Eve Lazarus
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.
Rolie Moore grew up in Burnaby’s Hart House and became the president of the Flying Seven, Canada’s first all female pilot club
I had the pleasure of having lunch with the delightful George Garrett at Hart House last week, a restaurant I’ve wanted to visit ever since I first heard that one of its inhabitants was the amazing Rolie Moore.
Maximum Security:
BC Penitentiary was a maximum-security federal prison plagued with riots throughout its 100-year life. There was the 1975 riot and hostage taking resulting in the death of Mary Steinhauser, a 32-year-old social worker. She was one of 15 hostages shot when police stormed the prison. Long before that, there was the 1934 riot when 78 prisoners refused to work unless they were paid.
The second CPR station at the foot of Granville Street didn’t make it until its 15th birthday. It was replaced in 1914.
From Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History
Even if you don’t love the architecture—and I am a fan of anything that’s gothic and grim and wears a turret—you’ve got to admit that the former Canadian Pacific station would be an amazing addition to our current landscape.
You can be forgiven if National Inventors’ Day (February 11) passed you by yesterday, but it gives me a great excuse to write about Barney Oldfield, one of British Columbia’s own treasures.
Barney Oldfield:
Horace Basil (Barney) Oldfield was a mechanical genius and inventor who lived most of his life in Saanich, just outside of Victoria.
Barr and Anderson, was a Vancouver company founded in 1898 and the name behind the mechanical work in some of our oldest buildings – a few of which still stand.
Founded in 1898:
Back in the 1960s, Doug Archer was an apprentice plumber with Barr and Anderson, a Vancouver company founded in 1898 and the name behind the mechanical work in some of our oldest buildings – a few of which still stand.
Heritage Vancouver released their annual top 10 watch list last month (for 2021), and rather than look at endangered buildings, they have focused on space. I was interested to find Victory Square on the list—or rather not the square itself, but the buildings that surround it, some of which date back to the 1800s.
Doug Bennett, lead singer of Doug and the Slugs and his wife Nancy bought an old house on Semlin Drive in 1987. The house received heritage designation last month.
This story is from my book Sensational Vancouver
2146 Semlin Drive:
Current owners Adrienne Tanner and Mike Walker now have a Heritage Revitalization Agreement with the City of Vancouver.
