Chilliwack (with files from Chilliwack History Perspectives/Merlin Bunt) There have been plenty of rumours and sadly, they are true.
Chilliwack’s Rendezvous Restaurant, Chilliwack B.C. in the heart of downtown is closing their doors for good.
From their Facebook page : Many of you have heard the gossip… After 21 years .. our lease is up and we cannot afford the new increase in rent … where we live is very important to us .. so whatever we do next .. will not change the way we support our community! We love you Chilliwack.. and we thank you so very much for keeping our dream alive for this long and all the LOVE you have given us! Super emotional.. you guys really did this for us .. 21 years !!! THANK YOU SO MUCH… To add further to FVN in another comment: please let our people know .. our community and guests how much we love them .. . I mean truly love … this community .. doesn’t work with out our support for one another.. be it business or just friggin kindness … sounds cheesy… but always choose kindness… … try to make a positive(safe) difference…
FVN has learned that the last serving is Saturday January 28.
Cue Adele’s “Rumour Has It”
The history of the building from Merlin Bunt at Chilliwack History Perspectives:
There is a building in downtown Chilliwack, situated at a busy corner just 115 metres from Five Corners, which is well known today as the location of the Rendezvous Restaurant. However, this distinctively shaped structure, recognized as the Harper Sheet Metal Building, dates back to the 1930s and in the first part if its life, prior to accommodating a series of restaurants, it was home to a venerable Chilliwack business for over four decades.
Located at the northeast corner of Young Road and Victoria Avenue, the initial version of the structure in question was built circa 1930. It was then purchased in 1936 by William Gawn Davison Harper (1881-1964) to accommodate his sheet metal, heating, and air-conditioning business that he called “Harper Sheet Metal Ltd.”. Harper later expanded the building to the size and pentagonal shape it is today.
Born in Ontario, William Harper met his future wife, Margaret McClure (1883-1960) in Northern Ireland, where she was born. They were married in 1907 in Antrim, Northern Ireland, and the next day they boarded a steamship headed to Canada. They landed in Cupar, Saskatchewan (60 kilometres northeast of Regina), where they initially homesteaded on a farm.
Soon after, Harper (see Image #2) opened what would be the first of his three sheet metal/hardware shops over the years. He called his business “Harper and Son” (see Image #3). While four of the six sons he and Margaret would go on to have were born in Cupar, they would be too young to help in the store. But for marketing purposes, William believed having “and Son” in the company name and on the signage was advantageous, and he did plan to integrate his sons in the family business at some point in the future.
In 1915, the Harpers moved to Prince George where William opened his second sheet metal business. In 1934, after almost two decades in northern BC, William and Margaret and four of their sons decided to move south, relocating to Chilliwack in July of that year, initially settling in the Sardis area. They chose this Fraser Valley community in particular as they was extremely taken with the area and the climate.
The year 1936 was eventful for the Harper family, with William purchasing a small one-storey structure at the northeast corner of Young Road North and Victoria Avenue East, literally a block from Five Corners (see Image #6), to serve as the home of his third sheet metal business, Harper Sheet Metal Ltd.
At the same time, he also purchased the Bradshaw House (built in 1891) at 5 Victoria Avenue East, immediately behind (east of) the structure that now accommodated Harper Sheet Metal (see Image #4), and the family moved from Sardis to downtown Chilliwack. Thus, the Harpers’ commute to work was literally less than 50 metres, door to door.
After the end of WWII, William Harper’s business was thriving, and in September 1946, he received a building permit to expand the Harper Sheet Metal Building. The result was a distinctive five-sided structure (see Image #17) with one side on Young Road North, one side on the straight portion of Victoria Avenue East, one side facing the portion of Victoria Avenue East that angled into Young Road North, one side facing the Bradshaw House to the east, and the fifth side facing north towards the Elk Creek Waterworks building on Bole Avenue.
In addition to simple sheet metal, Harper’s company was extensively involved with heating/furnaces (see Image #5), air conditioning, plumbing, etc. Over the years, as Harper Sheet Metal’s reputation grew, it won numerous contracts to supply new structures built in the district.
Three of William Harper’s six sons would work with him in the Harper Sheet Metal family business in Chilliwack: Howard (1911-1984), Jack (1919-1998), and Elmer (1923-2003). Leonard (1914-1945) perished in WWII, while the other two sons, Bert (1907-1984) and Lloyd (1909-1996) would go on to open a branch of Harper Sheet Metal in Quesnel in 1933, three years before their father opened the Chilliwack store.
