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Daniel Francis

Top 10 Vancouver History Blogs of 2019

by Eve Lazarus on December 29, 2019
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It’s been a couple of years since I’ve done a roundup of my favourite history blogs. To make the list, the blog had to be written by an individual, come out fairly regularly and have a strong Vancouver flavour.

In alphabetical order:

1. Changing Vancouver 

John Atkin and Andy Coupland started the blog just after their book of the same name was published in 2010. These days, Andy does most of the work on the blog with John contributing the odd photo and newspaper clipping.

What’s your Elevator Pitch?  To look at the architectural history of the city using the before and after idea, but coupled with detailed research to build a comprehensive record of Vancouver. 

What keeps you motivated? Interest in history and the hunt for obscure information

Favourite Post? The Ormidale Block post was recent but it solved a mystery (at least for us) that was quite satisfying.

2. Daniel Francis

Dan started blogging in May 2013.

What keeps you motivated? I find it hard to keep motivated, actually. I began blogging because I thought I had lots of ideas and opinions to share about Canadian history. I wanted a space to vent. But it turns out that articulating one’s ideas and opinions is harder work than I’d thought. Perhaps in a bar you can toss off the first thing that enters your head, but on a blog, you need to be a bit more thoughtful. And that takes time.

What’s Your Elevator Pitch? I do try to add something new two or three times a month that’s provocative and amusing.

Favourite Posts? The Literary Life; A Day in Provence, Debating Sir John A

3. Every Place has a Story

Yes, this is my blog which I’ve been writing obsessively since 2010. I’m excited to tell you that it will be coming out as a fully illustrated book in the fall called Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History.

What’s your elevator pitch? My blog is an outlet for my passions of quirky local history, heritage houses and crime, and it lets me try out ideas for future books, have fun with photos, and just gives me an excuse to look up cool stuff. It also acts as a companion to my Facebook page of the same name. I’m very proud that the BC Historical Federation named it the best blog of 2015!

Favourite Post: Always the last one: The Woodward’s Christmas Windows

4. Historical Research

Donna Jean MacKinnon started this blog in 2018.

What keeps you motivated? My own interest in local history and in historical research and staying connected with the local historical community

What’s your Elevator Pitch? If you want to do some historical research but don’t know where to start, this blog will help guide you through some of the rarified material found in archives, little-known library sources, and other strategies for discovering information related to your project.

Favourite Post? Port Moody Passed Over in Favour of Vancouver because it is about one of my favourite research materials (directories) and also speaks to an interesting local political controversy that has reverberations to this day.

5. Janet Nicol

Janet started blogging in 2008

What keeps you motivated? Telling stories that are lost, hidden or not valued keep me motivated.

What’s your elevator pitch? I mostly post ‘teasers’ of articles I have written once they are published in print or with on-line journals. Recently my blog has expanded to include promotional events about my first book, a biography of BC artist Sybil Andrews and my own art work, some of it illustrating my stories.

Favourite post? My volunteer work with the BC Labour Heritage Centre inspired me to write Girl Strikers’ and the 1918 Vancouver Steam Laundries Dispute, published in BC Studies, Autumn 2019.

6. Trueborns 

Rob Howatson wrote his first blog post in 2014.

What keeps you motivated? The thrill of finding neat stuff, like a missing time capsule at the old Sunset Community Centre or the Fraserview backyard where country music queen Loretta Lynn was discovered.

What’s your elevator pitch? Vancouver Trueborns seeks to uncover the truth about the city’s past, with extra coverage of its forgotten corner—South Vancouver.

Favourite Post? Jim Dragan is about as Trueborn as they get.

7. Vanalogue

Christine Hagemoen started her Vanalogue blog in 2013, although she has been blogging since 2004.

What keeps you motivated? Positive feedback and my own inquisitive mind.

What’s your elevator pitch? Researching and writing about local history is my passion. I love to uncover the untold or long-forgotten stories of the people and places of this region. Vanalogue is a history-themed blog that is about exploring and featuring all things “analogue” (aka historical) in Vancouver and beyond. Van (Vancouver) + analogue = vanalogue.

Favourite Posts?  The bottle-dash Stucco, the sidewalk prisms and Sarah Cassell

8. WestEndVancouver

Robert Moen started his site in 2013.

What keeps you motivated? The most gratifying aspect of this blog is when someone finds out information that they were not able to discover anywhere else. Some people have been able to locate relatives; others have discovered family information that they had not heard about before. Other people are interested in architecture.

