One of the things I loved most about being a contributor to Vancouver Confidential was working with reporters, bloggers, artists, tour guides, actors, musicians and academics that cut across both decades and demographics. The experience made me realize what a truly diverse group we have working in the local history and heritage space. So just… Continue reading Heritage Streeters (with John Atkin, Aaron Chapman, Jeremy Hood and Will Woods)

  When I think of photographers working in Vancouver in the 50s and 60s, I think of Foncie Pulice, Selwyn Pullan and Fred Herzog. Foncie was a street photographer who opened Foncie’s Fotos in 1946 and shot millions of photos of people as they strolled Vancouver’s streets. Vancouver-born Selwyn Pullan, served in the Canadian Navy… Continue reading The photographs of Jan de Haas (1914-1967)

The Vogue Theatre opened in April 1941 and was designated as a national historic site in 1993. From Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History Dal Richards opened: On April 15, 1941 the Dal Richards Big Band was the opening act for the Vogue Theatre, a combination vaudeville and movie house located on Granville… Continue reading In and out of Vogue: A Vancouver art deco story

For Part Six in my sad, but ongoing series of our missing buildings, I’ve selected a former city hall, a railway station and a court house and then taken a look at what we’ve done with their old sites. Even if you don’t love the architecture—and I do happen to be a fan of anything… Continue reading Our Missing Heritage: a railway station, a city hall and a court house: what were we thinking?

Most people have heard of Harry Jerome. His name adorns recreation centres and his statue is in Stanley Park. At one time he was the fastest man alive, setting a total of seven world records. In 1970 he was made an officer of the Order of Canada. Fewer people remember his sister Valerie, yet she… Continue reading Black History Month: Valerie Jerome

The story behind this photo of VPD detectives that appeared in the Vancouver Daily World on January 25, 1924 Joe Ricci’s Vancouver: One of my favourite characters in Sensational Vancouver is Detective Joe Ricci who joined the Vancouver Police Department in 1912. Joe was a kick-arse cop from the old school who didn’t get too… Continue reading The story behind a 1924 Vancouver photograph

There’s a female ghost who haunts Salmagundi. She hangs out downstairs and begs the odd customer to look through old photos, find one of her and take it home. Once a customer told owner Anne Banner that a ghost wanted her to take an antique doll out of a birdcage. Anne, who has never experienced… Continue reading Vancouver’s Salmagundi West

Arthur Erickson is one of Canada’s most famous architects, yet his own house and garden ranks #8 on Heritage Vancouver’s top 10 endangered sites for 2014.  Story from Sensational Vancouver Arthur Erickson’s fingerprints are all over some of Metro Vancouver’s most iconic buildings—the Museum of Anthropology, Simon Fraser University and dozens of residential houses. Unusual… Continue reading Arthur Erickson’s House and Garden are on the Endangered List

If you’re a property owner in Metro Vancouver and looking for relief in this year’s property tax bill, well let’s just say it’s not going to happen. For property owners living in one of the priciest regions of the country—the West Coast real estate market keeps going up—and so does your bill. The good news… Continue reading The Top 10 Most Expensive Houses in BC: nine are in Vancouver

It’s hard to imagine that 100 years ago the Hastings Street area had a thriving theatre district, filled with opulent buildings, cafes and people, and known as the “Hastings Great White Way.” Story from Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History In past blogs I’ve written about the Strand, the Pantages and the Empress;… Continue reading Vancouver’s Missing Theatres

Percy Williams was the world’s fastest human for a time. In these days of super-charged Olympic athletes, he was truly unique. The following is story is from Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History King Edward High School: There’s a young, very thin Percy Williams in a picture of the King Edward High School… Continue reading Percy Williams: World’s Fastest Human

Happy Halloween. And, in honour of my favourite non-holiday, here’s a completely true ghost story from the pages of Sensational Vancouver. When Jennifer, Patrick, Graham, 6 and Angus, 3 moved into their home, they didn’t realize they’d be sharing it with strangers. But to Jennifer, an interior designer, it soon because obvious they were not… Continue reading The North Vancouver Ghost

Now a Cold Case Canada Podcast: Halloween Special – Three Ghost Stories and a Murder  For over six decades a large white house stood at the corner of Williams Street North and Portage Avenue in Chilliwack. The stately old manor had a three-storey tower with a turret topped off by a witch’s hat roof, and… Continue reading The Chilliwack Hostess with the Ghostess

This totally true ghost story took place in the West End’s Mole Hill. The full story, and those of other haunted houses appeared in Sensational Vancouver Mole Hill: In the 1960s, the City of Vancouver started buying up a mixture of Queen Anne and Edwardian houses along Comox Street in the West End, intending to… Continue reading The Ghosts of Mole Hill

This is an excerpt from Sensational Vancouver. Eleanor Lum Wayne Avery knew nothing about the history of his house until one day he saw an elderly Chinese woman peering through his front room window. He invited her inside and discovered that she was Eleanor (Yip) Lum, and that she had been born in one of… Continue reading Meet Nellie Yip Quong

The Georgia Viaduct knocked out a lot of buildings in 1971 including Hogan’s Alley and Vie’s Chicken and Steakhouse. Urban Renewal: The photo (above) was shot in 1971 and appears in Sensational Vancouver’s Walk on the Wild Side chapter to illustrate “urban renewal”—the City of Vancouver’s excuse for trying to demolish Strathcona and Chinatown. It’s… Continue reading The Georgia Viaduct

John Atkin can be a bit of a kill joy, always squashing rumours about secret tunnels in Chinatown, ghosts in the Dominion Building, and well, blood in Blood Alley. John squashes another rumour in his story about a tunnel that supposedly connected a sugar baron to a brothel, but in doing so he uncovered some… Continue reading Who was Maxine?

It’s been incredibly exciting seeing Sensational Vancouver claim the top spot on the Best of BC list for the past four weeks, and it’s made me pay close attention to the book section in the Vancouver Sun. What I’ve noticed is that M. Wylie Blanchet’s The Curve of Time, has ranked in the top 10… Continue reading The Curve of Time: national bestseller after more than 50 years

A couple of weeks ago, Judy Graves, Tom Carter and I took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Orpheum Theatre. The “new” Orpheum was designed in 1927 by Marcus Priteca, a Seattle-based architect who fashioned the theatre in a Spanish renaissance style and gave it an opulent air with some sleight of hand tricks. For instance,… Continue reading The Orpheum Theatre and a conversation with Paul Merrick

I’ve been posting pictures of the BC Electric Building on Facebook this week, but I haven’t posted this one—it’s on the back of Sensational Vancouver and in the chapter on West Coast Modern. The photo was shot by Selwyn Pullan in 1957, the same year BC Electric completed this ground breaking piece of architecture. While… Continue reading The incredible photography of Selwyn Pullan