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The Steveston Tram is a community restoration project in its own warm, cozy building at Steveston Park. The tram offered light rail transit between Steveston and downtown Vancouver until 1958.
Photo courtesy City of Richmond
Wet night celebrates a dry time
Published 2:08 PDT, Thu October 26, 2017
Last Updated: 2:12 PDT, Wed May 12, 2021
Time was, Steveston and the rest of Canada,
was dry. Well, dry-ish. Rumours abound about the prominent family or two that
made money from Richmond’s loganberry wine during Prohibition.
This November, the City of Richmond offers a
bit of adult programming, warm and indoors at the Steveston Tram—a jazz-era
evening of beer tasting.
The city invites you to, “Enjoy a shot of
beer with a splash of history at the Steveston Interurban Tram’s Prohibition
special event on Friday, November 3. From 6 to 8 p.m., surround yourself with
live jazz music while tasting a selection of beers from local brewery, the
Britannia Brewing Company.”
When the sale of alcoholic beverages once
again became legal in Canada, Prohibition continued in the US, offering a sales
opportunity for Canadian border towns like Moose Jaw and Steveston. Smuggling
to the US was big business. Some of Canada, and BC’s, prominent families got
their financial start selling booze, or “rum running” to the dry US. Canadian
Whiskey, or Richmond’s loganberry wine, sold for a premium.
(It’s fun to romanticize the era as happy
flappers sneaking a little gin in their beaded purse but but the reality was
closer to modern cross-border drug smugglers.)
In fact, the boat currently being restored at
Britannia Heritage Shipyard, the Fleetwood, is a rum runner that was once
equipped with two massive engines to enable it take a load of hooch to the
States while outrunning the US agents looking to seize the goods and arrest the
bootleggers onboard.
Taking a walk on the flats below SW Marine
Dr., before the houses were built there, one came upon dog-leg creeks, hidden
by branches knitted above. These man-made narrow waterways ran to the base of
some of the finest mansions. The rum running boats would back in, receive their
load, before racing to the States to outrun the “feds.”
Friday, Nov. 3 community members are invited
to, “Discover the scandalous stories from BC's prohibition years as told by a
storyteller from the Forbidden Vancouver Walking Tour company, before exploring
the nearly restored Tram Car 1220. Nibble on light refreshments and socialize
with others as you delve into the underbelly of local history rich with
rum-runners, bootleggers and gin joints.” See the progress made by volunteers
working untold hours on our community’s tram. It’s a beauty and the gloss of
the evening will be enhanced by the odd tipple available for this event only.
The City of Richmond says, “This event, a
first for the Interurban Tram, is specifically for those 19+ years and
transports guests back to a time when prohibition attempted to dry out BC while
illegal home breweries managed to keep Steveston – and beyond – wet.”
Tickets are $25.00 for the evening’s
activities. To register, call 604-276-4300 or visit www.richmond.ca/register
and quote registration #2352342. The deadline to register is Wednesday,
November 1. The Steveston Interurban Tram Building is located at 4011 Moncton
Street in the heart of Steveston Village.
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