Every Place Has a Story

The Base at Jericho Beach

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I’ve been to Jericho Beach dozens of times over the years and often bike along the path that snakes through Spanish Banks, Jericho and spits out onto Point Grey Road. It wasn’t until recently that I found out the area was once part of the largest military training base in Western Canada.

Jericho Beach base
Jericho Air Base, Vancouver, ca.1930s. Source unknown
Flying Boats:

The base was built for flying boats and seaplanes in 1920 and included four large hangars and a military storage building.

Up until the outbreak of WW2, the flying boats were used mostly to head off rum runners, curtail illegal immigration and map the coastlines. From 1939 to 1947 the base functioned mostly as a training unit and repair depot. After the war, the land and base were used by the army for the next couple of decades until the City of Vancouver took it over in 1969 (and handed it over to the Parks Board).

demolition vancouver
Newly bulldozed Block 42 in 1973 and the 30-storey TD tower that replaced the parking lot that replaced the second Hotel Vancouver. CVA 23-24

1969 was the start of a particularly egregious round of demolitions in Vancouver. In the downtown core which included heritage buildings such as the Vancouver Opera House, Granville Mansions, the York Hotel, the Colonial Theatre, the Strand, and five years later, the gorgeous Birks Building were all being cleared to make way for bland, boring high rises and underground shopping malls.

Habitat ’76:

Likely, the Jericho buildings would have met the same fate, but then along came the United Nations Conference on Human Settlement, Habitat ’76 and Alan Clapp. Clapp was the force behind Granville Island and the Dewdney Trunk Road Pleasure Faire in Mission, which was turned into a 60-acre village in September 1971 using deconstructed barns.

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The Jericho Hangars before Habitat ’76 reconstruction. Vancouver Archives photo.

Clapp organized thousands of volunteers and transformed the Air Force hangars into two amphitheatres, a social centre, and a hall for exhibits primarily using driftwood from the beach and milled on site. Bill Reid created a huge mural on Hangar #3, which had been repurposed into a longhouse.

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Jericho Beach Base
Ceiling banner for Hangar #5. Vancouver Archives photo, May 1976

Habitat ’76 was a very big deal. It ran at Jericho Beach Park from May 27 to June 11, 1976. Pierre and Margaret Trudeau were there, and so were Mother Theresa, Margaret Mead and Buckminster Fuller.

For more posts like this one check out Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History.

Repurposing old buildings:

It demonstrated to the world how aging buildings and unused land could be saved and repurposed.

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Inside Hangar 7 at Habitat ’76 with the “world’s largest bar” built by Ian Ridgway from recycled wood. Vancouver Archives photo

For over 6,800 digitized photos of Habitat 76 take a stroll through Vancouver Archives.

After it was finished there were various proposals on how to use the hangars and the land including an athletes training camp, an aviation museum, an arts centre and student housing.

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General Site Plan, Vancouver Archives AM1671-: CVA 395-05970

And, then in the face of all this common sense and despite public outcry, the Parks Board tore it down. Two of the hangars were bulldozed in 1978 including the one with the gorgeous Bill Reid Mural.

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Jericho Hangar #3, Bill Reid Mural. Vancouver Archives photo, May 1976

In October 1979 hangar #7 burned to the ground. That was followed just over a month later by the destruction of hangar #5. Arson was suspected in both.

A few buildings have survived. The former Marine and Stores Building became the Jericho Sailing Centre. The recreation hall, and at one time a military gym, became the Jericho Arts Centre, and the former army barracks is the Jericho Beach Hostel.

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Hangar #7 goes up in flames, October 12, 1979. Carolyn Affleck photo

Less than two years after suspected arson rid the Parks Board of some problem aircraft hangars, flames ripped through another Parks Board eyesore – the much loved Englesea Lodge at Stanley Park.

The Jericho Wharf built in the 1930s, came down in 2011.

With thanks to Carolyn Affleck who sent me her photo of the burning hangar from 1979 which inspired this post.

Related:

© All rights reserved. Unless otherwise indicated, all blog content copyright Eve Lazarus.

Movie projectionist escapes death when bomb wrecks car

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Wally Woolridge
The entire roof of the car was blown away, the windows smashed, the seats ripped, the rear door torn off, and a section of the fender hurled several feet CVA 99-4114

From Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History

This photo of a bombed out car in 1932 has been bugging me ever since a reader posted it on my FB page a few weeks ago. So this week I made a trip to the Vancouver Public Library to find out its back story.

It turns out that the unfortunate car was owned by Wally Woolridge, a 38-year-old movie projectionist.  Wally finished his shift at 7:30 p.m. at the Colonial Theatre, got in his car, turned on his lights, and was then hurled 20 feet in the air through the roof of his car. He landed on the gravel several feet away concussed, deafened and with blood pouring from both ears.

Colonial Theatre, 603 Granville street
The Colonial Theatre, 603 Granville Street in 1972 CVA 447-399

The “dynamite” bomb was powerful enough to break windows in nearby buildings. Wally’s life was saved because the bomb was placed at the back of the driver’s seat and the backrest deflected the explosion. His heavy coat softened his fall.

Wally Woolridge“I think I know who did it. I could put my finger on the man if I wanted to,” Wally told a reporter, adding that he wasn’t going to name names. “I can tell you one thing, though. It’s the work of racketeers. The thing tonight is just another episode in the story of bombings which have been taking place all over the continent during the last few months.”

Clearly you had to be pretty brave to see a movie in the ‘30s.

Wally was an active member of the B.C. Projectionists’ Society which was affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. According to the paper, the “recognized group” was caught up in a war with “the rebels” a breakaway group of non-union employees. The attempt on Wally’s life followed a spate of stink bombs that previously found their way to the non-union Royal Theatre (the former Pantages).

Either murderers were incredibly incompetent back then or Wally was just very lucky, because it was the third attempt on his life. A year before he was the victim of another failed car bomb while driving along Hastings Street, and just weeks later shots were fired at him as he came home from work late one night.  His telephone line had been cut.

On March 20, 1933 the Royal Theatre was torn apart by a bomb, its lobby and ticket office destroyed. W.P. Nichols, who lived in a suite above the theatre, was jolted from his bed. Despite the bad blood between theatre employees, police decided it was not a result of labour unrest, but simply a personal grudge.

Royal Theatre bombing VPL 9116B 1933
Royal Theatre bombing VPL 9116B 1933

For instructions on how to make a stink bomb: https://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Stink-Bomb

© All rights reserved. Unless otherwise indicated, all blog content copyright Eve Lazarus.