Francis Rattenbury

Francis Rattenbury: A Halloween Horror Story

by Eve Lazarus on October 21, 2023

Francis Rattenbury moved to Victoria in 1892. The 25-year-old had beat out 60 other architects to win the design competition for BC’s Parliament Buildings. Although massively over budget, the commission propelled the young architect’s career, and before long he had a slew of buildings after his name including the Empress Hotel, The Crystal Gardens, the CPR Steamship Building, the Bank of Montreal on Government (Irish Times Pub), and the Law Courts (Vancouver Art Gallery), as well as his own Oak Bay Mansion–Iechinihl, now a private school.

Story from Sensational Victoria: Bright Lights, Red Light, Murders, Ghosts and Gardens

Francis Rattenbury's house — Iechinihl, ca. 1920. Courtesy Victoria Archives

Florrie:

In 1898, Rattenbury (or Ratz as he was known), stunned Victoria’s hierarchy by marrying Florence Eleanor Nunn, the adopted daughter of a woman who ran a boarding house. The couple had two children—Francis born in 1899 and Mary in 1904.

Gradually things started to unravel. Rattenbury had a falling out with the CPR and resigned as its architect. He demanded total control of his projects and would fire off pompous letters to clients who interfered with his plans. He lost a fortune in the crash of 1913. At home, things were falling apart.

Alma:

In 1923, with his career and marriage in tatters, Rattenbury met Alma Pakenham, twice-married and 30-years younger. When Florrie refused to divorce him, Rattenbury had the heat and electricity cut off at the house and scandalized Victoria’s society by flaunting his affair.

When Florrie eventually agreed to a divorce, as part of the settlement Rattenbury provided her with her own house. She bought a corner lot at 1513 Prospect Place. Samuel Maclure, who worked with Rattenbury on Government House, designed Florrie’s new home with a view of Iechinihl, where Rattenbury lived with Alma.

Florrie Rattenbury's house — Florrie’s house. 1513 Prospect Place. Courtesy BC Assessment

George:

Florrie died in 1929, the same year that Rattenbury and Alma moved to Bournemouth, England. By all accounts the architect should have ended his life in obscurity, but Alma took up with George Stoner, the 18-year-old chauffeur. In a fit of jealously, George bashed Rattenbury to death in 1935.

Alma Rattenbury — Vancouver Sun, June 5, 1935

Both Alma and George were tried for murder, Alma was acquitted, but after hearing George would hang, she promptly stabbed herself, fell into a river and drowned. George later had his death sentence overturned. He died in 2000 at age 83.

Listen to Will Woods tell the story of Francis Rattenbury on Episode 44 of Cold Case Canada Podcast and find out how you can get 15 percent off a Forbidden Vancouver walking tour.

Beneath Dark Waters: The Legacy of the Empress of Ireland Shipwreck by Eve Lazarus, coming April 2025. Preorder through Arsenal Pulp Press, or your favourite indie bookstore

Tags 1531 Prospect Place, 1701 Beach Drive, Alma Rattenbury, Florrie Rattenbury, Francis Rattenbury, Iechinihl, Samuel Maclure, Victoria

Halloween Special 2023

by Eve Lazarus on July 21, 2023

In this last episode of season 4, Cold Case Canada, I’ve asked four BC-based storytellers to tell us their favourite murder and haunted building stories.

Francis Rattenbury (1867-1935)

Will Woods

Will Woods, founder of Forbidden Vancouver Walking Tours tells us the story of Francis Rattenbury’s murder, an architect responsible for buildings that include the Parliament Buildings and the Empress Hotel in Victoria and the Law Courts in Vancouver.

Beneath Dark Waters: The Legacy of the Empress of Ireland Shipwreck by Eve Lazarus, coming April 2025. Preorder through Arsenal Pulp Press, or your favourite indie bookstore

Vancouver Fire Hall no. 19

Vancouver Fire Hall No. 19 has been haunted for as long as anyone can remember. Captain Ryan Cameron, who has served 27 years with Vancouver Fire Rescue Services, believes that the ghost is none other than Bill Wootton, a fire fighter who worked out of the original fire hall in 1943 when he was killed on the way to a call. Bill likes to slide down the fire station pole, slam doors in the middle of the night, play ping pong and leave a chill in the stairwell.

