Standing at the corner of 204 Street and Douglas Crescent in Langley City, Bob Griffiths is pleased to see how well the Federal Building is holding up.
“Still structurally sound,” Griffiths says with approval, eyeing the mortar joints in the brickwork and the window sills near the top of the two-storey brick and stone building.
Griffiths troweled those joints in 1949, working as a 17-year-old apprentice bricklayer on the new Langley Prairie post office.
“It was my first big job,” he says.
Griffiths is pushing for a change to the historical plaque in front of the building. His goal is to see a photo of the workers who built it included in the display.
Griffiths believes it would be up to the City of Langley to make that change.
The new post office was the first masonry building ever built in Langley. It cost $127,000.
Determined to construct something that would last, the planners had turned down two other locations nearby because tests showed the ground was too soft for the foundations.
The new post office was built by C.J. Oliver Ltd. with all the masonry work done by O. Griffiths and Sons Bricklayers, the company run by Bob’s dad, Owen, and his older brothers, Jack, Jim and George.
The Griffiths were not union, and that turned out to be a problem.
“The (unionized) plumbers and so on didn’t want to work with non-union tradesmen,” said Griffiths.
The issue was quickly resolved when the bricklayers union came out from Vancouver and swore them all in.
For the first few years, the exterior of the post office was covered in grey paint, Griffiths recalls.
“It really looked awful.”
Owen Griffiths had warned the bricks were porous and would need to be coated with sealant to prevent water absorption.
But instead of sealing the bricks, post office management had the building painted.
Eventually, Griffiths recalls, the paint was sandblasted off and the bricks were properly sealed, like his dad had recommended in the first place.
(Story continues below photo)
The crew that built the federal building. A young Bob Griffiths is seated in front, far left. His father Owen is standing on the far right.
Over the years, the function of the building has changed several times and so have the surrounding structures.
To the west of the building, Griffiths remembers a collection of large greenhouses standing where the Langley Mall parking lot is now located.
They were heated by steam.
“There was a big chimney in the middle.”
Looking down the street past the current Langley city hall, Griffiths can see where the B.C. Provincial Police used to be based.
At the time, there was just one police officer responsible for the entire Langley area.
The RCMP took over from the provincial police in 1950 and the Langley detachment currently operates a community police station in the former post office.
The building is also home to a fine art gallery, which occupies its second storey.
A lot has happened to Griffiths, too.
He got married, became a father, then a grandfather and now a great-grandfather.
He continued to work as a bricklayer, obtained his pilot’s licence and became an RCMP auxiliary officer, serving 13 years.
Griffiths joined the Langley chapter of the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America.
That led to formation of the First Capital Chorus, which takes its name from Fort Langley, the first capital of British Columbia.
“Once you get past 25, time just flies,” Griffiths says.
Griffiths has held up at least as well as the building he worked on, making it into his 80s in generally good health.
For that, he credits his late wife, Helen.
“My wife was a nurse” he says, smiling.
“She spoiled me.”
Griffiths has written a book about his early life.
“Growing up in Langley” is available at the city library branch, across the street from the federal building.
This month, the book is being re-released in a large print edition.