Raymur Pedestrian Bridge, Vancouver, 1983

“What is this aggregation of filth?”

So was Captain James Raymur’s assessment of the area surrounding the British Columbia and Vancouver Island Spar, Lumber, and Sawmill Company, an English enterprise established on the south shore of Burrard Inlet. Raymur was appointed manager in 1869.

“Aye, aye,” the formidable mariner from Nova Scotia declared, “and I’ll make the beggars mind me. I’ll not permit a running sore to fasten itself on an industry entrusted to my care.”

Under Raymur’s direction, the mill and surrounding district attained a semblance of civic order (in contrast to adjacent Gastown, which remained a cesspool of crime and drunkenness). Financial problems saw the holdings come under US ownership, but Raymur remained at the helm, renaming the company Hastings Mill after the commander of the British navy at Esquimalt.

Raymur’s attempts at civilizing the brawling outpost included a library, which presumably did not see as many pass through its doors as did the crowded saloons of Gastown, now threatening to engulf his area of influence.

Perhaps the only presence more fierce than a mariner preserving order on his ship is a mother defending the safety of her children. A hundred years after Captain Raymur dared to tame the area, the Militant Mothers of Raymur, 25-strong, demanded their share of civility from industry and civic leaders in this Strathcona neighbourhood, historically viewed as belonging “on the wrong side of the tracks.”

That certainly proved to be the case when it came to the The Raymur Place Social Housing Project (now Stamps Place) opened in 1971. It was separated from Admiral Seymour Elementary School by train tracks owned by Burlington Northern and Canadian National Railways, east of Raymur Avenue. The rebel mums, most residents of the project, feared for the lives of their kids who had to cross the tracks to attend school.

The City of Vancouver and the railway made plenty of promises — for instance, that trains would remain stationary during hours when children crossed. They kept none. So, on January 26, 1971, mad-as-hell, the mums blockaded the train tracks between Raymur and Glen Drive. They pitched tents and raised protest signs declaring Children Before Profits” and “Petitions Don’t Work.” Sometimes direct action works. Construction of the Keefer Street Pedestrian Overpass began in March 1971.

When I used the bridge on my bicycle commute in the ‘80s (it is now part of the the Adanac bicycle route), I had no idea I owed the safety and convenience to a committed group of Mighty Mums willing to face arrest. In 2019, the City of Vancouver officially changed the name of the bridge to the Militant Mothers of Raymur Overpass in their honour.