Hastings Mill Archives

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

In 2016, the Vancouver Historical Society, of which I was a board member, was contacted by the Port of Vancouver and asked what we’d like to do with a three metre-high sculpture made from BC granite that had been sitting on their land at the foot of Dunlevy Street since a previous board commissioned it 50 years before.

Since it was the first that any of us had heard of it, we did some research and found out that in 1966, the VHS had contributed funds towards a $4,500, three-piece sculpture created by Gerhard Class to mark the 100^th anniversary of Hastings Mill, which for a time, was the nucleus of Vancouver.

We took a field trip to check it out. It’s a beautiful piece of art, and a shame that no one really gets to see it.

The problem for the port was that the sculpture sat in a garden behind the Flying Angels Club, built in 1906 as the headquarters for the BC Mills Timber and Trading company and a fixture of Hastings Mills.

In 1966, the National Harbours Board occupied the house and did so until the 1970s when the Mission for Seafarers, which runs the Flying Angels Club, took possession.

Up until 9/11, the Mission was easily accessible and surrounded by gardens that led to the waterfront. Post 9/11 madness, the Port is wrapped in a chain link of security which has marooned the house in a kind of cul-de-sac.

Over the years, the garden shrank as the port expanded. When we were contacted in 2016, the Port was planning to install shore-power transformers where the sculpture sat. To give the Port of Vancouver’s Carol Macfarlane, a huge amount of credit, she went to enormous lengths to find the sculpture a new home.

“It reminded me of an iceberg,” she said. “The monument is 8.5 ft. tall, but the underground is over three feet high and seven feet wide.”

And, when we realized the sheer lunacy of having to work with three levels of government to make the sculpture more accessible somewhere else, we opted to move it to the front of the house.

It’s not easy, but please go visit this sculpture. Maybe drop in and visit the Mission to Seafarers while you are there. Perhaps even drop off some books or games or clothes that you no longer need. They’ll be most grateful.

Thanks to Carol Macfarlane, project manager, Port of Vancouver for the photos

For more on the Mission to Seafarers at the foot of Dunlevy Street, see Flying Angels Club House

The Flying Angels Club House was built in 1906 by the BC Mills as their offices for sales of pre-fabricated houses, schools and churches.

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

Kathryn Murray’s association with the Mission to Seafarers goes back to 1902—the same year the Flying Angels Club came to Vancouver. Kathyrn’s great grandmother Florence Sentell was bringing a fruit basket to the Mission when she met Charles Westrand, Kathryn’s great grandfather.

The Mission which still provides assistance and care to seaman from over 90 countries, has been housed in a heritage building at the foot of Dunlevy for almost half-a-century. The Mission owns the house while the Port of Vancouver owns the land and leases it back for $1 a year.

Port Security:

Sixteen years ago the Mission was easily accessible and surrounded by gardens that led to the waterfront. Post 9/11 madness, the Port is wrapped in a chain link of security which has marooned the house in a kind of cul-de-sac. It shows in the numbers. Before the security fences shot up, about 24,000 seafarers visited the Mission every year. Last year only 3,500 visited.

Kathryn thinks part of the problem is that people have forgotten about them. The other problem is the Internet. They are literally at the end of the line and get whatever the Port doesn’t use.

“The guys come and just can’t get proper Internet and that’s really something that’s required when they only have an hour or two and they really need to talk to people back home.”

The Flying Angels Club — The vault, shown in the 1906 plans became a fall-out shelter during the Cold War. Eve Lazarus photo, 2016

It would cost $20,000 to get a better connection.

And the Internet is huge for men who may be in town for just a few hours. Kathryn, who manages this location and another at Roberts Bank—has watched a seafarer attend his mother’s funeral through Skype, another watched his son take his first steps, and she saw one man pick up a teddy from the gift store to teach his child the A, B, C’s. She says, the men who visit—and it’s almost all men, call her “Mother.”

Up to 80% of visiting seafarers are Filipino and they are deeply religious. Their spiritual needs are administered to in the chapel by either a Priest or an Anglican cleric. Eve Lazarus photo, 2016.

House is threatened

The Mission is about to lose even more of its garden as the Port’s activities expand (think First Order). In the long term, the fate of the house is threatened, and this is tragic because the building and its location are an essential part of Vancouver’s history.

First Nations call the site Kumkumalay meaning “big maple trees.” It was the site of the Hastings Saw Mill and the old mill store and the first public school. The homeless set up camp here during the worst of the Depression. Hastings Mill was a significant employer of Japanese Canadians which led to Japantown.

VPL 2757 taken in 1932. Leonard Frank photo

The Mission’s house was built by BC Mills Timber and Trading Co. in 1906 as the offices for sales of pre-fabricated houses, schools and churches. The building was a showplace with each office paneled in a different type of wood—fir, hemlock, red cedar and balsam—and painted over when the Vancouver Harbour Commissioners moved in. The National Harbours Board were next to own the house, and the Mission took possession in the early 1970s.

Next time you’re in the area, visit the house while you still can. Maybe bring some books and games or clothes that you no longer need. Kathryn and her visiting Seafarer’s will be most grateful.

For the story about the sculpture that is now at the front of the house: see Art, History and a Mission

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House is threatened

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