Eve Lazarus
False Creek:
False Creek is a realtor’s dream. It’s a model of sustainability, with housing options—that include the condos and townhouses in the Olympic Village—a school, a seawall for walking and running and biking, and a waterway filled on any given day with kayaks and canoes and dragon boats. The neighbourhood has fitness facilities, outdoor play areas, breweries and artistic venues—even a science centre left over from the heyday of Expo 86.
It’s Heritage Week (February 19 – 25) and if you’re looking for something to do Sunday, drop by Heritage Hall on Main Street and check out the Vancouver Heritage Foundation’s community fair. This year’s theme is Layer by Layer. It’s a great opportunity to meet a host of different community groups and take in Brian Walters’ seven-minute, award-winning virtual reality film.
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 Oak Theatre sat at Kingsway near Royal Oak Avenue in Burnaby from 1937 to 1963.
Opening night with CKWX’s Billie Browne, was August 4, 1937. He introduced feature film White Bondage, comedy shorts Blonde Bomber and Hotel a la Swing, and a cartoon called Porky’s Building.
In March 1953, Steve Chizen was putting the final touches on the Cedar V Theatre on Lynn Valley Road. It would be North Vancouver’s third theatre—the Odeon sat at the corner of Lonsdale and 14th Avenue, and the Lonsdale Theatre that went up in 1911, would close forever in 1954.
Steve, who previously managed the Cameo Theatre in Whalley, chose the name Cedar V in deference to the several large cedar trees that were sacrificed for the building site.
This art deco beauty sat near the corner of Lonsdale Avenue and 14th Street in North Vancouver from 1938 to 1986. The 734-seat Nova Theatre opened in January 1938 and was owned by W.P. Dewees and managed by Agnes (Queenie) Albanuff. Mrs. Albanuff was clearly good at her job, because when Dewees sold the theatre to the Odeon chain in 1941, she went with it.
The Glencoe Lodge opened at the corner of West Georgia and Burrard Streets in 1906. Sugar baron, Benjamin Tingley Rogers had bought two houses, raised them, added two storeys and turned the building into a boutique hotel, operated by the fabulous Miss Jean Mollison.
Story from Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History
The Mollison Sisters:
Jean’s older sister Annie came to Canada from Scotland in 1888, armed with an introduction to the head of the CPR.
The Fraser Street Swing Span Bridge was built in 1894 and linked what’s now Fraser Street with No. 5 Road, Richmond. It was demolished in 1974 after completion of the Knight Street Bridge. This is part one of a three-part series about crossing the Fraser River in 1972 by Angus McIntyre
On December 31, 1972, Angus McIntyre, 25 was living at the Fairmont Apartments at 10th Avenue and Spruce Street.
