Doing a bit of research recently I came across a picture of lovely looking Craftsman style house in the December 6, 1947 edition of the Vancouver Sun but instead of a house surrounded by a garden this house was was sitting on a flatbed trailer. This was the home of Mr C. L. Bennett and… Continue reading Moving House With Breakfast
Blood Alley Square an evocative name that conjures up brawls and murders, or slaughter houses and butchers, the hangman’s noose, and of course ghosts. Blood Alley Square was the name officially given to the recently created space in the 1970s, a part of the renovation and beautification of the newly minted heritage district of Gastown. In… Continue reading What’s in a Name?
That was the headline in the August 18, 1965 edition of the Vancouver Sun and the report went on to say that the then 49 year bridge “full of humps and bumps, is slowly collapsing under its own weight, city engineer Ran Martin reported Tuesday. Martin told city council $100,000 in maintenance work could keep… Continue reading Georgia Viaduct Overweight…
When working on research into Chinatown buildings, it’s common to come across newspaper reports of police raids on the area’s “gambling dens.” Reporters highlighted the number of men arrested and in some cases, the haul of money confiscated. Following up on these busts is interesting. After the initial publicity around the police action it was… Continue reading Chinese Social Clubs, Gambling Raids and a Lawyer…
The recent fire and demolition of the Winters Hotel at Water and Abbott Streets was a shock and is a loss for Gastown and the city. Designed in 1907 by W.T. Whiteway for Mrs Alice Winters, the hotel welcomed travellers and businessmen to Vancouver. For its day it was a good hotel with 120 rooms,… Continue reading The Winters Hotel, John McAfee and a Trunk…
Years ago I had heard of a tour bus operator who arranged for a couple of guys in costume brandishing knifes that would run across Pender Street near Carrall on the edge of Chinatown as the bus came down the street so that the driver could announce “oh my a tong war!” to the apparent… Continue reading Rubber Knives, Ketchup and the Persistence of Tourism Myths…
It was a one paragraph item in the August 8, 1955 edition of the Vancouver Sun noting that a house formally owned by Ezak Nep at 878 SW Marine Drive had been wrecked by people looking for a supposed fortune hidden somewhere in the house. I made a note in my book of perpetual research… Continue reading Treasure House Ransacked
I’ve been researching the area around Fifth Avenue and Fir Street recently and in searching through the City of Vancouver Archives photograph collection found this photo taken in 1966. I was intrigued, it looked like a electrical sub station, but BC Hydro doesn’t do cute names, and there’s lots of lumber outside so it looks… Continue reading What’s a Hector’s?
Ghost signs are ephemeral objects that have only survived because nobody painted over them. They are a fascinating and important link to the past, but how do you preserve the layers and changes often found within one advert? Well, the Friends of Vancouver City Archives hope to answer that with their upcoming talk: Shining a… Continue reading Painting with Light…
…a cobblestone courtyard, where apparently, a hangman’s scaffold once stood. In full view of gathering public, the noose was pulled tight many times over, taking over 40 people to the grave. One of the more popular Gastown myths wrapped around Blood Alley Square is the so-called Court House and a gallows that supposedly dispatched large… Continue reading All That Hanging About…
What Floats to the Top of My Desk 