When Seth Thorne Tilley opened the Colonial Bookstore on Columbia Street in April 1860, New Westminster was little more than a rough clearing hacked out of the towering cedars and hemlocks, a scattering of wooden residential and commercial dwellings lining the Fraser River. Born a world away, in Gagetown, New Brunswick, in August 1836 to a… Continue reading The Colonial Bookstore: First in New Westminster
Category: Fort Hope
Seth Thorne Tilley: The First Bookseller in the BC Lower Mainland
"What was the first bookstore in Vancouver?" This was the question that started the journey that has become this blog, A Most Agreeable Place. As it turned out, it was not an easy question to answer. Some of the resources that I regularly turn to when writing family history books either were silent on the question… Continue reading Seth Thorne Tilley: The First Bookseller in the BC Lower Mainland
