Joe Fortes

Crystal Pool (1929-1974)

by Eve Lazarus on March 26, 2022

Before we had the Vancouver Aquatic Centre, there was the Crystal Pool.

The story is from Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History.

The proposed Connaught Beach Club. Courtesy Neil Whaley collection

Crystal Pool:

Joe Fortes taught hundreds of children how to swim in English Bay, If the much-loved life guard were still alive when Crystal Pool opened in July 1929, it’s hard to imagine that the parks board would have got away with separate swim days—six days for whites, one day for “coloureds and Orientals”*—segregating their mostly young customers for the next 17 years.

Sunset Beach:

The salt-water pool at Sunset Beach was built as part of a swanky private club called the Connaught Beach Club. As well as a pool, there were plans to include tennis, badminton and squash courts, Turkish baths for men and women, a beauty parlour, barber shop, roof garden and a ballroom. But the operators went broke, and the contractors finished only the pool for shares in lieu of cash.

Crystal Pool, ca.1974. Courtesy Vancouver Archives

The city bought the land in 1939 and the parks board held the lease. The pool had bled money during the Depression and some of the stunts to bring in customers included watching George Burrows, superintendent of beaches and parks leap off the three-metre board, tied in a gunny sack for his underwater escape act. Gordon Ross, manager was talked into diving through the air to hit a ring of flame on the water, while Percy Norman, swim coach would wrestle contenders on a platform until one fell into the water. Another draw was throwing 1,000 pennies into the pool and having the kids dive for them. The kids would later return them to the pool by buying sweets at the concession stand. On Saturdays, a 15-cent admission got kids a hot dog, Coke and bus fare home.

Crystal Pool interior, 1929. Courtesy Vancouver Archives

Vivian Jung:

In 1945, 21-year-old Vivian Jung was stopped from getting the life-saving certificate she needed to join the Vancouver School Board as a full-time teacher because she wasn’t allowed to swim in Crystal Pool with the white folk. Her students and colleagues refused to go to the pool without her, and the segregation rule was finally abolished. Vivian became the first Chinese Canadian teacher hired by the Vancouver School Board and taught at Vancouver’s Tecumseh Elementary School for 35 years. In 2014, the year that she died, Jung Lane was named for her. Fittingly, the lane runs right by Sunset Beach.

In 1966, Harry McPhee head of the Seahorse Swim Club went to war with the parks board in an effort to save the pool from demolition for competitive swimmers, even though the facility was aging and losing money. “Perhaps it was a fluke by the builders in the first place, but it’s the right width, the right length, the right everything,” he told a reporter. “It may not look all that glamorous, but it’s got something of the Stradivarius about it.”[2] McPhee lost. Crystal Pool was demolished, though Vancouver gained the Aquatic Centre, which opened in 1974.

[1] “Colour Bar Removed from Crystal Pool.” Province, November 6, 1945

[2] Chester Grant. “Harry’s Campaigning to Save Crystal Pool.” Vancouver Sun, December 3, 1966

Remembering Joe Fortes

by Eve Lazarus on February 4, 2017

Joe Fortes arrived in Vancouver in 1885 and quickly became one of the city’s most loved citizens. As our first official lifeguard and Beach Avenue resident, he saved dozens of lives.

This story is excerpted from: Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History.

Joe Fortes:

In 1904 Joe Fortes was living in a sweet little cottage at the foot of Gilford, right by where the Sylvia Hotel is today. When he heard that the city wanted to rid the water side of homes, he got permission from the mayor to put his home on skids and move it three blocks down the beach to the foot of Bidwell.

Two decades earlier Joseph Seraphim Fortes jumped ship in Burrard Inlet and decided to settle in Vancouver. He was a porter for a time, but after Vancouver burned to the ground in 1886, he started to teach kids to swim in English Bay—hundreds and hundreds of them. Twenty-nine is the official number of lives he saved, but the unofficial number is estimated to be closer to a hundred.

Joe’s Beach Avenue Cottage:

Joe lived in his little cottage by the water until his death on February 4, 1922. He was 57.

Instead of moving his former home across the street to Alexandra Park where it could become a repository for black history in Vancouver, for Joe Fortes, and for the houses that once dotted the water side of Beach Avenue, we burned it to the ground—the standard practice for demolition in the ‘20s.

Joe Fortes

“Our friend Joe’s” funeral was held at Holy Rosary Cathedral, and it was the most heavily attended in the history of Vancouver with thousands of people spilling outside the packed church.

