Every Place Has a Story

Saving History: The Rec Room and the Player Piano

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By Michael Kluckner

Michael Kluckner is a writer and artist with a list of books that includes  Vanishing Vancouver and Toshiko. His most recent book is a graphic novel called 2050: A Post-Apocalyptic Murder MysteryHe is the president of the Vancouver Historical Society and a member of the city’s Heritage Commission.

We inherited a player piano when we bought our house in 2010. It’s a long story, but in the back of my mind I thought I might want to play it. As it turned out I didn’t, but try to find a new home for an old piano nowadays!

Entertaining in a Western-themed rec room. Published by Canadian Forest Products, 1961. Courtesy Michael Kluckner

Our hundred-year-old Grandview house also contained a postwar classic—a panelled “rec room” in the basement where the piano lived. They were so popular that Canadian Forest Products’ New Westminster plywood division published a plan book in 1961, offering homeowners six themes to choose from—Contemporary, Western, Polynesian, Tavern, (Artist’s) Salon, and Marine. This was an era of casual entertaining at home, dancing to LPs on the hi-fi or watching TV and drinking. Three of the six plans include a bar.

The player piano’s temporary home at Salmagundi West

Our player piano came with dozens of music rolls—popular arrangements of classics and some show tunes like The Sound of Music. As most readers will know, the piano “plays itself,” powered by a “pianist” who pumped on foot pedals, causing the perforated roll to pass over a drum and triggering an ingenious multitude of cogs and arms that made the hammers hit the strings in the correct order.

Musicians Adam Farnsworth and Tom Carter take the player piano for a spin at
Salmagundi. Photo Diane Farnsworth, December 2017.

Player pianos are classic Victoriana, a great example of that era’s fascination with complex gizmos like steam engines.  A skilled pianist could actually play accompaniment to the piano-roll tune; more likely, most people pedalled away, watched the keys go up and down, and sang along. It probably made its way to our house in the ’50s.

After years of trying, we had all but given up finding the piano a new home, but then Tom Carter joined the board of the Vancouver Historical Society. Tom is a musician and artist with a keen interest in entertainment history. He came over and saw it, got it playing, hired a rebuilder to fix it up, and said he would love to have it—the only problem being that he already has a grand piano in his home.

Courtesy Tom Carter

No problem, he said, he’d find it a home.

Along the way, Tom researched its history. It’s an Angelus, probably from 1915–20. New, it was worth about $950, or double the price of a Model T Ford and about equivalent to the annual income of a skilled tradesman.

Watch and listen here: tomhighres

Player pianos were the home-entertainment centre of the day, a kind of transition between the skilled pianist (usually a woman) of 19th-century family gatherings to the hi-fi and, in this era, the TV that has now become the home theatre.

At the time of writing, the player piano was living at Salmagundi on West Cordova in Gastown. But last month, after 45 years in business, proprietor Anne Banner had the lease terminated and will be vacating the premises at the end of this month. The piano will be going to another temporary home in White Rock where it will be restored and rebuilt. EL

More of Vancouver’s Buried Houses

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Last month, Michael Kluckner wrote a guest blog about the buried houses of Vancouver. It was hugely popular and readers wrote in to let me know about more of these houses. Today’s blog is a compilation of those comments, photos and emails.

Now a story in Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History.

The buried houses on Denman near Beach Avenue are still highly visible. Here they are in 1928 with thanks to David Banks and Vancouver Archives. 

Homeowners started building shops in front of their houses in the 1920s. Businesses ranged from bakeries and meat markets to cigarette and barber shops, shoe repairs and book stores. As Bill Lee points out, often with some bet taking on the side. “Having a small shop was a common second occupation in a family up to the 1960s when women had more opportunities for work,” he says.

Kitsilano:

Gregory Melle says the store on Kitsilano’s 4th Avenue near Burrard was his late brother’s “head shop” in the early ’70s. Later it became an Indian restaurant. “I was amused to see last year that it had reverted to the same business for which it was infamous in my brother’s day,” he says.

Granvlle:

Murray Maisey tells me that  the house at Granville (near 12th) was originally owned by Maud Leslie. Maud and her daughter June added a book store called The Library in 1928 at #2820. City directories for that year show Beattie Realty at 2818, which later became the Antiseptic Barber Shop in 1935 (today it is the Black Goat cashmere shop). Daniel le Chocolat is the current tenant at 2820. Check out Murray’s story on his awesome blog Vancouver As it Was.

