An illustrated talk presented by James Johnstone.
Strathcona Community Centre
601 Keefer Street Vancouver , BC
December 8, 2011, 7:30PM
Come take a trip back in time with East End-based house history researcher and history walk guide James Johnstone as he shares his collection of East End photos and fascinating stories behind the images. A number of these photographs have never been shown publicly before.


It’s called the "East Side" Culture Crawl but it's actually the East End you’re crawling. Vancouver’s oldest neighbourhood, the East End, began as a small worker cottage community centred on the Hastings Sawmill near what is now the north foot of Dunlevy. Burned to the ground, along with the rest of the city, by the great fire of 13 June 1886, the neighbourhood you are strolling through today is home to a diverse array of some of Vancouver’s oldest remaining house architecture, much of it unprotected. 

600 block Keefer - Norma & son Johnny Bezzazzo with car in Feb 1951 - courtesy Joy Bezzasso
 For a variety of reasons, the East End’s colourful working class and multi-ethnic immigrant past is underrepresented in the historic photographic records in the City of Vancouver Archives and VPL Special Collections holdings. The body of archival images there are is slowly being added to by photographs from old family photo albums—some sold on E-bay—collected by private researchers, as well as through the legacy of photographers like Fred Herzog.
 
Vancouver Nichiren Buddhist Church on 800 block of Keefer - Courtesy of Toronto Nichiren Buddhist Church
Part of the Eastside Culture Crawl's Echo Chamber generously supported Vancouver 125th and the Department of Canadian Heritage. 

Admission Free