Alcazar Hotel

Frank Gowen’s Vancouver

by Eve Lazarus on August 21, 2020

Frank Gowen was born in England in 1877. He moved to Vancouver in 1913 and worked as a photographer until his death in 1946.

Frank Gowen’s photo of 1913 Vancouver. Courtesy Chris Stiles

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 Stiles was assistant fire chief for the Vancouver Fire Department for many years. He passed in March of 2019, at almost 94 years of age,” she wrote. “I know you love the old houses of Vancouver and there are a number of them visible in this photograph.”

Georgia Street from Hornby, Frank Gowen photo. Uno Langmann Family Collection of B.C. Photographs

Heritage buildings:

I do love old buildings, and Chris has identified quite a few of them:

Right foreground building is the Waghorn, Gwynn & Co. Stock Brokers, Real Estate, and Loans. 517 Granville Street
The Alcazar Hotel, on Dunsmuir & northeast corner Homer. The back of sign is visible on second building to the left and back of second row of houses.
Baker & Co. Signs, 346 Dunsmuir (on the left and behind three houses about in the centre of photograph)
To the centre right, behind houses is the North West Biscuit Co. Ltd. at 579 Richards.
On the far left edge, midway up the photo is the Van-loo Cigar Factory (formerly The Stettler Cigar Factory) 140 Water Street

And look at how the second Hotel Vancouver just dominates the city’s skyline.

Seaplane crashing through West End roof, 1918. Frank Gowen photo. CVA Air P31

Early Vancouver:

Chris thinks that Roy’s parents Walter and Daisy Stiles bought the panoramic photo from Frank Gowen shortly after he took it in 1913. It would make it one of Gowen’s earliest photos taken soon after he moved to Vancouver.

Walter Stiles worked for BC Electric from 1910 to 1954.

Hollow Tree, Stanley Park. Frank Gowen photo, 1920s. Uno Langmann Family Collection of B.C. Photographs

I went to Frank Gowen’s Vancouver 1914 – 1931 by Fred Thirkell and Bob Scullion to find out more about him. Gowen arrived in Vancouver from Brandon, Manitoba in 1913 and they settled first in Burnaby. While he was establishing himself as a photographer specializing in postcards, he moonlighted as a jitney driver (this was like an early Uber service where people used their private cars to give rides—only back then a trip cost five to 10 cents).

The no longer working Lost Lagoon Fountain. Frank Gowen photo, Uno Langmann Family Collection of B.C. Photographs

Stanley Park Photographer:

In 1916, he became the official Stanley Park photographer and took many of those posed photos that you see outside Hollow Tree and Prospect Point. His postcards sold in the thousands.

There is a great collection of his photos at UBC and the Uno Langmann Collection

The Grosvenor Hotel, 840 Howe Street (1913-1983). Frank Gowen photo, Uno Langmann Family Collection of B.C. Photographs

Gowen’s range was extensive. He took everything from hotels and ships to piers and beaches, train stations and parks and shot all over British Columbia.

English Bay. Frank Gowen photo, courtesy CVA Be P93

Chris Stiles also has a great family history. Her father, Fritz Autzen was a baker from Germany who ran the Hippocampus on Denman Street in the 1960s. Fritz was also an avid photographer and his story and photos appear in my new book Vancouver Exposed coming this fall.

Tags Alcazar Hotel, BC Electric, Chris Stiles, Daisy Stiles, Frank Gowen, Roy Stiles, Second Hotel Vancouver, Stanley Park, Uno Langmann, Walter Stiles

Angus McIntyre

by Eve Lazarus on December 5, 2015

Angus McIntyre was a Vancouver bus driver for 40 years. He has a love for photography, street lighting and transportation systems. Last week I had the pleasure of sitting down with Angus for tea and a chat.

Angus McIntyre, 1973 — East Georgia from Campbell Avenue. Note the tram tracks and switches down East Georgia. Angus McIntyre photo, 1973

Angus was given his first camera at age eight—an Argus with the little window and the roll through numbers. By the time he moved to Vancouver ten years later, his skills and his equipment had markedly improved and his photos of Vancouver in the 1960s and ‘70s are outstanding.