Vancouver Archives photo from 1928 of , 2818 and 2820 Granville.
Richards Street:

Susan Anderson says her favourite buried house dates back to 1911 and hides behind BC Stamp Works at 583 Richards Street. “My great grandparents owned a house at 540 Howe Street and this building is the only remaining building like this north of Georgia Street,” says Susan. ‘The building has been covered up so completely I am not surprised people don’t know it’s there.”

Kim Richards says the stores on the east side of Mackenzie at 33rd including neighbourhood favourite Bigsby the Bakehouse, are a front for some hidden houses currently facing development pressure. Check out Mackenzie Heights Community page.

Buried houses at Mackenzie and 33rd courtesy Kim Richards, 2017
Strathcona:

Ryan Dyer has his own hidden house at 820 East Pender, built in 1904 and moved to the back of the property in 1908.

“There were originally three lots with three houses. Two of the houses were moved to the back of the properties and apartment buildings built at the front,” says Ryan. “The third house was amalgamated with the east apartment building, but can be seen if you look at the roof line of the building to the east of mine (828 east Pender).”

820 East Pender Street
Kerrisdale:

David Byrnes says he lived in a cottage/storefront at 2291 West 41st in Kerrisdale in the 1960s, and Penny Street notes that 1314 Commercial Drive–now Beckwoman’s Hippie Emporium appropriately fronts a hidden house—”Possibly a BC Mills pre-fab,” she says.

1314 Commercial Drive in 1978 Courtesy CVA 786-78.18
Davie Street:

Dan Enjo says there is still a house in the rear of Numbers at 1042 Davie, and the older floor space is part of the club. “There’s a noticeable bump between the newer and older buildings on the inside floor in places,” he says.

The house that is the Gurkha Himalayan Kitchen is quite visible, even though it’s now fronted by a market at 1141 Davie.

© All rights reserved. Unless otherwise indicated, all blog content copyright Eve Lazarus.

 

 

 

Vancouver’s Buried Houses

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A few weeks ago, Michael Kluckner ran a painting of a Kitsilano house on his FB page. I googled the address and was astonished to find that the house was still there on busy 4th Avenue, buried behind an ice-cream parlour. Michael tells me that only a handful of these buried houses remain, and he kindly wrote this story illustrated by his paintings from 2010 and 2011 that appeared in Vanishing Vancouver: The Last 25 Years.

Now a story in Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History.

By Michael Kluckner

In the interwar years, Vancouver’s commercial streets filled in with single-storey shops, many of them simple boxes with no decorative trim. They were the utilitarian independent stores of the “streetcar suburbs” like Grandview’s Commercial Drive and the West End’s Robson Street. A typical Vancouver commercial street, right up until the 1970s,  was a mix of shops, a few apartment buildings, and houses.

Especially during the Great Depression of the 1930s, owners of these houses tried to make their properties viable by adding commercial storefronts in what had been the houses’ shallow front yards.

West 4th Avenue:

Just east of Arbutus, 2052 West 4th Avenue (above) is a 1905 house with a 1927 addition on the front. Over the years it has housed a dry cleaner, a build-it-yourself radio shop, and a poster store catering to the hippies in nearby rooming houses. It was nicknamed The Rampant Lion, after the tenants’ rock band.

Visible only from Fraser Street and the back lane, the 1897 house at 708 East Broadway is hidden behind a storefront built by W.M. McKenzie. Later, an electrician named John Grumey, converted it into “Launderama.” It has been further subdivided with a tailor occupying half of the storefront.

708 East Broadway, where W.M. McKenzie operated a grocery store from 1932 to the 1950s. Michael Kluckner, 2010
Renfrew:

​The best set of buried houses in the city are on Renfrew just south of 1st Avenue. The houses were built in 1937, 1921 and 1926 respectively, indicating the slow settlement of Vancouver east of the old city boundary at Nanaimo Street. A small retail hub developed there due to the Burnaby Lake interurban line stop which ended service in 1952.

Renfrew houses at East 1st. Michael Kluckner, 2010

There are other buried houses on West Broadway near Balaclava, on 4th Avenue just west of Burrard, and Granville around 13th.

A buried house, probably built in 1907 with a horrid concrete-block shop/factory front attached to it is still at 350 East 10th Avenue, directly behind the Kingsgate Mall and next to a Telus parking lot.

