If you’re of a certain vintage, you may have purchased seeds and mixtures, or perhaps other home gardening supplies such as a rotary lawnmower, at the Brackman-Ker Store in Ladner Village.
Located at 4860 Chisholm St., across the street from the old Brackman-Ker warehouse on the waterfront, the new store celebrated its grand opening in April of 1965. The store was a division of Maple Leaf Mills Ltd.
The store is long gone and the building is boarded-up and vacant.
The name B & K had a long history associated with agriculture in Delta and the company’s history also paralleled the history of British Columbia.
The warehouse across the street was originally built for J.A. Paterson and H.D. Benson, who sold it and associated granaries, to Brackman-Ker Company of Victoria in 1904.
The milling business was founded in 1877 by Henry Brackman and James Milne as a rolled oats manufacturer.
The company dissolved in 1879, but had been resurrected when Brackman partnered with David Russell Ker in 1881.
After Brackman's death in 1903, Ker took over the company and began an ambitious expansion throughout Western Canada.
The Brackman-Ker Milling Company was bought by Maple Leaf Mills in 1965.
Built in the late 1800s, the old Brackman-Ker warehouse on Chisholm Street collapsed into the river in 2010.
