If you lived in Vancouver’s West End after 1981 you may not know that street barricades and parklets are a leftover from the West End’s prostitution era
West End:
Aaron Chapman’s latest book Vancouver Vice, is a colourful history of the West End in the 1970s and ‘80s. In those days up to 300 sex workers—male and female—strolled the streets—40 to 50 of whom might be working on any given day or night. As Aaron says, the only evidence that this open-air brothel existed is a memorial dedicated to sex workers on Jervis Street and the barricades that created those charming cul-de-sacs and parklets.
“The barricades were first proposed to calm traffic in 1973,” says Aaron. “But when they were eventually installed in 1981, the City of Vancouver was so desperate to look like they were doing something about the sex worker issue in the West End that their purpose was renamed.” The idea was that barricades would discourage motorists from driving up and down residential streets in search of sex.
Barricades going up in the West End in November 1981. Courtesy Aaron Chapman
Prostitution:
Up until the 1970s, prostitution was mostly tucked away behind closed apartment and rooming house doors, and later nightclubs and hotel lounges. A couple of high-profile cases managed to push sex workers out onto Davie Street. “Then people are upset that there is prostitution on Davie Street, so it goes to the residential streets and the people get upset who live there,” says Aaron. Increased patrols and a greater uniformed police presence in the West End had mixed results.
A West End sex worker, Courtesy Aaron Chapman, ca. 1980
“It seems like everything that the VPD tried to do to curb street prostitution had the worst unintended effect, including the street barricades,” he says. “The street barricades don’t really work because they just slow traffic down and that allows the sex workers more time to negotiate a price with their clients.”
On November 16, 1981, City of Vancouver workers began installing $28,000 worth of temporary barriers. These were little more than chain link fences made permanent the following year.
West End residents protesting, ca.1980. Courtesy Aaron Chapman
Residents upset:
At the time, says Aaron, this upset residents who couldn’t park outside their apartment buildings. Even local Fire Hall #6 worried about longer response times and complained about the barricades. “If you proposed removing those barricades today and opening the streets back up to traffic, you’d have the same amount of people saying they don’t want cars going down their streets and parking in front of their buildings,” says Aaron.
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.
Rob Kruyt photo, Vancouver Sun 1999. Courtesy Aaron Chapman
1961 – 1999:
It’s been gone since 1999—taken to Vancouver Island and left to rot.
I was reminded of Trader Vic’s again when I was reading Aaron Chapman’s Vancouver After Dark and looking at the photo of the building disappearing on a barge underneath the Lion’s Gate bridge.
Trader Vic’s (left of frame) at the Bayshore Hotel, 1960s. Courtesy Vancouver Archives
Designed by architect Reno Negrin, the A-frame building opened in 1961 when the trend for all things Hawaiian was at its height, and Vancouver restaurants mostly served European, Chinese or North American food. Apparently, some well-endowed fertility statues were a bit much for local sensibilities and their presence almost prevented the restaurant from getting a liquor licence. The offending figures were removed and patrons got to drink with their dinner. They could also park their boat right near the front door.
Part of a Chain:
Trader Vic’s was part of an American chain based out of California and founded by Victor Jules Bergeron, who claims to have invented the Mai Tai. The first restaurant opened in Seattle in 1949 (called the Outrigger) and a second followed in Hawaii the following year. At its peak, there were 25 restaurants worldwide, with two in Canada—Vancouver’s and one in Toronto.
Inside Trader Vic’s, 1960s. BC Government photo
Home in Saanich:
The Bayshore sold the building to David Whiffin of Vancouver Island. Whiffin has 25-acres of waterfront property off Mount Newton Cross Road in central Saanich. I wasn’t able to reach Whiffin to ask him what he paid for the building and what his plans are for it now, but according to newspaper accounts he had wanted to turn it either into a tasting room for a vineyard that he didn’t have or renovate it into a sort of farmers market.
Aaron tells me that he remembers going to Trader Vic’s with his parents in the 1980s and dining with Grace McCarthy.
He believes that tiki bars like the Shameful Tiki Room and the Waldorf Hotel are seeing a bit of a revival, so perhaps Trader Vic’s may have come back into vogue if it stuck around for a few more years.
“A whole new millennial crowd would have discovered it. That it’s just sitting in somebody’s yard over on the island and falling apart from neglect is a sad thing,” he says.
Trader Vic’s in Saanich. Photo courtesy Lorna Davey
One of the things I loved most about being a contributor to Vancouver Confidential was working with reporters, bloggers, artists, tour guides, actors, musicians and academics that cut across both decades and demographics. The experience made me realize what a truly diverse group we have working in the local history and heritage space.
So just for fun, I’ve asked several of my heritage heroes to tell me their favourite residential or commercial building, and to tell me the one building that should never have left our landscape.
