The waterfront and railway have always been the focus of White Rock's history. People gravitate to the promenade and pier, while staircase walks lead from Marine Drive up the hillside to some of White Rock's earliest neighborhoods. Watch for tiny Elm Street, one of the few streets still very much as it was 100 years ago. Continue west along Marine Drive into South Surrey's Historic Stewart Farm.
The White Rock
A wonderful mythology surrounds this rock: about a tall, handsome Sea God who ruled the Gulf of Georgia. He fell in love with the mortal daughter of a Cowichan Aboriginal chief and when both families refused to accept their marriage, he hurled a huge white rock over the water and declared they would make their home where it landed. Thus grew the Semiahmoo Tribe – the Half Moon Tribe named for the Bay. The less romantic truth is that the rock is a glacial erratic of the Coast Mountains left here after the last ice age. Graffiti has long since forced The City of White Rock to lime it white; reminiscent of its original translucent white colour. It weighs 486.63 tons.
The White Rock Station & Museum
Built by the Great Northern Railway in 1912, the railway station was larger and busier than most small-town stations as it used to accommodate Customs & Immigration Staff and a 'lock up', complete with barred windows, as well as a baggage room, waiting areas and ticket office. When passenger train service discontinued to White Rock in 1971, the building was donated to the City of White Rock and today, houses a small but comprehensive museum and archival collection that highlights the area's natural, First Nations and settlement histories, and includes the preservation of the original ticket office, rotating exhibits and a gift shop.
White Rock Pier
With the real estate boom of the time, the original pier opened in 1914 as a dock for coastal steamships, and with the thought that White Rock might become a major seaport, especially since The Great Northern Railway line arrived here around the same time. In the 1920s, a legion dance hall lay at its base on the shore and when it burned to the ground in 1935, subsequent buildings included the Panda Club – a much talked about sassy establishment in its day, and then a restaurant which also burned down in 1970. Six years later, the pier had deteriorated to such unsafe standards that it is only thanks to community Save-the-Pier efforts that it found its current lease of life as a major tourist attraction, stretching out 1559ft into the ocean. Visit the White Rock Visitor Centre for brochures and information on historic and heritage sites.