Every Place Has a Story

Top 10 Vancouver History Blogs of 2019

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It’s been a couple of years since I’ve done a roundup of my favourite history blogs. To make the list, the blog had to be written by an individual, come out fairly regularly and have a strong Vancouver flavour.

In alphabetical order:

1. Changing Vancouver 

John Atkin and Andy Coupland started the blog just after their book of the same name was published in 2010. These days, Andy does most of the work on the blog with John contributing the odd photo and newspaper clipping.

What’s your Elevator Pitch?  To look at the architectural history of the city using the before and after idea, but coupled with detailed research to build a comprehensive record of Vancouver. 

What keeps you motivated? Interest in history and the hunt for obscure information

Favourite Post? The Ormidale Block post was recent but it solved a mystery (at least for us) that was quite satisfying.

2. Daniel Francis

Dan started blogging in May 2013.

What keeps you motivated? I find it hard to keep motivated, actually. I began blogging because I thought I had lots of ideas and opinions to share about Canadian history. I wanted a space to vent. But it turns out that articulating one’s ideas and opinions is harder work than I’d thought. Perhaps in a bar you can toss off the first thing that enters your head, but on a blog, you need to be a bit more thoughtful. And that takes time.

What’s Your Elevator Pitch? I do try to add something new two or three times a month that’s provocative and amusing.

Favourite Posts? The Literary LifeA Day in Provence, Debating Sir John A

3. Every Place has a Story

Yes, this is my blog which I’ve been writing obsessively since 2010. I’m excited to tell you that it will be coming out as a fully illustrated book in the fall called Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History.

What’s your elevator pitch? My blog is an outlet for my passions of quirky local history, heritage houses and crime, and it lets me try out ideas for future books, have fun with photos, and just gives me an excuse to look up cool stuff. It also acts as a companion to my Facebook page of the same name. I’m very proud that the BC Historical Federation named it the best blog of 2015!

Favourite Post: Always the last one: The Woodward’s Christmas Windows

4. Historical Research

Donna Jean MacKinnon started this blog in 2018.

What keeps you motivated? My own interest in local history and in historical research and staying connected with the local historical community

What’s your Elevator Pitch? If you want to do some historical research but don’t know where to start, this blog will help guide you through some of the rarified material found in archives, little-known library sources, and other strategies for discovering information related to your project.

Favourite Post? Port Moody Passed Over in Favour of Vancouver because it is about one of my favourite research materials (directories) and also speaks to an interesting local political controversy that has reverberations to this day.

5. Janet Nicol

Janet started blogging in 2008

What keeps you motivated? Telling stories that are lost, hidden or not valued keep me motivated.

What’s your elevator pitch? I mostly post ‘teasers’ of articles I have written once they are published in print or with on-line journals. Recently my blog has expanded to include promotional events about my first book, a biography of BC artist Sybil Andrews and my own art work, some of it illustrating my stories.

Favourite post? My volunteer work with the BC Labour Heritage Centre inspired me to write Girl Strikers’ and the 1918 Vancouver Steam Laundries Dispute, published in BC Studies, Autumn 2019.

6. Trueborns 

Rob Howatson wrote his first blog post in 2014.

What keeps you motivated? The thrill of finding neat stuff, like a missing time capsule at the old Sunset Community Centre or the Fraserview backyard where country music queen Loretta Lynn was discovered.

What’s your elevator pitch? Vancouver Trueborns seeks to uncover the truth about the city’s past, with extra coverage of its forgotten corner—South Vancouver.

Favourite Post? Jim Dragan is about as Trueborn as they get.

7. Vanalogue

Christine Hagemoen started her Vanalogue blog in 2013, although she has been blogging since 2004.

What keeps you motivated? Positive feedback and my own inquisitive mind.

What’s your elevator pitch? Researching and writing about local history is my passion. I love to uncover the untold or long-forgotten stories of the people and places of this region. Vanalogue is a history-themed blog that is about exploring and featuring all things “analogue” (aka historical) in Vancouver and beyond. Van (Vancouver) + analogue = vanalogue.

Favourite Posts?  The bottle-dash Stucco, the sidewalk prisms and Sarah Cassell

8. WestEndVancouver

Robert Moen started his site in 2013.

