The same man who named Bowen Island after Rear Admiral James Bowen named Deep Cove (Deep Bay). Captain George Henry Richards was the first to survey the area, and certainly not the last.
“Deep Bay was to become one of the most valuable pieces of real estate on the island” – Irene Howard Bowen Island 1872-1972
William Eaton took 160 acres south of Killarney Lake (District Lot 491) to call home building a house, orchard, and large barn for himself. To four Swedes he leased the waterfront area. This leasing family operated two brickyards and the accompanying water wheel during the 1880s.
John Asson Robertson bought his 160 acres (District Lot 490) for someone else. He held the land for Joseph Mannion, a fellow Gastown storekeeper a couple stores down from his own Hole-in-the-Wall Saloon. Once on Bowen, Joseph Mannion got into the brick-making industry. He had a brickyard which produced blue clay bricks for notable Vancouver buildings, including the old City Hall (now Market Hall). This valuable resource was produced first by the aid of a water wheel, later by steam. Mannion volunteered a corner of his land for the building of the first elementary school in 1893.
Captain Cates wasted no time in buying Mannion’s desirable states. Early in the 1900s it was acquired for the Terminal Resort’s many visitors. Hotel Monaco, the old Mannion house served for lodging and provided meals.
Although Deep Bay was technically private, the area was always treated publicly. Over the years, it became a host to the grand hotel, hundreds of cottages, a new store, lawn bowling greens, a salt-water swimming pool and B.C.’s largest dance pavilion.
With the fall of the resort era in the late 1950s came the 1964 subdivision of Deep Bay. 48 acres north of the lagoon and southeast of Miller’s Landing road were split. Deep Bay finally became fully private.