Heritage Buildings

The 2012 Greater Vancouver Fire Fighters Hall of Flame Calendar officially launched on September 8 at Chill Winston’s, a restaurant in a heritage building in Vancouver’s Gastown. Since it’s the Calendar’s 25th anniversary, and because the front page and several of the fire fighters were shot at Firehall No. 6 in Vancouver’s West End, there’s a… Continue reading Vancouver Fire Fighter’s Hall of Flame Calendar

The two-storey Commercial Block at East 8th and St. Andrews in North Vancouver is getting a makeover. New owner Brad Hodson plans to return it to 1912 with a large coat of Strathcona red paint trimmed with Victorian peridot and Edwardian buff accents. For the past four years Brad has driven by 277 East 8th … Continue reading Valley Estates headed for heritage digs

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… Continue reading Commodore Ballroom voted 8th most influential club in North America

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… Continue reading Fire Hall No. 6

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… Continue reading 2400 Motel: Vancouver’s 10th most endangered heritage site

Last week Heritage Vancouver released its annual top ten list of endangered heritage sites in Vancouver. Three schools topped the list, but the residence considered most in danger is the four-hectare Shannon Estate at the corner of Granville and 57th. Note that it’s not the 40-room mansion that’s under threat, it’s Shannon Mews, the infill townhouse… Continue reading The Shannon Estate: Fourth most endangered heritage site

During WW2 more than 3,000 Japanese-Canadian women and children were ripped from their homes and housed in the Livestock Building in Hastings Park

Serge Pare is the lightkeeper at Green Island, one of 27 lighthouses still manned in British Columbia.

How I toured my father’s childhood house in Ballarat and told the owners about the social history of their heritage house.