350 East 10th Avenue. Michael Kluckner, 2010

Until a few years ago, a 1904 house was built at the back of its lot to allow for shops in front on the northeast corner of Broadway and St. Catherines. The shops were demolished a generation ago, the house a few years back. Townhouses now occupy the site.

Broadway and St. Catherines. Michael Kluckner, 2010

The most visible buried houses are the set on Denman Street just up from the beach.

Houses, just like other buildings, adapt or die. There is not a lot of old Vancouver, at least on the commercial streets, that can adapt to the new reality of land prices, taxes, the desire to densify, and the changing retail landscape.

Related:

* More of Vancouver’s Buried Houses

Michael Kluckner is a writer and artist with a list of books that includes  Vanishing Vancouver and Toshiko. His most recent book is a graphic novel called 2050: A Post-Apocalyptic Murder Mystery. He is the president of the Vancouver Historical Society and a member of the city’s Heritage Commission.

 

 

Vancouver in 2050

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Michael Kluckner's Vancouver 1996
Michael Kluckner’s Vancouver 1996

Fans of Michael Kluckner’s history books—Vanishing Vancouver, Vancouver the Way it Was, and several others of his beautifully illustrated history books, might find his latest release a big departure. 2050, A Post-apocalyptic Murder Mystery is a graphic novel, a fictional account of a Vancouver that has been ravished by disease, climate change and a benevolent dictator who keeps the population poor to reduce their carbon footprint and ultimately save the planet. You’ll recognize Orwell, Huxley, and a nod to Mayor Robertson, with “Pleasant Planet”—a drink that keeps the populace both happy and sterile.

Toshiko, 1944
Toshiko, 1944

Michael came up with the idea on a trip to Cuba a few years back. “What intrigued me, was the way that people were cobbling the old cars together and keeping them going,” he said. “They were fixing things rather than just throwing things away, and I couldn’t figure out whether this was the future or whether this was the past.”

From 2050
From 2050

Michael took out his sketch pad and drew buildings in old Havana that had collapsed into the street from lack of maintenance, but still provided homes for people. He drew people fishing from inner tubes, the horses and carriages that provided transportation, and the posters of Che Guevara telling people to keep faith in the revolution.

Vancouver Remembered, 2004
Vancouver Remembered, 2004

Following a war over water, a significantly reduced population due to flu (not real estate prices), and water levels that have risen to massive proportions, Vancouver 30 plus years into the future isn’t all that recognizable. Fortunately, some things have endured.

Toshiko, 1944
Toshiko, 1944

There’s the Marine building for instance. Other Vancouver landmarks are the Burrard Bridge (or rather the top of it), the Carnegie Community Centre, and Hastings Street.

2050
2050

It’s Michael’s second graphic novel, Toshiko—set in the Shuswap and Vancouver during the Second World War, came out last year.

© All rights reserved. Unless otherwise indicated, all blog content copyright Eve Lazarus.

West End Heritage–a chance to have your say

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There are two vastly different West End housing proposals going before Vancouver council this week and both have implications about how we view heritage in our development-mad city. One, in Mole Hill, involves the community’s desire to designate Mole Hill as a Heritage Conservation Area; while the other is a way to redevelop and save a deteriorating 1920s West End apartment building.

Mole Hill
Henry Mole House, 1025 Comox St in 1895. CVA BuP697

I discovered Mole Hill about 10 years ago when I was writing At Home with History. It’s a small enclave in the West End that’s tucked in behind St. Paul’s Hospital, opposite Nelson Park and bounded by Comox, Bute, Thurlow and Pendrell Streets. The houses date back to 1889 and are swarming with social history. While the name sounds like something from the pages of Wind in the Willows, the area is actually named after Henry Mole, a retired farmer who was one of the first people to settle in the area. Anything left of his house now sits under the hospital.

Mole Hill
Photo Courtesy Mole Hill Community Housing Society, 2015

The vast majority of the heritage homes are owned by the City of Vancouver and comprise 170 social housing units, a group home for eight youth, the Dr. Peter Centre which has 24 health care units, three daycares and community gardens. Public walkways full of shrubs and flowers spill over into lanes that wander between the houses. There’s a funky little Victorian cottage in the laneway at 1117 Pendrell that was saved from demolition in 2002 when the Vancouver Heritage Foundation had it moved a few blocks from Hornby Street.

