Laurent Guichon of Port Guichon

Laurent and Peronne Guichon left Chapperon Lake for New Westminster BC, where Laurent successfully operated his Guichon Hotel until it burned down during that city’s fire of 1898. He moved his hostelry into one of the downtown’s few surviving buildings, and the new Guichon Hotel became one of the province’s poshest accommodations. Guichon Creek in Burnaby BC commemorates his time in this area.

The second Guichon Hotel stands on the corner, New Westminster, circa 1900

In the early 1890s, Laurent purchased some 1,000 acres near the mouth of the Fraser River, and there, on a solid pier, he established another Guichon Hotel as well as a general store.

Guichon Hotel, Port Guichon, circa 1913

A village called Port Guichon grew around his new establishment.  It was vibrant with agriculture, boat building, canneries and sawmills. The wharf accommodated the tracks of the Great Northern Railway as well as both sailing ships and steamships. Business was booming.

Port Guichon pier with steam and sailing ships and Great Northern Railway of Canada train, 1903

Guichon family house, Port Guichon, part of today’s Ladner and Delta, 2008

Laurent, Peronne and their ten children lived in a two-storey manor house. They were very active in farming, raising poultry and a dairy herd as well as breeding champion Clydesdale horses.

However, during the First World War, the village’s largest sawmill was destroyed by a fire that took with it the pier, which was never rebuilt. The hotel itself was closed, and it was demolished in 1931.

Port Guichon was later absorbed into the village of Ladner, now a part of the city of Delta. A branch of the Guichon family still lives in the house, and the family, though no longer Francophone, remains active in agriculture as well as in local politics.