Baptists once owned most of Vancouver’s West End, today the most expensive real estate in all of Canada. John Morton, his cousin Sam Brighouse and a friend named William Hailstone arrived in New Westminster in 1862, looking for gold. Finding only coal and clay instead of gold, they turned to brickmaking. To enhance their business, they bought the rights to 550 acres of land where Vancouver’s glass business towers and most expensive condominiums now rise. Morton became a wealthy man by selling most of his land holdings when the Canadian Pacific Railway chose Vancouver as its terminus, causing the value of his real estate to begin its century-long rise. Morton was apparently very generous with his wealth, giving significantly to many Baptist missions and churches. Ruth Morton Memorial Baptist Church is named in memory of Morton’s wife, the first white woman to settle in Vancouver. Morton was one of the founding members of First Baptist Church in Vancouver, a CBWC congregation.