Vancouver Police Museum

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.

Meet Lurancy Harris: Canada’s First Woman Police Officer

by Eve Lazarus on March 7, 2015

Lurancy Harris and Minnie Millar became the first two women police officers in Canada when they were hired by the VPD in 1912

The following is an excerpt from Sensational Vancouver.

Lurancy Harris and the Vancouver Police Department — Lurancy Harris ca.1915. Vancouver Archives

Joins VPD:

Lurancy Harris was a 48-year-old seamstress from Nova Scotia had moved to Vancouver in 1911 and rented a small apartment on Robson at Howe. One day she was flipping through a newspaper when an ad caught her eye. The Vancouver Police Department was looking for “two good reliable women” to form the nucleus of a women’s protective division centred around issues of morality and protecting the safety of wayward women and children.

She and Millar were sworn in as fourth class constables, the lowest rank in the department with a salary of $80 a month. The women were given full police powers and thrown into the job with no training, no uniform and no gun.

First Arrest:

Lurancy made her first arrest five months after she was hired. In the Prisoner Record book of 1912 at the Vancouver Police Museum, Annie Smith, 38, alias Mrs. Stanfield, a bigamist from England told police that she believed that her husband was dead and had answered a personal ad in a Spokane newspaper, met and then married a Mr. Stanfield. On account of his “cruelty” she fled to Vancouver with her two small children. Stanfield found her, found the original Mr. Smith and the two men went to police. While Annie was found “technically guilty” she was given a suspended sentence “on account of the troubles and suffering she had endured.”

Arrest of Lorena Mathews:

Lurancy’s big break came a month later when she was given the task of escorting Lorena Mathews on the train back to Oklahoma after she was arrested in Vancouver. Mathews had bolted across the continent with her two children and Jim Chapman, her 25-year-old black lover who was suspected of helping her murder her much older husband. Chapman was convicted, Mathews was acquitted, and Lurancy got a promotion.

In 1916, Lurancy bought a lot on Venables Street in East Vancouver. She had a small craftsman house built and planted a monkey tree. The house is still there, a second floor was added in 1983, and the monkey tree towers over it all.

By all accounts, Lurancy had an amazing career. In 1924 she was promoted to inspector, although she was kept at the pay scale of a sergeant. She retired in 1928 aged 65.

While more women gradually joined the police force, things were slow to change. Women did not get uniforms until 1947, they were not allowed to drive police cars until 1948 (they went to calls on foot or took the street car), and it wasn’t until the 1970s that women had the right to carry firearms and were assigned to the same duties as their male counterparts.

Tags 1836 Venables, International Women's Day, Jim Chapman, Lorena Mathews, Lurancy Harris, Minnie Millar, Sensational Vancouver, Vancouver Police Department, Vancouver Police Museum

Mug-Shot Books and the Vancouver Police Museum

by Eve Lazarus on August 9, 2014

Vancouver Police Museum, 240 East Cordova — The Vancouver Police Museum is in the old Coroner’s Court and Morgue

I am thrilled to have the book launch for Sensational Vancouver at the Vancouver Police Museum on Tuesday. The Museum is housed in the old coroner’s court and morgue on Cordova which makes an authentic backdrop for all the great displays.

A large chunk of the material for my book came straight from the Museum’s archives.

One of my favourite “finds” was the prisoner record books. These are huge, heavy leather-bound books full of mug shots of the desperate and the unlucky. The brief, hand-written entries tell whole stories about people’s lives and deaths.

Courtesy of the Vancouver Police Museum

For instance, there is poor Walter Pretsel, 25, who came to the police station in 1912 to ask for a job as a stenographer. “He was found to be insane and was later committed to the insane asylum.” It doesn’t say why.

There are dozens of “notorious gamblers” and prostitution is listed as a profession.

Other entries are just bizarre.

Burnette F. Davis, 28, was a school principal in Washington D.C. He married one of his students, 17-year-old Christine Verhorick, brought her to Vancouver and put her to work at Dolly Darlington’s brothel on Alexander Street. He got five years and a $2,000 fine. It doesn’t say what happened to Christine, but it notes that it’s the second time Burnette had tried this. In 1907 he married a Miss Wade from Kent, Washington. She wasn’t as lucky as Christine. She died and was buried with the “aid of inmates.”

Mug-Shot Books aFrom the archives at the Vancouver Police Museum — Prisoner Record Books 1912

Then there’s little Annie Smith aged 38. Annie, alias Mrs. Stanfield was a bigamist from England. She told police that she believed that her husband, Mr. Smith was dead. She answered a personal ad in a Spokane newspaper, and through the ad, met and married Mr. Stanfield in 1909. She divorced him under grounds of cruelty and fled to Vancouver with her two small children. Stanfield somehow found Smith, who was in fact not dead, and the two men went to police in Vancouver. Annie was found “technically guilty,” but given a suspended sentence, we’re told “on account of the troubles and suffering she had endured.”

Tags Annie Smith, Annie Stanfield, Burnette F. Davis, Christine Verhorick, Dolly Darlington, Mug shots, Prisoner Record Books, Sensational Vancouver, Vancouver Police Museum, Walter Pretsel

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Joins VPD:

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Arrest of Lorena Mathews:

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