Vancouver History

From Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History Bryan Adams has collected a ton of hardware over the years, but the one I find the most interesting is the City of Vancouver Heritage Award he was given in 1998 for transforming a derelict Gastown warehouse into a world class recording studio. When Adams bought… Continue reading From Vancouver City Hall to Bryan Adams’ Recording Studio: repurposing old buildings

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to get in on a tour exploring several DTES buildings with Judy Graves, Tom Carter and John Atkin. Judy spent decades advocating for the homeless, and this is her stamping ground. Tom lives and paints from his downtown loft, and John lives in Strathcona, so I’m… Continue reading Exploring the DTES – Main Street Barber Shop

“Straight as a plummet the steak of red below the long streak of white dropped for fully 100 feet. Then with a couple of preliminary flutters, the rushing air entered the distending ring of the parachute and it opened like a huge umbrella. A great sigh of relief went up from the 6,000 and some… Continue reading Canada’s First Parachute Jump was at North Vancouver’s mudflats

From Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History In February 2014, Canada Post came out with two stamps in recognition of Black History Month. One shows Hogan’s Alley, the unofficial name for an area near Union and Main Streets and home to much of Vancouver’s early black community. The other is of Nora Hendrix… Continue reading Recognizing Black History: The Canada Post Stamps

When Lani Russwurm jumped online in 2008 he was one of the first to write about history in his blog Past Tense. The blog morphed into a weekly writing gig with Bob Kronbauer’s Vancouver is Awesome and last year he published Vancouver was Awesome: a curious pictorial history, a hugely popular local history book which… Continue reading Lani Russwurm’s Awesome Vancouver

Marsha Fuller was cleaning out a client’s attic in Western Maryland a couple of weeks ago when she came across this postcard of a traffic accident featuring a Grandview street car in 1909. Marsha’s company, Your Mother’s Attic, helps the relatives of the newly dead sort out what is often a lifetime of possessions—she often comes across these… Continue reading An Accidental Postcard

Tom Carter is a Vancouver-based artist known for exploring the city’s gritty urban environments. Heritage Loft: I visited Tom Carter in his heritage loft a couple of weeks ago. It was the same afternoon that we climbed up to the top of the Sun Tower, in what was in 1912, the tallest building in the… Continue reading Meet Tom Carter Artist

And just because it’s the last day of the year, I thought I’d run a special post on my favourite Facebook local history pages of 2013. In no particular order and chosen because they offer real value for time expended–here is my top 10. 1. Vancouver Vanishes For a number of years Caroline Adderson wrote… Continue reading Making History through Facebook

A couple of weeks ago my friend Tom Carter and I climbed to the top of the Sun Tower, one of my favourite buildings in Vancouver. It’s also one of our most familiar landmarks, and at one time the tallest building in the British Empire when mayor, L.D. Taylor had it built over a century… Continue reading The Sun Tower: On Top of the World

In 1913 Vancouver had a thriving theatre district that included eight movie theatres as well as stock theatres like the Pantages and the Empress——both completed in 1908. Over the years we’ve managed to pretty well destroy all evidence of these theatres—the  Capital, the Strand, two Orpheum theatres, and of course, most recently the Pantages Theatre at… Continue reading Our Missing Heritage: The Theatre District

Steveston’s Finn Slough. Shanty slum or quaint fishing village? Finn Slough: We biked to Finn Slough last Thursday. It’s located at the end of No. 4 Road about six clicks from Steveston. Depending on what you read or who you talk to, it’s either a quaint little fishing village or a bunch of degenerates squatting… Continue reading Steveston’s Finn Slough

The story of the Alexander Street brothels is featured in Sensational Vancouver.  Janice Abbott, CEO of Atira Women’s Resource Society, took me on a tour of some new real estate Friday—a dozen brightly coloured orange and blue recycled shipping containers piled on top of each other like giant lego blocks. This housing—the first social housing… Continue reading From Brothel to Teen Housing

Almost 40 years ago, Rosemary Eng and her husband Alan Merridew moved to Vancouver from Chicago to take up a job at the Province.  They bought the 100-year-old North Vancouver house, raised their son Peter now 38, and as Rosemary prepares to pack up and leave, she has written the story of her house.  … Continue reading The Story of 323 East 24th Street

Excerpt from Sensational Vancouver When I write a history book there’s always one character that really captures my attention. In At Home with History it was Alvo von Alvensleben. In Sensational Victoria it was Spoony Sundher, and in Sensational Vancouver, it’s Vancouver City Police Detective Joe Ricci—a kick-arse cop from the old school. I got… Continue reading Joe Ricci’s Vancouver

I first met James Johnstone about 12 years ago when I was writing a series of magazine articles that looked at the idea that a house has a social history or a genealogy much like a person. The idea eventually morphed into At Home with History and James gave me research tips, loaned me books,… Continue reading Take a Walk on the Wild Side

I thought the Marine Building was built by the Guinness family until I started doing some research on this Art Deco icon—one of my favourite buildings in Vancouver.  And while the Guinness family did eventually own it, the developer was a local guy who made a fortune during Prohibition. From Sensational Vancouver Joe Hobbs: Joe… Continue reading The Marine Building – Built on Rum

Nikki Renshaw is throwing a party to celebrate her house’s 100th birthday. But first she wants to invite as many former residents, owners and relatives as she can find. Thanks to help from uber house detective James Johnstone she already knows their names, but she’s having trouble tracking people who had a connection to her… Continue reading Wanted: Past Residents for a 100th Birthday Bash

From Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History It turns out that standing in line to buy real estate isn`t some recent Vancouver phenomena—we`ve always done it. Philip T. Timms took this picture in 1909 as hundreds of Vancouver`s wealthiest citizens lined up to buy lots in Shaughnessy Heights from the CPR offices all… Continue reading Shopping for Vancouver Real Estate in 1909

From Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History Every year Ross Dyck, general manager of the Sylvia Hotel opens about 600 handwritten letters from fans of Mister Got to Go, mostly kids in Grades one and two. And every year he personally answers every one of them. Dyck has worked in the hotel industry… Continue reading The Sylvia Hotel turns 100

*See update Hobbit House sold I toured the Hobbit House this week. The South Cambie house is one of two story book cottages in Vancouver—a third is in West Van. The house has had a ton of media attention since it went up for sale, mostly speculation about its imminent demise. Realtor Mary Ellen Maasik… Continue reading Vancouver’s Hobbit House