Spirit Trail

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

Tags Ambleside Beach, Ferry Building, Homulcheson, John Lawson, John Rowland, Navvy Jack, Park Royal, Silk Purse, Spirit Trail, Tom Campbell

Riding the Spirit Trail from Pemberton Avenue to the Capilano River (Part 6)

by Eve Lazarus on November 10, 2018

Last week we stopped our ride at Pemberton Avenue. Today we’re going to cross the border into West Vancouver.

The first part of the Spirit Trail winds through Norgate, a quiet neighbourhood filled with mid-century ranchers built during the post-war boom period. But did you know that the whole area was originally intended to be the Capilano Air Park?

A typical Norgate rancher along the Spirit Trail. Eve Lazarus photo, 2018

It was first proposed in 1945 and the idea was that it would cater to tourists flying their own planes from other parts of North America. There would be two runways and construction would start in 1947 and include luxury accommodation. In the end, we couldn’t afford it and the land was sold to Hullah Construction for a subdivision.

1950s newspaper ad promoting Norgate as a family-friendly neighbourhood. Courtesy NVMA

After we pass through Norgate, it’s a quick ride to the road that leads to the Lions Gate Bridge, built in 1939 by the Guinness brewing family. The provincial government later bought the bridge and the toll came off in 1963.

Now a National Historic Site of Canada. Photo courtesy Vancouver Sun

In 1982, a group of UBC engineering students suspended a Volkswagen Beetle from the bridge. On the first night, a group of students attached a cable under the bridge. On the second night, students drove a jeep towing the reinforced Beetle. The students detached the car, slipped a cable under its roof, attached the other end to the side of the bridge, and pushed the car over the railings.

As we approach the Capilano River and West Vancouver, it’s pretty clear that the district (named by Macleans Magazine as the richest postal code in Canada last year) is not spending its net worth on the Spirit Trail. In fact, it’s lack of enthusiasm is downright dangerous as you cross the bridge that takes you over to Ambleside.

But in 1913, it wasn’t cars that you had to worry about. The sand and gravel that washed down the Capilano River had built up on the north side of First Narrows to such an extent that ships were grounding, especially in bad weather. In July of that year, George Alfred Harris became the first lightkeeper at the newly constructed First Narrows Lighthouse.

The Capilano Fog and Light Station 1914. Coutesy WVA 0032.WVA.PHO

The lighthouse, and the keeper’s house sat on pilings at the mouth of the Capilano River, and except for very low tide, the Harris family was surrounded by water. The lighthouse operated until 1968.

Top photo: Walking over the Lions Gate Bridge in 1939. Courtesy CVA 260-995

Next time, we’ll be riding through Ambleside and along to Dundarave where the Spirit Trail ends for now.

If you’ve missed any of the rides, please see:

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

Tags Capilano Air Park, Capilano Fog and Light Station, George Alfred Harris, Lions Gate Bridge, Norgate, Spirit Trail

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.

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.

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)

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)

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

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

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

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.”

Well, perhaps not. More like a parking lot for billionaires and their luxury yachts.

Next week we’re getting back on our bikes and cycling the newest part of the Spirit Trail from Lonsdale Quay to Mosquito Creek.

*Top photo: View of North Vancouver west of Lonsdale Avenue showing Tom Turner’s cabin in 1890. Courtesy CVA OUT P79

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

Tags Harry Almas, J.C. Keith, Jack Loucks, Lonsdale Quay, Lonsdale Subway, Moodyville, North Vancouver Hotel, Pacific Great Eastern Railway, Pete Larson, Seabus, Seven Seas Restaurant, Spirit Trail, Tom Turner

Along the North Shore’s Spirit Trail – Moodyville to Lonsdale Quay (part 2)

by Eve Lazarus on September 29, 2018

At the end of last week’s blog, I left you at Moodyville Park, the only thing left of a once thriving town. Now hop back on your bike and follow the signs west along First Street East—and be careful of those construction trucks! I imagine in another year or so this area will be unrecognizable, but occasionally you’ll see a bungalow–the lone standout in a sea of rubble.

North Vancouver war-time housing 1943. Courtesy BC Archives 41451

Some of those holdouts were built during WW2 when Wartime Housing, a crown corporation, built tracts of neat cottages for shipyard workers. According to North Vancouver Museum and Archives, rents averaged $20 per month plus $1.35 for water services. The website says about 100 wartime houses still survive, but I’m not confident how current that is.

You’ll see signs taking you down the squiggly path and onto Alder Street and along the working waterfront.

PGE moved to its temporary home on the Spirit Trail in 2014

The old Pacific Great Eastern (PGE) Railway-North Van’s first train station—is boarded up and stuck behind a chain link fence until a new home is found for it (I hope).

On January 1, 1914, the PGE began service from this station at the foot of Lonsdale Avenue to Dundarave. At the time the plan was to extend the tracks to Squamish, but that didn’t eventuate and the railway only went as far as Horseshoe Bay. The railway service ended in 1928, and the station became a bus depot, and then was used as offices until it was moved to Mahon Park in 1971. It was spiffied up and returned to its home at the foot of Lonsdale in 1971, and moved to its current location in 2014.

