Mandarin Gardens Archives

Halloween is my favourite unofficial holiday of the year, so it was especially rewarding to end Season 2 of Cold Case Canada with a Halloween Special. I reached out to five fabulous story tellers to tell me their favourite ghost stories—stories that take place in some of Metro Vancouver’s oldest neighbourhoods.

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

Will Woods, courtesy Forbidden Vancouver Walking Tours

The Chinatown Ghost:

Will Woods, founder and chief storyteller at Forbidden Vancouver Walking Tours tells us about his encounter with the Chinatown ghost. He also tell us what to expect on the Lost Souls of Gastown Tour including the unsolved murder of John Bray.

Bill Allman is the former theatre manager at the Vogue, one of Vancouver’s most haunted venues. Tom Carter photo.

East Georgia Street Murder:

Bill Allman is president of the BC Entertainment Hall of Fame, owner of Famous Artist Limited and a recovering Vancouver lawyer. He tells us about the ghost that haunted an East Georgia Street house after a violent shooting and murder of Vancouver police chief in 1917.

Michael Kluckner’s 1984 painting from his book *Vancouver: The Way it Was* depicts the shooting and murder of Police Chief Malcolm MacLennan and George Robb, 9 in 1917.

Haunted Piano:

Tom Carter is a Vancouver artist, historian and musician who shares his Vancouver loft with a haunted piano.

Tom Carter with his haunted 1865 Steinway piano. Dan Chambers photo.

Chinatown Nightclub:

When Tom was researching the Mandarin Garden (1936-1952) for his gorgeous painting, he found that the Chinatown nightclub was once owned by Chan See Wong Fong. After he died on the premises, staff began experiencing strange things. They heard voices, taps turned on by themselves, electrical devices became unplugged and there was a disembodied hand.

Mandarin Garden ca.1950s, Tom Carter painting 2021

Fort Langley Cemetery:

Aman Johal is a heritage interpreter at Fort Langley National Historic Site and he’s a storyteller for Forbidden Vancouver Walking Tours. You can catch Aman live guiding the Grave Tale Walking tour between October 15 and November 7 and visit William Henry Emptage’s and his wife Louisa’s gravesites.

Aman Johan, courtesy Langley Advance Times

Riverview Hospital for the criminally insane:

Greg Mansfield is the author of Ghosts of Vancouver, the website and book. He takes us to Riverview Hospital in Coquitlam, a now abandoned former asylum for the criminally insane.

CTV’s St. John Alexander and Greg Mansfield, October 2021. Eve Lazarus photo

For more ghostly stories check out these podcast episodes:

S1 E9 Three Ghost Stories and a Murder

Victoria’s Ghost

SHOW NOTES

Sponsored by Forbidden Vancouver Walking Tours.

Music: October 31st by Myuu darkpiano.com (shortened version)

Buy me a coffee promo: McBride Communications and Media

The Wong Wing family on Keefer Street. Yucho Chow photo, 1914. Yucho Chow Community Archive

I had the pleasure of visiting Griffin Art Projects with Tom Carter last Saturday. It’s a gallery of sorts hidden in an industrial building on Welch Street in North Vancouver. The exhibit features stories, photos, videos and paintings about Chinatowns in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, many from private collections.

The Band at the W.K. Gardens, ca.1950. Tom Carter collection

Some of Tom’s personal collection is featured and includes everything from scrapbooks from the Marco Polo, to postcards from Ming’s and Bamboo Terrace in the late ‘50s to souvenir photos from Mandarin Gardens and Forbidden City. These Chinatown nightclubs offered revues, dance bands and floor shows.

Tom Carter with some of his collection from the Marco Polo. Eve Lazarus photo.

Emily Carr’s sketch of a Chinese boy in 1908 is included as is a terrific display from the Vancouver School of Art. Yitkon Ho was in the first graduating class in 1929 along with Beatrice Lennie, Vera Weatherbie (Fred Varley’s young mistress), Fred Amess and Irene Hoffar. There are also some sketches and information about Eugene Bond, a Chinese student and one of two Asian models at the art school.

There are also some fabulous photos by Fred Herzog and Jim Wong-Chu, several of which I was seeing for the first time. And, Yucho Chow also has photos ranging from the Dominion Produce Company in the 1930s and the Ming Wo store in the early 1920s to the wonderful portraits of Chinese families that Catherine Clement drew attention to in her book: Chinatown Through a Wide Lens.

A banner tells the story of Gim Foon Wong. In 2005 when he was 82 he rode his motorcycle to Ottawa with a dozen other bikers in what became known as Gim Wong’s Ride for Redress so he could have a chat with the PM about the Chinese head tax. The banner, which Tom tells me was created by our friend Elwin Xie, was auctioned off at a Montreal dinner to raise enough money so Wong could get home. He received the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012.

The exhibition runs until May 1. You can book online—Tom and I were the only visitors in our half hour slot which made the whole visit quite magical.

Halloween Special 2021

The Chinatown Ghost:

East Georgia Street Murder:

Haunted Piano:

Chinatown Nightclub:

Fort Langley Cemetery:

Riverview Hospital for the criminally insane:

SHOW NOTES

Whose Chinatown?

Support

Click to read posts about:

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

The Chinatown Ghost:

East Georgia Street Murder:

Haunted Piano:

Chinatown Nightclub:

Fort Langley Cemetery:

Riverview Hospital for the criminally insane:

SHOW NOTES

Support

Click to read posts about:

Subscribe to Our Newsletter