1329 East 12th Avenue, Vancouver

Amanda Quill

Amanda Quill is a Vancouver-based paranormal investigator who welcomes abnormal activity and has happily lived in several haunted houses over the years. In 2001, she and her son Nathan moved into this East Vancouver house along with a ghost cat, a male in his 30s, and a little girl who appeared to Nathan in a frilly dress.

Irving House, New Westminster

Jim Wolf

In 1990, Jim Wolf was fresh out of university and got his dream job as curatorial assistant at Irving House. Soon after starting at the museum, he met his first ghost. Most recently, Jim was the heritage planner with the City of Burnaby and he has authored several books including The Royal City: A Photographic History of New Westminster, 1858-1960.

Show Notes:

Intro Music: Andreas Schuld ‘Waiting for You’

Breaks: Nico Vettese, We Talk of Dreams

Intro: Mark Dunn

Buy me a coffee promo: McBride Communications and Media

Tags Alma Pakenham, Amanda Quill, Bill Wootton, Firehall no. 19, Francis Rattenbury, Irving House, Jim Wolf, Ryan Cameron, Will Woods

The First Vancouver Art Gallery

by Eve Lazarus on January 22, 2021

Before the Vancouver Art Gallery moved into the old courthouse on West Georgia, its home was a gorgeous art deco building a few blocks away.

1145 West Georgia Street, 1931. Courtesy Vancouver Art Gallery

If you live in Vancouver, you know that the Vancouver Art Gallery is housed in the old law courts, an imposing neo-classical building designed by celebrity architect Francis Rattenbury in 1906. What you may not know, was that the VAG started out in a gorgeous art deco building at 1145 West Georgia, a few blocks west from its current location.

Story from Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History

Site of the “new” VAG. April 1931, CVA 99-3870

The original 1931 building—the same year the VAG was founded—was designed by local architects Sharp and Thompson. George Sharp, a respected artist and founding faculty member of the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts designed the building to fit perfectly into the largely residential West End neighborhood. It had a main hall, two large galleries and two smaller ones with a sculpture hall, library and lecture hall.

VAG Sculpture Court, 1931. CVA Bu-P400.8

Charles Marega won the commission to sculpt the heads of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci that flanked the front door. Marega carved the names of those who were considered great painters of the times (none were Canadian and all were men).

After the war, Group of Seven artist Lawren Harris, who lived on ritzy Belmont Avenue, raised $300,000, and the building was expanded to three times its original size to accommodate the works of Emily Carr and some of Harris’s own paintings. The Art Deco façade disappeared and Marega’s sculptures were no longer considered appropriate for the new sleeker modern building.

Vancouver School of Art exhibit, June 1931. CVA 99-3952

The VAG ran a classified ad in the Province in July 1951 offering the sculptures for sale. If they didn’t sell, the plan was to throw them out. Rumour has it that they found a home somewhere in the Lower Mainland – and if you happen to have them in your backyard, please let me know!

The newly renovated version, 1958. Courtesy Vancouver Art Gallery

In 1983, the VAG moved into its current digs at the old courthouse taking with it $15 million in art. Two years later the original building was demolished. Now the Paradox Hotel (former Trump tower) and the FortisBC Centre straddle its old space.

For more in Our Missing Heritage Series see:

Our Missing Heritage (part one) The Georgia Medical & Dental Building and the Devonshire Hotel

Our Missing West Coast Modern Heritage (Part two)

Our Missing Heritage (part three) The Empress Theatre

Our Missing Heritage (part four) The Strand Theatre, Birks Building and the second Hotel Vancouver

Our Missing Heritage (part five) The Hastings Street Theatre District

Our Missing Heritage (part six)

Tags 1145 West Georgia Street, Charles Marega, emily carr, Francis Rattenbury, George Sharp, Lawren Harris, Sharp and Thompson, Vancouver Art Gallery

The Buntzen Power Stations on Indian Arm

by Eve Lazarus on August 26, 2017

The original Buntzen powerhouse came into service in 1904, and was replaced in 1951. A second gothic looking powerhouse was completed in 1914. #2 has been the host to a number of creepy films, including Stephen King’s It, Placid, Freddy Vs. Jason and Roxanne.