John Atkin is a civic historian, heritage consultant, author and walking tour guide. He co-chairs the Chinese Canadian Historical Society of BC, sits on the board of the Friends of the Archives and is a Trustee of the Dr Sun Yat Sen Chinese Garden. In his spare time John likes to bind books and draw.
Favourite Vancouver building:
Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church on Campbell Avenue in Strathcona is a single-handed effort from the Russian Orthodox missionary priest, architect and carpenter, the Reverend Archpriest Alexander Kiziun. He died before completion, but was responsible for its design. He salvaged materials from a variety of sources which makes the church unique in its construction and character.
Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church
The one building that should never had been destroyed:
The Georgia Medical Dental building should never have been demolished. Silly reasons put forward by the council of the day, a developer with an outsized ego and a building which would have been a dramatic blend of old and new if it had survived for a few more years like the now celebrated Hotel Georgia.
Aaron Chapman is a writer, historian and musician with a special interest in Vancouver’s entertainment history and the author of Liquor, Lust, and the Law, Live at The Commodore, and a contributor to Vancouver Confidential. You can catch Aaron live at the Vancouver Archives on March 22
Favourite Vancouver building:
The Vancouver Planetarium. The steel crab sculpture, the UFO like dome building, and the ramp that rises up to the doorway makes you feel like just entering the building is an event. The design is modern, but it’s the location for the Vancouver Museum, and therefore full of the past that makes an interesting contradiction. And there’s something of that late 60s “space-age” era architecture that not only reminds me of that design style that was so popular when I was a kid, but the whole place also likely reminds me of the elementary school field trips fondly spent there. Runner ups? The Penthouse and The Commodore Ballroom, of course!
The one building that should never had been destroyed:
The Cave. I was too young to ever go in myself before it was demolished, so perhaps I’m considering it through an odd lens of nostalgia. How wonderful would it be today to see a show that had such history to it, and knowing that you were standing in the place where so many great jazz musicians, comedians, and stars came through, especially in a place designed to look like a cave with stalactites and stalagmites everywhere as the decor. Hipsters today would have flocked to a place with such kitsch.
H.R. MacMillan Space Centre (Vancouver Planetarium)
Jeremy Hood is the sole administrator for the FB page Vancouver: Then. “It has been a labour of love for the past two and half years and I am still blown away by some of the comments of real life Vancouver stories, some first hand, some passed down, that follow in the comments section of the photos I post,” says Jeremy. “When not working at my day job I am a photographer, a local history buff and cat lover.”
Favourite Vancouver building:
The Dominion Building wins out for me mainly for its uniqueness and how little it has changed in over 100 years. There is no building quite like it in Vancouver and it is situated in a location that enhances the magnificent stature of the building, including the mansard roof and decorated cornice. Even with a city that has grown around it, it still manages to stand out.
The “now” photo by Jeremy Hood, the “then” photo of the Dominion Building Vancouver Archives, 1944 CVA 1184-615.
The one building that should never had been destroyed:
Two buildings that should not have been torn down are the Birks Building and the second Hotel Vancouver. The Birks Building, while majestic, handsome and a cruel loss to the city, didn’t have quite the mind-boggling ‘wow factor’ that the second Hotel Vancouver had. The sheer size of this hotel building and the fantastic detailing that went into it is almost impossible to imagine today, with vintage photographs of it likely just scratching the surface at what as treasure this landmark building once was. One can only wonder ‘what if’ and how that building would look today if it was saved.
Will Woods is the Founder and Chief Storyteller at Forbidden Vancouver Walking Tours and a contributor to Vancouver Confidential.
Photo by Kiri Marr
Favourite Vancouver building:
Any one of the early twentieth century buildings on Pender Street in Chinatown that have retained they recessed balconies and ornamental features. It’s really something to walk down that street and see buildings that wouldn’t be out of place in Guangdong, circa 1900-1920. And the recessed balconies are perfect for our climate here, but for some reason never caught on!
Second Hotel Vancouver on Georgia Street
The one building that should never had been destroyed:
The second Hotel Vancouver. The images that survive today show what an incredible and ornate building that was. A real tragedy it is gone, especially when the current occupant of that site is one of the city’s most bland office buildings. Fast-forward ten years and I expect I will be saying the Canada Post building on West Georgia. I’d love to see that retained and turned into an art gallery or museum – akin to the Tate in London. I think the merits of 1950s architecture will be increasingly apparent, the faster it slips into the rear-view mirror and the more of the buildings are lost. That particular building has a hint of the futuristic about it (helicopter pad on the roof for example), but also homage to tradition, with the large emblem on the front. It’s also “Herzogian” in its era, the photographer who seems to capture the ‘essence’ of Vancouver as well as anyone over the years. Almost as if the ’50s were ‘peak Vancouver’ in terms of visual richness.
