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…
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…
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…
Researching houses is always interesting. There is the architecture, or lack of it, the builders and the context that prompted a development or subdivision and there are the lives of those that once inhabited a house, sometimes ordinary, a few times interesting and occasionally linked to intriguing events. Soon after the 4th Avenue streetcar line… Continue reading From Point Grey to a Train Robbery
Research into houses is always interesting. Sometimes it’s the unexpected life or deeds of an owner or tenant that sheds a bit of light on an obscure aspect of Vancouver history. Or in the case of Marshall Smith a mystery. The house at 1685 Nelson (pictured above in the Vancouver Archives photo, to the right… Continue reading A Disappearance…
Lions have been the guardians of choice for numerous courthouses, public buildings and monuments around the world. The most famous of these, in the Commonwealth at least, might be the ones that sit at the base of Nelson’s column in Trafalgar Square. In Vancouver, the Georgia Street side of the Vancouver Art Gallery (the former… Continue reading A Lion’s Backend…
Squirrels are everywhere in the city and it seems they have been with us forever. While it’s hard to believe now, squirrels were not a common sight in early 19th Century cities, in fact they were considered somewhat exotic and desirable. My curiosity was peaked when I found references to the mayor of New York… Continue reading Squirrels Were Once Desired…
In researching the construction chronology of the Hastings Mill Store, both original and post move, I’ve been reading numerous newspaper articles, all celebratory, about the saving of the building and its move by barge from Burrard Inlet to its current site at the foot of Alma Street. Once installed on its new foundation the building… Continue reading On the Junk Pile…
What Floats to the Top of My Desk 