Story from Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History

Buntzen powerhouse #2 — Top photo of Power Station #2 courtesy Vancouver Archives LGN 1169 ca.1914

Indian Arm:

A couple of weeks ago, I took a boat ride up Indian Arm with Belcarra Mayor Ralph Drew and the Deep Cove Heritage Society. It’s hard to imagine that over a century ago Indian Arm was thriving and serviced by sternwheelers, a floating post office and grocery store.

The highlight for me was finally seeing the Wigwam Inn, but almost as exciting were the two massive power stations that dominate the eastern shore at Buntzen Bay.

Power Station #2. Eve Lazarus photo, July 2017

Heather Virtue-Lapierre was born up there in 1943. Her grandfather Matt Virtue was one of the first power house operators shortly after #1 opened in 1903. Her father Jim carried on the family tradition from 1941 until the plant was automated in 1953.

1910: Far left Matt Virtue. H.R. Heinrich, master mechanic is in the cap. #5 Tom Lundy, #6 George Henshaw, and #8 Jim Findlay. Courtesy Heather Virtue-Lapierre

One-room school:

Heather’s school was a one-room building above the power house. She was taught by a teacher who had worked as a welder during the war. “You didn’t mess with her!” she says. The teacher and her husband, who worked on the new penstock, lived in a small apartment attached to the school.

Buntzen |Power Station — Heather at Power House #1 in 1953. Courtesy Heather Virtue-Lapierre

Heather says that power house operators were exempt from service during the war years, and instead joined the Pacific Coast Militia Rangers. “Nobody was allowed to land at Buntzen without permission during the war,” she says. “I still remember the blackout curtains in our house.”

Buntzen Lake Power Station — 1940s, the second generation. Left to right: Jim Virtue (son of Matt), Vic Shorting, George Mantle, Gill McLaughlin, Bill Henshaw (son of George) Courtesy Heather Virtue-Lapierre

Community:

Dawson Truax’s father was a floor man, and Dawson was just 18 months old when he moved to Buntzen with his war-bride mother in 1946. They lived in a cabin on the hill above the power plant owned by the BC Electric Railway (the forerunner to BC Hydro). Supplies came weekly on the MV Scenic.

“It was quite a small community and only took three men to run the power plant at any time over three shifts a day,” he says. “There was a hoist on tracks that went up the hill from the plant area to the cabin. One of my first childhood memories is of my father putting me on the hoist with a pile of parcels while he walked alongside.”

“My mother talked about it quite a bit. It was quite horrifying for her to move from London, England to the Canadian wilderness,” he says.

Buntzen gets its name from Johannes Buntzen, BCER’s first general manager. According to Ferries & Fjord, the power stations weren’t the first industry on the Arm. The area was populated as early as 1880 by a Japanese Logging Camp. Between 1902 and 1914 around 500 men camped up there while they worked on a tunnel from Coquitlam Lake to Buntzen Lake.

Vancouver’s rapid growth soon demanded more power, and Power Station #2 opened in 1914.

Robert Lyon architect

Rumour has it, #2 was designed by Francis Rattenbury, the architect who designed the Parliament buildings and the Empress Hotel in Victoria, and the Courthouse on West Georgia. It certainly looks like his work—large, gothic and creepy (Rattenbury, who was a bit of a jerk, was eventually murdered by his trophy wife’s 18-year-old lover). But according to Building the West, #2 was designed by Robert Lyon, an architect employed by BCER.

Buntzen Power Station #1 — Power Station #1. Eve Lazarus photo, July 2017

Jim Munro (1929-2016)

by Eve Lazarus on November 26, 2016

I was so sad to hear of Jim Munro’s death last Monday. Jim was a huge promoter and lover of books, heritage buildings, art and authors, including of course, his first wife the Nobel prize winner Alice Munro.

munro

He was also a lovely man. I had the pleasure of meeting Jim a few years back when I was researching Sensational Victoria. Because my book was about the stories of people filtered through the houses where they lived and the heritage buildings where they worked, I was fascinated by both Jim Munro’s home and Munro’s Books, the building that he turned into a destination.

munros

Jim told me that in 1966 he fell in love with a house in Rockland that was asking $33,000, and likely designed by the infamous Francis Rattenbury. The house had been turned into a duplex and was in rough shape, but Jim could see the potential, and managed to get the owners down to $20,000. Alice wrote Dance of the Happy Shades, a 1968 Governor General award winner in an upstairs room, and followed that with her bestselling Lives of Girls and Women. The Munro’s divorced in 1972 and Alice moved back to Ontario.

