When An Old House Whispers...

EAST END IMAGES: History, Cultures & the Culture Crawl Hood

2011-12-06T13:14:00.001-08:00

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

Roses and Bricks - Building History Into Our Patio

2011-06-22T14:34:00.000-07:00

Our front garden with the Linden Tree

Oklahoma

When my partner and I moved into our 1908 rowhouse unit on Hawks Avenue in October of 2001, Richard brought with him a number of roses he had had in pots on his West End apartment balcony. He had this big old dark red hybrid tea called Oklahoma, a bi-coloured hybrid tea rose called Broadway, a pink and white Italian-bred Bourbon rose called Variegata di Bologna and a dusky red single Gallica called Tuscany Superb. We had intended to plant them in the small 10'x12' garden in the front of the house. The problem was, there was a 30' high Linden Tree there with a rather established root system. It took me a number of hours with a pick ax to chop my way through the roots to dig holes big enough for the root balls of the roses. Fortunately, a year or two after we moved in, it was decided that the Linden Trees were a threat to the foundation of the house and a number of them were removed by the city and in our case replaced with a Styrax Japonica.

Our rowhouse originally had back yards or what passed for a back yard, but it was subdivided from our lot in the early 1980s when the owner of the rowhouse decided to sell the row and build a new house on what was our back yard. We have a narrow walk behind the house accessible from the basement, but only small balconies off the kitchen and upstairs back bedroom.

Our row as it looked in the 1960s

Our property line ends right in front of our front door. This old picture of the row taken in the 1960s clearly illustrates this fact, so I guess that having a smallish garden area in front of the house should be considered a bonus. The thing was, they way that everything was set up, once we got our roses planted there was no way to actually sit out and enjoy the yard. Of all the little gardens along the row, there was only one set up to actually sit out in it and have a drink or a meal. If we wanted to do anything like that, we would have to put two chairs and a tiny table on the short walkway to the side walk.

Henri Martin - Moss Rose

The first year or so we lived in the row, we tried to slowly transform what had been the previous owners' garden into our own. Both Richard and I love roses, so in addition to the roses from his west end balcony, we planted two moss roses: William Lobb and Henri Martin close to the house, a Damask cross called St. Nicholas, and a Gallica called James Mason.

These four and the aforementioned Variegata di Bologna and Tuscany Superb we all supported on metal rose pillar supports made by our metal and stone sculptor/artist neighbour Sandra Bilawich.

We also bought three gorgeous tree peonies from a nursery called Garden City Greenhouses on Cambie Road in Richmond just east of Garden City.

The fabulous tree peony

In the middle of this very crowded little space we began building a small sitting area using the bricks that the former owners had used to create a path through the garden. There weren't enough bricks for decently sized patio, just barely enough for two chairs, but we were content. At least we were inside our garden and had a bit of privacy from the nearby street.

Our neighbours in the row were known for their gardening and the gardens in front were particularly pretty in Spring. Our block won the Most Beautiful Block in Vancouver award for 2002-2003, the first time and East End block had been so honoured.

Soon after this first patio was started we got wind of a demolition happening on Richards Street near Robson. The old Montgomery Block was being torn down. This four-storey brick building is visible in this May 30, 1928 shot of BlackBurn's Garage at Seymour and Robson. It is the tall white building in the background.

CVA Photo Bu N274.1 by W. J. Moore

I didn't really know anything about the Montgomery block except that it was made of beautiful largish terra cotta coloured (as opposed to red) bricks. We talked to the guy doing the demolition and bought a number of bricks to enlarge our patio. Thus began my new hobby of collecting bricks from old demolition sites to expand our patio.

The bricks from the Montgomery block were in great shape and quite beautiful because of their size and colour. I dug up all the old bricks, bought some sand to spread under them and laid out the larger patio. I tried to lay everything out as flat as possible but of course it was not perfect and got even less perfect as the sand settled and tree roots grew under the Styrax. I edged the patio with other bricks and stones I had collected, including a "Clayburn" fire brick which a house history research client had saved from one of her childhood homes on Fleming Street.

Richard pitching in

A firm, but irregular foundation!

A couple of years passed and we decided to remove two of the tree peonies to enlarge the patio and make space for a raised bed for vegetables. The first couple of years we lived in the neighbourhood we had a plot in the Strathcona Community Garden. We raised tomatoes, carrots, peas and beans... the usual things. But after a while we let our plot go. We missed the immediacy of food grown in our own yard, and I was determined to rectify the situation. I got advice from a number of handy people about what to do and then proceeded to buy bricks and other materials from Home Depot. Of course, I totally screwed up on measurements and level stuff. Instead of having neat rings of bricks laid one atop the other, the first few courses were like spirals of bricks. It as early enough in the process that I was able to remedy the situation with some cement but a perfectly rectangular and level raised bed it certainly wasn't!

The finished raised bed with Alex's tomatoes (Juliet) freshly planted

But it was a raised bed and it was less than three meters instead of three blocks away from our front door. We immediately planted tomatoes and cucumbers and threw in some carrot and radish seeds for good measure. A friend of mine had grown some heirloom tomatoes from seed and gave us about a dozen of them. He didn't know which plants were which so as the summer progressed we had some pleasant surprises. Most of the tomatoes ended up being of a variety called Juliet. But there was Tigerella as well as Jaune Flame and a number of other great tasting varieties.

Bounty from the raised bed - 2010

We ended up saving seeds from a number of our favourite varieties and promised ourselves we would plant them the following year. The two areas where the tree peonies had been were hastily bricked over (not the best job) but we had a larger patio than ever for our regular summer company from Calgary. A proper re-lay of the bricks could wait for next year.

It was a good thing we waited, because while this was going on something unhappy was happening in our basement. The water pipe leading into the house somehow sprung a leak and in the late fall we discovered water dribbling down the East wall of our basement. We called Milani, and one a very cold and wet day two of their staff dug a trench through our patio and under our foundation to replace the leaking pipe. The patio was a mess. We were heading into winter though and had planned to relay the patio next year anyway, so we left the craterized patio the way it was through the Winter months and into the Spring.

Dominion Brick - all the way from Saskatchewan!

All through the late summer of the previous year and throughout the intervening months I have been on the look out for more bricks. Some neighbours down the street were unhappy with their old bricks they had so I collected about fifty from there. I also scored a brick with the word "Dominion" printed in its recess when the old Coca Cola factory at Richards and Smythe at 898 Richards was being demolished. I was on my way home from a fund raiser for Heritage Vancouver Society at the Penthouse Strip Club. It was during the lead up to the Olympics, and here I was, drssed in a suit, walking through streets heavily patrolled by police with a brick in my hand... No one stopped me, but I am not sure if anyone would have believed my story if they had stopped to question me. My prized Dominion Brick, by the way, came from the Dominion Fire Brick & Pottery Company which was located in Claybank, Saskatchewan and was active from 1916 to -1954.

Another source of great bricks was my Dad. Over the course of a number of decades Dad had collected a good number of bricks from various demolition sites across Greater Vancouver. Every time I went out to help in the garden or mow the lawn I would mooch a brick or two, sometimes more. Dad's bricks particulary fascinated me as many of them had the imprint of the factory that made them pressed into the indentation. By the way, this indentation is called a "frog", the same as the frog of a horse's hoof.

Baker Brick from Victoria, BC

Dad had a lot of bricks with the name "Baker" and "BBB". Baker bricks, it turns out, were made in my old hometown, Victoria, BC, by the Baker Brick & Tile Company from 1890 through to the 1950s.

BBB stands for Bazan Bay Brick & Tile Company Ltd. which was in Saanichton on Vancouver Island which operated from 1907 through to the 1950s.

Another brick my dad had lots of were from Clayburn in Abbotsford. I knew about Clayburn, not from the bricks, but from the famous candy store and tea shop located in the old Clayburn General Store. We took my daughter Jayka out there a number of times. Clayburn was British Columbia's first "company town". The brickworks were established in 1905 and just ceased operations this year. By the way, note the half brick with the letters GARTC just above the Bazan Bay Brick. I am very curious to know where that brick came from, but have not been successful in an online search. The other thing I am curious about is the brick with the striations to the right. I have come across a number or examples... Pure decoration, perhaps? You tell me.

Clayburn Village circa 1925

I have a number of different bricks from Clayburn, including some standard wall bricks with deep frogs, some yellow fire bricks and even some bevelled bricks, all with "Clayburn - Made In Canada" stamped on them.

Red Clayburn wall brick in the patio

Walkway to the patio with a number of Clayburn and other named bricks

I can't remember from where I got it, but one brick that had mortar stuck in its frog revealed a surprise. One end of the frog was free of mortar, and in that mortar-free space what looked like an "I" was visible. As I chipped and scrubbed and brushed and chiseled away at the mortar, an "X" and then an "L" were revealed.

I had heard about an IXL Laundry that used to be in operation in Vancouver and wondered if there was any connection. It turns out that IXL bricks were produced in Medicine Hat Alberta by the I·XL Brick Company. Originally founded as the Medicine Hat Brick Company [1886-1912] the I·XL Brick Company was established in 1912 and is still operating. And duh! IXL is of course a play on words, "I Excell!" I didn't figure that out until recently.

Another set of bricks I was happy to find came from closer to home from Anvil Island in Howe Sound. There were a number of brickworks on the island. The two I have have very different stamps in their frogs and may come from two different brick works.

Anvil Island brick in the raised bed

Here you can see the brick with the words "Anvil Island" stamped into the frog. This next brick, obviously from Anvil Island as well, has an image of an anvil pressed into the brick.

Anvil Island Brick in the patio

The Anvil Island Brick company was active from 1910 to 1917 but there was another company making bricks on Anvil Island earlier. In 1897 the Columbia Clay Company opened a plant that was rated the largest in the province by 1905 and continued to produce until some time after 1912. I am wondering if the brick with the image of the anvil might have been produced by them. If anyone knows, please post a comment.

In Maple Ridge in the Fraser Valley, the Port Haney Brick Company Ltd. operated from 1907 to the 1970s. I only have one brick from that company and was glad I was sorting my bricks on a sunny day because I almost missed this brick. Haney Brick is pressed in very small letters on the side of the brick, notthe frog, like the others I have. In order for the name to be visible, I had to dig deeper and lay this brick on its side.

A Haney Brick and Bazan Bay Brick in the patio

Another brick I have comes from Somenos north of Duncan on Vancouver Island. This brick's frog imprint has been worn down or was perhaps a sloppy press. it's hard to read, but bricks were made in Somenos by a company called Jennings & Son from 1908 to 1932. There was also a Chinese-run brick factory in Somenos. I have no idea which company made this brick.

Somenos Brick in patio

There are other bricks rescued from houses I have researched that had to be demolished. All of these were bricks without names and I am not sure where they are in the patio. Here and there are a few bricks from 828 Royal Avenue in New Westminster, a little Royal Engineers Sapper's bungalow that survived the Great Fire of 1895. I have a small pile of brick from 828 Royal left over to give to a former resident.

Around the edges of the patio that are not delineated by the raised bed or the front of our house are two lines of old cobbles. Between the house and the raised bed is a line of brick cobbles. These are the same brick cobbles used to pave the linear park in our neighbourhood.

