Vancouver Confidential

When Fact Meets Fiction: Sam Wiebe’s Vancouver

by Eve Lazarus on September 18, 2020

Sam Wiebe is the award-winning author of the Wakeland novels, a detective series set in Vancouver that includes Invisible Dead and Hell and Gone.

“When poet-turned-screenwriter Paul Ling goes missing, his teenage daughter hires Vancouver P.I. Dave Wakeland to track him down. To the shock of his family and colleagues, Ling’s body is found within days in the home of a stranger, killed by a drug overdose—and Wakeland suspects foul play. Did Ling have a secret life that finally caught up with him, or did his search for creative material for his writing take him down a dangerous path? In the world of bad television and cutthroat competition, Wakeland will need his wits about him to sort friend from foe.”—Sam Wiebe’s Hollywood North.

Sam Wiebe just released Hollywood North as a thank you to his newsletter subscribers. And I’m grateful because it’s a terrific story that’s set in Vancouver and continues on from his two Dave Wakeland crime novels Invisible Dead (2016) and Cut you Down (2018). Wakeland is a former Vancouver Police officer turned PI and his character is intrinsically involved with the city, so much so, that Sam tells me that Vancouver became a character in his books.

DTES:

And it’s not the glossy, international playground of the tourist brochures. Wakeland’s Vancouver is often the gritty streets of the DTES. Sam’s PI comes right up against the social issues of the day, whether that’s homelessness, drugs, sex workers or the missing and murdered Indigenous women.

One idea that turned up in Sam’s story Wonderful Life in Vancouver Noir (a 2018 collection of crime fiction that he edited) came from a story that Aaron Chapman wrote for the Vancouver Courier about the H Squad several years ago.

Vancouver Confidential:

Sam’s says he’s also inspired by Vancouver Confidential, a non-fiction book by John Belshaw featuring stories by writers such as Jesse Donaldson, Lani Russwurm, Aaron Chapman and me.

In Hollywood North, Sam tackles the vacuousness of the American film industry in Vancouver. And, I was excited to find two of my favourite heritage buildings in his story.

Royal Bank Building:

Wakeland’s office is in the Royal Bank Building on West Hastings, which also turns up in my new book Vancouver Exposed (the Royal Bank has the last elevator operator in the city).

“I just fell in love with the building and I thought if I was an up and coming PI that’s where I would shoot for,” he says. “I also liked that it was on Hastings street, because Hastings Street was so synonymous with the narrative of poverty and drugs and all that stuff and people forget that 90 percent of Hastings is either part of the financial district or bleeds into Burnaby and the suburbs. It’s a very vibrant street so I thought putting it there was important.”

The Canada Post building on West Georgia also has a role in Hollywood North and it’s part of Vancouver Exposed. Where Sam uses the building as a metaphor for bad American television and business practices, I talk about it through its art, its tunnel and its roof.

Canada Post building in 1960. Courtesy JMABC

Want to read Hollywood North? Sign up for Sam’s newsletter and enjoy!

And look out for his new novella Never Going Back which will be out by the end of the month.

Tags 675 West Hastings Street, Canada Post building, Cut you Down, Hollywood North, Invisible Dead, Never Going Back, Royal Bank Building, Sam Wiebe, Vancouver Confidential, Vancouver Exposed, Vancouver Noir

Heritage Streeters with Anne Banner, Tom Carter, Kerry Gold and Anthony Norfolk

by Eve Lazarus on February 6, 2016

This is part four in an occasional series that asks people who work in and around heritage to tell us their favourite buildings and the one that we should never have destroyed.

Anne Banner is the proprietress of Salmagundi, an antiques, oddities and novelties shop located in the J.W.Horne Block.

My favourite existing building in Vancouver is the J.W.Horne Block. The building runs from 311-321 West Cordova Street in Gastown. Construction started shortly after the Great Fire of 1886 and it was completed in 1889.

This brick, flat iron building is still standing, but last century it was much more exquisite and has lost much of its former beauty. Gone are the Victorian Italianate architectural details. In the early days the building had a magnificent turret and cornices decorated with a Freemason motif. Although these design elements have been erased it’s still my favourite building because it’s old and has a ton of character both inside and out.