In 1977, Jim married textile artist Carole Sabiston in what the family called the “chapel” because of the stained-glass effect Jim had painted around the windows and for his old pump organ that still sits under the staircase. Jim played Purcell’s Trumpet Voluntary on the organ before the wedding.

“I marry artists,” Jim told me “and I love heritage buildings.”

Margaret Drabble, Ian McEwan, Vikram Seth, Jane Urquhart, Carol Shields and Simon Winchester, were just a few of the literary greats that have visited the house.

Carole kindly showed me through the house and garden. Both are beautiful and quirky. There is a wall of wearable art—everything from straw hats to top hats. One corner of a room has a key collection—big iron keys to tiny clock keys collected from flea markets around the world. Another corner has a collection of carpet beaters. Out in the garden, Carole created the Philosopher’s Walk for Jim with a bust of Voltaire.

jim-pump-organ

Carole added a studio that’s connected to the house by a glazed passage. It was here that she created the dramatic five-panel work of mountains and ocean that hangs in Government House, as well as perhaps her most publicly accessible work: eight large banners depicting the seasons that hang in Munro’s Books on Government Street.

In 1984, Jim bought the Royal Bank building, designed by Thomas Hooper, the same architect who designed Hycroft in Shaughnessy, the Victoria Public Library, Roger’s Chocolate building and Christina Haas’s Cook Street Brothel.

“No one wanted a used bank building except me,” he said. “People thought I was insane because in those days there weren’t huge bookstores like there are now, but people who buy books also appreciate art and beautiful buildings.”

In December 2012 Jim invited me to have a Victoria launch at Munro’s and hang out with a bunch of local authors that included Kit Pearson, Sheryl McFarlane and Bill Gaston. Two years later he retired and handed over the keys and inventory to four long-time staffers. That same year he received the Order of Canada.

RIP Jim.

Tags Alice Munro, Carole Sabiston, Francis Rattenbury, Jim Munro, Munro's Books, Sensational Victoria, Thomas Hooper

Christmas at Roedde House

by Eve Lazarus on December 12, 2015

War for the Holidays opens tonight and runs until December 19

I went to a Christmas party at the Gregsons last night. Actually, the Gregsons don’t really exist; they are characters in War for the Holidays, a play set in 1915, and which takes place in an 1893 Queen Anne house in Vancouver’s West End.

Will Woods, who is well known for his Forbidden Vancouver tours, has taken a leap into theatre, and we’re lucky he has, because the play, which is part history, part improv and part just really good acting, is riveting.

Written by newcomer Tiffany Anderson, War for the Holidays took a year to produce and it shows, from the convincing performances, to the clothes, right down to the trays, decanters and newspapers—supplied by Vancouver’s Salmagundi.

We, the audience, are cast as the Gregsons’ neighbours and are completely immersed in the show, even moving from room to room with them. And, the play delves into some heavy issues—war-time Vancouver, desertion, suffragettes, the old boy’s club, and racism—and it kept me on edge the whole time, and more than a little uncomfortable.

That feeling of unease starts at the front door. Chang, the Chinese houseboy, takes our coats and leads us into the parlour. And, yes, West End families employed Chinese help—it was cheap and it was prestigious. At one point in the play Chang takes us into the kitchen and shows us a picture of the bride he has never met, but who will soon join him in Vancouver.

We have eggnog in the parlour—served by Chang of course—and later plum pudding in the dining room. At one point the women are taken upstairs to share in a secret and we get to see the period bedrooms and stand in the cupola that overlooks the rest of Barclay Square and that was supposedly designed by Francis Rattenbury.

Roedde house is the perfect backdrop for the play. One hundred years ago the actual occupants were Gustav and Matilda Roedde. Gustav founded the city’s first bookbinding and printing company, and they lived in the house until 1925 with their six children and three St. Bernards. At Christmas 1913, the family’s tree burst into flames and the house was only just saved by the firefighters working at Fire Hall 6.

Fortunately that scene is not reenacted, but there’s plenty of drama, including a lot of yelling around the dinner table.

The best thing though, is that the Gregsons are not our relatives. At the end of the play we can leave them and go have Christmas with our own dysfunctional families.