Denny-Renton brick cobbles

I had never really looked too closely at these bricks but found a name pressed into the side, Denny-Renton

These cobbles were produced by the Denny Renton Clay and Coal Company [1905-1927] in Renton, Washington. In 1901, two California entrepreneurs, James Doyle and J. R. Miller, discovered that the shale overlaying the coal seams at the coal Renton mine produced a high-quality clay. Tests indicated the material would make excellent brick, and with Seattle investor E. J. Mathews, Doyles and Miller organized the Renton Clay Works. They developed a plant on the south bank of the Cedar River. The Renton plant specialized in fire brick, brick cobbles, terra-cotta, and decorative terra-cotta. In 1905 the plant was purchased by Denny Fire Brick Company and the entire company was renamed the Denny-Renton Clay & Coal Company. By 1910, the Denny-Renton Clay and Coal Company was one of Renton's most important businesses. By 1917, the Denny-Renton Clay Company was reportedly the world's largest producer of street paving brick!

The second line of cobbles are not made from clay at all, but were sawn from first growth timber and originally formed the road surface of the 200 block of Union Street near Hogan's Alley. I wrote about these in another blog posting. Large sections ofthe road bed had been disturbed during the recent construction of the V6A Condo complex. I salvaged a number of these not knowing what I would do with them other than that I didn't want them used as land fill. They now rim the East End of our patio. Another little piece of history saved.

100 year-old Wooden Cobbles from Hogan's Alley

A historic "East End" edge for the patio

Little more needs to be done with the patio. The cement slabs that form the border of the herb bed round the Styrax need to be glued together. There are a few high bricks here and there that should be tapped down, and sand needs to be swept between the cracks to stableise everything. I have researched the origins of every brick I had that had a name stamped in them, but I am still left wondering how it is that so many bricks from outside the Lower Mainland and even outside the province made it to Vancouver. Bricks from Abbotsford, Haney and Anvil Island I can understand, but how is it that so many old Vancouver buildings were made with bricks from Vancouver Island and far off Alberta and Saskatchewan?

I will still keep my eyes out for stamped bricks from other brickworks around the country. If you like this blog and my idea of a brick history shrine and have a stamped brick from locales I have not included in the patio, I would love to have any samples you could spare. For people interested in old bricks and brick collecting there are a number of interesting sites online: Brick Collecting, International Brick Collectors Association, California Bricks. There is even a Brick Collector Blog. Oh! And here is a link to historic bricks from England. You find a lot of these imported bricks, especially from Darwen in Lancashire in old Shaughnessy houses.

I wonder what they are planning to do with the bricks from the demolition of the Pantages Theatre? It seems a shame that they will all be so anonymously recycled, especially after the long and difficult fight to save that landmark historic building. If it were possible, I would love just one. Perhaps the City could sell the bricks at $10 a piece to raise funds for heritage preservation. I would buy one... even without a stamp.

In Memoriam

For all those great old historic brick buildings across this country,

gone too soon, especially The Pantages Theatre.

CVA Photo LGN 999 The Pantages Theatre when that block
was filled with life and light

OPENING DOORS IN VANCOUVER'S EAST END; STRATHCONA

2011-05-31T22:44:00.000-07:00

A NEIGHBOURHOOD BOOK LAUNCH

On Wednesday, June 1, lovers of East End history will have the rare chance to hear co-editors Daphne Marlatt and Carole Itter talk about their amazing adventure intrviewing over fifty pioneer East End Vancouver residents from a diversity of backgrounds about their lives growing up in Vancouver's first Neighbourhood. OPENING DOORS IN VANCOUVER'S EAST END: STRATHCONA was one of a few precious out of print Vancouver history books to be reprinted as part of the Vancouver 125 Celebrations. It is a truly amazing book--my old original copy was literally falling apart, I had read it so much.

Anyway, for all you who would choose (even if it was for one night only) history over hockey, please come down to the

Seniors Lounge (Main Floor) of the
Strathcona Community Centre (601 Keefer at Princess Avenue) at
7:15 pm (Wednesday, June 1st)

Daphne and Carole and perhaps even a number of some of the original interviewees will be on hand to talk about the amazing stories behind the stories in the book. Copies will be on sale courtesy of People's Co-op Books.

This presentation is part of the monthly Strathcona Residents' Association meeting. Everyone is welcome for this special part of the meeting which we have scheduled to happen before the business part of the meeting.
Admission is Free

Three More Old Strathcona Houses on the Chopping Block?

2011-04-11T12:36:00.000-07:00

Last Friday I was honoured to have a piece I wrote featured in the At Home Section of the Vancouver Sun. The story was called Mill Town Memories and talked about three 1880s houses: 385 East Cordova, 414 Alexander and 417 Heatley in Strathcona, (the old East End) Vancouver's oldest neighbourhood. 385 East Cordova may in fact be Vancouver's oldest house still standing. It was shown in this 1887 picture taken by J. A. Brock.

CVA Str P223 J. A. Brock 1887

Here is a close up.

In the same article I mentioned a row of houses on the 600 block of East Cordova. There are a number of 1880s houses in that block which includes two houses built by Italian-born hotelier Angelo Calori, the builder of Vancouver's landmark flatiron Europe Hotel at Carrall and Powell.

357 East Cordova, built by Angelo Calori in 1907

Just around the corner from these old houses is a wonderful intact row of three circa 1905 houses built by A. McRae.

313, 311, and 305 Heatley

The first time the houses are listed is in the 1906 directory, but they are vacant. The first time they are shown as being occupied is in 1907.

305 Heatley was home to english-born lumberyard foreman Stanilaus Brereton, hi wife Ada and their family.

305 Heatley

311 Heatley was home to Ontario-born journalist Victor W. Odlum, and...

311 Heatley

313 (then 319) Heatley was home to carpenter James Reid.

313 Heatley

Of particular interest to me is the name Odlum. My current career path, if you can call it that, as a house history researcher and neighbourhood history walk guide began when I moved from the West End in 1995 to a house on the 100-block of Odlum Drive in the East End. Odlum Drive is named after Edward Faraday Odlum. Edward Faraday Odlum (1850-1935) has an amazing history. His mansion on Grant Avenue near Commercial Drive still stands (see below). Here is a link to the Wikipedia Article on him.

CVA 447-314 Professor Edward F. Odlum's house on Dec 26, 1935 by Walter Edwin Frost

Victor Wentworth Odlum (21 October 1880 – 4 April 1971) is Professor Edward Odlum's son. He has an even bigger write-up in Wikipedia than his father. As the Wikipedia article points out, Victor W. Odlum was a journalist who went on to become a rather controversial newspaper publisher, a temperance activist, a soldier who went on to attain the rank of Brigadier General, and later a diplomat. There are a number of pictures of Brigadier General Odlum at the City of Vancouver Archives. I have included two: one showing him in full military regalia in the ocmpany of US President Harding during the presidential visit to Vancouver in 1923, and another showing him laying a wreath on the grave of Capatin George Vancouver in England on May 10, 1941.

CVA Photo Port P941.3 President Harding with V. W. Odlum at right - July 26, 1923

CVA Photo Mon P54 - Maj.General Odlum at George Vancouver's Grave

Read over the article in Wikipedia. Victor W. Odlum was certainly an interesting and controversial figure--a fascinating combination of brave war hero, financier and business leader, stubborn anti-unionist and at times unscrupulous journalist. Odlum's paper, The Star, seems to have been largely responsible for whipping up the anti-Chinese sentiment during the Janet Smith murder case in the 1920s by insisting that Janet Smith was murdered by Wong Foon Sing.

Odlum only lived at 311 Heatley for a year, but it is interesting to see just how much history can be locked into these old houses north of Hastings.

Currently, there is an application for demolition for the three houses on Heatley but I understand that the owner would as likely sell the houses is he/she could get $500,000 for each of them. Any takers?

The Oldest House Standing in Vancouver?

2011-04-07T21:35:00.000-07:00

As part of their efforts to celebrate Vancouver's 125th birthday The Vancouver Sun hired me to write an article on the oldest houses in Vancouver. This was a great assignment as I was able to focus on three houses in a very vulnerable section of my East End neighbourhood. (The article came out in the Friday April 8th edition. Here is a link to the article online). Though there may be one as old elsewhere in Strathcona, as far as my research goes, the prize for the oldest house still standing in Vancouver on its original location goes to a house on the corner of East Cordova and Dunlevy Street.

CVA Photo Str P223

The East End, along with the rest of Vancouver, burned to the ground in the Great Fire of June 13, 1886 The photo above taken by J. A. Brock in 1887 from near Jackson and Hastings shows just how quickly the East End bounced back. The quadrangle of undeveloped land to the centre right is the Powell Street Grounds, now known as Oppenheimer Park. Of all buildings shown in this photo only one still stands: 385 East Cordova — originally 333 Oppenheimer — on the northwest corner of Cordova and Dunlevy, seen below.

Given the date of the photo, and the time it would take to build not only one house but hundreds of houses after the fire, we can safely assume that construction of the building began in1886. Today, it is owned by the Franciscan Sisters of the Atonement, but when this photo was taken it was home to pioneer hardware merchant Thomas Dunn, also one of Vancouver’s first aldermen.

CVA Photo Port P179 Studio portrait of Thomas Dunn & Family 1880s

There is a good biography of Thomas Alexander Dunn in the book Vancouver Voters - 1886 compiled by the BC Genealogical Society. He built a number of retail blocks in the city. The most famous still standing is the Dunn-Miller Block, the part of the Army & Navy Store that faces Cordova Street near Carrall. Thomas Dunn was one of the original ten Alderman elected after Vancouver was incorporated in 1886. He is shown standing with third from the left, just under the City Hall sign, in this photo that recreates the first City Council meeting after the Great Fire.

VPL Photo 508 - 1st City Council Meeting After The Great Fire 1886 by H. T. Devine

In 1889, the house was bought by Vancouver City Foundry manager Richard P. Cook, who had the house hooked up to the city’s water system in June of that year. By 1894, the house was home to another Scot, Archibald Murray Beattie, and his family. The 1895 city directory lists a number of job titles for Beattie, including notary public, auctioneer at Vancouver’s Market Hall (see below), as well as the Hawaiian consul.

CVA Photo City N12 Old Market Hall by W. J. Moore. Sept. 18, 1928

Beattie was followed by a superintendent for the Hastings Sawmill, a retired Presbyterian minister and a couple of shoemakers, before being run as a boarding house for a number of years. From the outbreak of the First World War onward, a number of Japanese families moved into the block. (The directories say a fireman named Samuel Koniko lived at the house from 1914 to 1921. Koniko, however, may be a misrendering of the Japanese surname Kaneko, written 金子 or sometimes 兼子). From 1922 to 1927, the house was run as the Japanese Seamen's Home, and in 1928 became the new home of the Catholic Japanese Mission run by the Franciscan Sisters of the Atonement who are still there serving the needy in the East End and Downtown East Side.

