Firehall #2 was designed by William Blackmore in 1888 at 724 Seymour but it would be another decade before the VFD started paying its firemen.  I’ve been having a lot of fun putting together my new book Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History  over the last year or so. It’s given me the excuse… Continue reading Missing Heritage: Firehall #2

Margaret Cadwaladr has written a memoir Food Floor: My Woodward’s Days, a nostalgic walk through the area, filled with black and white and colour photos. When I first came to Canada in the mid-1980s the Woodward’s Food Floor saved my life. It was literally the only place in Vancouver that sold jars of vegemite. And… Continue reading Woodward’s: Store #1

My friend Richard Berrow designed this quiz for his colleagues in the legal profession, and kindly sent me a copy. I thought that my friends and colleagues in the local history community would also enjoy it, and give these esteemed lawyers a run for their retainers. If you’ve read Sensational Vancouver, you’ll easily answer three… Continue reading Richard Berrow’s Law/History Quiz:

George Norris was born in Victoria in 1928. He studied at the Vancouver School of Art. His sculptures are spread around Vancouver, Victoria and Calgary, but his most famous is probably The Crab (1967) that sits outside the Museum of Vancouver.  Last week I had the pleasure of writing about Svend-Erik Eriksen and showcasing some… Continue reading The Art of George Norris

I’m a big fan of Svend-Erik Eriksen’s photography of Vancouver in the ’70s. Last week I called him up and asked how he got started. Erik, is an animator by trade, but his interest in photography goes back to the 1950s when he was a kid in Namu, BC. His parents had immigrated from Denmark… Continue reading The Photography of Svend-Erik Eriksen

The Standard Life Insurance building has been at the corner of Howe and Dunsmuir in Vancouver since 1975. It was the third building on the site. In 1889, it was occupied by a hotel. For more stories like this one, check out Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History As 14-storey office blocks go,… Continue reading The Manor House on Howe Street

At the Barnet Marine Park you can check out the  remnants of a once thriving village, sawmills, and Burnaby’s top secret submarine base. For more stories like this one, check out Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History Took the dog for a walk at the Barnet Marine Park in Burnaby last week and… Continue reading Burnaby’s Top Secret Submarine Base

Most people are surprised to learn that from 1907 to 1939 there was a pier at English Bay, but it was only recently that I found out that English Bay actually had two piers. Local historian and collector Neil Whaley has kindly provided a guest blog about the second pier at English Bay, the one… Continue reading The Second English Bay Pier

On May 23, 1934, Constables Gisbourne and Carr were called out to investigate a stabbing at the Canford Indian Reserve in Merritt. The next day, Gisbourne’s Model B Ford was found crashed into a tree and the policemen had vanished When I was writing Blood, Sweat, and Fear: The Story of Inspector Vance, I experienced… Continue reading Murders at the Canford Indian Reserve

The Vancouver Aquarium opened on June 15, 1976. Before that there were two other locations at English Bay and Hastings Park. English Bay: The first Vancouver Aquarium opened in Hastings Park around 1913. I stumbled over this while on Murray Maisey’s excellent blog Vancouver as it Was. According to a Vancouver Daily World article from… Continue reading The Vancouver Aquariums

Donna recently sent me this photo of a house on Harwood Street in the West End. She said: “I came across this picture in some old family photos. I live in Calgary and as far as I know, there is no family connection to the building. There is no date on my photo, and I… Continue reading The Harwood Street House

10 ways to research your home – or someone’ else’s through online sources Writer, librarian and podcaster Megan Cole sent me an email this week asking for some tips on researching the house where she used to live at 2856 West 5th in Kitsilano. It was such a great question, that it’s my topic for… Continue reading 10 ways to research your home (or someone else’s)

This interesting looking house on Yale Street at the corner of North Kamloops in Hastings/Sunrise was built by a bootlegger in 1931.  The Alvaros: Turns out the house was built in 1931 at a cost of $8,000—a lot of money smack in the middle of the Depression. Its owners were Joseph and Rosa Alvaro, who… Continue reading That House on Yale Street

Hastings Sunrise: At just shy of three acres, Burrard View is not a big park. It runs between North Slocan, North Penticton, Yale and Wall Street. The park slopes down to the water and is shaped like half a house. The building on the west side of the park has been the Cottage Hospice since… Continue reading Burrard View Park

We’ve been taking advantage of the lack of traffic on the roads to take Pickles, our Chiweenie on some new trails. This week we ended up in North Burnaby, parked at the bottom of Boundary and walked along the Trans Canada Trail to Willingdon. While I’m familiar with the squatters at Maplewood Flats and Cates… Continue reading Crabtown

Aaron Chapman’s latest book Vancouver After Dark: The Wild History of a City’s Nightlife is a delightful romp through the ghosts of nightclubs past. Aaron’s behind-the-scenes stories  are told in such a way, it’s like sitting down and having a beer with him. There are too many clubs to list here—everything from Chinatown’s Marco Polo to… Continue reading Vancouver After Dark: Richards on Richards

Jack Cash (1918-2005) started as a Vancouver Sun photographer in the 1930s. He spent most of his life in North Vancouver and went on to have an amazing career.  I first heard about Jack Cash when I was researching his mother Gwen Cash, who when she went to work for Walter Nichol at the Vancouver… Continue reading Jack Cash, Photographer

It wasn’t easy getting a seat at the West Vancouver Library last Wednesday night. The West Van Historical Society presented Local Voices: Shooting the North Shore with Ralph Bower, retired Vancouver Sun photographer and Mike Wakefield, who also recently retired from a 35-year photography career with the North Shore News. The place was packed. I… Continue reading Documenting Local History

The Flying Seven formed in 1935 and were Vancouver’s all-female aviators’ club  Vancouver’s aviatrices: This is one of my favourite photos. It ran with a story in Sensational Vancouver and shows six members of the Flying Seven posed in front of the rocket ship at Vancouver International Airport. The Flying Seven were Vancouver’s all-female aviators’… Continue reading The Flying Seven and the Cambie Street Rocket Ship

When David Rowland heard that Woodward’s was closing in 1993, he phoned up the manager and put in an offer for the department store’s historic Christmas windows. They agreed on a price, and David became the proud owner of six semi-trailer loads of animated teddy bears, elves, geese, children, a horse and cart and various… Continue reading The Woodward’s Christmas Windows