Ryan Cameron has worked with Vancouver Fire and Rescue for the past 27 years. During that time, he’s had his fair share of burning buildings, calls to accidents, and of course, firehall hauntings. Firehall No. 19 You can find Firehall No. 19 at 12th Avenue and Trimble Street in Vancouver’s West Point Grey. The original… Continue reading The Ghost of Vancouver Firehall No. 19

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… Continue reading Francis Rattenbury: A Halloween Horror Story

October is Women’s History Month in Canada. This gives me a great excuse to write about Elsie MacGill, the Queen of the Hurricanes. Elsie Gregory MacGill grew up on Harwood Street in Vancouver’s West End in the early years of the twentieth century. While other little girls in her dance class dreamed of performing on… Continue reading Elsie MacGill (1905-1980)

On September 10, 1969, 26-year-old nurse Myrna Louise Inglis finished her shift at St. Paul’s Hospital. It was shortly after midnight, the end of a long day, and she was tired. She changed out of her nurse’s uniform and into her street clothes. Because it was chilly, she draped her nurse’s cape around her shoulders.… Continue reading Who Killed Nurse Inglis?

Opening Night: North Vancouver’s Lonsdale Theatre opened on December 11, 1911, to a packed house and an eclectic line-up. The Orchestra kicked off with Titania, followed by two animated films. The Ernest Fisher Players followed with a performance of “The Devil” and opera singer Grace Maynard sang an aria. The finale was the Graham Miniature… Continue reading The Lonsdale Theatre: Then and Now

I was riding my bike along Point Grey Road this week and snapped a few photos of the Peace House. It’s an interesting looking place, and as it turns out, has quite the past. 3148 Point Grey Road: It was built in 1908 by R.D. Rorison who was an early real estate agent and developer.… Continue reading Vancouver’s Peace House and the Grateful Dead

Il Giardino: The last time we were here, the server was so overcome by the beauty of a group of women sitting near us that he broke into an aria. Turns out that when he wasn’t waiting tables he was singing in an opera. Just one of the pleasant surprises at this downtown restaurant, which… Continue reading The Leslie House

I first came across the O Canada house when I was writing At Home with History around 2005. In those days, there were only hard copies of the city directories at Vancouver Archives and Google Maps was still in the future. Research meant walking neighbourhoods, standing in the hedgerows and staring up at gorgeous old… Continue reading Vancouver’s O Canada House

Frits Jacobsen arrived in Vancouver in 1968. He was a prolific artist and  captured some of Vancouver’s iconic and long-gone buildings such as Birks, the Englesea Lodge, and the Orillia on Robson Street. He also drew some that have survived. Two that I’ve seen are the Manhattan Apartments on Thurlow and Main Street’s Heritage Hall.… Continue reading Frits Jacobsen: Anatomy of an East Van House

I’m just back from a road trip that included the Grand Canyon. The place is beyond spectacular and I’ll spare you my clumsy attempt to try to capture its spirit. Instead, I thought I’d tell you the story of a plane crash. At 9:01 am on June 30, 1956, 64 passengers and six crew left… Continue reading Grand Canyon: a Series of Unfortunate Events

I put up a post on April 28 to mark the day that Trans-Canada Air Lines flight 3 took off from Lethbridge on a routine flight to Vancouver. The Lockheed Lodestar never made it, and 47 years would pass until there would be any answers. See: Remembering TCA Flight 3 Dale Brandon wrote to tell… Continue reading Trans-Canada Air Lines

The Oak Theatre sat at Kingsway near Royal Oak Avenue in Burnaby from 1937 to 1963. Opening night with CKWX’s Billie Browne, was August 4, 1937. He introduced feature film White Bondage, comedy shorts Blonde Bomber and Hotel a la Swing, and a cartoon called Porky’s Building. Among the details shared in Vancouver Sun and Province… Continue reading Burnaby’s Oak Theatre – Then and Now

In March 1953, Steve Chizen was putting the final touches on the Cedar V Theatre on Lynn Valley Road. It would be North Vancouver’s third theatre—the Odeon sat at the corner of Lonsdale and 14th Avenue, and the Lonsdale Theatre that went up in 1911, would close forever in 1954. Steve, who previously managed the… Continue reading Lynn Valley’s Cedar V Theatre

Just before noon on March 6, 1945, the SS Greenhill Park blew up, killing six longshoremen and two seamen. Twenty-six others, including seven firefighters were injured in the explosion. On March 6, 1945, nearly 100 men were either loading or getting the SS Greenhill Park ready for its voyage to Australia from CPR’s Pier B-C… Continue reading SS Greenhill Park: A Vancouver Tragedy

This art deco beauty sat near the corner of Lonsdale Avenue and 14th Street in North Vancouver from 1938 to 1986. The 734-seat Nova Theatre  opened in January 1938 and was owned by W.P. Dewees and managed by Agnes (Queenie) Albanuff. Mrs. Albanuff was clearly good at her job, because when Dewees sold the theatre… Continue reading Queenie Albanuff & the Odeon Theatre on Lonsdale

The Glencoe Lodge opened at the corner of West Georgia and Burrard Streets in 1906. Sugar baron, Benjamin Tingley Rogers had bought two houses, raised them, added two storeys and turned the building into a boutique hotel, operated by the fabulous Miss Jean Mollison. Story from Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History The… Continue reading Miss Mollison and the Glencoe Lodge

The Clarence Hotel/Malones Tap House on West Pender and Seymour Streets is one of the oldest hotels in Vancouver.  We held the book launch for Cold Case BC at Malone’s Taphouse on West Pender and Seymour early last November. It was perfect. Built in the early to mid-1890s, it’s one of the, if not the… Continue reading The Clarence Hotel – Then and Now

It took more than a week to fix a large pothole in the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge last month. But in 1944, the Royal Canadian Engineers threw up a Bailey Bridge in just 10 hours. The bridge was designed by Donald Coleman Bailey, a civil engineer from Southbourne, England. When the Germans blew up bridges in… Continue reading Vancouver’s Bailey Bridge

Edgemont Village, North Vancouver. Then and Now: 1949-2023 I came across this photo from the North Vancouver Museum and Archives a while back. It shows a fairly ordinary looking building on Edgemont Boulevard taken in 1949. I headed off to Edgemont Village last week to see what we’d replaced it. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised… Continue reading Edgemont Village: Then and Now

The Arthur Laing Bridge photo essay is the last in a three-part series by Angus McIntyre on Fraser River crossings. The photos were taken on Angus’s Konica Autoreflex T Camera. The Arthur Laing Bridge opened to traffic on 27 August 1975.  December 31, 1972 was an unseasonably warm Sunday and Angus McIntyre jumped on his… Continue reading Crossing the Fraser River – Part 3