Eve Lazarus
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.
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 doesn’t have a view but does have a fabulous outdoor garden terrace in the summer and, in winter, a cozy villa atmosphere….” Eve Lazarus, Frommer’s with Kids Vancouver, 2001 “Get a Babysitter.”
Hornby Street:
Umberto Menghi turned Leslie House into an Italian restaurant in 1973.
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 heritage houses.
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.
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 oldest pubs in the city.
Mount Pleasant Stories: Historical Walking Tours, by Christine Hagemoen
Walking Tour #1:
We had a lot of fun road-testing Christine Hagemoen’s Mount Pleasant Stories: Historical Walking Tours this week. Christine, a researcher and photographer wrote and published her guide—the first of five walking tours in the Mount Pleasant area—last November.
The Industrial School for Girls operated out of 868 Cassiar Street from 1914 until 1959 and was known as the “house of horror.” Now a residential condo, Cassiar is one of the properties featured on this year’s virtual Heritage House Tour, Thursday June 2. For tickets see: Vancouver Heritage Foundation
This story is from Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History
In 1954, 17-year-old Gay Turner was tossed into the Provincial Industrial School for Girls for being drunk.
The Melbourne Hotel became No5 Orange in 1971, after 67 years as a hotel and beer parlour
The Melbourne Hotel opened in August 1904 at Westminster Avenue and Powell Street. According to the daily classified ads that ran in the Vancouver Daily World and Province, it had steam heating, electric lights and a white cook.
