Monday November 25 is International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. This is an excerpt from Sensational Victoria: Bright Lights, Red Lights, Murders, Ghosts & Gardens. Doug Guyatt was cleaning up the front yard of his Colwood home one afternoon in June 1992 when he found his wife’s severed head in a bag… Continue reading Remembering Shannon Arlene Guyatt (1958-1992)

Irving House was built in 1865 in New Westminster by Captain John Irving. He died in 1872, but never really left.  This is an excerpt from my book  At Home with History: The Secrets of Greater Vancouver’s Heritage Homes. Irving House is built in the Gothic Revival style and overlooks the Fraser River on what’s… Continue reading Irving House: A Gothic Ghost Story

Blair Mercer left a comment on an old blog post of mine this week. He told me that his mother, Beatrice Mary Hayes was the model for the ceramic of a woman and child installed inside the Canada Post Building on West Georgia Street in 1957. Beatrice was born in 1921, grew up in Jasper,… Continue reading Paul Huba and the Canada Post Building

I was inspired to write this post after seeing this photo by Canadian Colour, that originally appeared in the Province, August 20, 1936. In 1911, Vancouver had a population of less than 150,000 and yet the city felt big enough to sustain a 10,000-seat arena with the first artificial ice in Canada. It was built… Continue reading The West End’s Denman Arena

Can’t let Asian Heritage Month go by without a nod to Mary and Walter Chan, the Strathcona activists who helped keep the bulldozers at bay and rallied the community to preserve not only Chinatown, but a big chunk of our city’s culture and heritage. Chan family outside 658 Keefer ca.1968. From L to R: Larry… Continue reading May is Asian Heritage Month – Meet Mary Chan

The Vancouver Heritage House tour is coming up Sunday June 2, and I haven’t been this excited since Casa Mia was featured in 2014. Don’t get me wrong, the VHF works hard all year to curate a great mix of architectural styles, neighbourhoods and house sizes, but unless you work at, or have a daughter… Continue reading The Vancouver Heritage House Tour, Alvo von Alvensleben and the Old Residence

There’s been a lot about laneway houses in the media over the last couple of years. Loosely defined, it’s a legal way of plonking down a small house in your backyard, and depending on your point of view, either exploiting or helping to ease the current rental squeeze. Laneway houses have to be under 1,000… Continue reading The Kitsilano Laneway House

My friend, Angus McIntyre emailed me these amazing photos of streetcar advertising that he came across on the Vancouver Archives site this week. The first photo shows Car 211 on the  #3 Davie Street route passing the 400-block Granville Street. According to Angus, it was a two-man car, where you would board at the rear… Continue reading Streetcar Advertising and the Hobby Lobby Radio Show

About six years ago, I was doing some research for my book Sensational Vancouver and took a tour of Strathcona with James Johnstone. I was excited to meet Paul Yee, a historian who now lives in Toronto, and has written several brilliant books which include Salt Water City, Tales from Gold Mountain, and most recently, A… Continue reading Paul Yee’s Vancouver Archives

Iaci’s Casa Capri Restaurant at 1022 Seymour Street was a Vancouver institution for more than 50 years. It closed in 1982. Story from: Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History Rick Iaci was driving down Seymour Street one day when he was horrified to see dozens of framed photographs being thrown into a dumpster… Continue reading Iaci’s Casa Capri

Members of the Town Planning Commission passed a resolution stating that they were not in favour of Deadman’s Island as a site for a proposed museum of Vancouver art, historical and scientific society. It was declared the Coal Harbour site was too inaccessible—Province: April  9, 1932 It continues to amaze me that Stanley Park has… Continue reading Aborted Plans: Deadman’s Island

Aimee Greenaway was reading Blood, Sweat, and Fear when she came across George Hannay, a safe cracker from Nanaimo. She’d heard a story about the former BC Provincial police officer turned criminal, but this was the first time she’d seen evidence of his crimes. Aimee thought Hannay’s story would make a great inclusion in the… Continue reading Nanaimo Mysteries

If you listened to CKNW any time from the mid-1950s to the end of the ‘90s, you’ll remember George Garrett. His memoir, George Garrett Intrepid Reporter has just been published, and it’s a great ride through four decades of politics, disasters, consumer investigations and murders. I met George in the mid-1990s, when I was a… Continue reading George Garrett: Intrepid Reporter

I have just acquired a piece of St. Andrews-Wesley Church. A rug that’s worn in all the places that you’d expect of something that has graced the entranceway of this downtown heritage building for eight decades and hosted thousands of multi-denominational feet. The renovations were made possible by the sale of church land and a… Continue reading St. Andrews-Wesley Church’s $30 Million Dollar Makeover

Last week, Bob Shiell sent me a note telling me that he worked with Rene Castellani at CKNW in the early 1960s, and was a huge force in one of the station’s most visible promotions—the Maharajah of Alleebaba. From Murder by Milkshake: an astonishing true story of adultery, arsenic, and a charismatic killer I wrote… Continue reading The Maharajah of Alleebaba

Glen McDonald was easily Vancouver’s most colourful coroner. He called himself the “Ombudsman of the Dead” and served from 1954 to 1980. If I was able to go back in time and choose six people to interview, Glen McDonald would be high up on the list. I got to know him while I was researching… Continue reading Glen McDonald: Vancouver’s Colourful Coroner

When Fritz Autzen, a baker from Neukölln, Germany moved his family to British Columbia in 1954, his first job was a cook at Zaro’s of America, a deli on Robson Street. Five years later he moved his family to the West End and established the Hippocampus, a fish & chip shop on Denman and Comox… Continue reading Fritz Autzen and the West End’s Hippocampus

    On June 4, 1965, CKNW personality Rene Castellani climbed to the top of the scaffolding next to the BowMac Sign and promised not to come down until every last car on the lot was sold. It took nine days. The following story is an excerpt from Murder by Milkshake: An Astonishing Story of… Continue reading The BowMac Sign: Guy in the Sky

The Story of the Severed Feet: I was at a Christmas party last week when the conversation turned to severed feet. You remember all those ones that turned up wearing running shoes in spots like False Creek, Richmond and Gabriola Island? It wasn’t some twisted serial killer or gang sign, when the body decomposes the… Continue reading The Introvert’s Guide to the Holiday Season

On Sunday December 16, 1973, 96-year-old Albina Christiana Lequiea was found murdered in her bed. She lived on the second floor of the Sisters of Saint Paul School in North Vancouver. This story is from Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History The Convent: At first, it was thought that Albina had died from… Continue reading The Murder of Albina Lequiea