On April 15, 1941 the Dal Richards Big Band was the opening act for the Vogue Theatre, a combination vaudeville and movie house located on Granville Street near the Commodore. A screening of the movie “I See Ice,” followed, and nearly 1,400 people filled the Odeon Theatre that night, with almost as many again gathered outside attracted by the spotlights, the lighted marquee, and the huge neon sign.
Vogue Theatre, Granville Street 1981 VPL 55594
The day after the opening the Vancouver Sun captured some of the excitement: “Swinging searchlights cut the sky above a gleaming modernistic façade swathed with flags and banners, floodlights glared and hissed, crowds surged against lines held by police and commissionaires, motion-picture cameras whirred and flashbulbs flared, as the guests passed into the theatre, notables among them paused, bowed and spoke brief acknowledgements of introductions into waiting microphones.”
Jack Shadbolt and Paul Goranson painting a mural in 1940
Missing mural:
While sleuthing through the files at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Jason Vanderhill found this photo of Jack Shadbolt and Paul Goranson painting a mural on one of the walls of the Vogue in 1940, a little before it opened. My other pal Aaron Chapman searched the building, its plans and old photos, but if the mural still exists, it’s well hidden.
Toronto-based Kaplan and Sprachan architects designed the art deco building for Harry Reifel. Inside, the auditorium ceiling was tiered and back lit with neon tubing to resemble waves, and when it first opened, giant golden mermaids were painted on the walls, and the washrooms sported art deco aquamarine and orange tiles.
Eve Lazarus photo, 2020
Outside the Vogue’s distinctive neon sign is topped by a 12-foot figure of a kneeling goddess Diana that looks suspiciously like a car hood ornament. She’s the second Diana, the first was made of sheet metal and covered in gold leaf by artist Bud Graves and commissioned by Harry Reifel for $500.
When Odeon Theatres renovated the Vogue in the 1960s the goddess was in rough shape and sent to the scrap heap. A distraught Reifel immediately commissioned a second statue at ten times the price.
“The front of the theatre without her was like a Jersey cow without horns,” he told a Vancouver Sun reporter at the time.
The sign—one of the largest on theatre row’s sea of neon—has changed colours over the years, but is now back to its original red and yellow colour scheme.
Known for decades as Bernie “Whistling” Smith because he whistled while he patrolled the streets for the VPD
Bernie Smith once told me a story about busting Strathcona bootlegger Wally “Blondie” Wallace in the 1940s. Blondie was a neighbourhood hero, dodging the cops by night and teaching local kids to box in the basement of his house during the day. He operated a thriving bootlegging business from his house at 446 Union Street.
“We’d stake the place out and grab the cars as they came out,” Bernie told me. “He’d have four or five drivers, and they’d be at all different places and they’d have cheap cars in case they got caught.”
The first time a bootlegger was caught they were fined, the second time they went to jail. Caught with liquor in the car, both the booze and the car became the property of the Crown.
Blondie Wallace:
“In about 1950, Blondie Wallace had a brand new Chrysler and he got arrested for bootlegging from the car. The car was seized and he gets three months in Oakalla,” said Bernie. “Hugh Christie was the warden and when they seized the car, they gave the warden the car and there’s Blondie Wallace watching the warden drive his car.”
I was thinking of this story while I was at the Penthouse on Thursday night for the launch of Aaron Chapman’s Liquor, Lust, and the Law.
Known for decades as Bernie “Whistling” Smith because he whistled while he patrolled the streets, Bernie started work for Joe Philliponi in 1937 when he was just 14. Philliponi owned Eagle-Time Delivery Systems, and Bernie said Joe called him “Speed Ball 21.” Later, when Bernie told him he wanted to be a cop, Philliponi encouraged him.
The Penthouse:
Bernie joined the VPD in 1947 the same year that Philliponi opened the Penthouse Nightclub on Seymour Street. Despite a series of set-backs including its closure in 1975 by the vice squad, Philliponi’s 1983 murder in a botched robbery at the club, and a fire last year, the Penthouse continues to be a Vancouver institution run by Joe’s nephew, Danny Filippone.
Bernie died November 14 aged 89 or I’m sure he would have been at the Penthouse Thursday night. He would have enjoyed knowing that both swing-band leader Dal Richards and punk rocker Randy Rampage of D.O.A were part of an eclectic audience packed into the club for the launch.
There is a celebration of life for Bernie at 1:00 pm Monday November 26 at the Croatian Cultural Centre, 3250 Commercial Drive. Bernie was a charming, fascinating individual, and my bet is that his service will be just as packed.
West End:
Favourite Vancouver building:
Favourite Vancouver building:
