In this week’s blog, we’re doing some myth busting while telling the real story behind the Lost Lagoon Fountain in Stanley Park.
Official souvenir book for Vancouver’s 1936 Golden Jubilee. Courtesy MoV
A couple of weeks ago, Chris Stiles sent me a photo of Vancouver that her husband’s grandparents had purchased from Frank Gowen in 1913. I wanted to see other photos by Gowen, who specialized in postcards, and found one he took of the fountain in Lost Lagoon. Before I posted it on my Facebook page Every Place has a Story, I looked it up in one of my reference books and found it was installed as part of Vancouver’s Golden Jubilee in 1936, “a leftover from the Chicago World Fair.”
Except that it wasn’t.
Lost Lagoon’s spanking new fountain in 1936. Courtesy CVA 612-039
Urban Myth:
A sharp-eyed reader quickly corrected me, and said that it was an urban myth, the fountain was designed right here in Vancouver.
So, let’s set the record straight.
Robert H. William, an electrical engineer of Hume & Rumble, Electrical Contractors and Engineers designed the Lost Lagoon Fountain for the Vancouver Jubilee Committee. According to a story in the Vancouver Sun, August 8, 1936, Williams was inspired by a fountain he saw in Los Angeles. Lost Lagoon was drained, and the fountain was built on top of a concrete mat that had been laid over 70 piles driven into the mud. It took a month.
Casper Golhof Snr and seven of his children in 1938, three of whom are still alive
The Plan:
“When operating, it is like a symphony concert, in motion and colour instead of music,” Williams told a reporter. All equipment was built in Canada, the pumps were constructed in Vancouver and only union labour was used.
There were 54 floodlights, 310 jets and the colours were white, amber, green and blue and red.
Heather Virtue-Lapierre at Lost Lagoon in 1951
The original plans had called for natural rock facings to cover the concrete, but there wasn’t enough money.
Not everyone liked it. People said it was too much money to spend in the middle of the Depression. A 1937 news story called it “a squat, moth-coloured eyesore.” A City Councillor called it “a monstrosity that yells at you $35,000,” the final cost of construction.
Lost Lagoon Fountain, courtesy Glen Mofford
The fountain was turned off for a few years during the second world war, then it received a much needed makeover for Expo ’86.
In 2016, the Parks Board put out a Facebook post: “Due to an unfortunate flood in the electrical chamber the fountain is now inoperable until renovations are complete. The fountain is currently undergoing mechanical upgrades. Hope to have it ready by this time in 2017!” Nope, didn’t happen. According to a Daily Hive story, the price tag to get it up and running and delighting residents and tourists alike is an inexplicable $7 million dollars. It’s been out of commission for a few years now.
Lost Lagoon Fountain in Stanley Park, ca. 1940. Vancouver Archives Photo LP 219
