In this photograph of Alexander and Powell Streets between Jackson and Princess taken in the 1950s sits the second and possibly the third oldest houses in Vancouver. I discovered the third house while doing some research for a client on the street.

502 Alexander is acknowledged as the second oldest surviving house in the city, it was constructed in mid-1888, and it is under threat of demolition. A few doors down the street is a house completed in August or September 1888 by a fellow called Alfred Althorp Smith who was hired that year as a pattern maker at the newly opened Vancouver Iron Foundry and Machine Works.

There are still interesting things to find out there.