HISTORY OF BC
Richmond’s McKinney House from the Sears Roebuck Catalogue Ron Hyde
R
ichmond pioneers James and Jane McKinney bought 80 hectares of Richmond farmland. McKinney was interested in plantbreeding and developed the loganberry, a cross between a blackberry and a raspberry, that grew well in Richmond soil.
During the US Prohibition, McKinney purchased a small California winery and moved the wine-making equipment to his Richmond farm. He named the operation Myrtena Winery after his daughter Myrtle and his daughterin-law Christina. The winery made up to 600,000 gallons of loganberry wine each year from 1924 through 1934 when it closed.
Myrtena Winery Courtesy Canadian Museum of History
Volume 30, Number 3, Winter 2021
While the loganberry farm flourished, the mosquitos also did well in the swampy land. James moved his family back to Vancouver in 1908, then back to Richmond’s Lulu Island. Jane McKinney had been adamant that any return to Richmond would only be to the most luxurious home in town. James could afford it; he was a businessoriented man, operated a winery, was the local undertaker, and was active in the early land development in Steveston. In 1911, the Sears Roebuck catalogue offered a basic house package that included the construction lumber, all the interior woodwork, building paper, eavestroughs, hardware, and painting materials; the package would arrive with each board and nail numbered—to be put together much like a jigsaw puzzle. The catalogue promised that, allowing a fair price for labour, a 9-room, 3-storey house could be built for $2130. The company paid the customers’ train fare to its Chicago warehouse so they could select from many extras including a solid-oak dining table and extension for $6.65, and a 56-piece gold-burnished dinner set for $7.48. Sears Roebuck sold approximately 45,000 homes through its mail-order system between 1908 and 1938. The buyer could purchase just the house plans The Scrivener | www.bcnotaryassociation.ca
and have a local builder do the basic framing.
McKinney House on Steveston Hwy. Courtesy Richmond Archives
McKinney bought the plans from Sears Roebuck, obtained knot-free lumber from New Westminster’s Fraser Mills, and hired two builders to construct the frame. With the basic framing completed, McKinney purchased special options from the Sears Roebuck Chicago warehouse for his new mansion—doors, windows, mirrors, light fixtures, railings, a cast-iron bathtub, and lovely beveled-glass windows at a cost of $2026. The McKinneys were active in the United Church, the School Board, and the Liberal party. Located at No. 2 Road and Steveston Highway, the house was a showpiece in Steveston for many years. In 1948, the McKinneys sold the home to the Scollon family who attempted to sell the property in 1991 to a developer who agreed TABLE OF CONTENTS
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