Mother Tongue Publishing is a small trade publisher run by the amazing Mona Fertig from her heritage house on Salt Spring Island. While other publishers turn their backs on books that lack mass market appeal, movie options or foreign rights potential, Mona actively seeks out poets, first-time writers and unrecognized artists.
For more stories about Chinatown see: At Home with History: the secrets of Greater Vancouver’s Heritage Homes
Last October the Feds designated Vancouver’s Chinatown a National Historical Site. In November, the National Geographic named the Dr. Sun yat-sen Gardens one of the top 10 city gardens in the world.
Want a conversation stopper at your next party? Just bring up the impending real estate meltdown in Vancouver –the one where house prices implode.
You’ll be mocked and told how interest rates are at historically low levels and you’ll hear all about those swarms of filthy rich Chinese flooding our borders. Then, they’ll tell you that thanks to the feds and the CMHC, pretty much anyone can over-extend themselves with 5% down and 35 years to pay it back.
The Empress Theatre on West Hastings went up in 1908 and came down in 1940, and in its heyday it had the biggest stage west of Chicago. In the 1930s it was owned by Hollywood stars Fay Holden and David Clyde who also owned a house on 51st Avenue in East Vancouver
This is one of my favourite finds at the Vancouver Archives. The house at 755 Bute Street is long gone, but was once owned by Dr. James Farish, a Vancouver ear, eye and nose specialist. On September 4, 1918, Victor Bishop, 23, was home on leave from the War, when the builders—Jimmy and Henry Hoffar, asked him to take their seaplane for a test spin over Burrard Inlet.
It’s too bad Chuck couldn’t be at his memorial service this afternoon. He would have loved it. For starters there were a couple of hundred people there—a totally eclectic crowd, pretty much like the guy himself. The only thing we had in common was that Chuck had touched us all in some way.
Local legends Dal Richards and Red Robinson were there.
Wondering what happened to the neon “DRUGS” sign that once sat on top of the Pharmasave building in Edgemont Village?The building is long gone. Pharmasave moved across the street and didn’t want to move the sign with them. The new building, now an HSBC bank, didn’t want a sign that has no bearing on its business.
If you’re planning to enter the James Cunningham Seawall Race this month, spare a thought for its namesake, Jimmy Cunningham. The little Scotsman spent 32 years of his life heaving granite blocks weighing hundreds of pounds and built over half of the 9.5 kilometre wall.