On June 24, 1956, at age 74, William Harper retired from his Harper Sheet Metal business, leaving its management to his three sons, Howard, Jack, and Elmer. By that time, the younger Harpers were well versed in the operation of the company and the sheet metal/heating/plumbing business. William Gawn Davison Harper died in 1964 in his home of 28 years, the Bradshaw House, next door to the business that he built into an integral aspect of downtown Chilliwack’s commercial landscape.
For the next 20 years, Harper Sheet Metal continued to successfully serve Chilliwack from its central location. However, as the 1970s were drawing to an end, the three Harper sons, nearing their retirement years, made the decision to sell the business and the property.
In 1978, they had the real estate rezoned from “Service Commercial” to “Neighbourhood Commercial”, paving the way for future restaurant uses. In 1979, the Harpers advertised for sale both the Harper Sheet Metal business and its prime commercial property for $150,000 ($538,000 in 2022 value). This offer also included the Bradshaw House located next door (see Image #18).
[Note: Given that the combined assessed value of the Harper Sheet Metal Building property and the Bradshaw House property in July 2021 was $1,463,000, this may have been a sound investment in 1979 for someone with a desire to also take over and continue the business.]
However, there were ultimately no takers for the Harpers’ offer, and in 1980, Harper Sheet Metal Ltd. closed its doors for good after 44 years of being a fixture in the downtown Chilliwack business scene.
For the next five years, perhaps reflective of the changes downtown Chilliwack was undergoing at the time, the Harper Sheet Metal Building remained empty, despite it having been rezoned for restaurant-type businesses.
Then, in 1985, a young entrepreneur named Leo Vermette bought the property with plans to start a restaurant operation. In August 1985, “Dutchie’s Deli” opened in the Harper Sheet Metal Building (see Image #11). However, it was much more than a delicatessen, as the 97-seat establishment offered steaks, veal, seafood, schnitzel, chicken, spareribs, etc. Despite its bold advertising (referring to itself as “Chilliwack’s Finest”), Dutchie’s Deli closed its doors one year later, in 1986.
The Harper Sheet Metal Building returned to being unoccupied, this time until 1988 when the Olympic Flame Restaurant (also occasionally referred to as Olympic Flame Taverna) opened its doors in the historic downtown Chilliwack structure. Specializing in “Greek & Continental Cuisine” and calling itself “The Best Restaurant in Chilliwack” (see Image #12), the Olympic Flame Restaurant would operate for nine years at the northeast corner of Young Road and Victoria Avenue, ceasing operations in 1997.
The following year, 1998, the Rendezvous Restaurant opened its doors in the Harper Sheet Metal Building (see Image #13), specializing in “Greek, Canadian, and Italian Food” (see Image #14), and the popular eatery is now in its 24th year of operation in its well-located home.
In 2021, the owners of the Rendezvous Restaurant undertook a major upgrade of the structure’s exterior, doing away with the brown paint and green awnings look (see Image #15) in favour of a cream colour with dark accents, stylized signage, enhanced lighting, and only one dark-coloured awning, over the entrance (see Image #16).
The Bradshaw House, home to William Harper for almost three decades, still stands today at 46001 Victoria Avenue and at 131 years old, is one of Chilliwack’s higher-profile heritage structures. The house is also still in the Harper family after 86 years, as one of William’s grandchildren owns and lives in the home immediately to the east of Rendezvous Restaurant.
Over the years, the Harper Sheet Metal Building has been witness to many changes in Chilliwack’s downtown core. In 1949, the city’s new fire hall opened diagonally across the street from the structure in question. In 1950, Chilliwack’s new Royal Bank of Canada building opened a block to the south, at Five Corners. The Harper Sheet Metal Building had been built across the street from the community’s first courthouse (see Image #4), which burned to the ground in 1951. Also in 1951, the building was subject to significant flooding (see Image #7) but carried on none the worse for wear.
Today, at over 90 years of age, the Harper Sheet Metal Building continues to play an integral role in downtown Chilliwack life, serving as home to a popular eatery, the Rendezvous Restaurant. The structure also represents a significant aspect of Chilliwack’s downtown history, starting in the 1930s as home for over four decades to William Harper’s business, Harper Sheet Metal Ltd.
For years, Chilliwackians associated the corner of Young Road and Victoria Avenue, and in particular the distinctively shaped building on the site, with the Harper Sheet Metal business, a constant while much around it was changing. With so much of “old” downtown Chilliwack gone or changed, many appreciate that this link to an earlier era in the community still exists.
The complete photo album is here – https://www.facebook.com/chilliwackhistory/posts/3170292703248842