Mole Hill
George Leslie Laneway cottage. Photo courtesy Vancouver Heritage Foundation

Depending on who you talk to, the area’s heritage is either under threat or it’s being thoughtfully brought up to date.

Quentin Wright is the executive director at the Mole Hill Community Housing Society which provides affordable housing through a 60-year lease with the city. The problem, he says, is that three of the houses on Comox Street are privately owned, two have applied for redevelopment and it’s expected the third, which recently changed hands, will as well.

Mole Hill
1150 Comox Street (on the right)

The immediate concern involves #1150, a 1903 cottage.

According to Michael Kluckner of the Vancouver Heritage Commission,  zoning allows the owner to add density to his lot, and he has chosen to add an infill building in the back lane. Mole Hill residents were horrified by the size of the building in the first drawing and the city sent the architects back to the drawing board.

Mole Hill
The proposed infill for 1150 Comox Street

“The Heritage Commission rejected [the second drawing], as the cottage is the heritage item, and adding a huge addition onto its back (in the middle of the lot, as it were), wasn’t good,” says Kluckner. “The design was too glaringly modern. So the architect and owner came back to the Heritage Commission with this design (pictured above).”

Mole Hill
The rejected plans for 1150 Comox

Local civic historian John Atkin reckons the Commission made the right call. “In a situation like this, an infill should be in a contrasting design,” he says. “A faux heritage design would muddy the visual record. New should always stand out.”

Wright would like to see the laneway be recognized as part of the heritage landscape and be given legal protection.

West End
The Florida, 1170 Barclay Street

After I blogged about Charles Marega, I received an email from Lyn Guy saying that Marega’s old home—a 1920s two-storey apartment building called the Florida, was ringed with fencing and looked like it might be going the way of many older buildings in Vancouver.

The Florida
Photo courtesy Lyn Guy

Turns out that it’s good news. The owners want to work under a Heritage Revitalization Agreement to redevelop the building, add a couple of storeys to the back and increase the rental stock from 16 to 28 units.

You have until this Friday June 17 to tell the city what you think of the plan.

The Florida, 1170 Barclay
Photo courtesy Lyn Guy

© All rights reserved. Unless otherwise indicated, all blog content copyright Eve Lazarus.

Making History with Facebook for 2015

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Since this is my last blog for the year, I thought I’d put together a list of my top 10 favourite FB pages. My criteria is pretty simple: the page has to have a strong Greater Vancouver flavour, there has to be a historical element, and the page has to post reasonably often and with original postings.

In Alphabetical order……

FB Vancouver Archives1. City of Vancouver Archives (likes: 2,328)

The Archives does an amazing job as our official keeper and promoter of Vancouver’s history. But most importantly the Archives took the step a few years ago of digitizing tens of thousands of photos and making high res versions freely accessible to anyone who wants them. They also have a great blog.

FB Every Place2. Every Place has a Story (likes: 1,643)

I started this page a couple of years ago and it has grown into a mixture of curated material, photos and original posts (you really don’t know what you are getting from one day to the next  because I’m never sure myself).

FB Foncie3. Foncie Pulice (likes: 1,384)

Most long time Vancouverites have at least one Foncie photo in their album, and his photos really touch a chord and say a lot about our history. Foncie took his first photo in 1934 and his last in 1979. He was the last of the street photographers

FB Forbidden Vancouver4. Forbidden Vancouver (likes: 5,518)

This is a local business run by Will Woods (shown wearing cool hat). Will has shaken up the idea of the walking tour, added some theatre and shows the sketchy side of Vancouver to locals and tourists. His FB posts reflect this side of Vancouver.

FB Heritage Vancouver5. Heritage Vancouver Society (likes: 2,091)

For keeping Vancouver’s heritage buildings as an issue, for publishing the top 10 watch list of endangered buildings and for putting on great events that keep us interested in heritage. You need to follow this page.

FB NVMA6. North Vancouver Museum and Archives (likes: 2,091)

The North Vancouver Museum and Archives has been fundraising this year for a new museum that would live at the foot of Lonsdale. They’ve also ramped up their postings on FB and shared some really fascinating bits of local history and photos for people on both sides of the Inlet.

FB Vancouver Fire Fighters7. Vancouver Firefighters Historical Society (likes: 531)

Not all the photos are of burning buildings, some are shots of old equipment, trucks, parades, old Vancouver and heritage fire halls. And, if you’re in need of some eye candy pop over to The Hall of Flame calendar page — it’s okay it’s for the children!