Tom Carter has been painting historical views of Vancouver for many years, and has artwork in prominent private and corporate collections. Tom is on the board of the BC Entertainment Hall of Fame. You can read more about his work in Vancouver Confidential “Nightclub Czars of Vancouver and the Death of Vaudeville.”

Favourite existing building:

It’s a miracle that Gabriola has survived. The old Rogers mansion is the last of the West End mansions, since the Legg house was demolished last year. It’s also probably the best of the bunch, as it was used in all sorts of early Vancouver promotional materials as an example of a typical “pretty home”. Clearly not typical then or now! The design is spectacular, as is the workmanship and the incredible piece of stained glass over the stairway.

The building that we never should have torn down:

The first Pantages at Hastings near Main was torn down just a few years ago. As the oldest surviving Pantages, the oldest surviving vaudeville theatre in Canada and a building where a lot of Vancouver history played out, the theatre was clearly important historically. It had an incredible restoration plan, a lot of public support, and would have provided a theatre/meeting space that will actually be needed in this neighbourhood. Its loss was preventable, a tragedy for theatre history nationally, and a loss to the DTES community. Our city council really bungled this one up!

Kerry Gold is a born and raised Vancouver journalist who is a contributor to Vancouver Vanishes: Narratives of Demolition and Revival. Kerry also writes a real estate column about heritage preservation, housing affordability and Vancouver’s growth and transformation for the Globe and Mail.

Favourite building:

I love this little house, which is in my neighbourhood, because it is small, and in perfect proportion to the corner lot it sits on. It still has the mullioned windows on both the front porch and back sunroom. It’s basically a cottage within the city, and I suspect the owners love it too, because of the maintenance of its original details, including an era-appropriate font used for the address numbers. The house must be circa 1910, an ode to the days when it was all about the details, not the square footage.

Photo 2004, Canada's Historic Places — Photo 2004, Canada’s Historic Places

The building that we should not be tearing down:

The Mercer and Mercer art deco inspired building at the corner of East Hastings and Gore was built in the late 1940s for the Salvation Army and spent time as a Buddhist temple before BC Housing purchased it and used it for storage. Now, it’s up for redevelopment, which is tragic because we don’t have many deco designs left from that era. Enough with the endless rows of green glass and concrete towers. Our architecture is mind-numbingly boring. Let’s preserve this beautiful old building and bring history and colour to the downtown eastside.

Anthony Norfolk is a retired lawyer and past President of the Community Arts Council of Vancouver and of Roedde House Preservation Society. His longstanding record of Heritage Advocacy was recognised by a City of Vancouver award in 2011. He currently sits on the City’s Heritage Commission.

Favourite building:

Is, not surprisingly, Roedde House. Now a museum, and part of Barclay Heritage Square, Roedde House is a survivor from the early development of the West End. It was built in the Queen Anne style for the Roeddes in 1893 and designed by Francis Rattenbury with one of the architect’s characteristic turrets on one side. The museum celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2015.

The building that we never should have torn down:

The first Pantages Theatre (1907) on Hastings Street just west of the Carnegie Centre at Main Street. When City Opera Vancouver was looking for a home I steered them to the vacant and deteriorating Pantages, and to the late Jim Green. With the support of the owner, a plan was developed for City Council to purchase the theatre and adjoining properties. The theatre would be restored, and a social housing development constructed. Unfortunately, when the theatre was demolished due to neglect in 2011, Council was still studying the proposal.

See previous Heritage Streeters:

Tags 311-321 West Cordova Street, Anne Banner, Anthony Norfolk, Gabriola, J.W. Horne Block, Kerry Gold, Legg House, Pantages Theatre, Roedde House, Salmagundi, Tom Carter, Vancouver Confidential, Vancouver Vanishes

What the Alhambra Theatre and the Vancouver Stock Exchange have in common

by Eve Lazarus on June 13, 2015

From Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History

I was spending a typical Friday afternoon yesterday poking around the digital files at Vancouver Archives when I found this photo of the Alhambra Theatre. The photo was taken in 1899, the year the theatre first appears in the city directories and it stood at the corner of West Pender and Howe Street.

