hello and welcome to exit through the gift shop today we are at the ioco town
site Heritage Conservation Area in Port Moody British Columbia once a bustling company town
built by the Imperial Oil Company the ioco ghost town is now just a faded reminder of
art Inlet the oil refinery wasn't accessible by Road from the local town of Port Moody BC and
shift ferries had to bring the workers to and from work by boat by the late 1920s ioco had
developed into a thriving community consisting of 89 buildings including 83 homes two churches
a community hall a lawn bowling green a baseball diamond tennis courts and a horseshoe pitch after
World War II the company no longer wanted to be a landlord people began to move away and some
of the houses were moved to different locations in other cities by 1975 the company had closed
the local store although the community hall continued to be used up until the 1990s By
1992 the ioco town site was incorporated into the city of Port Moody out of the 89 original
buildings all that remains is the community store the community hall a church a school and 13 houses
this is the ioco school it's believed to have been constructed around 1921
the school is currently boarded up tight but remains owned by the local school district
the Ioco United Church formerly the St. Andrew's Presbyterian
Church was constructed in 1924 this is the bowling-green site which is an in bad shape
the grounds are still maintained somewhat by the city of Port Moody
I like this this is called the Groceteria it's so descriptive it's a grocery cafeteria
here's a sign showing that the buildings are currently protected you can see that most of
these buildings have been wearing away over the years and slowly devolving into a state
of disrepair of the remaining homes a couple of them are still being used as private residences
although the majority are sitting abandoned and in disrepair in 2002 the town site was designated a
heritage conservation area under Port Moody's bylaws there's some hope that this ghost town
could be restored and brought back to use but for the time being it continues to sit abandoned
there have been a lot of measures put in to prevent trespassing and vandalism the
windows and doors the building have been boarded up they've put fencing around most
of the buildings as well to prevent easy access and there were signs on some of
the buildings indicating that cameras and 24-hour video surveillance were in place
this little bridge would have been used by families to access
the other side of the ioco town site which was divided in half by a ravine
that's it for today thanks for joining us as we explore the ioco town site remember to
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interactive map to see other cool historic and abandoned locations that we've already
been to until next time stay safe everyone it's time to exit through the gift shop