Palace Hotel in 1909. Courtesy NVMA 8155

The Spirit Trail takes you along Esplanade and down St. George’s to Victory Ship Way. If you look up the street you’ll see a 15-storey condo tower at East 2^nd called the Olympic. In 1906 Lorenzo Reda built a brick hotel in that spot. Within two years, he added more rooms and a dance hall, and in 1908 the Palace Hotel boasted that it was “the only hotel in British Columbia with a roof garden.” Reda died in 1928. The hotel became the Olympic, and by the ‘70s (when it was known locally as the “Big O”), it was hosting rock bands and strippers. It was demolished in 1989.

The Shipyards in 1948, courtesy CVA Wat P58

.Aside from a couple of the old shipyard buildings and artifacts, most of the buildings have been torn down and replaced with condos. This was a hopping place during WWII, and Burrard Dry Docks was the first to hire women in significant numbers and pay them decent wages.

Women workers at Burrard Dry Docks, 1945. Courtesy NVMA 1421

And some of you may remember the Erection Shop that sat at the bottom of St. Georges until political correctness made the shipyards take the sign down for Expo 86.

We’ll start at Shipyards Coffee at Lonsdale Quay next week for a chat about the history of the area.

Tags Burrard Dry Docks, Moodyville, North Vancouver Museum and Archives, Olympic Hotel, Pacific Great Eastern Railway, Palace Hotel, Spirit Trail, the Erection Shop, Wartime Housing

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

by Eve Lazarus on September 22, 2018

In May 2014, the City of North Vancouver inked a deal with the Squamish Nation and moved a step closer to realizing the dream of building a 35-kilometre waterfront trail that would wind its way from Deep Cove to Horseshoe Bay. The mostly finished portion of the Spirit Trail runs from Sunrise Park (just above Park and Tilford Gardens) to 18^th Street in West Vancouver–(just past John Lawson Park). The ride (or walk) along the finished portion is about 20 km return.

The Moodyville Park section was completed in 2015. The trail includes an impressive overpass to Heywood Street, a mini-suspension bridge, public art, and some now fading public markers. You’ll have to reach deep down into your imagination, because the only thing left of Moodyville is a small park with some signage surrounded by a lot of building activity.

A two-storey hotel opened in 1883 and it was reportedly “a comfortable and exceedingly well-managed” operation, with a bar stocked with top wines and liquors, and where “drunkenness was unknown.” The Columbian, photo NVMA 1900

Up you go over the new overpass, and a great view of the working waterfront that takes you right into Moodyville, once a thriving town built entirely around lumber. Settled in the early 1860s, the town was completely distinct from the rest of North Vancouver with a business district that included a library, Masonic lodge, school, jail and cookhouse situated where the railway tracks and grain elevators are today. The mill was at the foot of what is now Moody Avenue, and a wooden wharf extended from the mill out over deep water. The town even had its own ferry service.

William Nahanee (with laundry bag) and a group of longshoremen on the dock of Moodyville Sawmill in 1889. CVA Mi P2

While the workers were comprised of several different races who could trace their origins back to Europe, Asia, the Pacific Islands “Kanakas,” Latin America and the West Indies, lived in segregated housing; the wealthy lived in “Nob Hill” a nod to San Francisco’s prestigious neighbourhood.

The most prestigious house was Invermere, known as the “Big House” and built in the late 1870s for Hugh Nelson a partner in the Moodyville Sawmill Company (later Lieutenant Governor of BC). Lumberman John Hendry bought Invermere and lived there for a time. His son-in-law Eric Hamber, another Lieutenant Governor of BC, demolished the house after his death. The replacement house is at 543 East 1^st Street.

Electricity came to Moodyville in 1882, a full five years before Vancouver and the electric lights reflected all the way across the waters to Hastings Mill in Vancouver. Moodyville was the first town site north of San Francisco to sport electric street lights.

By 1898 the Mill’s fortunes had peaked and in 1901 it closed. People moved away in search of work, and business activity shifted to the waterfront at the foot of Lonsdale Avenue. Moodyville officially became part of North Vancouver in 1925.

“Moodyville was the largest, oldest, most prosperous and certainly most decorous settlement on the Inlet. It had a population of several hundred, all respectable families, with tidy homes strung along well-laid out streets up the hillside from Moody’s mill.” Photo ca.1890 CVA Mi P22

The Low Level Road, constructed two years later, paralleled the railway line. Much of the hillside was scraped away and re-deposited as fill on the tidal flats to reclaim 15 acres (6 hectares). Midland Pacific was first to locate on the fill and opened a grain elevator in 1928. The area known as Nob Hill was subdivided, war-time housing followed, and a housing development called Ridgeway Place sold in the late 1950s.

With thanks to the North Vancouver Museum and Archives for letting me work on their Water’s Edge Exhibit in 2016.