FB VHF8. Vancouver Heritage Foundation (likes: 3,334)

Through the annual heritage house tour, lectures series, walking tours, Places that Matter and their collateral, the Vancouver Heritage Foundation does an amazing job of keeping heritage important and fun. Follow this site for information about grants and events.

FB Vancouver Then9. Vancouver Then (likes: 14,861)

I can’t say enough good things about Vancouver Then. Jeremy Hood posts consistently and often and he puts a huge amount of work and thought into his posts and photos about Vancouver. My favourites are his then and now posts that show how much we have changed, or in some cases, how much we haven’t.

FB Vancouver Vanishes10. Vancouver Vanishes (likes: 7,702)

Noted fiction author Caroline Adderson started this page a couple of years ago and has attracted a huge following of people who are just as outraged as she is by the demolition of character houses in Vancouver. Her relentless beating on City Hall has had real results and her page was the basis for Vancouver Vanishes, a book of essays with contributors such as Michael Kluckner, John Atkin, Kerry Gold, and me.

If I have missed any of your favourite pages, please leave a note in the comment section below!

Vancouver Vanishes with Caroline Adderson

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Vancouver Vanishes

For a number of years Caroline Adderson wrote outraged letters to City Council about the large scale destruction of heritage houses in her Vancouver neighbourhood. When her letters went unanswered, Caroline sent pictures—she still didn’t get a response.

Vancouver Vanishes
Address: 3330 West King Edward Avenue
Built:1922
First Owner: Dr. Dallas G. Perry, Obstetrician
Status: DEMOLISHED

In January 2013, the award-winning author took her fight to social media and started posting pictures of beautiful character houses and short descriptions of their social history, including the address, when it was built, the first owner and occupation. Sometimes she’ll throw in photos of beautiful interiors and working appliances, just before they are crushed and sent to the landfill or off for recycling. The status is of course, always DEMOLISHED.

Vancouver Vanishes
Address: 3330 West King Edward Avenue
Built:1922
First Owner: Dr. Dallas G. Perry, Obstetrician
Status: DEMOLISHED

“For me, they are more than houses, they are cultural artifacts,” she says. “When you say John Smith, barber, and his wife Mary, suddenly you see this man doing something and a story is there and it makes it not only a horrible environmental waste, but also such a loss of narrative, story and history,” she says.

Vancouver Vanishes
Address: 3330 West King Edward Avenue
Built:1922
First Owner: Dr. Dallas G. Perry, Obstetrician
Status: DEMOLISHED

The FB page struck a chord with others who are passionate about the diminishing heritage stock in our city. Caroline has attracted a bunch of media attention and finally got the attention of City Hall. Now Caroline is the organizer and contributor to a fully illustrated book that was released this week called: Vancouver Vanishes: Narratives of Demolition and Revival.

Vancouver Vanishes
2947 West 31st

“This is a tiny tiny sample of what’s actually being demolished in Vancouver,” she says. “This year we will have the most demolitions in the last decade and this is happening right in the middle of the city’s Heritage Action Plan so it’s pretty disheartening. I think it’s something like 1,400 demolition permits that will be issued by the end of this year.”

Vancouver Vanishes
2947 West 31st

Caroline has contributed three pieces, one is about her own house, another about the Dorothies—a twin pair of houses that were saved from demolition and appear on the cover. My chapter covers the disappearing West End based on my blog, and other contributors include the Globe and Mail’s Kerry Gold, John Mackie from the Vancouver Sun, civic historian John Atkin, and poets Evelyn Lau and Bren Simmers. Michael Kluckner wrote the introduction.

Vancouver Vanishes
2947 West 31st

 

 

 

Heritage Streeters with Michael Kluckner, Jess Quan, Lani Russwurm and Lisa Anne Smith

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Continuing on with a series I started earlier this year, I’ve asked a few friends to tell me their favourite Vancouver building and the one they miss the most.

Michael Kluckner     

Michael is the author of a dozen books. His most recent is Toshiko, a graphic novel set in BC in 1944. He is the president of the Vancouver Historical Society and a member of the city’s Heritage Commission.

