Profile of Irvine’s Landing BC

In 1880, a bearded, pipe-smoking Englishman named Charlie Irvine bought a 160-acre of waterfront property from an Oriental cannery operator who mined for gold in a secret location. Irvine built a wharf, log cabin and supply post which served the local loggers until he sold his property to John and George West in 1904.

Irvine was the local postmaster in 1903-04, and the post office remained in Irvine’s Landing until 1966 when it was replaced by the Madeira Park Post Office. In 1904, Charlie Irvine headed to the Klondike to seek his fortune in gold, but he left behind his name in Irvine's Landing. Irvine's Landing boasted the first post office, saloon, telephone and financial institution of the area, built by "Portuguese Joe" Gonsalves. The old Irvine's Landing Community Hall and School (on property donated by Joe Gonsalves) remain.

Irvine's Landing is, by water, at the the entrance to Pender Harbour. It has a relatively small population, but several large, modern subdivisions could to see “the Landing” as Pender Harbour’s largest residential area by 2014.

In 2007, the SCRD entered a 20-year lease with School District 46 for the old Irvine’s Landing School property, just under one acre. Administered by the SCRD Parks Department and managed by the Pender Harbour Living Heritage Society, the property and building will be made available to Garden Bay and Irvine’s Landing community groups.