Vancouver History

The Vancouver Aquarium opened on June 15, 1976. Before that there were two other locations at English Bay and Hastings Park. English Bay: The first Vancouver Aquarium opened in Hastings Park around 1913. I stumbled over this while on Murray Maisey’s excellent blog Vancouver as it Was. According to a Vancouver Daily World article from… Continue reading The Vancouver Aquariums

Donna recently sent me this photo of a house on Harwood Street in the West End. She said: “I came across this picture in some old family photos. I live in Calgary and as far as I know, there is no family connection to the building. There is no date on my photo, and I… Continue reading The Harwood Street House

10 ways to research your home – or someone’ else’s through online sources Writer, librarian and podcaster Megan Cole sent me an email this week asking for some tips on researching the house where she used to live at 2856 West 5th in Kitsilano. It was such a great question, that it’s my topic for… Continue reading 10 ways to research your home (or someone else’s)

This interesting looking house on Yale Street at the corner of North Kamloops in Hastings/Sunrise was built by a bootlegger in 1931.  The Alvaros: Turns out the house was built in 1931 at a cost of $8,000—a lot of money smack in the middle of the Depression. Its owners were Joseph and Rosa Alvaro, who… Continue reading That House on Yale Street

Hastings Sunrise: At just shy of three acres, Burrard View is not a big park. It runs between North Slocan, North Penticton, Yale and Wall Street. The park slopes down to the water and is shaped like half a house. The building on the west side of the park has been the Cottage Hospice since… Continue reading Burrard View Park

Aaron Chapman’s latest book Vancouver After Dark: The Wild History of a City’s Nightlife is a delightful romp through the ghosts of nightclubs past. Aaron’s behind-the-scenes stories  are told in such a way, it’s like sitting down and having a beer with him. There are too many clubs to list here—everything from Chinatown’s Marco Polo to… Continue reading Vancouver After Dark: Richards on Richards

It wasn’t easy getting a seat at the West Vancouver Library last Wednesday night. The West Van Historical Society presented Local Voices: Shooting the North Shore with Ralph Bower, retired Vancouver Sun photographer and Mike Wakefield, who also recently retired from a 35-year photography career with the North Shore News. The place was packed. I… Continue reading Documenting Local History

The Flying Seven formed in 1935 and were Vancouver’s all-female aviators’ club  Vancouver’s aviatrices: This is one of my favourite photos. It ran with a story in Sensational Vancouver and shows six members of the Flying Seven posed in front of the rocket ship at Vancouver International Airport. The Flying Seven were Vancouver’s all-female aviators’… Continue reading The Flying Seven and the Cambie Street Rocket Ship

When David Rowland heard that Woodward’s was closing in 1993, he phoned up the manager and put in an offer for the department store’s historic Christmas windows. They agreed on a price, and David became the proud owner of six semi-trailer loads of animated teddy bears, elves, geese, children, a horse and cart and various… Continue reading The Woodward’s Christmas Windows

Irving House was built in 1865 in New Westminster by Captain John Irving. He died in 1872, but never really left.  This is an excerpt from my book  At Home with History: The Secrets of Greater Vancouver’s Heritage Homes. Irving House is built in the Gothic Revival style and overlooks the Fraser River on what’s… Continue reading Irving House: A Gothic Ghost Story

Blair Mercer left a comment on an old blog post of mine this week. He told me that his mother, Beatrice Mary Hayes was the model for the ceramic of a woman and child installed inside the Canada Post Building on West Georgia Street in 1957. Beatrice was born in 1921, grew up in Jasper,… Continue reading Paul Huba and the Canada Post Building

I was inspired to write this post after seeing this photo by Canadian Colour, that originally appeared in the Province, August 20, 1936. In 1911, Vancouver had a population of less than 150,000 and yet the city felt big enough to sustain a 10,000-seat arena with the first artificial ice in Canada. It was built… Continue reading The West End’s Denman Arena

Can’t let Asian Heritage Month go by without a nod to Mary and Walter Chan, the Strathcona activists who helped keep the bulldozers at bay and rallied the community to preserve not only Chinatown, but a big chunk of our city’s culture and heritage. Chan family outside 658 Keefer ca.1968. From L to R: Larry… Continue reading May is Asian Heritage Month – Meet Mary Chan

The Vancouver Heritage House tour is coming up Sunday June 2, and I haven’t been this excited since Casa Mia was featured in 2014. Don’t get me wrong, the VHF works hard all year to curate a great mix of architectural styles, neighbourhoods and house sizes, but unless you work at, or have a daughter… Continue reading The Vancouver Heritage House Tour, Alvo von Alvensleben and the Old Residence

There’s been a lot about laneway houses in the media over the last couple of years. Loosely defined, it’s a legal way of plonking down a small house in your backyard, and depending on your point of view, either exploiting or helping to ease the current rental squeeze. Laneway houses have to be under 1,000… Continue reading The Kitsilano Laneway House

My friend, Angus McIntyre emailed me these amazing photos of streetcar advertising that he came across on the Vancouver Archives site this week. The first photo shows Car 211 on the  #3 Davie Street route passing the 400-block Granville Street. According to Angus, it was a two-man car, where you would board at the rear… Continue reading Streetcar Advertising and the Hobby Lobby Radio Show

About six years ago, I was doing some research for my book Sensational Vancouver and took a tour of Strathcona with James Johnstone. I was excited to meet Paul Yee, a historian who now lives in Toronto, and has written several brilliant books which include Salt Water City, Tales from Gold Mountain, and most recently, A… Continue reading Paul Yee’s Vancouver Archives

Iaci’s Casa Capri Restaurant at 1022 Seymour Street was a Vancouver institution for more than 50 years. It closed in 1982. Story from: Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History Rick Iaci was driving down Seymour Street one day when he was horrified to see dozens of framed photographs being thrown into a dumpster… Continue reading Iaci’s Casa Capri

Members of the Town Planning Commission passed a resolution stating that they were not in favour of Deadman’s Island as a site for a proposed museum of Vancouver art, historical and scientific society. It was declared the Coal Harbour site was too inaccessible—Province: April  9, 1932 It continues to amaze me that Stanley Park has… Continue reading Aborted Plans: Deadman’s Island

If you listened to CKNW any time from the mid-1950s to the end of the ‘90s, you’ll remember George Garrett. His memoir, George Garrett Intrepid Reporter has just been published, and it’s a great ride through four decades of politics, disasters, consumer investigations and murders. I met George in the mid-1990s, when I was a… Continue reading George Garrett: Intrepid Reporter