West Pender and Howe Streets — Alhambra Theatre, 850 West Pender Street, 1899 CVA Bu N424

While I often run posts lamenting the loss of our old building stock, I do realize that change is inevitable, and all of it isn’t bad. I wanted to know what had replaced this old theatre.

The Royal Theatre at West Pender and Howe Street — 1902 Tourist Guide map showing the Royal Theatre courtesy Tom Carter

The Alhambra Theatre didn’t last long. By 1901 it was the Royal, and two years later the People’s Theatre. Tom Carter*, who is the expert on anything and everything that’s theatre in Vancouver, tells me that Vaudeville magnates Sullivan and Considine performed a huge renovation and turned it into the Orpheum in 1906. The theatre lasted at 805 West Pender until, according to Tom, its owners rebuilt the Vancouver Opera House into the second Orpheum Theatre in 1913 (the current Orpheum Theatre was built in 1927).

850 West Pender Street — People’s Theatre 1903

In 1914, the West Pender building is listed in the directories as the “old Orpheum Theatre” and (possibly because it’s now the war years) it doesn’t get a mention again until 1917 when it becomes a tire-dealership. The building then hosts a couple of different taxi companies, and at one point the Sing Lung Laundry.

By 1929 the building has been replaced by the eleven-storey neo-gothic Stock Exchange, its address changes to Howe; and it becomes the home of the Vancouver Stock Exchange until 1947.

West Pender and Howe Street — Stock Exchange Tower, 475 Howe Street, 1929 CVA 1399-600

It’s a valuable piece of real estate in development hungry Vancouver, and its zoned for a much higher tower. But instead of knocking down this old gem as we’re prone to do, Credit Suisse, a Swiss company has stepped in with the Starchitect behind the restoration of London’s Tate Modern gallery, to incorporate the old building into the design for the new.

The new building will be a 31-storey office tower and the ground floor will be retail.

It’s an impressive looking building, a win for heritage, and a nod to the original architects—Townley and Matheson, the same two who designed Vancouver City Hall in 1936.

*For more on Vancouver’s theatre check out Tom Carter’s chapter in Vancouver Confidential: “Nightclub Czars of Vancouver and the Death of Vaudeville.”

* For more on our missing theatres: Our Missing Theatre Heritage – what were we thinking?

Tags 475 Howe Street, 850 West Pender Street, Alhambra Theatre, building, Credit Suisse, Orpheum Theatre, People's Theatre, Royal Theatre, Sing Lung Laundry, Stock Exchange, Sullivan and Considine, the Exchange, Tom Carter, Townley and Matheson, Vancouver Archives, Vancouver City Hall, Vancouver Confidential, Vancouver Stock Exchange

Heritage Streeters with Caroline Adderson, Heather Gordon, and Eve Lazarus

by Eve Lazarus on April 3, 2015

In February heritage men told us their favourite building and the one building we should have saved. To keep the world in balance, I’ve asked the same question of women working in and with heritage—our answers may surprise you.

Caroline Adderson is an award-winning Vancouver author and the person behind Vancouver Vanishes.

Favourite Vancouver building?

My current favourite house is 3825 West 39^th Avenue, built in 1937 by Jack Wood, who was the builder responsible for all the Dunbar castle houses. The house he built for himself next door and featured in the Vancouver Sun at 3815 West 39^th Avenue was demolished in early March with almost no reclamation of materials. In the article John Atkin describes the style of the Dunbar castles as “a variation of the French Normandy style popular after World War I. The turret is the grain silo of the original (French) farm house repurposed to make a grand entrance.”

I’d argue that 3825 West 39^this the prettier of the sisters because of the shingle roof and the Tudor elements. Like the Dorothies, which were saved from demolition last year, this house just lights up the street. It seems to exude stories. But not for long. As I was walking past the house this morning, I met a pair of surveyors who confirmed it’s slated for demolition.

Caroline's runner-up for favourite “house” still standing is 3492 ½ West 35th. It’s a sort of rondavel constructed out of firewood, driftwood, plywood, cinderblocks, tarpaper and stones, with fanciful ornamentation. "I haven’t been inside because, as you can see, no “gurls” are “aloud”. — Caroline’s runner-up for favourite “house” still standing is 3492 ½ West 35th. It’s a sort of rondavel constructed out of firewood, driftwood, plywood, cinderblocks, tarpaper and stones, with fanciful ornamentation. “I haven’t been inside because, as you can see, no “gurls” are “aloud”.

