Newly graduated from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Ed Richardson was a young civil engineer, hired along with Ted Baynes, by the Wells Townsite Company to lay out the town of Wells. This was Richardson’s first engineering job. Fred Wells was well known to hate engineers; the story goes that Richardson was on the train with Fred Wells on the ride up to Wells. When Wells found out that Richardson was an engineer, Wells refused to speak to him for the rest of the ride.
Ed had an orderly mind, and he planned the town of Wells in an orderly, efficient fashion. His home was one of the first buildings to be built in Wells; the new home was a place for him to live with his new bride, Mae. By the end of 1934, forty buildings were completed in this fast-growing town. Richardson later went on to plan West Vancouver, Park Royal, and the British Properties.