What’s your Elevator Pitch? This site is primarily about the history of the West End in Vancouver starting in the late 1800s and running to about 1920. It deals mostly with the West of Denman area, from Denman Street on the east to Stanley Park on the west, and from Coal Harbour on the north to English Bay on the south.

Favourite post? The Horse Show Building

9. Vancouver as it was: A Photo Historical Journey

Murray Maisey started blogging in 2014.

What keeps you motivated? For me, motivation comes from photographs. I find that when I hit a dry patch, I’m recharged by looking at CVA’s or VPL’s photos.

What’s your Elevator Pitch? VAIW is a post focussed on photographs taken of Vancouver in the past. The text seeks to tell something of the stories of people who are central to those photos. I always try to offer at least a little info that isn’t available elsewhere online so that I can add historical value with each post.

Favourite Post? If I was asked to choose one post (of the 537 posted to date), I’d pick this two-parter: MIA: The Loss of a 20-Foot Painting (Rolph Blakstad)

10. What Floats to the Top of my Desk 

John Atkin started his blog in 2012. He says it’s “an occasional blog of bits and pieces that didn’t fit anywhere else, and it was a place for some original research that was of interest to me.”

What keeps you motivated? Curiosity about everything. I have my note book filled with jottings, clippings and antidotes which are sitting there waiting—I call it my book of perpetual research.

What’s your elevator pitch? If it’s of interest to me, it might be of interest to you

Favourite Post? One of the more popular posts was the fireworks post about why Halloween fireworks were only allowed in BC and Nova Scotia.  My favourites are the Shanghai Alley posts and figuring out the true history of the Alley and the Squirrel post which solved the mystery of how Vancouver got those critters.

If you are in need of a little more history in your holidays, try these posts from the last few years:

The top 10 History Blogs for 2017

The top 10 Facebook Group Pages for 2016

The Top 10 Facebook History Pages for 2015

Have I missed your favourite Vancouver history blogger? Leave me a comment and I’ll make sure to check them out. And, thanks for following my blog!

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

Top 10 History Blogs for 2017

by Eve Lazarus on December 1, 2017
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For my last post of 2017, I have compiled a list of my favourite history blogs. To make the list, the blog had to written by an individual and have a strong Metro Vancouver flavor.

In alphabetical order: 1. A Most Agreeable Place

Lana Okerlund, a Vancouver book editor and writer, has put together this quirky little blog about bookstores past and present. And who doesn’t love a bookstore? It’s full of facts. For instance did you know a copy of Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver’s Travels or Don Quixote would cost you 60 cents  in 1887?

2.  Changing Vancouver

This is one of my go to sites when I’m looking up an architect or building. John Atkin is behind this blog of before and after photos divided into still standing, gone and altered with archival photos from the Vancouver Archives, BC Archives and special collections at Vancouver Public Library. I love how the blog includes a section on how the image was made.

3. Daniel Francis Blog

Dan Francis just collected the Governor General’s History Award for Popular Media in Ottawa last month. That’s a big deal and I can’t think of anyone more deserving. There are 15 books listed on his website (everything from the history of trucks to brothels). I especially like Dan’s personal touch with posts such as the one about how he met his nanny—66 years later.

4. Every Place has a Story

Yes, this is my blog which I’ve been writing obsessively  since 2011. It’s an outlet for my passions of local history, heritage houses and murder, and lets me try out ideas for future books, have fun with photos, or just gives me an excuse to look up cool stuff. It also acts as a companion to my Facebook page of the same name.

5. Illustrated Vancouver

Jason Vanderhill stopped writing his blog in 2015 when he reached a staggering 1,000 posts. I’ve included it because it’s an amazing resource for anyone with an interest in Vancouver’s art history. You’ll find work from artists like BC Binning, contemporary artists such as Tom Carter, and stuff you never knew about such as 1930 plans for a museum at Dead Man’s Island.

6. Janet Nicol

Janet is a former high school history teacher turned writer, who according to her blog, has notched up more than 340 articles in 44 magazines and journals. She writes on BC history, social justice issues and art.  And if you can’t afford a subscription to BC History, Janet often posts her articles on this blog.

7. Past Tense

Lani Russwurm gets my vote for the most knowledgeable history guy in the city. His blogs are always entertaining, highly researched, and I’m forever learning something new and wishing that I’d thought of it first. As well as his Past Tense blog, Lani wrote Vancouver was Awesome and is behind the Forbidden Vancouver blog.