The one building that never should have been destroyed?

Please see my Facebook Page Vancouver Vanishes.

Heather Gordon is the City Archivist for the City of Vancouver Archives.

Favourite Vancouver building?

Beaconsfield Apartments ca1910 CVA M-11-57

The Beaconsfield at 884 Bute Street is one of a number of West End apartment buildings built in the late 1890s and early 1900s. Every one of these blocks has its own idiosyncrasies and surprises, but I love the Arts and Crafts balconies on the otherwise very-Victorian Beaconsfield, and the way the building integrates with the park-like traffic-calmed block of Bute outside its entrance.

The one building that never should have been destroyed?”

The Glencoe Lodge at Georgia and Burrard was a residential hotel built by B.T. Rogers in 1906 and managed by Jean Mollison, who was known a the “grand Chatelaine,” because according to a 1951 newspaper article, she had previously managed the Chateau Lake Louise. Under her guidance, Glencoe Lodge attracted a highly exclusive clientele, even more so than the C.P.R.’s Hotel Vancouver. The Lodge was demolished in the early 1930s, but if it had lasted longer, I can’t help but wonder if it might have become part of a really interesting development on that corner.

Eve Lazarus is the author of Sensational Vancouver and the person behind Every Place has a Story.

Favourite Vancouver building?

With Aaron Chapman on the 2014 VHF heritage house tour

It was a huge thrill to get inside Casa Mia on the Vancouver Heritage Foundation’s house tour last year. Built smack in the middle of the Depression from the proceeds of rum running, this old girl still has the nursery with original drawings from Walt Disney artists, it’s own gold leaf covered ballroom with a spring dance floor, a gold swan for a faucet, and art deco his and hers washrooms.

The one building that never should have been destroyed?

Joe Fortes (1863-1922) — Joe Fortes Beach Avenue cottage CVA BuP111

We honoured Joe Fortes with a fountain in Alexandra Park, but how much more awesome would it have been, if we’d kept his house? Not only would it have been one of the oldest structures in Vancouver, it could have made both a great little museum for black history in Vancouver and for the houses that once dotted the water side of Beach Avenue. Instead it went up in flames in 1928.

Heritage Streeters (with John Atkin, Aaron Chapman, Jeremy Hood and Will Woods)

by Eve Lazarus on February 28, 2015

One of the things I loved most about being a contributor to Vancouver Confidential was working with reporters, bloggers, artists, tour guides, actors, musicians and academics that cut across both decades and demographics. The experience made me realize what a truly diverse group we have working in the local history and heritage space.

So just for fun, I’ve asked several of my heritage heroes to tell me their favourite residential or commercial building, and to tell me the one building that should never have left our landscape.

John Atkin

John Atkin is a civic historian, heritage consultant, author and walking tour guide. He co-chairs the Chinese Canadian Historical Society of BC, sits on the board of the Friends of the Archives and is a Trustee of the Dr Sun Yat Sen Chinese Garden. In his spare time John likes to bind books and draw.

Favourite Vancouver building:

Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church on Campbell Avenue in Strathcona is a single-handed effort from the Russian Orthodox missionary priest, architect and carpenter, the Reverend Archpriest Alexander Kiziun. He died before completion, but was responsible for its design. He salvaged materials from a variety of sources which makes the church unique in its construction and character.

The one building that should never had been destroyed:

The Georgia Medical Dental building should never have been demolished. Silly reasons put forward by the council of the day, a developer with an outsized ego and a building which would have been a dramatic blend of old and new if it had survived for a few more years like the now celebrated Hotel Georgia.

