Before Port Coquitlam appeared on maps as a city, this area was known as Westminster Junction. The name described a railway crossing, but it was never the whole story: people lived, worked and built community along the nearby rivers and roads long before incorporation.
In the early 1900s, local landowners argued that their growing community needed its own municipal government. Port Coquitlam was incorporated on March 7, 1913, after separating from Coquitlam. Its residents waited until April 18 to hold the big celebration. A parade made its way to the Agricultural Hall, where baseball and children’s races helped mark the new city.
That festive scene makes the history feel wonderfully human. A legal boundary changed in March; neighbours made it real in April. As you walk downtown today, imagine the optimism of a place growing up around the rails, then the difficult decades of war, floods and fire that followed. PoCo’s history is more than a founding date: it is a story of people rebuilding and keeping their community together.