White Spot

RIP Henry Hudson Elementary School

by Eve Lazarus on March 15, 2025

Last chance to try and snag a brick or two before the 1911 Henry Hudson Elementary School in Kitsilano is just a distant memory. Demolition of the red brick building started Thursday.

The Namesake:

Since it’s out with the old, I’m wondering if a name change was considered for the new school? Henry Hudson, it turns out, was a 17^th century English navigator and explorer who never visited Vancouver. He disappeared after a mutiny in 1611 and was presumed dead. Apart from his total lack of connection to the city—the closest he came to Vancouver was Hudson Bay in northeastern Canada, roughly 4,700 km away—he’s not exactly the kind of role model I’d want for my kids.

According to Britannica: “As a commander, Hudson was more headstrong than courageous. He violated his agreement with the Dutch and failed to suppress the 1611 mutiny. He played favourites and let morale suffer.”

Rifle champions:

I couldn’t find out much about the history of Henry Hudson Elementary. Vancouver is Awesome wrote up an article in June 2012 when the school was celebrating its centennial. It said that during the First World War, Henry Hudson students earned the title of city rifle champions (1915 and 1916). The team included Nat Bailey who would go on to baseball and White Spot, and Hugh Matthews, the son of Vancouver’s first archivist Major Matthews.

Copies of my new book, Beneath Dark Waters: The Legacy of the Empress of Ireland Shipwreck, are available through my publisher Arsenal Pulp Press, or preorder from any independent bookstore across Canada

Babes in the Woods:

Derek and David D’Alton, the two little boys who were murdered in Stanley Park in the 1940s and identified as the Babes in the Woods in February 2022, attended Henry Hudson Elementary in the mid 1940s.

The Little Yellow School House:

Some of you will remember the little yellow school house that sat beside the soon-to-gone school building. It was built in 1912 as a Manual Training School. Google tells me that was a school that focussed on training in trades like carpentry and metal work.

Instead of being tossed in the landfill to make way for a new school, it is now part of the Chief Joe Mathias Centre on North Vancouver’s Capilano Road where children learn the Squamish Nation’s language Sḵwx̱wú7mesh sníchim.

If you went to Henry Hudson Elementary I’d love to hear your stories!

Our missing heritage buildings

Tags Babes in the Woods, Chief Joe Mathias Centre, Del Cowsill, Derek D'Alton, Henry Hudson, Henry Hudson Elementary, Hugh Matthews, Major Matthews, Nat Bailey, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh sníchim, White Spot

Missing Heritage: Firehall #2

by Eve Lazarus on August 7, 2020

Firehall #2 was designed by William Blackmore in 1888 at 724 Seymour but it would be another decade before the VFD started paying its firemen.

Firehall #2 on a training day in 1923. Vancouver Archives photo that really pops thanks to **Canadian Colour**

I’ve been having a lot of fun putting together my new book Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History over the last year or so. It’s given me the excuse to zero in on different streets particularly in Vancouver and the West End and show the changes that have occurred there over a hundred years or more.

I didn’t get to the 700-block Seymour Street, but I’ve always been intrigued by photos of the old firehall #2 that used to be at 754 Seymour Street.

700-block Seymour Street in 1947. With thanks to Murray Maisey for this annotated photo.

Changing Vancouver:

A White Spot restaurant in a building designed by McCarter and Nairne in the mid-70s used to be on the corner of West Georgia, and for years I got my hair cut at Crimpers on the ground floor. Long before that, there was a row of three-story wooden rental houses stretched along Georgia.

Georgia and Seymour Street in 1981. CVA 779 E05.36

Now the whole city block bounded by Georgia Street, Richards, Seymour and Robson is part of the massive Telus Garden development. But before Telus swallowed up the east side of Seymour Street it housed a couple of really interesting buildings and some pretty nice houses.

The original Firehall #2 at 724 Seymour. Courtesy Vancouver Fire Fighters Historical Society

One of them was Firehall #2.

Second Firehall:

The early version of the Vancouver Fire Department opened in May 1886, just a couple of weeks before the city burned to the ground in the Great Fire. William Blackmore designed the first Firehall #2 at 724 Seymour in 1888, but it would be another decade before the VFD started paying its firemen—they started at $15 a month.

The second Firehall #2 went up in 1903 just a little up the block at 754 Seymour.

Judging by the photos a lot of training took place there.

Training at Firehall #2, 1923. Glad he’s got a net! Courtesy Vancouver Fire Fighters Historical Society

The firehall sat next to BC Tel’s headquarters until 1950 when the building sold to BC Tel and became part of the telco.

The firehall is now located in a modernist structure at Main and Powell where it is apparently the busiest firehall in Western Canada, nestled as it is in the heart of the troubled DTES.

For more information on the 700-block Seymour Street please see:

Vancouver as it Was blog

Changing Vancouver Blog

Tags 199 Main Street, 724 Seymour, 754 Seymour Street, Firehall #2, McCarter and Nairne, Telus Garden, Vancouver Exposed, Vancouver Fire Department, Vancouver Fire Fighters Historical Society, White Spot, William Blackmore

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