Cloverdale is a town centre in the city of Surrey, British Columbia, a southeastern suburb of Greater Vancouver, located just west of the City of Langley. The town centre was initially founded as a small farm community in 1870 for its fertile land and temperate climate. Cloverdale eventually amalgamated into Surrey as one of its six town centres.[2]
Cloverdale is known as a historic centre of Surrey, and is home to many heritage sites, including Christ Church, one of Surrey's oldest buildings (built in 1882).[3] It is also the location of the City of Surrey's official museum.[4]
History
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Surrey Museum is located in Cloverdale
William Shannon (1843-1928) was one of the first settlers to the Surrey Cloverdale region, buying 960 acres of land from the government in 1875.[5][6] He was inspired to name the area from the clover that grew there in abundance.[6]
Cloverdale was the City of Surrey's first town centre, officially established in 1879 near Five Corners, the historic intersection of 60 Avenue and Old McClellan Road.[5] Adding railways was significant in developing the area. Linking Bellingham, Washington to New Westminster was the subsidiary of the Great Northern Railway forged in the valley in 1891 and created a station named Cloverdale.[5]
In 1881, the first Surrey Town Hall was constructed there. In 1912, the Municipal Hall was built in the southwest corner of Cloverdale.[5]
In 1882, Surrey's first school was established on land donated by Joseph Shannon.[5]
In the 1920s and 1930s, Cloverdale was a common destination for Americans in Washington State seeking for alcohol to address the Prohibition laws.[5]
In 1968, Cloverdale's population reached to 5,000.[5] By 2016, the population stood at 65,645.[7]
Arts and culture
Cloverdale includes a campus of Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU), called KPU Tech. It is the main campus for the Faculty of Trades and Technology at KPU.[8]
Cloverdale's Canada Day events are the most popular in Western Canada. For example, 100,000 people were expected to attend the 2018 July 1 celebrations.[9]
Film and television
Cloverdale is best known[citation needed] outside its immediate vicinity as the primary "main street" and "downtown" sets for the television show Smallville. A billboard once stood on the edge of the community that read, "Destination Cloverdale - Home of Smallville."[10]
The community has been home to other filming, including one of Coca-Cola's Christmas commercials. Despite filming during summer, the town square was decked with Christmas decorations, including fake snow.
In June 2006, a film titled Deck The Halls was filmed, and the area was once again decorated in Christmas decorations and fake snow.
In September 2006 the feature film Postal was filmed in Cloverdale.
In addition to being filmed there, the town of Cloverdale was a fictional setting of the Stargate Universe episode "Cloverdale".
In July 2012 and February 2016, the TV show Supernatural was filmed at Christ Church on Old McLellan Road.
Superman returned to Cloverdale with the CW show Superman & Lois which was filmed here from 2020-2024. The main street of Smallville this time was a set located near the Stetson Bowl on the Cloverdale Fairgrounds.
From March 2021 until July 2021, the HBO Max series Peacemaker was filmed in several different locations.
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