Reading the Statements of Significance (SoS) written for Vancouver’s Chinatown can lead to a reasonable amount of teeth grinding and the occasional outburst of profanity given the number of errors, uninformed assumptions and lack of detailed research found in many of the texts. Unfortunately, these Statements live on the Historic Places website – the national… Continue reading 46/80 Dupont/Pender
Like a Zombie 105 Keefer is back… with luck the developer will be told to go away and create a design that actualy relates to and respects the historic location it is being built on and in. The project site was referred to by the developer as a derelict parking lot with no significance or… Continue reading 105 Keefer Again
Given Vancouver’s crazy real estate market it’s not surprising that so many interesting and unique bits of architecture get consigned to the landfill. So it’s a delight to find that all five of the houses (and a garage) designed by Dutch-born architect Jan Adriaan Pauw during his short time in Vancouver have survived. Jan Adriaan… Continue reading It’s Not Just Five Houses: The Architecture of Jan Adriaan Pauw
Historic Colour Analysis and the True Colours Palette My colleague Elana Zsyblat and I are presenting a workshop on paint and historic colours for the Vancouver Heritage Foundation on April 4th at Rodde House in the West End. Apart from the fabulous 19th Century interior of the house, Elana and I will be talking colour,… Continue reading Throwing Paint Around
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
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…
The recent listing for sale of a nine foot wide piece of property in the Grandview neighbourhood drew lots of interest and I was interested in finding out why this odd bit of property existed. Pulling out the maps you can see District Lot 264A, which the Grandview neighbourhood sits in, being carved up into… Continue reading Odd Little Bits of Ground…
In recent research on a house on Tyne Street in Vancouver, I came across this this fascinating and terrifying account of a thunderstorm in August 1919 in the Daily World. The thunderstorm on Thursday night resulted in three houses being struck by lightning. The home of Mrs. Dunlop, Tyne street and Fifty-third avenue, was one.… Continue reading Lightning in the Neighbourhood…
Yes of course, maybe… H-frame power poles have graced most downtown Vancouver lanes for over 80 years but with modernization of the electrical system BC Hydro has been busy putting the power lines underground and the H-frames have largely disappeared from the downtown core. A few lanes in the Downtown Eastside, Gastown and Chinatown still retain… Continue reading H-frame Power Poles: A cultural asset for Chinatown?
What Floats to the Top of My Desk 