Francis Rattenbury moved to Victoria in 1892. The 25-year-old had beat out 60 other architects to win the design competition for BC’s Parliament Buildings. Although massively over budget, the commission propelled the young architect’s career, and before long he had a slew of buildings after his name including the Empress Hotel, The Crystal Gardens, the CPR Steamship Building, the Bank of Montreal on Government (Irish Times Pub), and the Law Courts (Vancouver Art Gallery), as well as his own Oak Bay Mansion–Iechinihl, now a private school.
You can be forgiven if National Inventors’ Day (February 11) passed you by yesterday, but it gives me a great excuse to write about Barney Oldfield, one of British Columbia’s own treasures.
Barney Oldfield:
Horace Basil (Barney) Oldfield was a mechanical genius and inventor who lived most of his life in Saanich, just outside of Victoria.
On August 2, 1970 three people died when Russian freighter Sergey Yesenin collided with BC ferry the Queen of Victoria in Active Pass. The freighter’s steel bow sliced through the ferry almost cutting it in half.
From Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History
Active Pass:
One of the highlights of taking a BC Ferry from Vancouver to Victoria is Active Pass, that narrow channel of water that runs through the Gulf Islands.
In the Halloween Special 2020, we visit the Vogue Theatre, and includes stories of haunted grain elevators, a Chilliwack manor and a once “occupied” house in James Bay, Victoria.
Based on stories from At Home With History: The Secrets of Greater Vancouver’s Heritage Houses; Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History; and Sensational Victoria and features an interview with former Vogue theatre manager Bill Allman.
This is the last episode of my podcast Blood, Sweat, and Fear: The Story of Inspector Vance. I’ll be taking a few months off to write a new book, and then my plan is to host and produce a second series based on Cold Case Vancouver. If you’re not already, please subscribe and I’ll let you know when the next series is out.
Sidney Colbourne lived in Oak Bay, Victoria, and frequently beat up his wife Vera and their five-year-old daughter. One night, the gun that Sid bought to keep Vera in line, went off and shot him in the head. It was 1938. Vera was put on trial for murder, and Inspector Vance was called in to investigate.
In 1936, Doris Gravlin’s strangled corpse was found on the 7th fairway of the Victoria Golf Course. People soon started reporting sightings of the April ghost. According to local legend, if a couple saw her, they would immediately break up, and her ghost wouldn’t leave until her son was told the truth about her murder.
On May 26, 1896, 143 people crammed onto Streetcar No. 16 to cross the Point Ellice Bridge. It was Queen Victoria’s birthday and they were on their way to attend the celebrations at Macaulay Point Park in Esquimalt. They never made it.
The middle span of the bridge collapsed under the weight and the streetcar plunged into the Upper Harbour landing on its right side.