CHICKEN COOPS, MURDER & MARSHALL STREET IN CEDAR COTTAGE

2011-03-07T02:02:00.000-08:00

Now that I have your attention, last night I watched the 2008 Angelina Jolie movie Changeling for the second time. A year or so ago when I saw it for the first time I was completely blown away. If you have not seen it, it is truly a riveting film, but I warn you, this is by no means a "family" show. The violence and the subject matter is disturbing in the extreme, especially when you know that the story actually happened. Here's a link to the Wikipedia article on the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders.

According to the film, there was a Vancouver connection to the movie and later in the night, the evening I first saw the movie, I spent several hours doing online searches on the story and found that there is a house in Cedar Cottage, or was, that had a connection to the murderous Northcott family that was the subject of the film.

Gordon Stewart Northcott's mug shot

Many of you have seen the movie, and you can all click on the link above to read details of the murders. I won't go into too much detail here except to say that the murders involved young boys and took place in the late 1920s on an isolated farm in Wineville, now Mira Loma, California over the hills to the east of Los Angeles. The other piece is that the perpetrators were Canadians.

Sanford Wesley Clark

Those of you who have seen the movie, know that it deals only with Gordon Stewart Northcott (seen above) and his young nephew Sanford Wesley Clark (yes, the Northcott's were Methodists), but if you read the Wikipedia article, you will learn as I did that Gordon's mother Sarah Louise Northcott was also involved in the murders.

According to the Wikipedia article, Gordon Stewart Northcott was born in Saskatchewan in 1906 but had been raised in BC. Curious, I did an online search of his name in the 1911 Canada census and lo and behold, I found them living in the Cedar Cottage neighbourhood of Vancouver.

1911 Canada Census Page showing the Northcott's in Cedar Cottage

The writing may be a little difficult to see, but Gordon is listed on line 44 near the bottom, under his father C. G. (Cyrus George) Northcott on line 42 and his mother, Sarah "Louisa" Northcott on line 43. Here is a cropped section of the page.

The data indicates that Gordon's parents were both born in Ontario. You can see that Gordon's actual birth date was in November of 1907. As mentioned above, the Northcotts were Methodist. It would also seem that in 1911, at least, that Gordon's father Cyrus worked as a carpenter in the house building trade and had made $1000 doing that in the year prior to the census.

Cyrus G. Northcott

Sarah Louisa Northcott

I was quite frustrated with the census record. In most cases, the 1911 census actually includes the street address of the various households. This page did not include those details, including only that the Northcotts lived in the Cedar Cottage neighbourhood in South Vancouver.

I checked the 1911 City Directory to see if I could find them and this is what I found.

Of course, I was thrilled to find the Northcotts in the directory. The directory gave some more information on their location, the west side of Marshall Street, so I looked up Marshall street on Google Maps and was surprised to find that I knew it...

My daughter and her Mom had lived very close to Marshall Street on East 19th for a number of years. It was just south of Trout Lake. But where was Lakeview Drive? Did they mean Lakewood? That didn't make sense.

I went to the old city directories again to see if the Northcotts were listed in the 1912 directory but they were not. I went back to the 1911 directory and searched through the street section and found that there were only five households mentioned on the street that year: those of Samuel Smith, George Adams, Robert Borrinow (most likely Boronow), Cyrus G. Northcott, and Ernest Marshall. Of these, Samuel Smith and George Adams lived on the part of Marshall close to the BC Electric Railway. Boronow's street address was listed as Bismarck (Kitchener) and Marshall's was listed as Epworth Post Office.

Plate 92 of Volume 2 of 1912 Goad's Atlas of Vancouver

No clear house address seems possible from the directory records... but we do know that the Northcott house was on the west side of Marshall near Lake View Drive. So I went to look for a map of the area close to the time of the census and what we have is the 1912 Goad's Atlas of Vancouver. I looked at the map above and found that at the time of the map's drawing there were about thirteen houses along Marshall which had been renamed Haywood Terrace. but here is the interesting thing... Two actually... The arc of the BC Electric Railway can be seen to the south of Marshall. IWhat we now know as East 19th was originally called Lakeview Drive.

If the Northcott residence was on the west side of Marshall near Lakeview Drive it could only have been one of two houses: either 3521 or 3545 Marshall.

If you go on Google Maps and do a search for both houses you can see that 3545 Marshall does not look like a house that was built prior to 1911, but 3521 does.

3521 Marshall Street

Is this the house where the Northcott family lived at the time of the 1911 census?

Gordon Stewart Northcott at his trial.

Various accounts of the Gordon Northcott trial seem to indicate that he was severely abused by his parents. In 1911, Gordon was only four years old. Did the nightmare start here, or elsewhere? Who knows...

Gordon Northcott with police at the Northcott farm in Wineville.

For those of you who want to dig further, here is a link that has links to quite a few other articles on the subject: The Wineville Chicken Coop Murders - The Real Story Behind Hollywood's Changeling.

In the meantime, I will do some more snooping at the City Archives. Perhaps a water service or building permit application search will turn up some connection to Cyrus Northcott and one of the addresses on Marshall. If I find something, I will keep you posted.

The New Lucky Rooms--468 Union Street: More Than Meets The Eye

2011-02-27T10:33:00.000-08:00

468 Union Street - Courtesy Patrick Gunn, Heritage Vancouver

When I first moved into the neighbourhood in 2000, I soon found out that certain buildings or houses had a reputation... This was one of those buildings... a three storey apartment building that had seen better days, and nicer management. Over the last little while, things seemed to have improved at the "New" Lucky Rooms... new management, less drug and craziness related problems. Things may be looking up. Perhaps one day it will have a makeover like its neighbour 478 Union just down the street.

So where was I going with this? A while back, when I was looking at a way of stringing together a walking route through the East End I thought the 400 block of Union had to be looked at. Because of the way the MacLean Park project housing was laid out, any tour going through the East End wanting to visit Hogan's alley had to go along the 400 block of Union. So I started researching ten addresses in the block and found out some very interesting stuff: like the home of Vancouver's Amelia Earhart, Tosca Trasolini, the homes of a number of refugee Christian Lebanese families, like the Haddads, Nahomes and Sabas, that the brick house built by Italian-born longshoreman and bootlegger Adamo Piovesan was the second house to be built on the lot and that there was a second generation of bootlegging going on after the Piovesan's moved. You know.. boring East End stuff... the stuff that gets my heart and mind going... the stuff that makes me wish I could research every single house in this neighbourhood... But let's concentrate on one... the New Lucky Rooms.

Prior to the construction of this building, there were actually two other structures built on the same lot. The house on the lane, 466 Union (Barnard Street originally) was built in 1904-05 by Belgian-born mason Jerome C. Martin. Jerome was born in 1854, the son of Zavier Martin and Catherine Van Bergen. his wife, Mary Jane O'Brien, who applied for water service for the house on Augut 23, 1904, was born in Kings Township, County York in Ontario, the daughter of John O'Brian and Jane Milligan. 466 Barnard appears for the first time in the directories in 1906 as Jerome Martin's home. The original 468 Barnard was built in 1906 and first appears in the directories in 1907 as the home of BC Electric Railway motorman Edward J. Goudie.

Then October 6, 1912, another water service application for the lot was made by Jerome Martin. You can see that there is a new building on the lot, marked in pink. This new

Plate 70 of Volume 2 of 1912 Goad's Atlas Fire Insurance Map of Vancouver

building, today's New Lucky Rooms, first appears in the directories as the White Horse Rooms. Perhaps Jerome had spent some time in the Klondyke before settling in Vancouver.

Photo courtesy of Patrick Gunn - Heritage Vancouver

The 1913 directory lists the first floor as occupied by the Roma Restaurant, run by G. Giovanetti. Perhaps it was the war, or perhaps Mr. Giovanetti couldn't keep a good cook, but for whatever reason, by 1914 the restaurant space was converted into a grocery store run by a widow named Sarah Lipovsky. Sarah Lipovsky was born in Russia in 1880 and is supposed to have come to Canada around 1904 and to BC in 1910, but she does not turn up in the census under that surname, or under her maiden name, Lazarovitch. Her deceased husband was Moses Lipovsky, a Russian-born sheet metal worker, who died at the Vancouver General Hospital on September 27, 1912 of acute appendicitis at the age of 42. Moses was buried in Mountain View, according to his death certificate, though his name does not turn up on their website. The home address given on the death certificate was 645 East 13^th. In the 1912 and 1913 directories, the surname was spelled Lopovsky. In later life, Sarah Lipovsky lived at 1816 West 13^th. She died at St. Paul’s Hospital of a heart condition on April 23, 1929 at the age of 49 and was buried in the Old Section of Mountain View in Plot 1/06/014/0002.

For most of World War I, the store was vacant, then in 1919, 468 Union became the home of Abraham and Fredah Charkow. The 1919 directory seems to intimate that Abraham Charkow had an egg store at 468 Union. Abraham Charkow was Jewish, most likely from Poland, there are a number of Polish-born Jews named Charkow in the BC Archives Vital Events listings. Freda Charkow was born in Poland on June 18, 1894, the daughter of Moses and Fagi Chrak. She came to Vancouver in 1915. In later life, the Charkows lived at 5424 Connaught Drive. Freda Charkow died on December 11, 1955 at the age of 60 and was buried in Schara Tsedeck Cemetery in Burnaby.

The apartments above the store first appear in the 1917 directory and for most of the buildings life their address is 468½ Union. during the early years, often only the name of the resident caretaker is listed, not all the residents.

In 1920 and 1921 the main floor was an Italian confectionery run by Eugenio Falcioni, then victor Dorigo.By 1923, it was a butcher shop run by Herbert J. Stickland. In 1925-26 it was the Union Tailor Shop run by Louis Battistoni. From 1927 through to 1929, Luigi shared the space with his brother Giuseppe who ran the Union Shoe Repair from the same address. Around this time the south side of the block, at least all ten of the houses included in the study I was doing were occupied by Italian families.

In 1929, the corner store at 578 Union was taken over by a Japanese family, the Sogas. In 1930, 468 Union became the Lethbridge Meat Market run by a man named John Ungeren. At first I thought John might have been Swedish or Finnish. There were lots of Swedes and Finns in the neighbourhood, but John was actually Romanian. John Ungeren was born in Romania in 1881 and came to BC around 1928. His father's name was Constantine Ungeren. His wife, Dora Henko, was born in Romania on May 13, 1898, the daughter of Pete and Florence Henko. They had at least one daughter, Katie Ungeren, born in Lethbridge Alberta on March 12, 1923. The same year, the apartments in the upper floors were run by a Japanese man named Masashi Nakagawa.

The depression shook things up badly in Vancouver, especially in this neighbourhood. In 1931-32, the Ungeren family took over operations of the entire lot. The Ungeren family lived behind in the lane house at 466 Union. Mrs. Ungeren ran a grocery store in the front unit of 468, while john took over running the upstairs rooms.As the depression progressed, the grocery went out of business, the storefront remained vacant for a number of years, the extended Ungeren family moved into the upstairs apartments, and "Orientals" rented out 466 at the back. Of the Ungeren children living at 468 Union, George and William Ungeren worked as shoe shiners at the Stock Exchange Barber Shop, Annie worked as a waitress at the Union Cafe, Victoria worked as a waitress at the Newton Cafe, and Mary worked as a waitress at another restaurant. Nick Ungeren worked as a shoe shiner for F. Lee.