8. Unwritten Histories

I’m seriously intimidated by Andrea Eidinger’s qualifications. She has a BA in history from McGill, a doctorate of philosophy in history from UVic, and is currently teaching at UBC. Andrea does a roundup of history news each week, and has a great list of resources on her site such as the Canadian Historians Guide to Twitter and a Holiday Gift Guide for Historians.

9. Vanalogue

Christine Hagemoen is the force behind this excellent blog. She has worked as a media librarian for the CBC and an archival assistant at Vancouver Archives and really knows her stuff. Subject material ranges from Sara Cassell’s East Georgia Street café to the date stamps in concrete sidewalks to bottle dash stucco.

10. Vancouver as it was: a photo historical journey

Murray Maisey’s blog is much more than photos, he really delves into the history of whatever he is researching. I like the way he “talks” to himself in his stories. In a post about the long defunct Empire Building he writes: “A question which often arises in my mind with such structures is “Who were the tenants who occupied it?…So I dug into Vancouver directories.”

If you are in need of a little more history in your holidays try these posts from the last two years:

The Top 10 Facebook History pages for 2015

The Top 10 Facebook Group Pages for 2016

Have I missed your favourite Vancouver history blogger? Leave me a comment and I’ll make sure to check them out. And, thanks for following my blog!

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

The Mulligan Affair and other BC characters

by Eve Lazarus on September 25, 2012

Alvo von Alvensleben not only has a name you couldn’t make up, he’s one of the most fascinating characters in BC’s history. For some mysterious reason he has never rated a biography, but there is a chapter dedicated to him in my book At Home with History. I was just browsing my bookshelf and thinking what an interesting bunch of men and women BC has produced. Here are five men that I wish I’d met.

Angelo Branca, judge (1903-1984)

Angelo Branca grew up at 343 Prior Street with parents Teresa and Filippo, two brothers John and Joseph and sister Anne. As a lawyer he represented the madams and bootleggers of the East End and eventually became a BC Supreme Court judge. Filippo ran the grocery store on Main Street and he and Peter Tosi and Sam Minichiello were the three biggest importers of California grapes in the area. My favourite story comes from Ray Culos whose grandfather was Sam Minichiello, and says that the joke in the neighbourhood was that wine was a family affair. Filippo would sell the grapes to the bootleggers, his son John, a detective with the dry-squad would arrest them, and his other son, Angelo, would get them off in court.

Moore, Vincent. Gladiator of the Courts: Angelo Branca. Vancouver: Douglas and McIntyre, 1981.

Samuel Maclure, architect (1860-1929)

There are several books about Samuel Maclure, but the one by Janet Bingham is my favourite. I found my copy in a James Bay second hand bookstore/coffee shop and thought I’d won the lottery. Born just outside New Westminster, Maclure worked as a telegrapher in Vancouver before spending a year at art school and turning to architecture. Maclure had considerable design range and his legacy can be seen in hundreds of buildings around British Columbia. His buildings include the flamboyant Charles Murray Queen Anne house in New Westminster (1890), Gabriola on Davie Street (1901) and Hatley Castle in 1925.

Bingham, Janet. Samuel Maclure Architect. Horsdal and Schubart, 1985.

 

Walter Mulligan, chief of police (1904-1987)

At 42, Walter Mulligan was the youngest chief of police and the most corrupt. By 1955, he had 700 people under his command in a culture where cops routinely took bribes from bookies, bootleggers and hardened criminals. That was the year he was caught with his hand in the till after a former Province reporter broke the story about epidemic police corruption. Things unravelled quickly when detective sergeant Len Cuthbert tried to kill himself with his service revolver. He survived and told a police inquiry that he and Mulligan doubled their salaries with bribes. Apart from a girlfriend who lived in Strathcona, Mulligan had a fairly modest existence. He and his wife lived in an ordinary bungalow at 1155 West 50th Avenue. Partway through the police inquiry he moved to California and worked in a nursery. Later he became a bus dispatcher and retired to Oak Bay, where he died at 83.

Macdonald, Ian & O’Keefe, Betty. The Mulligan Affair: Heritage House Publishing, 1997.

