Langley Heritage Society

Most of the old buildings you can still walk up to in Langley are standing because a small group of volunteers refused to let them fall down. That is the short version of the Langley Heritage Society. The longer version runs to nearly half a century.

How it started

The society’s own account, written for its 40th birthday in 2019, puts its founding at a gathering on September 19, 1979. A handful of people were watching farmland and old farmhouses disappear under subdivisions and decided someone should keep a list of what mattered and fight for it. One of their first projects was exactly that list: a survey of historic sites that became the basis for the Township’s heritage inventory.

From there the work got physical. Buildings that were vandalised, abandoned or scheduled for demolition were moved, jacked up, re-roofed and brought back. Most now have caretaker tenants living in them, which the society says is how they stay maintained. The approach has been recognised by Heritage BC and the British Columbia Historical Federation, and the society won a Heritage BC Award of Honour in 2013 for the Dixon House and Barn.

The buildings

The society’s site lists the houses, church and station it has restored. A few of the best known:

• Fort Langley CN Station, built 1915 for the Canadian Northern Railway and a working passenger stop until 1980. Volunteers moved it about 240 metres along the tracks in 1983; it became a municipal heritage site the next year. The Township owns it and the society runs it. Inside are the waiting room, telegraph office and freight room; outside sit a 1947 passenger car the society bought in 1997 and a 1920s CNR caboose with a model railway. It opens weekends in the warmer months (see the facts box) and is a favourite backdrop for wedding and grad photos, though the society asks that photographers respect its hours and notes it is not a wedding venue.
• Michaud House, built in 1888 by Joseph and Georgiana Michaud, the first French Canadian family to settle in Langley. The City of Langley designated it a heritage site in 1980 and restoration began that year with the Langley Arts Council. A tenant lives there now and tends the gardens.
• Sperling Methodist Church, which held its first service in 1912.
• Dixon House and Barn, Lattimer House and Moir House in Milner, all tied to the farming boom that followed the interurban rail line in 1910.
• Harrower House in Murrayville, a log house from around 1908 saved from demolition, and the Lamb/Stirling and Wark/Dumais farmhouses.
• The Old Yale Barn in Murrayville, which the society funded a new roof, siding and structural work for in 2025; Township Parks operates it.

Apart from the station, these buildings are homes. The society’s rentals page says they are occupied and not available to book, so admire them from the road.

Beyond the buildings

The society sits on the Township’s Heritage Advisory Committee, awards a $1,000 scholarship each year to a Langley secondary student, sponsors school visits to the museum and backs the school district’s Heritage Fair. Members get a quarterly newsletter (digital or paper, and the archive back to 2017 is on the site), monthly speaker presentations, and the odd field trip or dinner. The 2026–27 speaker series is listed on the society’s site.

Joining

Membership is $15 a year. You fill in the form from the membership page, send it by mail or email, the board reviews it, and then they contact you for payment by cheque, e-transfer or PayPal. Volunteers are wanted too, especially for station open days.

Nearby

The station is a two-minute walk from the Langley Centennial Museum in salishan Place and from the shops on Glover Road, see our Fort Langley village guide. For a map of the other old buildings around Langley, including several on this page, see Langley heritage sites.

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