 7-9, 2017

Pender Harbour Days is an annual celebration of our marine heritage with historical boats, land-based heritage displays, sailing competitions, combined with an arts fair and entertainment. 

​On Friday evening, watch the heritage boat parade around Pender Harbour. Saturday is full of fun, free activities for the whole family, including mini boatbuilding, heritage displays, music, vendors, Search & Rescue demonstration, hard hat divers, a petting zoo, and much more.

On Sunday morning, 10 am - noon at the School of Music is our popular Heritage Talk. This year we present “Flags of Our Fleet,” a celebration of the colourful insignia that once identified fishing boats, forestry boats and vessels of the Union Steamship company plying waters of the Sunshine Coast. Researcher and educator Isaac Vanderhorst of the West Vancouver Museum will speak at 10 a.m. at the PH School of Music on the history of the flags, with a question period and refreshments to follow. The Scoular family collection of fishing boat flags will be on public display for the first time. 

A selection of flags featured in our 2017 Heritage Talk "Flags of Our Fleet"

We also welcome the return of Allen Farrell's 18' dory Buttercup to Pender Harbour. See the special feature below.

​During the closing ceremonies, we will be raffling off a handmade cedar-strip canoe made in our heritage boatbuilding class. 

Buttercup's Return: July 9, 2017

A highlight of the third annual Pender Harbour Days (July 7-9) is the return of an Allen Farrell boat to the Harbour. The 18’ dory, Buttercup, originally named Peace and Quiet, will arrive at the Madeira Park dock on Sunday, July 9 at noon sporting her distinctive junk-rigged sail.

Buttercup will depart from Gibsons Harbour a few days before the event, and make her way up to Pender Harbour for July 9. Spectators can track her journey via a GPS broadcast to penderharbourheritage.ca/buttercup. She will be visible from shore in many places and is always camera ready! Share your photos to the Pender Harbour Living Heritage Facebook page.

More details

April Tools: April 29, 2017

Picnic table boats at the starting line.

A floating picnic on a rainy day? Only in Pender Harbour! This year's winner is the Fireflies! Our local volunteer firefighter team gained back the top spot, though they had some stiff competition from last year's winners the Gunboat Bay Challengers, who were right on their tail in both heats. And a close third goes to the Ace-It Carpentry team. More photos!

Fundraiser for Pender Harbour Living Heritage Society

Shelley Stunell is a Canadian international artist who also teaches the popular art classes at Sarah Wray Hall. She has generously donated fifty signed and numbered prints of her recent painting: “The Little Schoolhouse”. These colourful prints are 12” x 16” wide and are available for $60. This is a great way to shop for someone special.

Please contact us to arrange for pickup. All proceeds benefit the projects of Pender Harbour Living Heritage Society.

New building at Pender Harbour Living Heritage Centre Property

We are currently fundraising for the renovation of a "new" auxiliary building to be be used for our popular traditional boatbuilding classes as well  as much needed storage. Immediate needs are power, siding, roof and doors. The colour scheme will match the main Sarah Wray Hall building. 

YOUR SUPPORT IS APPRECIATED!
​Tax receipts are available for donations over $20. Please get in touch to donate, or come to one of our upcoming events!​

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Heritage Signs in Pender Harbour

Heritage Panels currently in development by the PH Living Heritage Society will also be integrated into the trail signage project.

One of our ongoing projects includes marking the trails and pathways of Pender Harbour with directional and interpretive signage. Initiated by the Pender Harbour Hikers, the signage project is funded by a grant from the Sunshine Coast Community Forest Legacy Fund made through the Pender Harbour Advisory Council. Continue reading...

Pender Harbour's Maritime History

Alethea Brooks in a rowboat, circa 1945.

Pender Harbour’s protected waters are fringed by an intricate shoreline. The names of the many coves and inlets hint of a colourful history: Whiskey Slough, Gunboat Narrows, Hospital Bay. In this unique place, pioneers lived at the water’s edge, always mindful of the great ocean that gave their home its life and meaning.

Until a road connected Pender Harbour to Sechelt in 1936, travel was mainly by water. Boats of all kinds visited harbour shores – dugout canoes, fishing boats, steamships, mission boats, forestry boats, school boat ferries, work boats, pleasure boats. Read more about Pender Harbour's Maritime Heritage

Book Sarah Wray Heritage Hall
​for your next event!
Rent this recently refurbished one-room schoolhouse. Capacity of 50 people, full kitchen, 2 bathrooms, wheelchair accessible, tables, chairs available. For more details, see our availability calendar 
and view our photo gallery.

From the Archives
Photos from the 1960's and 1970's have recently been added. Please browse the archives and go to Advanced Search then Catalog Number and enter 2012.2 to view the additions.

Can you identify anyone
​in these photos?
(Click the image to view the larger size in our database, and then "send us feedback" on the photo page to identify people, places, and things.)

Martin Anderson (left) and Eddy Reid arm wrestling at a 1970's May Day. PHLHS 2012.2.32

Pender Harbour history
​in a book

Women of Pender Harbour:
​Their Voices, Their History
In this award-winning hardcover book, Pender Harbour is presented through the eyes of early women settlers. The historical narrative is augmented with over 200 historical photographs, biographical profiles, timeline and genealogies. Produced by the Pender Harbour Living Heritage Society, all proceeds go towards preserving Pender Harbour's history.

The book is available for purchase at locations in BC and by mail order.
More information

Buy Heritage Sausages at
​IGA Madeira Park!

Thank you IGA!
For the past few years, Troy and the IGA Madeira Park team have donated $1 to the Pender Harbour Living Heritage Society from every package of Heritage Sausages sold. We are grateful for the multiple donations and we put the money to good use in a variety of community projects and events.

And now it's time to pass the baton, or the buck, to the new kid in town, one we're very excited to welcome to the neighbourhood: PODS! Heritage Sausages are now PODS Sausages. Find them in the meat aisle at IGA Madeira Park!

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Download the 
Community Resource Directory (PDF)

Now available!
Local author Ray Phillips writes about the history of Jervis Inlet in his new book "The Royal Fjord: Memories of Jervis Inlet", released by Harbour Publishing.

​Author royalties for this book are being donated to the Pender Harbour Living Heritage Society.

The book is available locally at the EarthFair Store: 604.883.9006. While you're there, pick up Ray's other book Little Green Valley, which is all about the Kleindale area of Pender Harbour.

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