What keeps you motivated? The most gratifying aspect of this blog is when someone finds out information that they were not able to discover anywhere else. Some people have been able to locate relatives; others have discovered family information that they had not heard about before. Other people are interested in architecture.

What’s your Elevator Pitch? This site is primarily about the history of the West End in Vancouver starting in the late 1800s and running to about 1920. It deals mostly with the West of Denman area, from Denman Street on the east to Stanley Park on the west, and from Coal Harbour on the north to English Bay on the south.

Favourite post? The Horse Show Building

9. Vancouver as it was: A Photo Historical Journey

Murray Maisey started blogging in 2014.

What keeps you motivated? For me, motivation comes from photographs. I find that when I hit a dry patch, I’m recharged by looking at CVA’s or VPL’s photos.

What’s your Elevator Pitch? VAIW is a post focussed on photographs taken of Vancouver in the past. The text seeks to tell something of the stories of people who are central to those photos. I always try to offer at least a little info that isn’t available elsewhere online so that I can add historical value with each post.

Favourite Post? If I was asked to choose one post (of the 537 posted to date), I’d pick this two-parter: MIA: The Loss of a 20-Foot Painting (Rolph Blakstad)

10. What Floats to the Top of my Desk 

John Atkin started his blog in 2012. He says it’s “an occasional blog of bits and pieces that didn’t fit anywhere else, and it was a place for some original research that was of interest to me.”

What keeps you motivated? Curiosity about everything. I have my note book filled with jottings, clippings and antidotes which are sitting there waiting—I call it my book of perpetual research.

What’s your elevator pitch? If it’s of interest to me, it might be of interest to you

Favourite Post? One of the more popular posts was the fireworks post about why Halloween fireworks were only allowed in BC and Nova Scotia.  My favourites are the Shanghai Alley posts and figuring out the true history of the Alley and the Squirrel post which solved the mystery of how Vancouver got those critters.

If you are in need of a little more history in your holidays, try these posts from the last few years:

The top 10 History Blogs for 2017

The top 10 Facebook Group Pages for 2016

The Top 10 Facebook History Pages for 2015

Have I missed your favourite Vancouver history blogger? Leave me a comment and I’ll make sure to check them out. And, thanks for following my blog!

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

Top 10 History Blogs for 2017

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For my last post of 2017, I have compiled a list of my favourite history blogs. To make the list, the blog had to written by an individual and have a strong Metro Vancouver flavor.

In alphabetical order: 1. A Most Agreeable Place

Lana Okerlund, a Vancouver book editor and writer, has put together this quirky little blog about bookstores past and present. And who doesn’t love a bookstore? It’s full of facts. For instance did you know a copy of Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver’s Travels or Don Quixote would cost you 60 cents  in 1887?

2.  Changing Vancouver

This is one of my go to sites when I’m looking up an architect or building. John Atkin is behind this blog of before and after photos divided into still standing, gone and altered with archival photos from the Vancouver Archives, BC Archives and special collections at Vancouver Public Library. I love how the blog includes a section on how the image was made.

3. Daniel Francis Blog

Dan Francis just collected the Governor General’s History Award for Popular Media in Ottawa last month. That’s a big deal and I can’t think of anyone more deserving. There are 15 books listed on his website (everything from the history of trucks to brothels). I especially like Dan’s personal touch with posts such as the one about how he met his nanny—66 years later.

4. Every Place has a Story

Yes, this is my blog which I’ve been writing obsessively  since 2011. It’s an outlet for my passions of local history, heritage houses and murder, and lets me try out ideas for future books, have fun with photos, or just gives me an excuse to look up cool stuff. It also acts as a companion to my Facebook page of the same name.

5. Illustrated Vancouver

Jason Vanderhill stopped writing his blog in 2015 when he reached a staggering 1,000 posts. I’ve included it because it’s an amazing resource for anyone with an interest in Vancouver’s art history. You’ll find work from artists like BC Binning, contemporary artists such as Tom Carter, and stuff you never knew about such as 1930 plans for a museum at Dead Man’s Island.