Aaron Chapman

Aaron Chapman is a writer, historian and musician with a special interest in Vancouver’s entertainment history and the author of Liquor, Lust, and the Law, Live at The Commodore, and a contributor to Vancouver Confidential. You can catch Aaron live at the Vancouver Archives on March 22

Favourite Vancouver building:

The Vancouver Planetarium. The steel crab sculpture, the UFO like dome building, and the ramp that rises up to the doorway makes you feel like just entering the building is an event. The design is modern, but it’s the location for the Vancouver Museum, and therefore full of the past that makes an interesting contradiction. And there’s something of that late 60s “space-age” era architecture that not only reminds me of that design style that was so popular when I was a kid, but the whole place also likely reminds me of the elementary school field trips fondly spent there. Runner ups? The Penthouse and The Commodore Ballroom, of course!

The one building that should never had been destroyed:

The Cave. I was too young to ever go in myself before it was demolished, so perhaps I’m considering it through an odd lens of nostalgia. How wonderful would it be today to see a show that had such history to it, and knowing that you were standing in the place where so many great jazz musicians, comedians, and stars came through, especially in a place designed to look like a cave with stalactites and stalagmites everywhere as the decor. Hipsters today would have flocked to a place with such kitsch.

H.R. MacMillan Space Centre (Vancouver Planetarium)

Jeremy Hood

Jeremy Hood is the sole administrator for the FB page Vancouver: Then. “It has been a labour of love for the past two and half years and I am still blown away by some of the comments of real life Vancouver stories, some first hand, some passed down, that follow in the comments section of the photos I post,” says Jeremy. “When not working at my day job I am a photographer, a local history buff and cat lover.”

Favourite Vancouver building:

The Dominion Building wins out for me mainly for its uniqueness and how little it has changed in over 100 years. There is no building quite like it in Vancouver and it is situated in a location that enhances the magnificent stature of the building, including the mansard roof and decorated cornice. Even with a city that has grown around it, it still manages to stand out.

The "now" photo by Jeremy Hood, the "then" photo of the Dominion Building Vancouver Archives, 1944 CVA 1184-615. — The “now” photo by Jeremy Hood, the “then” photo of the Dominion Building Vancouver Archives, 1944 CVA 1184-615.

The one building that should never had been destroyed:

Two buildings that should not have been torn down are the Birks Building and the second Hotel Vancouver. The Birks Building, while majestic, handsome and a cruel loss to the city, didn’t have quite the mind-boggling ‘wow factor’ that the second Hotel Vancouver had. The sheer size of this hotel building and the fantastic detailing that went into it is almost impossible to imagine today, with vintage photographs of it likely just scratching the surface at what as treasure this landmark building once was. One can only wonder ‘what if’ and how that building would look today if it was saved.

Will Woods

Will Woods is the Founder and Chief Storyteller at Forbidden Vancouver Walking Tours and a contributor to Vancouver Confidential.

Favourite Vancouver building:

Any one of the early twentieth century buildings on Pender Street in Chinatown that have retained they recessed balconies and ornamental features. It’s really something to walk down that street and see buildings that wouldn’t be out of place in Guangdong, circa 1900-1920. And the recessed balconies are perfect for our climate here, but for some reason never caught on!

Second Hotel Vancouver on Georgia Street

The one building that should never had been destroyed:

The second Hotel Vancouver. The images that survive today show what an incredible and ornate building that was. A real tragedy it is gone, especially when the current occupant of that site is one of the city’s most bland office buildings. Fast-forward ten years and I expect I will be saying the Canada Post building on West Georgia. I’d love to see that retained and turned into an art gallery or museum – akin to the Tate in London. I think the merits of 1950s architecture will be increasingly apparent, the faster it slips into the rear-view mirror and the more of the buildings are lost. That particular building has a hint of the futuristic about it (helicopter pad on the roof for example), but also homage to tradition, with the large emblem on the front. It’s also “Herzogian” in its era, the photographer who seems to capture the ‘essence’ of Vancouver as well as anyone over the years. Almost as if the ’50s were ‘peak Vancouver’ in terms of visual richness.

Tags Aaron Chapman, Alexander Kiziun, Birks Building, Canada Post building, Dominion Building, Forbidden Vancouver, Georgia Medical-Dental Building, Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church, Hotel Georgia, Jeremy Hood, John Atkin, Second Hotel Vancouver, the Cave, the Commodore Ballroom, The Penthouse, Vancouver Confidential, Vancouver Planetarium, Vancouver Then, Will Woods

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