Zion’s Grocery

Angus discovered Strathcona by accident one day in 1966 when he misread an address and wound up on East instead of West Georgia. He came back the next day with his camera and shot Zions Grocery. “You could see it was a beautiful house at one time and they’d converted it into a store. The old fashioned Pepsi Cola sign and 7 up were still on it,” he says. “It had closed and I wondered what happened and that was another reason just to document some of this.”

Angus McIntyre, 1969 — #8 DAVIE southbound, Howe and Pender, 1969. Angus McIntyre photo.

Angus had always wanted to be a bus driver. In 1969, at 21, he was hired on the afternoon shift, and many of his photos were taken in the early hours of the morning after he finished work.

Hawks Grocery:

In 1973 he photographed Hawks Grocery with his tripod. “I knew they were ripping out the tracks and taking out the street lights and destroying the character of Strathcona and I just wanted to document it,” he says. The building is still there, repurposed into one of several row houses.

East Georgia was originally known as Harris Street and the name was changed when the viaduct became a continuation of Georgia.

“Before they completely blitzed this neighbourhood all the sidewalks had Harris on them. They were all thrown away,” he says. “Strathcona had survived the urban renewal and it was this wonderful preserved piece of the city’s history and the city had no respect for that at all, they just went in and ripped out anything that was historic—they took out the rails, the street lights, the wood blocks and they never consulted the people.”

Angus McIntyre, 2015 — a house in Dunbar was still affordable in 1977 on a bus driver’s wages of $3.40 an hour. Angus McIntyre in front of his house December 2015

neon city:

Changes to the city were slow at first, says Angus. “In the early years the city had a small town feel, it wasn’t until the 1980s that the big changes really started happening,” he says.

Angus says that when he moved to Vancouver in 1965, 80 percent of the city had incandescent lighting.

Angus McIntyre, 1974 — Lotus Hotel on Abbott Street in 1974. Check out the street lights. Angus McIntyre photo.

“All the main trolley routes, all the major arterial streets had incandescent lighting and it was spectacular, this wonderful, warm, comfortable lighting with neon everywhere,” he says. “It was dazzling there was so much neon in the city. There were animated signs, there were things that moved, just colour everywhere and the light reflecting off the streets made for a magical time and place.”

Tags Alcazar Hotel, Angus McIntyre, Hawks Grocery, Lotus Hotel, Zions Grocery

Our Missing Hotel Heritage: What were we thinking?

by Eve Lazarus on August 8, 2015

The much lamented—and never should have come down–second Hotel Vancouver should have the number one spot on any much missed heritage building list, but I’d argue that the Devonshire should be a close second. When it comes to hotels, we’ve pulled down a lot of them. Here’s my Top 7 list of downtown hotels missing from our landscape.

Second Hotel Vancouver

1. The Second Hotel Vancouver (1916-1949)

Built in 1916 and pulled down just 33 years later to make way for a parking lot, this was one of the most elegant and ornate buildings we ever destroyed. Its eventual replacement (the former Sears building, Pacific Centre), is to put it mildly, disappointing.

The Devonshire Hotel, West Georgia, CVA LGN 1060 ca.1925

2. The Devonshire (1923-1981)

The Devonshire was originally designed as an apartment building and sat between the Hotel Georgia and the Georgia Medical Dental Building. There’s a great story from 1951 that goes when Louis Armstrong and his All Stars were kicked out of the Hotel Vancouver they walked across the street and were given rooms in the Devonshire. Supposedly Duke Ellington, Lena Horne and the Mills Brothers wouldn’t stay anywhere else.

3. The Glencoe Lodge (1906-1932)

The Glencoe Lodge (also known as the Hotel Belfred) was built or “assembled” as a residential hotel by sugar baron B.T. Rogers, and as Heather Gordon notes was managed by Jean Mollison, who was known as the “grand Chatelaine.” It sat at the corner of West Georgia and Burrard, and some well known guests included Lord Strathcona, W.H. Malkin, a former mayor and wealthy grocer, and Alvo von Alvensleben.

4. Manor House/Badminton Hotel 1889-1936

As noted at Past Tense, the Manor House was one of the earliest buildings constructed west of Granville Street. Designed by William Blackmore, it sat at the southwest corner of Dunsmuir (603 Howe Street). For details see Glen Mofford’s page.

