Lonsdale Quay

Three Fountains and a Super Yacht

by Eve Lazarus on July 5, 2024

Do you remember the fountain at Lonsdale Quay? It had sails on top of a tiled base of green and blue swirls and whales and octopus and starfish. When my kids were small it was the best part of a visit next to ice cream and the ball room.

Lonsdale Quay fountain — Paul McGrath photo, North Shore News, April 23, 2023

It broke down in 2020 and cost $300,000 to fix, now the only thing left to remember it by, is a round piece of asphalt used to patch the hole in the concrete.

At least it no longer blocks our view of the $225 million-dollar super yacht that is perpetually parked at the dock. It’s called Attessa 1V—I’m not sure what happened to one, two and three, but looks like it’s time for an upgrade. The Attessa 1V went up for sale earlier this year.

White Winds:

“White Winds” the fountain, was created in 1985 by Gerald Gladstone. The metal sculptures in the centre represented sails in a nod to the boats in Burrard Inlet.

No sails on this super yacht but it does come with a helicopter.

The 100-metre-long yacht is owned by US billionaire Dennis Washington, who also owns Seaspan which owns Vancouver Shipyards, Vancouver Drydock and Victoria Shipyards, and presumably why his yacht is parked by our former fountain.

Centennial Fountain:

Speaking of fountains. The Centennial Fountain, which was built outside the Vancouver Art Gallery in 1983, developed a leak in 2013 and was gone a year later. Now there’s nothing to get in the way of the protestors, just a sterile looking plaza.

Vancouver Art Gallery fountain — The fountainless public space in front of the VAG in 2020. Eve Lazarus photo

Lost Lagoon Fountain:

We still have the Lost Lagoon fountain; it just doesn’t work. In 2016, the Parks Board put out a Facebook post: “Due to an unfortunate flood in the electrical chamber the fountain is now inoperable until renovations are complete. The fountain is currently undergoing mechanical upgrades. Hope to have it ready by this time in 2017!”

Nope, didn’t happen. According to a Daily Hive story last December, the price tag to get it up and running and delighting residents and tourists alike is an inexplicable $7 million dollars.

Lost Lagoon fountain, 1936, Vancouver Archives

But enough about fountains, it’s not like you can swim in one. If you want an outside swimming experience, you can always go to Kits pool. Oh wait, no you can’t, it’s broken as well. The good news is that Mayor Sim says it will be fixed by August 7. Maybe.

Tags Attessa, Centennial Fountain, Dennis Washington, Gerald Gladstone, Lonsdale Quay, Lonsdale Quay fountain, Seaspan, Vancouver Art Gallery

The North Shore’s Spirit Trail – Mosquito Creek – (part 4)

by Eve Lazarus on October 12, 2018

Last week we left off at the Shipyards Coffee at Lonsdale Quay. Grab your bike and we’ll ride the Spirit Trail down Cates court, loop around Waterfront Park and enter Squamish Nation land.

Ustlawn:

The Coast Salish aboriginal people established a permanent village called Slah-ahn (also known as Ustlawn or Eslha7an), meaning “head bay” in the 1860s. The village was located along a stretch of mudflat at the mouth of Mosquito Creek.

Mission Reserve 1908. Courtesy CVA SGN 52

With the arrival of European settlers, it became known as Mission Indian Reserve No. 1—the first permanent settlement on the north shore of Burrard Inlet.

Emily Carr used to visit her friend Sophie Frank, a Squamish basket maker who lived at Mission Reserve and both she and E.J. Hughes painted the area.

Emily Carr painting, 1908. Courtesy BC Archives

In 1932, the Mission Reserve Lacrosse team won the BC Championship—they were that good. The team consisted mostly of members from the Baker, Paull, and George families, who took up the game, because as Simon Baker told a North Shore Press writer, they had nothing else to do during the Depression. “We used to practice and practice and that’s how we became famous in lacrosse. We used to pass that ball, push it in circles real fast. We were good stick handlers,” he said. The team was disbanded after the win because they couldn’t get a sponsor.

