Eve Lazarus
For more tips on researching your home’s history see At Home with History: the secrets of Greater Vancouver’s heritage homes
The District of North Vancouver has two heritage inventories—Modern Architecture (1930-1965) published in 1997, and one with houses that date prior to 1930 published in 1993. Both are hopelessly out of date, many houses no longer exist, and others that should have been included, were not.
For more about the Commodore Ballroom see Sensational Vancouver
Billboard Magazine hit the streets last week naming our Commodore Ballroom one of North America’s 10 most influential clubs, right up there with New York’s Bowery Ballroom and the Fillmore in San Francisco. According to Billboard, the Commodore scored a spot on the list because it’s well-branded with great sightlines and amazing sound.
Mostly I write for business magazines, but every now and then I get a really unusual assignment. Last month it was a trip on the Rocky Mountaineer for a travel magazine and another was writing the bios and web copy for the Vancouver Fire Fighter’s Calendar. The travel job took me to Banff and a night in the fabulous Banff Springs Hotel, and I got to spend a day at Fire Hall No.
Last month Coastal Boats Near Sidney sold for $1.14 million, propelling E.J. Hughes into an exclusive group of 12 Canadian artists who have sold paintings for more than a million dollars.
I love his work and thought he had always lived on Vancouver Island, so I was interested in his Vancouver connection.
The 2400 Motel on Kingsway opened in 1946. It still has an old fashioned, retro feel and its huge red and blue neon sign.
I discovered the 2400 Motel on Kingsway when I wrote Frommer’s With Kids Vancouver about a decade or so ago. Loved the old fashioned, retro feel of the place and its huge red and blue neon sign.
When Gwen Cash went to work for Walter Nichol at the Vancouver Daily Province in 1917, she was one of the first women general reporters in the country.
From a story in Sensational Victoria: Bright lights, red lights, murders, ghosts and gardens
Gwen meets Emily Carr:
Gwen met Emily Carr when she was sent to Victoria by the Province to interview a woman writer boarding at The House of All Sorts on Simcoe Street.
The Empress Theatre on West Hastings went up in 1908 and came down in 1940, and in its heyday it had the biggest stage west of Chicago. In the 1930s it was owned by Hollywood stars Fay Holden and David Clyde who also owned a house on 51st Avenue in East Vancouver
I took a drive past the Pantages Theatre at East Hastings and Main yesterday. It was pouring with rain and the Downtown Eastside looked even bleaker than normal, like something out of a Dostoevsky novel.
It’s hard to imagine that this skuzzy part of town was once the central business district, but go back a century and the Pantages was part of a thriving theatre district and downtown core.