By the time World War II rolled around, 468 Union was renamed the Lethbridge Rooms. By 1940, leather cutter Joseph King and his wife Annie lived in the lane house at 466 Union. In 1941, the Lethbridge Rooms were renamed the Adora Court Rooms, probably after Dora Ungeren. They remained the Adora Court Rooms long after the Ungerens moved away in 1943. For the remainder of the war, it seems that the block was looked at L. & Christina Few. Mr. Few was listed as being in Active Service so perhaps Christina Few was the manager. The lane house at 466 Union was rented by logger Einer Nylen and his wife Tillie. After the war, the Adora Court Rooms were taken over by George and Katie Kohut.

In 1951, the Kohuts moved out and a man named William Baert took over as caretaker. The ground floor until was rented out to a Chinese interpreter named T. H. Liu, and George A. Sloan, a furnaceman for Great Western smelting and his wife Kay took over the lane house.

Sometime prior to 1954, a woman named Ho Lam took over proprietorship of the Adora Court Rooms. She ran the place until at least 1981, but hired a number of resident caretakers over the years. 1981 is the last year you see the name Adora Court in the city directories. In the 1980s and 90s the directories list mostly Chinese residents in the apartment while the lane house at 466 Union was rented out to the Odegaard and then the Sollazzo families. From 1992 onward, 466 became the home of Yen Chia Liu, the manager of the Sun Ah (New Asia) Hotel at 100 East Pender.

Although the name may have been used prior to that, the first time Lucky Rooms appears as a name in the directories is 1999.

This is only a small distillation of the history of this place. It is a great reminder that every house, every old apartment building, no matter how run down, has a history and that history is worthy of being investigated.

CAN YOU IDENTIFY THESE VANCOUVER HOUSES?

2011-02-24T12:45:00.000-08:00

Some years back, the people of Vancouver were captivated by the story of a young Vancouver couple and their extended family who, through their own labour and family resources, restored a dilapidated East End house that looked to most to be a certain tear downer.

Courtesy of Graham Elvidge and Kathleen Stormont - May 2003

When I first went inside 844 Dunlevy, the house seemed to be a ruin. The roof had been leaking for years, causing a lot of water damage. The owner, George Winchcombe, had let a number of generations of his beloved companion dogs infuse the floors and baseboards with an odor that floored most of the prospective buyers the day of the open house... and this was after the floors had been power washed!

That 844 Dunlevy was eventually transformed from a noxious horror story to a homey showcase was little short of a miracle and is a tribute to the owners' vision, tenacity, and their ability to inspire and involve others in the restoration process. Restoring the 1899 F. W. Sentell-built Queen Anne to its former glory helped give life and colour to the southwest edge of Strathcona and, I hope, will inspire others to look at other run down pioneer era East End homes as something to value and rehabilite, not destroy.

Photo courtesy of Graham Elvidge and Kathleen Stormont

All through the process, The Province and a local TV station covered the restoration saga. People fell in love with the house and the intrepid extended family working on it and would drop by with period chandeliers, light fixtures and other antiques that they thought might go well with the house once it was finished.

Photo courtesy of Graham Elvidge and Kathleen Stormont

I jumped on the bandwagon and presented Graham and Kathleen with a history of the house. I had found out that 844 Dunlevy was built in 1899 by Frederick William Sentell, a New Brunswick-born house contractor and former Vancouver alderman, and the man who built Vancouver's first City Hall on Powell Street.

In the end, the house was awarded top honours for heritage preservation at both the civic and provincial level. Here are some articles on the house and its history:

The Georgia Straight

Heritage Canada

So that's a rather long preamble to what this post is all about. Among some of the things that George Winchcombe left behind in his house were a number of photos, including this one taken in 1920. I am hoping readers might be able to help identify where the houses are.

Uncle Charlies Cement Crew - courtesy George Winchcombe

George's uncle, Charlie Winchcombe, was a cement contractor. The photo shows one of his crews working on a road or sidewalk somewhere in Vancouver. I have seen a number of houses which look like the one in the centre... There is one similar on Fraser Street, but i don't think it is the house. Do these two houses look familiar to you? If so, please let me know. The first person who can correctly identify these houses for me will get two free tickets for one of my neighbourhood history walks. : ) Remember, you can click on the photo to enlarge it.

1606 East 15th Ave - The House that Thomas Bell built

2011-02-23T00:14:00.000-08:00

A few year's back I was called on by a very nice realtor named Shelly Smee to do some research on a newly restored Cedar Cottage Arts & Crafts bungalow across from Clark Park.

The owner had done an amazing job in bringing the house back to is former glory after years of it being quite run down and was toying with the idea of moving on. What you see above are some of the "before" pictures.

I did some basic research and presented it to Shelly who then presented it to the owner. The information I dug up about the house so interested the owner, that unfortunately for Shelly, she not only decided not to sell the house but hired me to do more in-depth research on the property. The final package contained the history of three houses on East 15th Avenue and three houses on Fleming Street, and was one of my most interesting jobs to date.

There were several challenges associated with the project. for one thing, East 15th Avenue was the border between Vancouver and South Vancouver and depending on which municipality you lived in was numbered differently. This caused me quite a few headaches researching the earlier years of the house's history. Another challenge was that for many of the early years of the house's existence, the directory records for Cedar Cottage were rather patchy. But I persisted, and after much trial and error, I was able to piece together a rather interesting story.

3500-block Commercial Street in 1913 - CVA Photo LGN 504

The house at 1606 East 15th Avenue was built sometime around 1907 at a time when there were great expectations that the Cedar Cottage area would prosper and develop commercially. It is perhaps the grandest example of house architecture left in the district. Located on the height of land on the corner of 15^th Avenue and Fleming Street, it was built for retired sheet metal company owner Thomas Bell, just across from the house plasterer John Fleming built. John Fleming’s family had been landowners in the Cedar Cottage area for many years. Fleming Street is of course named after him. Sadly, John Fleming’s original and historically valuable old house was demolished sometime in the 1950s to make way for the two duplexes that now stand there.

Cedar Cottage and the Municipality of South Vancouver were not the main focus of the early city directories so we do not even know for sure the first year that Thomas Bell lived in the house (although this study has arbitrarily put him at the house every year the directories listed him as living in Cedar Cottage).

What we do know is the Thomas Bell was born in Ontario and that he, his wife Georgina, and his son Frederick Ewart Bell lived in the house until 1918. Sometime in 1918 dentist Thomas Peden and his family lived in the house for about a year but by 1919 the house was bought by Scottish-born lithographer Frank C. Smith and his wife Margaret.

Pearl Dixon

Frank and Margaret lived in the house until 1947 or 1948 when the house was sold to New Brunswick-born lumberman Frank King. Prior to moving into 1606 East 15^th Frank’s first wife passed away. At some point before his death, if one of his obituaries and one directory listing are to be believed, he remarried a woman named Ella. It seems though that Frank lived alone in the house for most of the time he had it, but had a housekeeper named Pearl I. Dixon, who may or may not have lived there. She is not listed in the directories as living there when Frank had the house. She is not listed in his obituaries, even though the non-present wife is. Whatever the story, and a good part of it remains a mystery, when Frank died he willed the house to his housekeeper Pearl who lived in the house from 1954 through 1960, marrying retiree Roderick G. MacKenzie along the way. This picture of the house and Pearl Dixon was presented to the current owner by a neighbour, Hazel Carter. What an amazing picture! click on it for a larger view.

Note the original Catholic Church across Fleming Street where the school is now.

When Pearl died the house was willed to the Catholic Church and for many years 1606 East 15^th was run as a children’s home by the Catholic Children’s Aid Society. The BC government took over in management in 1974. By 1985, the Nisha Children’s Society was operating a group home there until 1996.

For a number of years, the Thomas Bell House remained in limbo, threatened with the possibility of demolition or unsympathetic renovation by developers. That the house stands today, whole and restored, is a testament to the love and determination of its current owner. Whoever Thomas Bell was, I think he would be pleased.

1606 East 15th as she is today...

828 Royal Avenue Is Finally Gone

2011-02-12T00:50:00.000-08:00

828 Royal Avenue Photo courtesy of Bob Hare

Last year I was hired to research the history of a dilapidated Royal Engineer sapper's bungalow at 828 Royal Avenue in New Westminster. New Westminster, which is so much older than Vancouver, and unfortunately has many gaps in its directory record, can be very challenging for a researcher like me. ...but with the help of the good folks at the New Westminster Museum and Archives and the New Westminster Public library, as well as some valuable input from past residents, I ended up putting together one of my favourite house history projects to date. Here is a link to my findings.

BC Archives Photo H-00332 Gilley Brother's Dray in front of 828 Royal Avenue

I will not go into the details of my findings here but there are a couple of things that I would like to mention. First of all, this nondescript little bungalow has an amazing history. Outside of Irving House, further down the street, this little house was the only house left standing south of Royal Avenue that survived New Westminster's great fire, and as such deserved to be preserved somehow.


Map showing extent of Great Fire of Sept 10, 1898 house under V in Ave. is 828 Royal

The two things I will mention are that I made a wonderful connection with a woman of Japanese heritage whose aunt and uncle lived in the house prior to World War II and was able to glean so many rich details concerning her family's time at the house that I would not have been able to find through my usual archival and online sources. Here is a picture of little Mitsue Lorraine Elliott with her uncle Sennosuke Nishi and his wife Shizu.

The Nishis were childless and at one time had hoped to adopt little Lorraine. This story is touched on in the older blog post. Anyway, the Nishi family lived at 828 Royal Avenue from 1925 to 1942 when they were forcibly removed from their home to a camp at Bridge River in the BC Interior. The removal to the camps was a huge tragedy to the Nishi family. Mrs. Nishi did not survive the ordeal in 1943. She was only 50. After the war, Sennosuke did not return to New Westminster but moved to Ashcroft.

There is so much more history about this little house in the longer blogpost on 828 Royal. It was such a shame that something could not have been done to preserve it or move it.

Back of 828 Royal last year

Same view on February 9, 2011 (Camera date is incorrect)

Two days ago, the little sapper's cottage had its day with the wrecking ball. Last year when I was talking with Lorraine about the impending demolition of her Aunt and Uncle's home I mentioned to her that I would try to salvage some bricks from the chimney for her. I didn't know how many I would be able to get, but we liked the idea of something of the house being saved. We are constantly expanding our (little) front patio using bricks I have salvaged from demolition sites. I thought it would be neat to have some of the bricks in my front yard and some at Lorraine's place, two little shrines to the memory of the little house that survived the Great Fire of 1898, and ended up touching so many lives.

On Wednesday when I went out to see if I could salvage some bricks, the house had been already torn down but the lot was still being cleared with heavy machinery. I checked with Heath, the foreman, and also talked to Mr. Krishan Anand, the owner of the property who originally hired me to research the property, to see if it was still okay to salvage some bricks. This afternoon, when I went to the site, the workmen had already left, but stacked neatly behind a piece of plywood off the back alley were about 30 bricks of various types and sizes. I braved the much and found about 10 more through the site.

Now there are two piles of bricks on my front patio. Very soon, some of those bricks will be part of my patio, and the larger pile will be somewhere in Lorraine's back yard,thelast tangible memory of her dear aunt and uncle's house.