Francis Rattenbury, architect (1867-1935)

In 1892, 25-year-old Francis Rattenbury won a competition to design the Parliament Buildings over 60 other architects. Before long he had a slew of buildings after his name including the Empress Hotel, the Crystal Gardens, the CPR Steamship Building and the Vancouver Court House. In 1898, he stunned Victoria’s society by marrying Florence Eleanor Nunn, the adopted daughter of a boarding-house keeper. Gradually, things unraveled. In 1923, with his career and marriage crumbling, Rattenbury met Alma Pakenham, a young divorcee. They married and moved to Bournemouth, England, where by all accounts Rattenbury should have died in obscurity. Instead Alma took up with the 18-year-old chauffeur, George Stoner. In a fit of jealousy, George bashed Rattenbury to death in 1935. Both Alma and George were tried for murder, Alma was acquitted, but after hearing George would hang, she promptly stabbed herself to death, fell into a river and drowned. George later had his death sentence overturned.

Reksten, Terry. Rattenbury. Victoria: Sono Nis Press, 1978.

LD Taylor, serial mayor (1857-1946)

LD Taylor is the most elected mayor in Vancouver’s history, winning nine elections, losing seven, and serving eight terms between 1910 and 1934.  He looks like a nerdy little man in his trademark red tie and owlish glasses, but he was actually a bigamist and flamboyant risk taker.  In 1905, he bought the Vancouver World newspaper from Sara McLagan, sister of Samuel Maclure and built the Sun Tower. LD supported an eight-hour work day and women’s suffrage, and during his watch he oversaw the opening of YVR and the Burrard Street bridge. He had a relaxed approach to gambling, bootlegging and prostitution. He once told a reporter that he didn’t believe that it was the mayor’s job to make Vancouver a “Sunday school town.”

Francis, Daniel. Mayor Louis Taylor and the Rise of Vancouver. Arsenal Pulp Press 2004.

I haven’t forgotten our women. I’ll be looking at five strong women who crashed through barriers and put their stamp on our province in very different ways.

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

L.D. Taylor and the History of Taylor Manor

by Eve Lazarus on July 1, 2012
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For more stories about L.D. Taylor’s Vancouver see: At Home with History: the secrets of Greater Vancouver’s Heritage Homes

Mayor Gregor Robertson held a press conference Friday announcing the City’s receipt of a $30-million anonymous donation to reopen Taylor Manor. After an extensive renovation and upgrade, the house will provide housing for 56 people with mental health issues who now live on the streets of Vancouver.

The City built the Tudor Revival-style house in 1915 as a dormitory for destitute seniors and named it the Vancouver Old People’s Home. When it opened it had separate entrances for men and women. In 1946, it was renamed Taylor Manor after L.D. Taylor, Vancouver’s serial mayor. L.D. is still the most elected mayor in our history, winning nine elections, losing seven, and serving eight terms between 1910 and 1934.

While a photo of L.D. shows him as a slight looking, bland little man in owlish glasses, he was actually a bigamist and a flamboyant risk taker known for his trademark red tie and cigar. He published and edited the BC Mining Record, the Oil and Mining Record and the Critic, a paper on public issues. In 1905, he bought the Vancouver World newspaper from Sara McLagan, the sister of noted architect Samuel Maclure.

In keeping with his mega ambitions, in 1912 L.D. built a 17-storey Beaux-Arts building to house his newspaper. It was the highest building in the British Empire at the time, and caused a minor scandal for its nine near-naked women sculpted by Charles Marega.

The owners of the Vancouver Sun bought the building in 1937, and it’s been known as the Sun Tower ever since.

The Vancouver Sun Tower

According to Daniel Francis’s highly readable biography, L.D. was an American-born accountant, who left his wife and young son in Chicago and headed for Vancouver in 1896 after he was accused of fraud.

Despite this shaky start, L.D. was a popular mayor. He supported the progressive idea of an eight-hour work day, universal suffrage for women and city planning. During his watch, L.D. oversaw the opening of the Vancouver International Airport and the Burrard Street bridge.

He had a relaxed approach to gambling, bootlegging and prostitution. In 1924, he told a Province reporter he didn’t believe that it was the mayor’s job to make Vancouver a “Sunday school town.”

Although Taylor lends his name to Taylor Manor, he never lived there. In 1917 he lived on the top floor of the Caroline Court at the corner of Thurlow and Nelson in the West End. By 1920, he moved to what was once the Granville Mansions at Robson and Granville, where he lived in rather meagre circumstances until his death in 1946 at age 88.

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

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