In 1927, the people of Vancouver–many of them children–raised $5,000 (the equivalent of about $70,000 today) to build a memorial fountain in his honour. The fountain was sculpted by Charles Marega, one of the most interesting and prolific artists that you’ve probably never heard of, and inscribed with the words “little children loved him.”

Joe’s legend continues to carry on almost a century after his death.

Joe has a seafood restaurant named after him, and a library. In 1986, the Vancouver Historical Society named him “Citizen of the Century,” and in February 2013 he was honoured with a stamp on the 150^th anniversary of his birth.

Related: A superb National Film Board animation short about Joe produced in 2002

Tags Alexandra Park, Black History Month, Charles Marega, Holy Rosary Cathedral, Joe Fortes

Thurlow and Alberni Streets: then and now

by Eve Lazarus on July 4, 2015

Garden family at 752 Thurlow Street, ca1890s. Photo courtesy Anders Falk

This story appears in Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History.

Anders Falk is a Vancouver realtor with deep roots in the city. His great, great grandparents William and Mary Henderson Garden arrived in Vancouver from Helensburgh, Scotland, via Liverpool and a cross Canada train trip in April 1889. William opened up Garden and Sons Wholesale Tea and Coffee on East Hastings. By 1894, Murchies has broken their monopoly on the tea business, and William and Mary and their two sons William and John have moved into a new house at the corner of Thurlow and Alberni Street.

Garden and Sons Wholesale Teas, 222 East Hastings Street, ca.1890s. Photo courtesy Anders Falk

William died in 1897, and the following year, the business has disappeared from the directory. John became a lumber broker and William Junior played in a band and worked at the Bay for his day job. The Gardens remain at 752 Thurlow until 1903. Fortunately one of the Garden family was an avid photographer and was able to capture the family’s various activities—at the house, a boat at the rowing club, and biking in Stanley Park.

William and Mary Garden family in Stanley Park mid-1890s. Photo courtesy Anders Falk

Anders says Joe Fortes taught the Garden kids to swim at nearby English Bay.

William Lamont Tait, a wealthy retired lumber and real estate tycoon, is the next resident at 752 Thurlow. Tait must have spent much of the next few years planning and supervising the building of Glen Brae, his Shaughnessy mansion on Matthews. Completed in 1911, Glen Brae, named for Tait’s Scottish homeland, was dubbed “the Mae West” by locals because of its two outlandish turrets. Tait died in 1919, and in 1925, his former house became the headquarters of the KKK. More recently it has found a nicer use as Canuck Place.

The house on Thurlow Street and Alberni, like most large places in the West End, went through a number of uses—at one point it was a YWCA, a nursery, and during the First World War, it was occupied by the Canadian Medical Army Corps.

Rear of 754 Thurlow Street in 1956 CVA Bu P508-19

Between 1924 and 1940, 752 Thurlow showed up as the Vancouver Women’s Building in the directories, and in 1941 it was taken over by the Salvation Army. Surprisingly, it looks like it survived until at least 1956, and at some point went through a street change to #754.

In 1966, 752 Thurlow was a three-storey building next to the Manhattan Apartments and occupied by Oil Can Harry’s. The club stayed there for the next 11 years.

The Carlyle, a 21-storey tower replaced the Thurlow Street building in 1989. Its address is now on Alberni.

The Carlisle, 1060 Alberni Street — The Carlyle, 1060 Alberni Street

Heritage Streeters with Caroline Adderson, Heather Gordon, and Eve Lazarus

by Eve Lazarus on April 3, 2015

In February heritage men told us their favourite building and the one building we should have saved. To keep the world in balance, I’ve asked the same question of women working in and with heritage—our answers may surprise you.

Caroline Adderson is an award-winning Vancouver author and the person behind Vancouver Vanishes.

Favourite Vancouver building?

My current favourite house is 3825 West 39^th Avenue, built in 1937 by Jack Wood, who was the builder responsible for all the Dunbar castle houses. The house he built for himself next door and featured in the Vancouver Sun at 3815 West 39^th Avenue was demolished in early March with almost no reclamation of materials. In the article John Atkin describes the style of the Dunbar castles as “a variation of the French Normandy style popular after World War I. The turret is the grain silo of the original (French) farm house repurposed to make a grand entrance.”

I’d argue that 3825 West 39^this the prettier of the sisters because of the shingle roof and the Tudor elements. Like the Dorothies, which were saved from demolition last year, this house just lights up the street. It seems to exude stories. But not for long. As I was walking past the house this morning, I met a pair of surveyors who confirmed it’s slated for demolition.

