Missing Heritage

Henry Switzer’s shocking pink house sat at Mathers and Taylor Way in West Vancouver. It was designed one Sunday and received attention from all over the world. Local Landmark: A few years ago, I wrote a story about a West Vancouver house that became a local landmark. Readers told me that they fondly remembered the… Continue reading Henry Switzer and his Shocking Pink House

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… Continue reading Barr and Anderson: Established 1898

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. The… Continue reading Victory Square: What was there before?

Janet Stewart was going through her mother Edna’s things after she passed away recently and came across four sketches by Frits Jacobsen. They showed various Vancouver buildings in the late 1960s. Janet googled his name, came across a story by Jason Vanderhill on my blog, and kindly sent me photos. Hornby and Nelson: I posted… Continue reading Vancouver’s Missing Buildings

Beatrice Lennie created a mural for the Hotel Vancouver’s lobby in 1939. It’s been hidden behind a wall since 1967. This story is from Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History.  Beatrice Lennie: When Beatrice Lennie graduated from the first class at the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts (now Emily Carr University… Continue reading Behind the Wall at the Hotel Vancouver

The name of the 11-acre green space at the entrance to Stanley Park known as Devonian Harbour Park has nothing to do with its indigenous history, the land’s connection to the Kanakas, the buildings that once dotted its landscape or Vancouver. The park was named after the Calgary-based Devonian Group of Charitable Foundations which forked… Continue reading The Evolution of Devonian Harbour Park

From Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History The Stuart Building was a landmark that sat at the southeast corner of Georgia and Chilco Streets, marking the border between the city and Stanley Park from 1909 until its demise in 1982. Painted Sky Blue: It didn’t have the elegance of the Birks Building, the… Continue reading Our Missing Heritage: The Stuart Building

The first CPR station sat at the foot of Howe Street and operated between 1887 and 1914. The First Transcontinental Train: The first transcontinental train arrived in Vancouver on May 23, 1887. Businesses closed for the afternoon, city council adjourned, the city band and fire brigade led a parade of hundreds to the station. The… Continue reading How the First CPR Station became William Alberts House

The Devonshire Hotel on West Georgia was demolished July 5, 1981 to make way for the head office tower of the Bank of BC. Story from Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History Devonshire Apartment Hotel: The Devonshire originally opened as an apartment building, but within a few years was operating as the Devonshire… Continue reading The Devonshire (1924-1981)

When the Pacific Centre took over Granville and Georgia Streets, it knocked out blocks of heritage buildings. Story and photos from Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History The Great White Urinal: When I moved to Vancouver from Australia in the mid-1980s, locals had already had a dozen years to get used to Pacific… Continue reading Pacific Centre

The Imperial Roller Skating Rink opened in 1907 at English Bay and boasted the largest skating floor in North America. Morton Park: In 1907, more than 100 years before the famous laughing statues appeared at English Bay, the Imperial Roller Skating Rink opened in Morton Park at Denman and Davie Streets. Roller skating was surging… Continue reading The Imperial Roller Skating Rink and Other Missing Structures of Beach Avenue

The Orillia on Robson: The Orillia on Robson and Seymour Streets, was just a memory by the time I moved to Vancouver in the mid-1980s, but from time to time I see a mention or a photo of this early mixed-use structure at Robson and Seymour. One particularly poignant photo was taken before its destruction… Continue reading The Orillia (1903-1985)

Before the Vancouver Art Gallery moved into the old courthouse on West Georgia, its home was a gorgeous art deco building a few blocks away.  If you live in Vancouver, you know that the Vancouver Art Gallery is housed in the old law courts, an imposing neo-classical building designed by celebrity architect Francis Rattenbury in… Continue reading The First Vancouver Art Gallery

At 2:00 pm on Sunday March 24, 1974, a group of about a 100 people, many of them students and professors from the UBC School of Architecture, came together in a mock funeral for the Birks Building, an eleven storey Edwardian masterpiece at Georgia and Granville with a terracotta façade and a curved front corner.… Continue reading We held a funeral for the Birks Building

In 2014, the Centennial fountain that sat outside the former Vancouver courthouse was removed after nearly half a century. It had been turned off the year before after a leak was found in the Vancouver Art Gallery’s storage area. While the new, sterile looking plaza hasn’t been wholeheartedly embraced, neither was the fountain when it… Continue reading Our Missing Heritage: The Centennial Fountain

In the late 1980s when I worked at the Vancouver Stock Exchange, we’d sometimes hang out at Trader Vic’s, the Polynesian-style bar and restaurant that sat in the parking lot of the Westin Bayshore Hotel. 1961 – 1999: It’s been gone since 1999—taken to Vancouver Island and left to rot. I was reminded of Trader… Continue reading Missing Heritage: Trader Vic’s

An Interview with Jazmin Welch, book designer about working on Vancouver Exposed I’m excited to tell you that Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History is now in bookstores. And, while the saying goes “don’t judge a book by its cover,” I have to disagree. A great cover not only helps to sell the… Continue reading An Interview with Vancouver Exposed Book Designer Jazmin Welch

Frank Gowen was born in England in 1877. He moved to Vancouver in 1913 and worked as a photographer until his death in 1946. Chris Stiles kindly sent me this fabulous panoramic photo that she and husband Alan found when they were going through some personal effects of Alan’s father recently. “My husband’s dad, Roy… Continue reading Frank Gowen’s Vancouver

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

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