Old land files have shown that in 1941, one Hazel E. Richardson became the owner of a 26-acre property located at the upper-most part of the current Riversprings’ residential sub-division, mostly just above David Avenue and straddling Shaughnessy Street.  My research had initially anticipated that the later ownership details of that parcel would be at least somewhat illuminated but, instead, ironically, while that particular parcel’s subsequent details remained shrouded, Hazel Richardson’s kin were able to add much more information relative to when Hazel Avenue, at the top of Coast Meridian Road, was built, by whom and, importantly, for whom that street was named.  For a period, from the late 1940s, the Richardson family lived on their 40-acre Burke Mountain farm.  In the early 1950s, Hazel’s husband, Ken Richardson, had sub-divided their farm, which was situated immediately north of the current Hazel Avenue, directly west of the line of Coast Meridian Road.  He was required by Coquitlam Council to establish an east-west access grade, one which we now know as Hazel Avenue.  He named this road after his wife, Hazel.

The initial query to the Richardson kin, while not surfacing much about that first parcel of land, was a bonanza of information, bringing to life many important community details, some great stories about an early Burke family and several neat photographs depicting life for a family on the mountain.  Not the first irony this research has encountered but sweet, all the same.   L