Caroline's runner-up for favourite “house” still standing is 3492 ½ West 35th. It’s a sort of rondavel constructed out of firewood, driftwood, plywood, cinderblocks, tarpaper and stones, with fanciful ornamentation. "I haven’t been inside because, as you can see, no “gurls” are “aloud”. — Caroline’s runner-up for favourite “house” still standing is 3492 ½ West 35th. It’s a sort of rondavel constructed out of firewood, driftwood, plywood, cinderblocks, tarpaper and stones, with fanciful ornamentation. “I haven’t been inside because, as you can see, no “gurls” are “aloud”.

The one building that never should have been destroyed?

Please see my Facebook Page Vancouver Vanishes.

Heather Gordon is the City Archivist for the City of Vancouver Archives.

Favourite Vancouver building?

Beaconsfield Apartments ca1910 CVA M-11-57

The Beaconsfield at 884 Bute Street is one of a number of West End apartment buildings built in the late 1890s and early 1900s. Every one of these blocks has its own idiosyncrasies and surprises, but I love the Arts and Crafts balconies on the otherwise very-Victorian Beaconsfield, and the way the building integrates with the park-like traffic-calmed block of Bute outside its entrance.

The one building that never should have been destroyed?”

The Glencoe Lodge at Georgia and Burrard was a residential hotel built by B.T. Rogers in 1906 and managed by Jean Mollison, who was known a the “grand Chatelaine,” because according to a 1951 newspaper article, she had previously managed the Chateau Lake Louise. Under her guidance, Glencoe Lodge attracted a highly exclusive clientele, even more so than the C.P.R.’s Hotel Vancouver. The Lodge was demolished in the early 1930s, but if it had lasted longer, I can’t help but wonder if it might have become part of a really interesting development on that corner.

Eve Lazarus is the author of Sensational Vancouver and the person behind Every Place has a Story.

Favourite Vancouver building?

With Aaron Chapman on the 2014 VHF heritage house tour

It was a huge thrill to get inside Casa Mia on the Vancouver Heritage Foundation’s house tour last year. Built smack in the middle of the Depression from the proceeds of rum running, this old girl still has the nursery with original drawings from Walt Disney artists, it’s own gold leaf covered ballroom with a spring dance floor, a gold swan for a faucet, and art deco his and hers washrooms.

The one building that never should have been destroyed?

Joe Fortes (1863-1922) — Joe Fortes Beach Avenue cottage CVA BuP111

We honoured Joe Fortes with a fountain in Alexandra Park, but how much more awesome would it have been, if we’d kept his house? Not only would it have been one of the oldest structures in Vancouver, it could have made both a great little museum for black history in Vancouver and for the houses that once dotted the water side of Beach Avenue. Instead it went up in flames in 1928.

Recognizing Black History: The Canada Post Stamps

by Eve Lazarus on February 1, 2014

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

In February 2014, Canada Post came out with two stamps in recognition of Black History Month. One shows Hogan’s Alley, the unofficial name for an area near Union and Main Streets and home to much of Vancouver’s early black community. The other is of Nora Hendrix and Fielding William Spotts.

The photo of Spotts was taken in 1935, and it shows the 75-year-old standing outside his home at 217 ½ Prior Street in Hogan’s Alley, which would be bulldozed out of existence our decades later to make way for the Georgia Viaduct.

On the stamp, Spotts stands next to a young Nora Hendrix, who lived to be 100, spent much of her life in Strathcona and become famous for her grandson, rocker Jimi Hendrix. According to the city directory of 1930, Spotts ran a shoe shine business at 724 Main Street.

Rosemary Brown was Canada’s first Black female member of a provincial legislature and the first woman to run for leadership of a federal political party. She received a stamp in 2009

This was the sixth year that Canada Post produced a stamp for Black History Month—Rosemary Brown was first up in 2009, and it was the first time the stamp focussed on a place instead of a person.

I was curious how Canada Post chose these images, so I called media relations. Turns out it’s quite a process. A committee of 12 selects the subject matter. Our one representative from Vancouver in 2014 was artist Ken Lum. He joined a panel of designers, philatelists (stamp collectors), curators, and curiously, Toronto economist David Foot who wrote Boom Bust & Echo.

I also wondered who buys stamps these days. Turns out while not many of us mail letters, there’s still a large worldwide demand for stamps. Canada Post churns out about 50 different stamps every year.

You can suggest your own stamp. It takes about two years from inception to find its way to an envelope.

Eleanor Collins, Canada’ first lady of jazz, 2022

Stamps for 2022 include Queen Elizabeth, Calla lilies, Vancouver’s Elsie McGill for the Canadian’s in flight series, and music legend Eleanor Collins who is 102 and lives in Surrey, BC.

