The much lamented—and never should have come down–second Hotel Vancouver should have the number one spot on any much missed heritage building list, but I’d argue that the Devonshire should be a close second. When it comes to hotels, we’ve pulled down a lot of them. Here’s my Top 7 list of downtown hotels missing from… Continue reading Our Missing Hotel Heritage: What were we thinking?

This story appears in Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the city’s hidden history I wrote about the Garden family a couple of weeks back. William and Mary Garden arrived in Vancouver in 1889, opened up the Garden and Sons Wholesale Tea and Coffee on East Hastings, and lived for a time at a house at Thurlow… Continue reading The Garden Family and the Lester Court Connection

Look for the full story of Jennie Eldon Conroy in Cold Case Vancouver: the city’s most baffling unsolved murders A couple of weeks ago, Daien Ide, reference historian at the North Vancouver Museum and Archives came into the possession of a photo album. At first she thought it was just a nice family photo album… Continue reading The unsolved murder of North Vancouver’s Jennie Eldon Conroy

Green Island is one of 21 lighthouses in B.C. recently granted heritage status. This story is from a chapter on lighthouses that never made it way into Sensational Victoria. “The winter wind whistles down the Portland Canal from Alaska and seas lash away at the tower and the dwellings, shellacking them with ice so thick… Continue reading The Green Island Lighthouse now has Heritage Status

If you are like me and have a couple of Michael Kluckner’s books at home, you might be surprised to learn that his latest effort is a graphic novel. In his latest book, Toshiko, Michael has replaced his paint brush with a pencil, and he’s taken a leap into fiction. Turns out, Michael kicked off… Continue reading Michael Kluckner’s Toshiko: a graphic novel

This story appears in Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History. Anders Falk is a Vancouver realtor with deep roots in the city. His great, great grandparents William and Mary Henderson Garden arrived in Vancouver from Helensburgh, Scotland, via Liverpool and a cross Canada train trip in April 1889. William opened up Garden and… Continue reading Thurlow and Alberni Streets: then and now

There is a chapter on West Coast Modern Artists and Architects in Sensational Vancouver. If you love West Coast modern like I do, check out the art and architecture exhibit at the West Vancouver Museum this summer. Work from all the greats is there—Fred Hollingsworth, Arthur Erickson, BC Binning, Ned Pratt, Ron Thom, Gordon Smith,… Continue reading West Coast Modern on Display

From Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History This photo of a bombed out car in 1932 has been bugging me ever since a reader posted it on my Facebook page a few weeks ago. So this week I made a trip to the Vancouver Public Library to find out its back story. It… Continue reading Movie projectionist escapes death when bomb wrecks car

From Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History I was spending a typical Friday afternoon yesterday poking around the digital files at Vancouver Archives when I found this photo of the Alhambra Theatre. The photo was taken in 1899, the year the theatre first appears in the city directories and it stood at the… Continue reading What the Alhambra Theatre and the Vancouver Stock Exchange have in common

  It may not be the grandest house on the Vancouver Heritage Foundation’s tour, but I bet 446 Union Street house is one of the most interesting, at least when it comes to its social history. Story from: Sensational Vancouver Adamo Piovesan built the brick house in 1930 for his wife Maria and their four… Continue reading 446 Union Street

When I was researching my 2007 book At Home with History I spent most of my life at the Vancouver Archives and on the 7th floor of the Vancouver Public Library. Now, instead of trekking downtown, much of the information is available to me here at home. Today, the digital world just got a bit… Continue reading Online Porn for History Nerds

Because May is Asian Heritage Month it seems fitting to run a story about Joy Kogawa. The following is an excerpt from the Legendary Women chapter in Sensational Vancouver. Joy Kogawa’s childhood house is a modest wood-framed bungalow in South Vancouver. There’s really nothing architecturally significant about it except that it’s one of the few original… Continue reading Joy Kogawa’s House

For more stories like this one see Vancouver Exposed: Searching for this city’s hidden history I was trekking around the West End with artist and historian Tom Carter on Tuesday. I found some pictures of gorgeous old West End houses at the archives and I wanted to see what replaced them. Tom had some aerial… Continue reading Our missing West End residential heritage: What were we thinking?

Here are five of my favourite eccentric BC houses that still stand (or did at the time of research). 1. The Hobbit House(s) There are two in Vancouver and one in West Van designed by Ross Lort in the early 40s, and against all odds, all survive. Hobbit house at King Edward and Cambie is now… Continue reading Five Eccentric B.C. Houses

From Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History Cemeteries are really interesting places, and I’ve wandered through Vancouver’s Mountain View several times over the years, but I never noticed the Infant Garden before. It’s an amazing story. Between 1907 and 1972 nearly 11,000 babies were put into unmarked graves at the cemetery. Some of… Continue reading The Infant Garden

In February heritage men told us their favourite building and the one building we should have saved. To keep the world in balance, I’ve asked the same question of women working in and with heritage—our answers may surprise you. Caroline Adderson: Caroline Adderson is an award-winning Vancouver author  and the person behind Vancouver Vanishes Favourite… Continue reading Heritage Streeters with Caroline Adderson, Heather Gordon, and Eve Lazarus

Back in September 2013 I blogged about a Fred Hollingsworth designed house in North Vancouver that was sold, torn down and soon after flipped for land value that was more than the original house. Chris left a comment asking me if I could find a photo of another North Shore landmark, a futuristic-looking house that… Continue reading The Switzer House of West Vancouver (1960-1971)

On March 20, 1917 Police Chief Malcolm MacLennan, 44, was killed in a shootout with a drug addict. This is an excerpt from Sensational Vancouver: Robert Tait, 32, a drug addict, police informant and pimp from Detroit lived in a rundown apartment over a grocery store at 522 East Georgia with his girlfriend Frankie Russell.… Continue reading The murder of Chief Malcolm MacLennan and nine year old George Robb

Story from Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History Rena Del Pieve Gobbi came under fire last week for using discarded gravestones to hold up her garden. The garden is at Commercial and Powell, wedged in between the Maple Leaf Storage and the train tracks. Since 2001, Rena, an artist and documentary film-maker, has… Continue reading Rena’s Gravestone Garden

Lurancy Harris and Minnie Millar became the first two women police officers in Canada when they were hired by the VPD in 1912 The following is an excerpt from Sensational Vancouver. Joins VPD: Lurancy Harris was a 48-year-old seamstress from Nova Scotia had moved to Vancouver in 1911 and rented a small apartment on Robson… Continue reading Meet Lurancy Harris: Canada’s First Woman Police Officer