Thanks again to Mr. Krishan Anand for hiring me to research 828 Royal Avenue. It is sad that the house had to go, but I am so glad that its history has not been lost. I would like to thank the management and staff at the New Westminster Museum & Archives, especially Colin Stevens, for remembering about Mr. Nishi's jacket, and introducing me to Lorraine Elliott. As always, a big thank you goes to the staff of the New Westminster Public Library for all their patient help with this and other projects. And a special thanks to Mr. Lawrence Chong who very generously shared the Chong family's photos, which formed such a large part of the original blog posting on 828 Royal Avenue. Finally, I would like to thank my good friend and neighbour Graham Elvidge of Allan Diamond Architects who did such an amazing job measuring and drawing the house, both inside and out, and who saved me from breaking my neck when we were walking around in inside the house in the dark. Next time we'll take two flashlights, eh?!?

Graham and his measuring tape

STRATHCONA NORTH OF HASTINGS – The Forgotten East End

2010-11-16T10:19:00.000-08:00

This Thursday I will be presenting on the oldest part of Vancouver, Strathcona North of Hastings, courtesy of Heritage Vancouver. Here are the details from the Heritage Vancouver website.

337 and 341 Powell Street January 5, 1928 VPL#21174

Thursday, November 18, 2010
Presentation: Strathcona North of Hastings – The Forgotten East End
Time: 7pm to 9pm | Registration 6:45pm; Presentation 7:00pm sharp
Location: Vancouver Museum, 1100 Chestnut Street (Vanier Park)
Admission: $5.00 Non-members; Heritage Vancouver members free

Join James Johnstone, Strathcona resident, house historian and community curator for a conversation and pictorial journey through Vancouver’s Strathcona neighbourhood.

Johnstone’s focus will be on the forgotten Strathcona, the area north of Hastings and on East Hastings the spine that joins the northern and southern areas of Strathcona. North Hastings is home of some of Vancouver’s oldest and most fascinating built heritage. Strathcona North is host to the ghosts of R.H. Alexander’s milltown, Japantown, the Alexander Street red light district and the site of some of Vancouver’s bloodiest labour history.

Much is gone of the old neighbourhood, and much is under threat of demolition for future redevelopment. Through Johnstone’s personal slide collection and story telling you will have the opportunity to imagine what it was like then and what it could be like in the future.

400 block East Cordova Baseball at Oppenheimer Park VPL 42936

Remembrance Day - Lest We Forget...

2010-11-12T00:06:00.000-08:00

CVA 99-1561 - Armistice Day crowd at Cenotaph. - 11 Nov. 1926 Stuart Thompson

I never used to actually go to the Vancouver Cenotaph for the annual Remembrance Day observance until fifteen years ago when I started going out with my parter Richard. This year will mark the 15th year we have been together and the 15th year we have gone together to the Cenotaph to remember and pay our respect to our Canadian Veterans.

CVA 99-2697 - Remembrance Day ceremony at Cenotaph. - 11 Nov. 1932

I find the ceremony terribly moving. 15 years ago, it was all about the old Vets from WWI and II. These days there are no Canadian WWI Vets alive, and though there is a large contingent of WWII, Korean War, and even Viet Nam War Vets and the ceremony, the focus has naturally shifted to the recent and ongoing deaths of Canadians in Afghanistan.

CVA 99-2691 - Remembrance Day ceremony at Cenotaph. - 11 Nov. 1932

For the past four or five years now Richard and I have had a tradition of walking down to the Cenotaph with our friends Graham Elvidge and Kathleen Stormont. About two and a half years ago Graham and Kathleen's daughter Charlotte was born, so our Remembrance Day party of four has grown. This year, along with Charlotte and Kathleen's Mom Aloma, our friend Lisa Binkley came along...

My grandfather was a WWI vet. I am not sure where it happened, but I know he was gassed during the war. Though he survived and returned to Canada, I know that he had health problems for the rest of his life. Richard's Dad was a WWII vet.

This year, for the first time in a long time, the weather was decent. The rain held off until the end of the ceremony, but my face, like every year, was wet with tears. From the singing of In Flanders Fields to the playing of The Last Post, the flyovers of vintage airplanes (no Spitfires, sadly), the Moment of Silence, Reveille, all in that time-honoured quintessentially Edwardian Vancouver environment... The Dominion Building, The Province Building, The Flack Block, and all those ghosts... Remembrance Day in that environment is the closest thing to a time travel experience one can have in Vancouver.

I saw other neighbours in the crowd today. Maybe next year we can make a point of attending and remembering together.

CVA 99-2010 - Armistice Day ceremonies at Cenotaph. - 11 Nov. 1929

After God Save The Queen was sung and the last wreathes were laid, the rain started to pour, not heavily though. As we walked through Chinatown another Remembrance Day Ceremony was starting at the Chinese Canadian Pioneer and Veterans monument at Keefer and Columbia. There is an amazing display in the Chinese Canadian Military Museum at 555 Columbia Street on the contributions of Chinese Canadians during World War II. It is well worth a visit.

I did a little post on Facebook talking about going to the Cenotaph and my intrepid AHA Media journalist friend April Smith sent me a link to AHA Media's coverage of todays events. April and her colleagues do amazing work and this was no exception. For a closeup up look at today's events, here is a link to AHA Media's coverage of Remembrance Day at the Cenotaph this year.

Thanks April!

I Love Fire Insurance Maps!

2010-11-03T14:39:00.000-07:00

A while back I had the good fortune to be hired to research a property on the corner of West 11th and Columbia for contractor Joel Massey from Ronse Massey Developments. Joel's company focusses on the rehabilitation and restoration of heritage houses and has hired me a number of times to do the research on properties for which he needs a Statement of Significance (SOS) in order to get a Heritage Revitalization Agreement (HRA) from the City.

The focus of the project for Joel was 204 West 11th Avenue. It was built on Lot 6 of Block 0 of District Lot 526 in 1909 by Verulam Township, Ontario-born merchant James Jordan Wetherup. Wetherup applied for water service for the house on March 5, 1909. His building permit application was made a month earlier on February 17, 1909. Estimated cost to build the house was $1800. Wetherup, spelled Weatherup on the application, is listed as the owner, architect and builder.

The first time the house appeared in the city directory was 1910. James Wetherup’s name is listed, but without any information on what his profession was. Often people who were retired or who were living off their fortunes were listed this way.

In the year the house was being built, 1909, the city directory lists James Jordan Wetherup as living at 2833 Westminster Road (Kingsway). There is no listing for the family in the 1908 directory. What we do know from various census and other official records is that James Jordan Wetherup was born in Verulam Township in Victoria County, Ontario on April 24, 1840. He was the son of James Wetherup and Martha Jordan. The 1901 Census has him living in Lindsay in Victoria County, Ontario with his wife Jane (b. August 2, 1841). In 1901, James was a merchant and 60 years old. Jane was 59. Jane must have passed away because on March 10, 1904, 63 year-old merchant James Jordan Wetherup married 35 year-old Surrey, England-born Kate Elizabeth Snelling, daughter of Walter Snelling and Edna Worsley. Witnesses were W. J. Carlisle and Eleanor Snelling. By 1906, the Wetherups had moved from Lindsay as by that time a newspaper report on new buildings in Lindsay in 1906 reported, “.Dr. A. E. Totten’s new home on Peel Street, south side, on what was Mr. J. J. Wetherup’s property, when finished will be a handsome dwelling. Mr. Forsyth is the contractor.”

It is likely that the Wetherups honeymooned or temporarily moved to England as census records tell us that their daughter Hilda was born there in November of 1905. According to the 1911 Census and records from the BC Archive Vital Events listings, Kate Elizabeth Wetherup was born in London, England in February of 1869 and (in 1911) was 42 years old. Kate’s parents were Walter Snelling and Edna Worsley. James and Kate’s daughter, Hilda, was born in England in November of 1905 and (in 1911) was five years old. The Wetherup family was apparently Methodist.

The Wetherup family hadn’t been living in their new house at 204 West 11^th for more than a few years when James Jordan Wetherup died of diabetes on May 26, 1911 at the age of 71. James Wetherup is buried in the Jones Section of Mountain View Cemetery in Plot 04/024/0006.

Kate and Hilda Wetherup continued to live in their Mount Pleasant home until late 1920 or early 1921 when they sold the house to the Kennington family. The Kennington family moved to 204 West 11th from a house at 4081 Miller. The head of the family, Albert Robert Kennington, was born in the Indiana on March 3, 1872, the son of Robert Kennington. He was a Mason. His wife, Minerva Prather was born in Indiana on September 2, 1872 the daughter of South Carolina-born William Prather and Indiana native Nancy Stuteman. The Kenningtons had three children: Richard, Russell and Helen. The Kennington family came to Vancouver in 1911 but seem to have returned to the USA for a while as their son Russell was born in Portland in 1912.

Albert R. Kennington was a saw filer working in various sawmills. Son Richard was also a saw filer. Helen Kennington worked as an operator for BC Telephone Co., while Russell went on to become as travelling salesman for a variety of companies. Russell Kennington was a basketball player of some renown. Russell was a star on the Daily Province basketball team when it won the national amateur championship in the 1930s.

After Mrs. Kennington died in 1948, her widowed husband Albert moved out of the house in 1949 and lived with his daughter Helen’s family on West King Edward. If the directory information is to be believed, the house was sold in 1949 or 1950 to a Mrs. Evelyn Regelous, who ran the house as a boarding house for a number of years. The directories usually indicate ownership by putting an asterisk beside the assumed homeowner’s name. Despite the fact that Mrs. Regelous’ name has an asterisk beside it, Richard A. Kennington, a life-long bachelor, continued to live in the house until 1957. The mystery of who actually owned 204 West 11^th during the years that Richard Kennington continued to live in the house can easily be solved by a title search.

From 1950 to present, 204 West 11^th has been operated as a boarding house and later as an apartment building with first five, and later six suites. The directories started labelling the house as “apartments” in 1976.

Another house that was included in the study was to the east, across Columbia Street at 174 West 11th. This house has a very interesting history in that it started slightly off its current location as a one storey house in the middle of what is now the intersection of 11th and Columbia and that brings us back to the subject line, Fire Insurance Maps. Take a look at the intersection as it looked in 1901.

CVA Map 384, Plate 36, 1901

You can see 174 West 11th, on the edge of civilization as it were, just inside the borderline of District Lot 302. CPR owned District Lot 526 is still "thick bush". Note the greenhouse across the street beside the house on the east side of Columbia.

It is interesting that someone would build a house on what would clearly end up being a city intersection sometime in the future. Maybe there wasn't a street grid when gardener Frederick E. Sargent built his house there in 1896.

According to the 1901 census records, Frederick Edwin Sargent was born in Sussex, England on July 6, 1836 and came to Canada in 1885. His wife, Mary Ann, was also born in England. Mary Ann died of peritonitis and pneumonia in Vancouver on November 26, 1897 at the age of 62 and was buried in the Old Section of Mountain View Cemetery in plot 3/01/011.0012. By 1901, Frederick Sargent was still living alone. The census records indicate he was Church of England and made $300 working as a gardener.

