A border station history

Boundary Bay Border Station

The Point Roberts-Boundary Bay crossing is one of thirteen along Washington’s 427-mile shared border with British Columbia, and the westernmost on the United States-Canada border. Due to our exclave status, the only way to leave the Point is by land. This month we mark two anniversaries of Canada’s border services here on the Point.

After a road was built to Point Roberts in 1919, Canada built its first border station on that road in 1922. This is the centennial of that first Canadian border station, which was located on the northwest corner of 56 Street and 12 Avenue, where Tim Hortons is today.

The customs office operated there until 1935, when two border stations were built at the border, one at 67th Street feeding Meadow Lane in Maple Beach (the “lower port”), and one at 56th Street (the “upper port”), where the U.S. had built a station in 1934. Immediately, the upper port became the third-busiest west of Detroit.

After the lower port closed in the spring of 1976, Delta added a second lane on 56th Street leading up the hill to the Point in December 1977.

Point Roberts continued to grow throughout the 1980s. Canadians packed the Point’s taverns on Sundays as B.C.’s blue laws didn’t allow drinking back home. Responding to the heavy traffic, Canada upgraded its port in April 1987. This month is the 35th anniversary of the current Boundary Bay border station building. The previous building is shown in this 1979 photo.

The Point Roberts History Center is a fun place to explore our history, including photos of previous border stations, the doors in and out of our unique
community.