Houseboats:

You’ll notice a vibrant community of houseboats. A diner called the High Boat Cafe, and some great art. You can also see the 1884 St. Paul’s Church with its twin spires and gothic revival style.

Over the years, the natural course of Mosquito creek has been altered by logging, landfills, and new subdivisions, destroying much of the natural habitat and salmon. Much of that is being restored and rehabilitated.

The most recent portion of the Spirit Trail was just finished this year. It runs below sea level and dips under the boat lifts at the marina. Each time we’ve been there so has a ‘haggle’ of harbour seals, sunning themselves on the wood (behind me) or swimming by the trail.

Watching the harbour seals at Mosquito Creek

With thanks to the NVMA which makes all this research possible.

Next Week: Harbourside to Norgate.

The North Shore’s Spirit Trail – Moodyville (part 1)

Moodyville to Lonsdale Quay (part 2)

Lonsdale Quay (part 3)

Harbourside (part 5)

Pemberton to Capilano River (part 6)

West Vancouver (part 7)

Tags E.J. Hughes, emily carr, Lonsdale Quay, Mission Indian Reserve No. 1, Mission Reserve Lacrosse Team, Shipyards Coffee, Simon Baker, Sophie Frank, Spirit Trail, Squamish Nation, St. Paul's Church, Ustlawn

The North Shore’s Spirit Trail – Lonsdale Quay (part 3)

by Eve Lazarus on October 6, 2018

There’s so much history at Lonsdale Quay, that I thought we’d stay here and let it roll over us while we caffeinate at the Bean around the World (now the Shipyards)

A Ranch:

If we time travelled back to the late 1880s, we’d be sitting on Tom Turner “ranch.” It stretched from Chesterfield to Rogers Avenue and sloped down from Esplanade to the water. The farm house sat roughly in the middle—where ICBC is today. Turner’s farm supplied vegetables to Moodyville residents, and because he had the only grass field in North Vancouver, his farm became a picnic destination for the locals. Turner later sold the property to J.C. Keith (namesake of Keith Road) and returned to England.

North Vancouver Hotel ca.1905. CVA OUT P575.1

A Hotel:

In those days, Esplanade was a wide tree-lined promenade that extended west along the shoreline from Lonsdale to just past Chesterfield. The Hotel North Vancouver and its Pavilion were on the north side of the street, where the Shoppers Drug Mart is today. The hotel, owned by Pete Larson, attracted people from all over Vancouver who took the ferry and stayed for $2 a day or $10 a week, or just came for the day to check out the bandstand, balloon flights or perhaps tight-rope walking. The hotel’s grounds also had a boat dock and a swimming beach, because in those days the water reached to just below Esplanade.

North Vancouver train tunnel opening in 1928. Courtesy NVMA

A Tunnel:

Unless you’ve been stuck at the foot of Chesterfield Avenue waiting for a train to pass, you’ve probably not given much thought to “the Lonsdale Subway.” The Subway is actually a 1,585 foot tunnel, built in the late 1920s to link two railways. The tunnel ran from St. Georges to Chesterfield and connected the Terminal Railway to the Pacific Great Eastern Railway (later BC Rail, then CN Rail).

At the foot of Lonsdale in the 1970s. NVMA 15806

A Ferry:

Most North Vancouver residents will remember the Seven Seas, a restaurant that was moored at the foot of Lonsdale. Some of you may even remember it as Norvan Ferry #5, a forerunner to the Seabus, and one of the ferries that brought people to Vancouver and back. Ferry #5 went into service in 1941 and was sold to restauranteur Harry Almas for $12,000 in 1959, a year after the ferries took their last run across the Inlet.

After the Seabus launched in 1977 and kick-started economic activity in Lower Lonsdale, a plan was hatched for the Lonsdale Quay development. The thought was that densification of the area, with over 300 housing units, restaurants and shops would be encouraged, but care would also be taken to restore the heritage buildings in the corridor. Mayor Jack Loucks was certainly optimistic. “It has been said that Lonsdale Quay will become an extension of Granville Street,” he said. “I like to think that when the project is complete, Granville Street will become an extension of Lonsdale Avenue.”