Irvines Landing was the first post-contact settlement in the ḵalpilin (Pender Harbour) area, and quickly became a hub for supplies and provisions. The first settler in Pender Harbour was an English immigrant named Charles Irvine, who established a small trading post in 1865. Steve Dames, a displaced seaman from

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

, and Joe Perry of

Cape Verde Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an island country and archipelagic state of West Africa in the central Atlantic Ocean, consisting of ten volcanic islands with a combined land area of about . These islands ...

became familiar with Irvines Landing, and purchased it in 1898. Perry's father-in-law, Joseph Gonsalves of

Madeira Island Madeira is a Portuguese island, and is the largest and most populous of the Madeira Archipelago. It has an area of , including Ilhéu de Agostinho, Ilhéu de São Lourenço, Ilhéu Mole (northwest). As of 2021, Madeira had a total population o ...

, later moved up from

Brockton Point Brockton Point is a headland off the Downtown Peninsula of Vancouver, on the north side of Coal Harbour. Named after Francis Brockton, it is the most easterly part of Stanley Park and is home to a 100-year-old lighthouse and several hand-carve ...

(now

Stanley Park Stanley Park is a public park in British Columbia, Canada, that makes up the northwestern half of Vancouver's Downtown Vancouver, Downtown peninsula, surrounded by waters of Burrard Inlet and English Bay, Vancouver, English Bay. The park bor ...

in Vancouver). Under the name Gonsalves and Dames General Traders, they expanded their holdings and built the Irvines Landing Hotel and Store. An early Union Steamer stop for settlers and loggers, it grew into a fish-processing centre and later a yacht anchorage and vacation spot. Often referred to as Irvine's Landing, the official name has no apostrophe according to the

BC Geographical Names The BC Geographical Names (formerly BC Geographical Names Information System or BCGNIS) is a geographic name web service and database for the Canadian province of British Columbia run by the Base Mapping and Geomatic Services Branch of the Integr ...

service, Irvines Landing. This is in keeping with the convention established in the late 1800s of removing apostrophes from place names in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

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