Tags Black History Month, Canada Post, David Foot, Eleanor Collins, Elsie McGill, Fielding William Spotts, Georgia Viaduct, Hogan's Alley, Joe Fortes, Ken Lum, Nora Hendrix, Rosemary Brown

The Life and Death of the Englesea Lodge (1911-1981)

by Eve Lazarus on March 25, 2013

Englesea Lodge fire — Englesea Lodge burned to the ground on February 1, 1981. Michael Cox photo

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

On Sunday February 1, 1981 shortly before 9:00 a.m., George Wright, a 70-something caretaker was working at the Englesea Lodge when he spotted fire coming from the building’s basement storage area.

“There was a big boom and the fire rushed out at me. It threw me back against the wall,” he told a reporter. Wright barely managed to escape through the rear basement door, but flames were already tearing up through two light shafts and up the elevator shaft and spreading through the floors of the seven-storey apartment building.

Former Vancouver Fire Department Captain Steve Webb was one of 90 firefighters called out that day to fight the fire with the help of an aerial ladder and 13 trucks. There’s no doubt in his mind that it was arson.

“The fire was not only obviously set in the basement next to the elevator shaft, but the fire ‘operations and command’ was also suspicious to us firefighters. The higher-ups wanted it to burn,” he told me this week. “Soon as we had a good grip on the seat of the fire, we were called out and the fire was allowed to rekindle and spread.”

The fire left a smoke-blackened, gutted building just two days before Vancouver City Council was scheduled to meet and discuss the Englesea’s future.

When I blogged about the 1913 photo of the houses on Beach Avenue last week I hadn’t heard of the Englesea Lodge. Many of you wrote and told me stories about the building and the fire that caused its destruction.

It’s a fascinating story that spans half-a-century—features the parks board as villain, the city as wishy washy and a group called the Save-Englesea Committee who had the radical idea that the building was part of our heritage and could co-exist perfectly well with the shoreline.

The Plan

Around the turn of the century, the water side of Beach Avenue was ringed with more than 30 houses and bookended by the Englesea Lodge and what’s now the Burrard Street Bridge. Some were fine old ivy-covered manors, others were more like Joe Fortes’s sweet little cabin at the foot of Bidwell.

In 1926 the Vancouver Town Planning Commission hired Harland Bartholomew, an American urban planner, to design a blue print for Vancouver’s growth. The 300-plus page book (now online thanks to Vancouver Archives) was the catalyst behind shedding the shoreline of bricks and mortar.

The first part of the plan involved the city expropriating 14 houses to make way for a “pleasure drive” in 1929. But the Depression and then the War got in the way and the houses became rentals for the next two decades.

Over the years the city bought up more properties until the only hold-out was the Englesea Lodge.

Englesea Lodge, Sylvia Hotel and English Bay Pier, 1913. Vancouver Archives

The Fight

The city paid $375,000 for the Englesea in 1967, and the battle to save it began.

Rents from the building had covered its cost by 1975 and supporters argued that future revenue would generate enough for renovations. But in 1979 Council voted to demolish the building anyway, issued eviction notices and locked up suites as they emptied. Later that year, the Englesea received another stay-of-execution when councillors voted 6-5 to delay further eviction notices until they found more justification than the parks board’s whim to destroy the building.

In 1980, the year before the fire, 29 of the 45 apartments remained occupied, and there was talk from the city of investing $1.3 million to turn the building into senior’s housing.

But to the parks board, the building which sat kitty corner from its offices, remained a blight on the shoreline—and their view—and they were determined to bulldoze English Bay back to sand and grass.

Beach Avenue was once ringed by houses from Chilco to Burrard — Englesea Lodge was designed by William White, the same architect who designed the Sylvia Hotel (then the Sylvia Courts Apartments) in 1912. White also designed the Del Mar Hotel on Hamilton Street.

The End

Strangely, the building’s fire alarm didn’t sound when fire broke out, and fortunately no one died in the fire. The parks board got its way, and we lost another charming old heritage building.

The day after the fire, Alderman Don Bellamy—who favoured demolition—told a Province reporter that the fire was “like fate itself has taken hold.”

And then he added: “It’s a hell of a shallow victory. If we’re going to have our way, I hope to hell we don’t have to fry people to do it.”

For more on the West End see:

Tags Don Bellamy, Englesea Lodge, English Bay, George Wright, Harland Bartholomew, Joe Fortes, Sylvia Courts Apartments, Sylvia Hotel, Vancouver Archives, William White

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