5. Hotel Elysium (1911-1970s)

As Michael Kluckner notes in Vancouver Remembered, when it opened on April Fool’s Day, 1911, the Elysium was a good building built in the wrong part of town. Located at 1140 West Pender, it was converted into suites by C.B.K. Van Norman in 1943 and renamed Park Plaza.

Alcazar Hotel, ca.1955 Jan de Haas photo, courtesy Wiebe de Haas

6. Alcazar Hotel (1912-1982)

The Alcazar Hotel hung in for 70 years at 337 Dunsmuir, before being taken out in the early 1980s and eventually became the BC Hydro building. According to Changing Vancouver, the Alcazar featured 1940s murals by Jack Shadbolt in the dining room.

7. York Hotel (1911-1968)

The York Hotel sat at 790 Howe Street at the corner of Robson. According to Changing Vancouver it was built as an annex for the Hotel Vancouver, and its purpose was to maintain a CPR hotel presence while the second Hotel Vancouver was built. And, yes it was replaced by the Pacific Centre Mall eyesore, which took out so many great heritage buildings.

For more posts see: Our Missing Heritage

The photographs of Jan de Haas (1914-1967)

by Eve Lazarus on February 21, 2015

Jan de Haas photographer — The New Granville Street Bridge, Jan de Haas photo ca.1955

When I think of photographers working in Vancouver in the 50s and 60s, I think of Foncie Pulice, Selwyn Pullan and Fred Herzog.

Foncie was a street photographer who opened Foncie’s Fotos in 1946 and shot millions of photos of people as they strolled Vancouver’s streets. Vancouver-born Selwyn Pullan, served in the Canadian Navy during the war, worked as a news photographer for the Halifax Chronicle, returned to Vancouver in 1950 and reinvented architectural photography. Fred Herzog immigrated from Germany in 1953 and some of my favourite photos are ones he shot of vacant lots, backyards in Strathcona and ordinary people on ordinary streets.

They didn’t know it at the time, but all three photographers were creating a historical record of Vancouver and revealing intimate details of our changing city.

Last week, Wiebe de Haas sent me some photos that his father Jan de Haas shot during that period. I liked how he’d captured different parts of Vancouver and the neon signs of the day and I wanted to know more about him.

Jan de Haas brought his wife and three children to Canada from the Netherlands in 1952.

“Colour photography was on the rise and he thought coming to North America would give him the opportunity to advance in his field as a photographer,” says Wiebe.

Jan was hired at Photo Arts on Hornby Street, and within a few years had opened a store front business with his wife Ilse on 10th Avenue in West Point Grey. The de Haas’s built up a solid business shooting passport photos, portraits, weddings, grad photos at UBC and some commercial photography.

Jan was a member of the Professional Photographers of Canada, and before he died in 1967, he created a trophy to be awarded to the photographer who shot that year’s most creative image. The trophy was designed by his friend George Norris, a prolific sculptor best known for the giant metal crab that sits in the fountain outside the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre in Vanier Park.

The trophy is a work of art.

“My father wanted to give something to the organization of his peers, whom he respected and relied on,” says Wiebe. “He liked the idea that the trophy was symbolic of birth, the creation of life. It is as much a remembrance of George Norris as it is of my father.”

A globe with five lens windows is mounted on a chrome stem and dome base and held in place by small bolts. The globe represents the womb, and inside is a chrome fetus. “Except for the pin-hole camera, all cameras use a lens to focus the light onto a focal plane,” says Wiebe. “The bolts seem to me to symbolize camera construction. The fetus is a symbol of new creation, of new expression and ideas.”

In 2011 Wiebe had the honour of presenting his father’s trophy to Langara photography student Christoph Prevost. It was the first time a student had won in the history of the memorial trophy.

Tags Alcazar Hotel, Christoph Prevost, Dominion Building, Foncie Pulice, Foncie's Fotos, Fred Herzog, George Norris, H.R. MacMillan Space Centre, Jan de Haas, Professional Photographers of B.C., Selwyn Pullan, Shores Jewelers, Wiebe de Haas

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