Polish Friendship ZGODA Society was established on the29th of September in 1926. Seven friends started the Society in Vancouver to maintain the Polish heritage, preserve the Polish language, and help new polish immigrants.
The “Dom Polski” began building in 1956 – 1959. The facility was engineered by Roman Zurowski the architect. Roman Zurowski was the President of the Polish Friendship “Zgoda” Society from 1956 – 1960.
The first significant wave of Poles arrived in British Columbia early this century, although they came directly from Japan not Poland. They had been serving with the Russian Armed Forces and taken prisoner by the Japanese in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904. Most of them were economic immigrants who didn’t want to return to Poland as it was occupied by the Russians. Instead, they settled on farms in the Lower Mainland and on Vancouver Island, or got jobs as railway workers.