One of my daily walks took me through this tiny area. The info center states that Clayburn Village is located at the foot of Sumas Mountain in Abbotsford, and was designated as a Heritage Site in 1996. Clayburn was the first "company town" in British Columbia, a town built by the Clayburn Company to provide employee housing and services. It supported three stores, a bank, a school and a church.
The discovery of high grade clay throughout Sumas Mountain and the demand for bricks brought Clayburn Village into being. The Village and brick plant were built more than a century ago, in 1905, by Charles Maclure, son of John Maclure, a former Royal Engineer and B.C. pioneer. By 1920, the bricks were shipped as far as Mexico and Hawaii. Because of fall off in demand, the brickplant, after operating for a quarter century, was dismantled in 1931. Scaled back operations were moved to the sister "Kilgard" site located further up Sumas Mountain. Although only the foundations of the Clayburn plant now remain, one half of the original homes, a store, the church and the schoolhouse have survived and continue to showcase the village atmosphere. Most prestigious of the remaining buildings are the Clayburn Church built in 1912 and the Clayburn Schoolhouse built in 1907, both still in use today. The school was built from the standard plans of the time, with many windows for natural light and wall space for blackboards. It was the cultural hub in early day and is still used for gatherings and a museum.
Clayburn offers its abundant visitors a unique view of an important part of Abbotsford's past. Through a century, Clayburn remains as a secluded little village, reminiscent of the turn-of-the-century English village atmosphere of the times, with brick buildings with neat gardens, surrounded by white picket fences.
Samuel Maclure, brother of Charles, designed most of the brick buildings and was to become an architect of note designing many outstanding buildings in the Vancouver and Victoria area.