Fred and his son Fred J. Sargent continued to live in the house until 1906 with a short interim when painter William Piner Jones and his wife Adelaide lived in the house. According to the 1901 census records, William Piner Jones was born in England on October 2, 1862. His wife, Adelaide Wood, was born in England on April 1, 1861 the daughter of James Wood and Mary Morris. Both came to Canada in 1884 and to BC in 1898. The 1901 census lists four children: Eliza M. Jones (born in Ontario on September 4, 1889), Adelaide Jones (born in Ontario on February 9, 1891), Gertrude Jones, (born in the USA on March 20, 1896), and Grace E. Jones (born in Vancouver on July 11, 1900). Beside Gertrude’s name on the census is the date 1897, the year the family re-entered Canada. Also listed in the census is Esther Wood, Adelaide’s sister. She was born in England on October 11, 1874 and came to Canada in 1884. The Joneses were Anglicans. The census also indicates that William P. Jones made $500 in 1901 as a painter.

By 1905, Fred Edwin Sargent and his son had moved back into the house. Frederick Edwin Sargent died at home at 174 West 11^th on March 27, 1906 at the age of 69 and was buried beside his wife in Mountain View’s Old Section in Plot 3/01/011/0011.

From 1907 to 1928, 174 West 11th was home to the Walker family. Prior to moving to 174 West 11th, Thomas William Walker and his wife Myra had lived at 9th and Birch. Until his retirement just prior to moving to his new house, Thomas had worked as the Chief Steward of the Empress of India.

It was during the time the Walkers lived at 174 West 11th, possibly the year they moved in, that Frederick Sargent's rambling one-storey house on the Columbia Street right of way was replaced with the current two and a half-storey house on the SE corner. Here is the fire insurance map for 1912.

CVA Map 342 Volume 1, Plate 28, 1912

In August of 1912, Thomas William Walker had an accident in which he fell from his verandah fracturing his forearm and injuring his head and back. He spent the next six months or so in the hospital. Thomas died on March 19, 1913 at the age of 64 and was buried in the IOOF Section of Mountain View in Plot 016/0003.

Myra Walker continued to live in the house until 1928. She died at her sister Annie's house at 1427 Laurier Avenue in Point Grey on June 2, 1928. She was 75 at the time of her death and was buried beside her husband in the IOOF Section of Mountain View in Plot 016/0004.

In 1928 the house passed to Myra's sister and brother in law, Annie J. and Peter G. Drost. Peter Grant Drost was the founder of Vancouver's historic social services provider Central City Mission. Peter and Annie's son, Herbert Mason Drost, went on to found and conduct the Vancouver Bach Choir. The Drosts lived at 174 West 11th until 1931.

CVA Map 599 Volume 2 Plates 272 & 273 July 1927

CVA Map 599 is fun to use. Of all the fire insurance maps, it gives the most in terms of architectural detail, such as the footprint of the house and information on the out buildings around the houses.

Note the house at 2720 Columbia just behind 174 West 11th. It was built in 1911 by Thomas Walker at an estimated cost of $3000. The Drost family lived there in 1927 before moving to Laurier then later moving to 174 West 11th.

From 1932 to 1942, 174 West 11th became the home of engineer Charles A. Maddison and his wife Eliza. Prior to moving to 174 West 11^th, Charles A. and Eliza Maddison lived at 205, 2545 Main Street. Charles was working as the janitor of Belvedere Court. Charles Arthur Maddison was born in Huntingdon, England on August 23, 1864. His father’s name was Charles Arthur Maddison. Charles came to Canada around 1909 and to Vancouver in 1921. His wife, Eliza Ayriss, was born in Croughton, England on January 112, 1865. Her father’s name was John Ayriss.

From 1933 onwards, Charles is listed as the caretaker of the Metropolitan Tabernacle Church which was built right across the street on the NE corner of Columbia and West 11th, replacing the old house with a greenhouse that once stood on that location.

CVA Map 610 Volume 2 Plates 272 & 273 October 1955

Here is the fire insurance map from 1955 showing the new church across the street.

By 1943, Charles and Eliza Maddison were living at 555 East 54th. Charles died there on June 28, 1943 of a heart attack following a bought of influenza. He was 78. Charles Arthur Maddison was buried in Forest Lawn. Eliza Maddison also died at home on March 22, 1947 at the age of 82 and was buried in Forest Lawn.

From 1943 to 1948, 174 West 11th was home to VGH splint maker Edward J. Parker and his wife Ethel. Edward James Parker was born in England on May 22, 1883 the son of Benjamin Parker and Mary Ann Hulding. His wife’s maiden name was Ethel Newsom. Parker came to Canada in 1898 and to BC in 1923. The Parker family moved to 174 West 11^th from 2675 Wall Street.

In 1949 the house was bought by Harry and Jessie Kleparchuk. They only stayed in the house for two years. The Kleparchuk family moved to 174 West 11^th from 804 East 10^th. Harry worked for Carruthers & Sons which did custom welding and sold supplies at 225 Kingsway.

After the Kleparchuks moved out, the house was rented out and up until recently, seemed to change hands every few years. from the 1960s, perhaps earlier, the house was divided up into a number of suites and run as an apartment.

This is only a fraction of the information I included in the full study for Joel. My main focus for this article was to talk about the Fire Insurance Maps. There are quite a few different sets covering different parts of the city from the 1800s to the 1950s at the City of Vancouver Archives and the VPL Special Collections. Most are on microfilm, but if you get a chance, ask to see one of the originals. Additions to the original map are pasted on in different coloured paper patches. It is a fascinating way to learn how a specific street block or neighbourhood developed over the years.

In the meantime, if you are looking to hire a great contractor for that special job on your heritage house, think of Joel Massey. He does great work, and hires great help. ; )

HELP US HELP SAVE VANCOUVER'S HISTORY!

2010-10-30T13:15:00.000-07:00

Mil P220.3

Every day we see archival images of our city in newspapers, on websites, in books, in documentaries and even hanging framed on office and restaurant walls. Where do these precious photos and films come from, how did they survive and how are people and organizations so easily able to access them?

The City of Vancouver Archives is one of the most popular “go to” places for archival photographs and film, as well as many other historical records. For seventeen years the Friends of the Vancouver City Archives (FVCA) has raised funds to help collect, save and preserve these rare and vital objects of our cities past.

Money raised by the Friends helped purchase: a 1600 cubic foot cold storage facility to preserve the Archives’ deteriorating photographs and films, web publisher software to assist researchers search the database, a dye-sublimation printer and the Archives’ Reading Room photocopier. Currently the funds the Friends raised are supporting a crucial description and digitization of a backlog of old photos donated to the Archives Collection.

“I found my grandfather`s 8mm film of a 1944 Callister Exhibition Park Rodeo held on the old PNE grounds. You can even see the wooden roller coaster in the background. The film was beginning to show signs of deterioration and would have soon turned into a sticky messy roll. It`s now safely preserved in the Archive’s cold storage room and digitized to view on their website...” says Friends board member Jolene Cumming.

As with many groups, the Friends have been hit hard by budget and granting cuts. You can help support our work to support the endeavours of The Archives by attending our Fall Fundraiser. Other ways to help preserve records of Vancouver’s past include; purchasing memberships, cash donations or donating your family or firm’s archival records.

2010 FUNDRAISING EVENT

The Friends of the Vancouver City Archives are asking the Vancouver citizens, organizations, businesses and others to help them “Help Save Vancouver” by attending:

“Researching Women in the Archives & in the Family”

An illustrated talk by M. Diane Rogers

President of the BC Genealogical Society

Explore researching strategies, techniques and learn how to interpret archival photographs.

Sunday Nov 14^th, 2010

2pm-4pm

Includes a Reception with Refreshments by Emelle’s Catering.

Tickets $25.

Please Register by November 9^th at 604-736-8561

Event location: City Archives at 1150 Chestnut Street in Vanier Park

More info: www.vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/archives/friends/index.htm

Media contact:

James Johnstone, Chair, Friends of the Vancouver City Archives

househistorian@yahoo.ca

CVA 677-35 Malkin Family at 1406 Davie

HELP NAME OUR NEW EAST END LIBRARY THE MARY LEE CHAN LIBRARY

2010-10-20T14:01:00.000-07:00

Recently I wrote a thank you letter to the Mayor and City Council with a cc. to the Library Board concerning the plans to go ahead with the long awaited East End Library Branch on the 700 block of East Hastings. The people in Strathcona have been lobbying and working for a new East End Branch for over 15 years. The branch is long overdue.

In that letter I suggested that the name of this new East End Branch should be called the Mary Lee Chan Branch Library in honour of the founder of the Strathcona Property Owners & Tenants Association (SPOTA). It is a result of the leadership, community building skills and tenacity of Mary Lee Chan and the people of all backgrounds living in the East End who worked with her that we even have our old historic East End neighbourhood today--not to mention large swaths of Chinatown.

Please, please, please take some time to write a short e-mail in support of naming the new East End Library Branch to be built on the 700-block of East Hastings the Mary Lee Chan Branch Library. Recognition of Mary Lee Chan and SPOTA's roll in saving and preserving Strathcona is long overdue. Here are the addresses you should send your notes to:

board@vpl.ca; paulwhi@vpl.ca; Diana.Guinn@vpl.ca; mayorandcouncil@vancouver.ca

Thank you!

Photo courtesy of Adrian Zator

THE OLD EAST END - A PHOTOGRAPHIC RETROSPECTIVE Oct 27, 7pm

2010-10-16T00:30:00.000-07:00


Homeless in the City Dump during the Great Depression - CVA Photo Re N8.2 P6

On Wednesday, October 27th at 7pm I will be presenting a 200+ slide presentation on the fascinating history and multicultural heritage of my neighbourhood, Vancouver's first neighbourhood, the Old East End.

Tosca Trasolini and Flying 7 in 1936, CVA Photo 371-478

The presentation will take place in the Seniors' Lounge on the first floor of the Strathcona Community Centre at 601 Keefer (near Princess Avenue).

CVA 447-297 N.E. corner of Gore Ave & Pender St - Feb. 17, 1929

This will be a fundraiser for the Strathcona Community Centre Food Security Programme... It is actually a fundraiser for a fundraiser as I am trying to raise funds for an espresso machine that the Strathcona Community Centre (SCC) is planning to buy that will both help them raise money for the Food Security Programme and at the same time help train East End neighbourhood kids to become barristas.

CVA 287-20 Strathcona Elementary School Soccer Team ca 1928

The Strathcona Community Centre Food Security Programme provides over 100,000 meals and snacks a year to East End children and elders in need.

Admission:Sliding Scale $5-10.

"Donations" of $25 and above will receive a tax receipt. All monies raised will go to the Strathcona Community Centre Food Security Programme Espresso Machine Fund. All coffee sold through this initiative at the SCC and community events will support the Food Security Programme.

Sonny Wappler in front of 810 Union - courtesy Lucille Mars

Though most of the archival images in this show are from the City of Vancouver Archives and the Vancouver Public Library Special Collections, many of the images in the show are from private collections from former and current East End residents. This is a great way to learn about Vancouver's old East End and is a doubly good way to support youth in need in this neighbourhood.

