At a recent event I was discussing some research I was doing on mapping Black owned restaurants, notably the very popular Chicken Inns which could be found downtown on Seymour Street all the way through east Vancouver and out on Kingsway. In the course of our conversation Michael Gordon mentioned that he had working on a few things and had been excited to find the Black Porters’ Quarters at 1227 Richards Street. Michael contributed a short article on this find in 2021 for the Viewpoints blog.

The Viewpoints piece didn’t mention dates for the Quarters so I thought I’d take a gander and see what I could find. Goad’s fire insurance maps for 1912/13, show 1227 Richards with a typical foot print of a late Victorian house one of many built along the streets of the downtown peninsula. Switching to the directories the property shows up as the CPR Porters’ Quarters from 1910 to 1913. Then it is vacant for a few years until Harry Cleaver moves in. A few years later there are classified adverts for housekeeping rooms, rental suites etc., and then 1227 bites the dust for a commercial structure, the fate of the majority of the downtown houses.

Given the presence of the CPR in the neighbourhood it seems surprising that the Quarters would have been such a short lived entity. Turns out the company was constructing purpose-built accommodation for its staff at the foot of Seymour on Pacific Street. The two storey building on the south side of Pacific next to the Canadian Wood Pipe Company’s plant looked like a small apartment house and shows up in newspapers with different names including the Porter’s Bungalow, CPR Bunkhouse, Porters’ Boarding House and the CPR Conductors Quarters. So 1227 Richards was a stop-gap measure while the new accommodation was being built on Pacific Street.

I discovered the Pacific Street building while searching for further information on the Richards Street house. A September 15, 1948 Vancouver Province article reported on a discrimination complaint filed by two CPR Porters.

Discrimination In Pub Charged
Police were called Tuesday night to investigate a complaint of racial discrimination. W. R. Olbey and U. Henson, of the CPR porters’ bungalow, 558 Pacific, said they were refused service by the management of a Granville Street beer parlor because they are colored. Officers explained it was a civil matter and police had no authority in the case.

The building permit records show that the building was built in 1911 at a cost of nine thousand bucks and it was standing until the early 1960s. Searching the address in the newspapers turned up a number of small incidents of lost wallets and keys, theft from the rooms and the odd fight. The building housed those Porters that were from out of town waiting for the next assignment and Vancouver based employees including C. H. Perry the dining car purchasing agent who lived there with his wife Olga in the early 1930s.

When searching through the newspapers using the Quarter’s address I came across an article concerning a rescue of a drowning man off Kitsilano Beach. The Vancouver Sun (July 31, 1950) noted that “Helen Popovich and Pat Rowlands saw his plight and screamed for help. Joanne Van Antwerp recalled that “I recognized the panic in their voices. I took off my shoes on the run and dived in with my shirt, shorts and socks on. I lost the socks.” From the dive off the Kitsilano Yacht Club porch it was a 50 yard swim to reach Norville Curry who was incapacitated by leg and stomach cramps. “I put an arm around his chest and towed him in.” Norville a student from Memphis Tennessee was working the summer for the CPR and staying at 558 Pacific Street.