Tags 1415 Barclay Square, Forbidden Vancouver, Francis Rattenbury, Gustav Roedde, Salmagundi, War for the Holidays, Will Woods

The Titanic’s British Columbia Connection

by Eve Lazarus on April 13, 2013

To mark the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, this week’s blog is a story about Mabel Fortune Driscoll who survived the disaster, moved to Victoria and lived there until her death in 1968. The full story appears in Sensational Victoria.

Mabel Helen Fortune was 23 when she set off for a tour of Europe with her father Mark, mother Mary, younger brother, and two older sisters.

Charles, 19, had just graduated from high school and was planning to attend McGill University. Alice, 24, and Edith, 28, were shopping for bridal trousseaus for their upcoming weddings, and young Mabel had fallen in love with Harrison Driscoll, a jazz musician from Minnesota . Her father, a wealthy real estate speculator and city councillor from Winnipeg, disapproved of this potential son-in-law and thought an overseas trip might distract her.

Titanic survivor — Mabel Fortune Driscoll with Fuji. Photo courtesy Mark Driscoll

The Fortunes were among 50 Canadians booked on the Titanic. At 11:40 pm on April 14, 1912 the ship hit an iceberg. As the ship started to take on water Mary and her three daughters were placed in Lifeboat 10 along with a “Chinaman, an Italian stoker, and a man dressed in woman’s clothing.” Of all the occupants of this lifeboat, only the stoker could row. Alice, Edith and Mabel took turns at the oars.

The women survived, but Mark, 64, and Charles were among the 1,500 people who died that night, their bodies never recovered.

1630 York Place, completed in 1908. two full-time gardeners tended the grounds, which included a formal rose garden set around a sundial, a cutting garden for fresh flowers, a vegetable garden and an aviary. Photo courtesy Oak Bay Archives

Mark Driscoll, Mabel’s grandson and a West Vancouver realtor, said Mabel only talked to him once about the disaster when he was a teenager in the 1960s. “She started crying and just said that it was a horrible experience, that she remembered the last time she saw her father, and when she was out in the boat she was crying and calling for her father and for her brother,” he says. “She suffered from pretty severe depression, especially as she got older and she never wanted to talk about it.”

Alice married Charles Holden Allen, a lawyer, in June 1912; and in 1913 Ethel married Crawford Gordon, a banker and Mabel married Harrison. They had a son, Robert, but the marriage didn’t last. Mabel hooked up with Charlotte Fraser Armstrong, a widow with a young son from Ottawa. They moved to Victoria and bought the Francis Rattenbury–designed house at York Place and just under three acres of garden.

Swimming pool at 1630 York Place in 1926. Courtesy Victoria Archives

The house was already huge, but soon after buying it, Charlotte and Mabel hired Samuel Maclure to add another wing, build a balcony off the second-floor bedroom, extend the maid’s quarters, add two more bathrooms, design a large terrace with stone walls, a greenhouse, and an Olympic-sized swimming pool. In 1930, the house got another facelift when Charlotte and Mabel hired architects James and Savage to extend the dining room, and build a garage to hold two matching Cadillacs and quarters for the chauffeur.

Mabel and Charlotte’s sons were packed off to boarding school. Robert became a mechanical engineer and moved to Montreal.

Mark said when his grandmother and Charlotte came to visit; they stayed at the Ritz Carlton. And, even with all those rooms on York Place, when the family went out west to visit Mabel, they stayed at the Oak Bay Beach Hotel.

It wasn’t until after Charlotte’s death, and his father’s early retirement in 1965, that Mark and his family moved in with Mabel, Sing the Chinese cook, his bilingual budgie, and Madge, the long-time maid.

Mabel left the property to Robert, and the house stayed in the family until Mark’s mother sold in 1989. The house is still there, but the land was subdivided and now has an additional six houses on the property.

Tags 1630 York Place, Charles Fortune, Charlotte Fraser Armstrong, Francis Rattenbury, Mabel Fortune Driscoll, Mark Fortune, Oak Bay, Oak Bay Beach Hotel, Samuel Maclure, Sensational Victoria, Titanic

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 50^th 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.

Tags Alvo von Alvensleben, Angelo Branca, At Home with History, Betty O'Keefe, Daniel Francis, Francis Rattenbury, Ian Macdonald, Janet Bingham, LD Taylor, Samuel Maclure, Terry Reksten, Vincent Moore, Walter Mulligan

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