This marker is to be found along the south side of Highway Drive, just west of Lily Street, in the heart of Glenmerry. Highway Drive is so named because it was, until realignment of Highway 3B in 1965, the route of the highway through East Trail.
Glenmerry
The name Glenmerry is a combination of Glenone Dairy owned by Sam Barkley from Glenone, Ireland and George Merry of the D. Bilson Merry Family, who both owned property in this area.
George Merry arrived in Rossland in 1895 where he worked as a carpenter on several construction projects including the Miners' Union Hall.
Merry had considerable land holdings in the West Kootenay and owned Merry's Flats, which was a great hay-producing site and farming property.
By early 1950 Trail was in need of additional housing units. The Housing Committee circulated a questionnaire and 227 were received back. After meeting with Mr. Shaver and Mr. Merry, it was decided that the city would purchase 40 acres of land in the Merry's Flats area as well as land from Mr. Shaver. During this time, both Shavers Bench and Merry's Flats were incorporated into the City of Trail.
In 1951 the province was proposing the relocation of the highway through Merry's Flats and in 1952 a proposed subdivision for 287 lots was considered by the Trail Town Planning Commission. The City conducted a contest and the name Glenmerry was chosen. Two participants, Mr. W.D. Lane from Fruitvale and LaVonne Wallace from Shaver's Bench submitted the same name and each received $10.00.
The Glenmerry School was built in the 1950s to accommodate the growing number of school children in the new community.
In 1960, the development for 200 single family dwelling sites was started in the Glenmerry extension, a federal-provincial-civic land assembly project. The new subdivision was done in two phases — one of 75 lots and one of 134 lots with underground phone and power services. It was considered one of the most modern subdivisions in Canada. With the three levels of government involved, lots did not go up for sale until July 1962.
In the 1970s, the commercial core in Glenmerry included an automotive shop, pop factory, machine shop, several motels, a fast food outlet and the Glenmerry market. The streets in Glenmerry are named after flowers and were also chosen by competition.
From the marker