Kerrisdale Grocery burned down in 1989
Kerrisdale Grocery by Michael Kluckner

Michael says that one of his favourite buildings that’s missing from our landscape is the Kerrisdale Grocery which once stood at 49th and Maple next to Magee High School. The 1914 grocery store burned down in 1989 and is captured in Michael’s painting (above) and appeared in his 1990 bestseller, Vanishing Vancouver.
“The Kerrisdale Grocery, and all the rest of the independently run neighbourhood stores in the city, reflected a time that appeared to be less dominated by multinational chains, where people supported local businesses, and where funky architecture was more common,” he says. “Corner stores, aka “Chinese groceries,” are historically important as well as the first businesses of new immigrants, especially Chinese and Japanese, in an earlier Vancouver of racial barriers and homogeneous white neighbourhoods. These stores are a version of the live-work spaces so trendy in the modern city, where a family could live behind or above the store. They are almost all gone now.”

Jessica Quan

Born in Germany, raised in Vancouver with roots in Steveston’s Japanese community and Victoria’s Chinatown, Jess discovered a love for heritage, history and architecture when living in Japan and London, UK. She is the Special Project Coordinator for the Vancouver Heritage Foundation, and her projects include the Heritage Site Finder Interactive Map and the Places That Matter plaque program

Jess Quan at a plaque presentation for King Edward High School
Jess Quan at a plaque presentation for King Edward High School

Jess says that her favourite heritage building is hidden on West 7th Avenue between Spruce and Oak in Fairview Slopes. She’s cagey about the actual address because she’s working on a plaque for it, but will say that it’s an A on the Vancouver Heritage Register. “It’s a wonderful example of the type of tenement buildings built along the Slopes for workers at the sawmills below. It’s hard to believe now how much heavy industry occupied False Creek, and it is a reminder of what life was like 100 years ago for the early immigrant workers who came to Vancouver—in  this case Japanese, but also the Sikh.”

Vancouver City Hospital
Vancouver City Hospital, 1906, CVA BU P369

Jess says if she had to pick one building that we should have kept it would be the original City Hospital (VGH) where the Easy Park Lot now stands at Pender and Cambie.

Lani Russwurm  

Lani Russwurm has been blogging about Vancouver history since 2008 as Past Tense Vancouver. He is the author of Vancouver Was Awesome: A Curious Pictorial History (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2013).

20 West Hastings Street
Demolished for a parking lot in 1967. Photo Leonard Frank, Jewish Museum & Archives of BC #LF.00218

Lani says of the long list of buildings that we’ve destroyed, one of the stupidest is the second Pantages Theatre. “It stood at 20 West Hastings, first as the Pantages, then the Beacon, the Majestic, and finally Hastings Odeon before it was demolished in 1967 for a parking lot for Army & Navy. In the 1930s, vaudeville legend Texas Guinan performed for the very last time there and a teenaged Yvonne De Carlo began her showbiz career there with a boxing kangaroo.,” he says. “This city has a rich theatre history, including vaudeville and motion picture houses, and the second Pantages may have been the best of the bunch.”

Marine Building
Photo by Otto F Landauer (1947), City of Vancouver Archives #Bu P346

Lani says his favourite building still standing is the Marine on Burrard. “Today it’s boxed in by taller, shinier towers, but for years it dominated Vancouver’s skyline and was once the tallest in the British Empire. Not only is it a great example of 1920s Art Deco architecture anywhere, but  its maritime theme makes it specific to that place and time in Vancouver’s history.”

Lisa Anne Smith  

Lisa Anne Smith is an education docent at the Museum of Vancouver and the author of Our Friend Joe: the Joe Fortes Story, and Vancouver is Ashes. She also wrote a children’s book about the RCMP ship the St. Roch.

The Old Hastings Mill Store
The Old Hastings Mill Store

As a curator for the Old Hastings Mill Store Museum (the oldest building in Vancouver), picking a favourite isn’t hard for Lisa. “The store dates from 1868 and as a Great Fire survivor, is the oldest building in Vancouver by far. It was barged over to its present site in 1930 and continues to be owned and maintained  as a museum by Native Daughters of B.C. Post #1.”

Lisa Challenger mapLisa says that if she had to pick a building that she misses the most it would be the B.C. Pavilion which housed the Challenger Relief Map at the PNE. “The B.C. Pavilion was torn down in 1997 and the Challenger map was placed in storage,” she says (it’s currently at an Air Canada hangar at YVR. “I had the privilege of conducting gantry tours of the map during the 1976 and 1977 Pacific National Exhibitions. I still can’t believe they had the audacity to dismantle the thing! It’s a sad loss for the city and the province.”