People who cannot make it to the presentation but still wish to donate to the programme can send cheques made out to:

Strathcona Community Centre (earmarked for the Food Security Programme)
c/o Ron Suzuki
Strathcona Community Centre
601 Keefer Street, Vancouver, BC, V6A 3V8.

Thanks for your generous support.

CVA Photo Sch N11 Strathcona School circa 1923

I will be escorting two seperate East End tours this Saturday

2010-09-29T22:34:00.000-07:00

Bu P700.2 SE corner Gore & Cordova A. L. Yates June 16, 1963

I will be hosting two east End Tours this Saturday. For details, see my Vancouver Neighbourhood History Walks blog.

East End Irredenta - Strathcona North of Hastings - Part 2

2010-09-05T01:46:00.000-07:00

This is the second part of a two part posting on the history and built heritage (and lost heritage) of the oldest part of Vancouver's East End, Strathcona north of Hastings Street. Click here to see the first half. We now continue our tour of the built heritage and the history of Strathcona, north of Hastings. Vancouver's oldest Anglican Church, St. James, was built on the old Hastings Road, (Alexander Street) in the early 1880s.

St. James Church on Hastings Road (Alexander Str) by Harry T. Devine ca. 1885 Ch P15

This church was of course destroyed in the Great Fire of 1886 and a new location was found for the parish church at Gore Avenue (Vancouver's original skid road) and Oppenheimer (East Cordova Street) Street. Many people are familiar with the current St. James Church, designed by architect Adrian Gilbert Scott. It's art deco lines and conical roof stand out as unique among Vancouver's Churches. However, this building, thought by some to be one of the best samples of architecture in Vancouver, is the second church to be built on this site. Before the current building was built in 1936, a wood framed building stood on the location, similar in size and design to St. Paul's Anglican Church that still stands in the West End. Here are a number of pictures.

St. James Church 1892 CVA Photo Ch p76 - Bailey Brothers

By 1907, St. James had a steeple added to it.

VPL 18794 St. James Anglican Church 1907 Philip Timms

St. James Interior 1936 - Philip TimmsVPL 18793

301 East Cordova St. James Interior 1936 Philip TimmsVPL 18790A

Port P756 Clergy in front of St. James' Church - ca. 1886

This group portrait shows Reverend Ditcham, Reverend Wright, Archdeacon Woods, Reverend Clinton, Reverend Charles Croucher, Reverend Small, Bishop Sillitoe, Reverend Edwards and others in front of St. James Church circa 1886.

St. James is of the High Anglican or Anglo-Catholic tradition. Ritual is a very important part of litugical worship. The incense-filled atmosphere at High Mass at St. James verges on Byzantine. Here is a great picture of a procession down Cordova Street taken in 1908 by Philip Timms.

VPL#18746

Look at the house on the NW corner of Gore and Cordova. Here is another picture of it below. This house was built in the 1880s for Arthur Willis Sullivan the son of Vancouver's pioneer Black family Philip and Josephine Sullivan. Arthur's father Philip had arrived in BC from the USA in 1859. Philip died in 1886. His wife, Josephine operated a restaurant for a number of years in Gastown.

231 East Cordova - A. W. Sullivan house c 1889 Bailey & Neelands

Here is a picture of Phillip Sullivan, Arthur's father.

Port P858

Here is a picture of Josephine Sullivan, Arthur's mother, taken in 1889.

Mrs. Josephine Sullivan CVA Photo Port P67.3

Arthur Sullivan and his brother Charles Edward Seals Sullivan signed the petition for Incorporation of the City of Vancouver. The Sullivans were staunch Methodists. Arthur was known as one of the early musicians of Vancouver, as a singer at the Princess (East Pender) Street Methodist Church, and as an organist at St. James Anglican Church.

Arthur's wife, Annie E. Thompson, was caucasian. She was born in New Brunswick in 1861. Though the Sullivan home is long gone, its former location on the NW corner of Gore and Cordova is important in terms of Vancouver's Black history and also for the fact that one of Vancouver's earliest mixed race (Black/White) couples lived here.

But back to St. James Church. Attached to St. James' Church was St. Luke's Hospital, later St. Luke's Home. The original building was built in 1888 by the second rector Father H. G. Fiennes Clinton and Sister Frances Redmond.

St. Luke's Home in 1889, CVA Photo Bu P671

St. Luke's Home 1896 Bu P292

Sister Frances, known in later life as Vancouver's Florence Nightingale, was born in England. She was the wife of Dr. William Charles Redmond, Royal Navy Reserve. After the Redmonds came to Canada they settled first in Winnipeg. Mrs. Redmond went to Montreal where she trained as a nurse and midwife at Laval University, and also became an Anglican deaconess. After the great Fire of 1886 Sister Frances came to Vancouver in 1887 at the request of Father Clinton. She became the first district nurse here and practiced midwifery, and nursed women and children in their homes.

Sister Frances in 1894, CVA Photo Port P128.1

St. Luke's was one of Vancouver's and this Province's earliest hospitals. It functioned as a hospital until its demolition in 1925. The current building was built shortly after and has operated as a nursing home ever since. Sister Frances opened the first training school for nurses in Vancouver, taught students and supervised their clinical work. It was under Sister Frances tutelage, that Nellie Yip Quong studied midwifery, going on to provide those invaluable services to Vancouver's Chinese community.

347 East Cordova - St. Martha's Heritage House

It seems that 347 East Cordova was originally numbered 313.

Given that the part ofthe East End north of Hastings has some of Vancouver's oldest built heritage, a very large amount of its old houses and commercial buildings are now lost to us. immediately north of St. James and kitty-corner to the Sullivan house once stood an amazing old Italianate dwelling. I have not researched when this house was built, but it was old and sadly, there are no more houses of this exact style left in the city.

300 East Cordova on June 16, 1962, CVA Photo Bu P. 700.2 A. L. Yates

300 Oppenheimer was built in 1890 by contractor Thomas B. Spring. Just south of the Spring residence stood 306 (later 320) Gore Avenue.

320 Gore Avenue, in July of 1956 - Bu P508.23 by A. L. Yates

The south side of the 300-block of (Oppenheimer) East Cordova has been completely rebuilt. None of the original houses still stand.

But in the 1880s, this block was where Vancouver's first Mayor, Malcolm Alexander MacLean lived at 334 Oppenheimer. Above is a section of the 1901 Fire Insurance Map for Vancouver. The house where Mayor MacLean lived is the last one on the east end of the south side of Oppenheimer. Rememberto click on the map to enlarge the image.

334 Oppenheimer - Mayor MacLean's Residence CVA Photo Bu N8
Lots 17 and 18, Block 56 of District Lot 196

In the early 1920s and 30s, a house six doors down was home to a Japanese family, the Kusakas who had immigrated to Canada from Osaka. The Kusaka's young son, Shuichi Kusaka 日下周一 went on to become a world famous theoretical physicist who studied at Princeton under Albert Einstein.There is a great Youtube video on Kusaka produced by the descendent of one of his Vancouver relatives.

Directly north of the site of Mayor MacLean's old house on the NE corner of Cordova and Dunlevy is a group of buildings owned by the Franciscan Sisters of the Atonement. For many years, this was the site of the Catholic Japanese Mission. One of the houses in the compound, 385 East Cordova, is reputed to be one of, if not the oldest standing house left in Vancouver.

You can see the house in this 1887 photo. The block without any development will become Oppenheimer Park. 385 Oppenheimer (East Cordova) is under the third annotation from the left. It would seem from the old directory listings that it was once numbered 333 Oppenheimer and, at the time this picture was taken, was the home of hardware merchant Thomas Dunn.

CVA Str P223 J. A. Brock 1887 Cordova near Heatley

333 Oppenheimer in 1887. closeup of a section of CVA Photo Str P223

Thomas Alexander Dunn, besides being a hardware merchant, was one of Vancouver's original ten aldermen. Here he is in the famous Harry T. Devine photo reenacting the first city council meeting after the Great Fire. Dunn is the third man from the left standing in front of the tent, just under the City Hall sign.

CVA Photo LGN 1045

Thomas Dunn had his hardware store on Cordova Street in the Dunn Miller Block which now houses the Army & Navy Store.

Here is a studio portrait of Thomas Dunn and his family taken in the 1880s.

CVA Photo Port P179

Thre 400 block of East Cordova has been entirely redeveloped. This photo may be one of the few in existance, or at least in scanned and online, showing some of the houses on that block. This picture, showing a baseball game taking place in 1965 on the home turf of the Asahi Tigers shows about eight houses that once stood on this block.

400 block East Cordova Baseball at Oppenheimer Park VPL 42936

Before we head east into the 500 block of East Cordova, there are four, rather imposing Edwardian Box houses on the east side of Jackson facing Oppenheimer Park. 230, 236, 242and 248 Jackson were all built in 1905, just south of the Japanese Methodist Mission in 1905 by two women: Alexandra Mcdonald and Amy McCrae.

230-248 Jackson in 2010

230 Jackson

236 Jackson

242 Jackson

248 Jackson

Behind 248 Jackson is 513 East Cordova.

513 East Cordova

This is another view of a sliver of the house that can be seen from between two of the Jackson Avenue houses.

This has an old lane house behind it which looks quite old. Here are two views.

A little bit further down the street is a curious building at 549 East Cordova. To me it looks like an old building but maybe not. The 1941 map of Nihon Machi (Japan Town) put together by the Japanese Canadian National museum in Burnaby shows this address as the site of the Honpa Buddhist Temple with Rev. E. Mitsubayashi residing there. Other information I have on the Honpa Buddhist Temple had it at 604 East Cordova on the site of the present Union Gospel Mission building. It could be that this building was actually the priest's home. More research is required.

Here is the view from the back.

And another one...

Going to the north side of the 500-block of East Cordova we come to the orignal site of the East End School.

CVA Photo Sch P46 Oppenheimer Street (East) School in 1887 or 1888

Here is another photo. Apparently the street address for the school was 504 Oppenheimer.

CVA Photo Sch P21 The East School in 1892

There are a number of interesting buildings on the site now, including a brick three storey apartment building and three old houses: 518, 522 and 526 East Cordova.

East Cordova was built in 1908. The original owner was someone named Lena Carlson.

522 East Cordova was built in the 1907 by carpenter Louis Godo.

Chinese Signage on 522 East Cordova

526 East Cordova was built by a marine engineer named Frederick Webster in 1909. This house was the Japanese Catholic Mission School until 1918 when it was bought by Kenta and Hatsuka Tanaka. According to the research done by Dr. Audrey Kobayashi, they are the ones who were responsible for putting the Gomon (Japanese family crest or coat of arms) on the front gable.

526 East Cordova

526 East Cordova - Detail

I am not so sure if this is actually the case, because the Gomon looks like the Gomon of the Tenrikyo Religion. The 1941 city directory shows this address as the location of the Vancouver Tenrikyo Church and th home of Rev. S. Tashiro, a Tenrikyo priest. It may be that the Tanakas were followers of Tenrikyo. You can find out more about Tenrikyo by following the links.

The 600-block of East Cordova has the largest number of intact heritage houses in the neighbourhood, some, because of their association with their builders are historically significant.

