Louis Brier came to Canada and went to the gold fields of the Yukon shortly after the Klondike Gold Rush of 1896. According to Cyril E. Leonoff’s book Pioneers, Pedlars, and Prayer Shawls, while Brier was in the Yukon “he engaged in general supplies for the miners, and also grubstaked prospectors on a percentage basis.”

Brier became successful and he settled with his wife in North Vancouver’s Lynn Valley and built the “Brier Block”.

(“Brier Block” – A landmark that used to stand on the north west corner of Mountain Highway and Lynn Valley Road. Courtesy of North Shore News)

Brier left a large legacy to the Jewish community in Vancouver, after he died in 1936.

In 1968, the Louis Brier Home for the Aged was dedicated.

(Ribbon Cutting at Louis Brier Home & Hospital – 1968. Courtesy of Jewish Museum and Archives BC)