Every Place Has a Story

Top 10 Vancouver History Blogs of 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 LifeA 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.

Making History with Facebook for 2015

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Since this is my last blog for the year, I thought I’d put together a list of my top 10 favourite FB pages. My criteria is pretty simple: the page has to have a strong Greater Vancouver flavour, there has to be a historical element, and the page has to post reasonably often and with original postings.

In Alphabetical order……

FB Vancouver Archives1. City of Vancouver Archives (likes: 2,328)

The Archives does an amazing job as our official keeper and promoter of Vancouver’s history. But most importantly the Archives took the step a few years ago of digitizing tens of thousands of photos and making high res versions freely accessible to anyone who wants them. They also have a great blog.

FB Every Place2. Every Place has a Story (likes: 1,643)

I started this page a couple of years ago and it has grown into a mixture of curated material, photos and original posts (you really don’t know what you are getting from one day to the next  because I’m never sure myself).

FB Foncie3. Foncie Pulice (likes: 1,384)

Most long time Vancouverites have at least one Foncie photo in their album, and his photos really touch a chord and say a lot about our history. Foncie took his first photo in 1934 and his last in 1979. He was the last of the street photographers

FB Forbidden Vancouver4. Forbidden Vancouver (likes: 5,518)

This is a local business run by Will Woods (shown wearing cool hat). Will has shaken up the idea of the walking tour, added some theatre and shows the sketchy side of Vancouver to locals and tourists. His FB posts reflect this side of Vancouver.

FB Heritage Vancouver5. Heritage Vancouver Society (likes: 2,091)

For keeping Vancouver’s heritage buildings as an issue, for publishing the top 10 watch list of endangered buildings and for putting on great events that keep us interested in heritage. You need to follow this page.

FB NVMA6. North Vancouver Museum and Archives (likes: 2,091)

The North Vancouver Museum and Archives has been fundraising this year for a new museum that would live at the foot of Lonsdale. They’ve also ramped up their postings on FB and shared some really fascinating bits of local history and photos for people on both sides of the Inlet.

FB Vancouver Fire Fighters7. Vancouver Firefighters Historical Society (likes: 531)

Not all the photos are of burning buildings, some are shots of old equipment, trucks, parades, old Vancouver and heritage fire halls. And, if you’re in need of some eye candy pop over to The Hall of Flame calendar page — it’s okay it’s for the children!

FB VHF8. Vancouver Heritage Foundation (likes: 3,334)

Through the annual heritage house tour, lectures series, walking tours, Places that Matter and their collateral, the Vancouver Heritage Foundation does an amazing job of keeping heritage important and fun. Follow this site for information about grants and events.

FB Vancouver Then9. Vancouver Then (likes: 14,861)

I can’t say enough good things about Vancouver Then. Jeremy Hood posts consistently and often and he puts a huge amount of work and thought into his posts and photos about Vancouver. My favourites are his then and now posts that show how much we have changed, or in some cases, how much we haven’t.

FB Vancouver Vanishes10. Vancouver Vanishes (likes: 7,702)

Noted fiction author Caroline Adderson started this page a couple of years ago and has attracted a huge following of people who are just as outraged as she is by the demolition of character houses in Vancouver. Her relentless beating on City Hall has had real results and her page was the basis for Vancouver Vanishes, a book of essays with contributors such as Michael Kluckner, John Atkin, Kerry Gold, and me.

If I have missed any of your favourite pages, please leave a note in the comment section below!