6. Janet Nicol

Janet is a former high school history teacher turned writer, who according to her blog, has notched up more than 340 articles in 44 magazines and journals. She writes on BC history, social justice issues and art.  And if you can’t afford a subscription to BC History, Janet often posts her articles on this blog.

7. Past Tense

Lani Russwurm gets my vote for the most knowledgeable history guy in the city. His blogs are always entertaining, highly researched, and I’m forever learning something new and wishing that I’d thought of it first. As well as his Past Tense blog, Lani wrote Vancouver was Awesome and is behind the Forbidden Vancouver blog.

8. Unwritten Histories

I’m seriously intimidated by Andrea Eidinger’s qualifications. She has a BA in history from McGill, a doctorate of philosophy in history from UVic, and is currently teaching at UBC. Andrea does a roundup of history news each week, and has a great list of resources on her site such as the Canadian Historians Guide to Twitter and a Holiday Gift Guide for Historians.

9. Vanalogue

Christine Hagemoen is the force behind this excellent blog. She has worked as a media librarian for the CBC and an archival assistant at Vancouver Archives and really knows her stuff. Subject material ranges from Sara Cassell’s East Georgia Street café to the date stamps in concrete sidewalks to bottle dash stucco.

10. Vancouver as it was: a photo historical journey

Murray Maisey’s blog is much more than photos, he really delves into the history of whatever he is researching. I like the way he “talks” to himself in his stories. In a post about the long defunct Empire Building he writes: “A question which often arises in my mind with such structures is “Who were the tenants who occupied it?…So I dug into Vancouver directories.”

If you are in need of a little more history in your holidays try these posts from the last two years:

The Top 10 Facebook History pages for 2015

The Top 10 Facebook Group Pages for 2016

Have I missed your favourite Vancouver history blogger? Leave me a comment and I’ll make sure to check them out. And, thanks for following my blog!

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

Vancouver’s Missing Theatres

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It’s hard to imagine that 100 years ago the Hastings Street area had a thriving theatre district, filled with opulent buildings, cafes and people, and known as the “Hastings Great White Way.”

The Rex Theatre, 25 West Hastings Street, 1914, CVA 99 240
The Rex Theatre, 25 West Hastings Street, 1914, CVA 99 240

In past blogs I’ve written about the Strand, the Pantages and the Empress–all theatres that once existed in downtown Vancouver, but have long since been turned into parking lots or cheaper, uninteresting buildings.

I decided to take a look at the city directories from 100 years ago and take a stroll through Vancouver’s theatre district. Just look what we’ve done with the space.

1920
Columbia Theatre, 64 West Hastings, CVA 99-3293

In 1914 the National Theatre and the Columbia Theatre sat side by side at 58 and 64 West Hastings Street, just across from the Rex Theatre. The space is now a “developer ready” lot.

The Bijou Theatre sat at 333 Carrall Street just off Hastings Street. It was demolished in 1940. The photo (below) and the story of its life and death is at the Changing Vancouver blog.

Bijou Theatre, 1913 CVA LGN 995
Bijou Theatre, 1913 CVA LGN 995
333 Carrall Street, 2014
333 Carrall Street, 2014

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 1913, The Vancouver Opera House turned into the Orpheum Theatre and started showing vaudeville acts. The Orpheum (but not the one we have now) sat at the 700 block Granville Street. In the Leonard Frank photo below you can see the second Hotel Vancouver behind.

 VPL 16403
VPL 16403

By 1935 the Orpheum had morphed into the Lyric and in 1969 it was a distant memory — demolished to make way for the Pacific Centre.

The gaudy Pacific Centre on the 700 block Granville
The gaudy Pacific Centre on the 700 block Granville

The Imperial Theatre was once part of a vibrant street scape along the 700-block Main.

700-block Main Street, ca.1918 CVA 99-1269
700-block Main Street, ca.1918 CVA 99-1269

The theatre is long gone and the two adjacent buildings on the corner of Main and Union and what’s now the Brickyard are likely soon to be replaced by another boxy glass condo building.

The Star Theatre was at 327 Main Street in 1914.

Star Theatre CVA 447321in 1951
Star Theatre CVA 447321in 1951

Sources:

Changing Vancouver – then and now blog

Murray Maisey’s slide show on Hastings Theatre

For more posts see: Our Missing Heritage

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