Prior to WWII, 604 East Cordova was the site of the Hompa Buddhist Temple. This,the precursor to the current Jodo Shinshu Temple at Jackson and Powell, also served as a community centre.

Further down on the same side of the street is the beautifully restored Twambley House at 656 East Cordova.

This house has received Heritage Designation. It is a "B" modified. Here is what the heritage plaque has to say. Click on the image to enlarge it.

On the north side of the street are a number of houses in various states of repair. Some are in the process of being restored. Others need a lot of TLC.

605 East Cordova - 1889 by Thomas H. Boyd

Rear View of 605 East Cordova

611 East Cordova

627 & 629 East Cordova

This lot has two addresses: 627 and 629 East Cordova. 627 East Cordova was built in 1889 by M. L. Campbell. 629 was built by Italian-born hotelier Angelo Calori, the builder of Gastown's landmark Hotel Europe. There is a lane house on this lot. More research needs to be done but it may be that this smaller lane house is 627 and the grey house in the front is the Angelo Calori house. Here below is a picture of the lane house.

627 East Cordova?

631 East Cordova

633 and 637 East Cordova

637 and 643 East Cordova

647 and 649 East Cordova

653 East Cordova

655 East Cordova

655 East Cordova was built in 1905. For many years it was the home of widow Mary Jane Biggar and her son George. George biggar was a jeweller, optician, and watch maker (he must have had very good eyes for all that) who had a store at 143 East Hastings.

657 East Cordova

657 East Cordova is the other address on this block associated with Italian-born hotelier, Angelo Calori. Calori built this house in 1907. The first resident was bar tender Joshua Maton. Ionian capitals crown interior columns. The current owners are restoring the house and are replacing the lost capitals on the columns on the porch. Here is a picture of the rather dapper Angelo Calori. Sempre la bella figura!

665 East Cordova

The last two houses on the south side of the block are interesting... I say "two" because originally that is what they were, two single family dwellings. 671 East Cordova was built in the early 1900s by William Keddy, a miner, and 679 East Cordova was built in 1899-1900 by a blacksmith named Wilbur Watson. At some point these two houses were joined to make a single apartment building. I am not surewhen it happened or who did it yet, but the end result is rather interesting.

From here, we walk a block down Heatley to Hastings. On the way are three more Edwardian boxes, 313, 311, and 305 Heatley, all built in 1906 by an A. McRae. It is my belief that this A. McRae is the Alexandra McRae who was co-owner of the four houses on the 200 block of Jackson. The name is the same, the period close and the design of the houses almost identical.

305, 311 and 313 Heatley

305 Heatley

311 Heatley

313 Heatley

This tour of Strathcona North of Hastings has focussed mostly on the houses that still stand in the neighbourhood, but there are a number of interesting apartment and commercial buildings that are worthy of further investigation... That will be for another blog though. In the meantime, I sincerely hope that this walk around the oldest part of Vancouver's East End will spark some in interest in preserving the built heritage that we still have there. Here is the link to Heritage Vancouver Society's position paper on Strathcona North of Hastings.

Camelias blooming in front of 305 Heatley

East End Irredenta - Strathcona North of Hastings - Part 1

2010-09-03T22:55:00.000-07:00

A few Saturdays back, I did a walking tour that focussed on the history and the remaining built heritage of the part of the East End north of Hastings Street. This was a fundraiser for Heritage Vancouver Society, on whose board I sit, and which has included the territory called Strathcona North in their 2010 Ten Most Endangered List.

I am calling this post East End Irredenta because what was historically the oldest part of the East End has been separated and alienated from the East End south of Hastings through the arbitrary renaming and remapping of sections of the traditional East End by the City Planning Department. This process all began with the renaming of parts of the East End "Strathcona" in the 1950s and 1960s when City Hall planned to totally demolish the part of the old East End between Gore to Clark and from Hastings south to Prior and replace everything with concrete high and low-rise project housing bounded by a freeway that would run from downtown between Prior and Union all the way to the Trans-Canada. Here are links to two videos chronicling the planned project. (1) (2)

Ultimately the project was halted part way through the process, thanks to the efforts of Mary Lee Chan and her daughter Shirley Chan who organized first the Chinese and then other East End residents into the Strathcona Property Owners and Tennants Association (SPOTA). The remaining built heritage south of Hastings gained protection through a new specially designed zoning for the neighbourhood called RT3, but this zoning only extends north to the alley south of Hastings. The built heritage that is not currently designated is left unprotected.

Meanwhile, the renaming and remapping of the East End goes on. In the early 1970s, Bruce Ericksen coined the term Downtown East Side to give some dignity to a derelict area of the old business district known as Skid Road. Back in the 1970s people thought of Skid Road as being centred on the 100 block of East Hastings. Look at any map put out by the City of Vancouver these days and you will see that what people are currently calling the DTES has grown way beyond its original boundaries. New designations like Oppenheimer, though indeed an homage to historic Oppenheimer Street and Oppenheimer Park, further confuse the issue.

Worse, these new names work to wipe out an old neighbourhood's historic identity. They weaken people's associations with and connections to the buildings, streetscapes, history and heritage of the area. Over time, this process of forced disassociation makes it much easier for City Hall to step in and treat the area as if it were a clean slate. When City Hall announces new plans for development, or policy and zoning changes for the Downtown Eastside, or Oppenheimer, Thornton Park or the Hastings Corrider, people who would have or should pay attention don't... and before you know it...

Anyway, back to the heritage of East End Irredenta or Strathcona North of Hastings. The following is a photographic virtual walking tour through the neighbourhood, starting from the north at Railway and heading south to Hastings. I am interspersing the photos of the houses and buildings that still stand in the neighbourhood with archival images from the City of Vancouver Archives and the Vancouver Public Library Special Collections Department to show what sort of buildings and streetscapes existed in the neighbourhood in years past.

The history of the East End (or Strathcona as it is known now) began with the establishment of the Hastings Sawmill. The only building left from the old Hastings Sawmill still standing is the old Hastings Mill Store which was moved to the north foot of Blanca by barge in the 1930s after the old mill closed down. There are several pictures of the Hastings Sawmill in the City of Vancouver Archives and in VPL's Special Collections. Here are some of them:

Mi P60 - Hastings Sawmill circa 1913

M1 P19

There are a number of great pictures of worker cabins

that once stood on the grounds, and some pictures
of the Hastings Mill School, Vancouver's oldest, in the
Archives as well.

The Simson Cottage in 1885

The Caulfield brothers in front of their cottage at the Hastings Saw Mill.

Hastings Sawmill School - June 1886

There is a bit of the old mill still left on site. It is the Hastings Mill
Office building--not the original, seen here as it was in 1890, but
a later edifice built in 1906.

Mi P46 1890

VPL #3893

Here is a picture of it in 1910 taken by renowned
Vancouver photographer, Leonard Frank. This
building still stands across the tracks on the north
foot of Dunlevy. It now functions as the Anglican
Church's Mission to Seafarers. Here is another
Leonard Frank photo of it taken in 1932.

VPL#2757

This is how it looks today.

50 North Dunlevy, or 401 East Watefront Road, is on the
City's Heritage Register . It has an A(M) designation.
This important piece of Vancouver history was included in
the 2007 Vancouver Heritage Foundation heritage house tour.
It is sad and ironic that the one piece of the old Hastings
Sawmill still in the East End, like the rest of the Port, is
separated from the neighbourhood by barbed wire fence.

Railway Street

Immediately south of the CPR tracks is railway street. Along
the north side of the street are a number of impressive
Edwardian commercial buildings. Prior to writing this I
thought that they would be on the Heritage Register but they
are not. Many of these buildings are now being used as
offices or have been converted to condominiums. It would
seem that they are not under and threat of demolition, but
who knows? Here they are:

303 and 305 Railway

329 and 339 Railway

339 Railway

343 Railway

349 Railway

395 Railway

Empire Stevedoring Building - built in 1941

395 Railway - Detail

If you ever go visit Railway Street, take time to pay
attention to the street itself and you may be surprised
at what you see. Here is a photo of the wooden
cobbles which were visible the day I visited at the
intersection of Railway and Dunlevy.

Now let us head to Alexander Street but head
there via Gore Avenue. I know, I know, it
would be shorter to go up Princess but let's
start from Gore Avenue. Enroute, let's turn
around and look toward the old mill site.
This is what we would have seen back in
1888, two years after the City of Vancouver
was established.

City of Vancouver Archives Photo M1 P21

The Hastings Saw Mill from the foot of Gore Avenue

There are a number of old archival photos of Alexander
Street. Here is one of 214 Alexander taken in 1888. This
building, of course, is long gone.

CVA Photo SGN 131

After the great fire of June 13, 1886, R. H. Alexander,
the manager of Hastings Sawmill had a magnificent
house built on the corner of Alexander and Gore Avenue.

There are no extant close up pictures of the house in
Vancouver. There may be elsewhere. If any of you
out there know of one's existence, please let me
know. There is a picture which shows the house
in the distance. Here is City of Vancouver Archives
photo Str P223 taken in 1887 by J. A. Brock. You
can see R. H. Alexander's mansion just to the right
of the middle of the picture with Burrard Inlet
and Stanley Park behind. From his mansion at
Gore and Alexander, R. H. had an excellent view,
not only of Burrard Inlet and the North Shore
mountains, but more importantly of his mill at the
foot of Dunlevy Street. Remember you can click
on the image to enlarge it.

R. H. Alexander's was the first in Vancouver to apply for
water service. His house at 300 Alexander is Number 1 in the
water service application records. Numbers 1 through 10 are
all on the 300 and 400 blocks of Alexander Street. Just to
the right of R. H. Alexander's house are two very similar
smaller houses. These are the homes of Dr. Duncan Bell-
Irving (at 308 Alexander) and his canneryman brother Henry
O. Bell-Irving (at 310 Alexander).

This is what the corner of Gore and Hastings looks like
today. The building is the old Vancouver and Victoria
Stevedoring Company.

This is the exact location of R. H. Alexander's mansion. The Bell-Irvings would have lived in houses on the lots to the left.

Across the street, is this tenement building, 313
Alexander, built by Japanese-born railway
contractor Yonekichi Aoki in 1898. It is not on
the Heritage Register.

In the early 1900s, just to the east of 313
Alexander was 323 Alexander, the Vancouver
Water Works Shop. (R. H. Alexander,
the Bell-Irvings, and their peers had moved from
the neighbourhood by then.)

CVA Photo Ci Dept P7

This address is now a gated parking lot.

This is 360 Alexander. I am not absolutely sure it is the same
building, but in 1914 362 Alexander was known as the

Empress Rooms.

Walking east along Alexander we reach Dunlevy. Imagine

yourself back in 1898 waiting for the Labour Day parade

to pass before you could continue east to the 400-block.

The 400 block of Alexander has a number of significant
sites, including two old houses and the Japanese Hall and
Language School.

Here are 412 Alexander (on the right) and 414
Alexander. 412 Alexander has a rather unusualy
arcing porch roof design. 412 Alexander was
built in 1898 by stone mason James Harris.
In 1901, it was the home of the Rev. John Reid
of Knox Presbyterian Church. Knox Presbyterian
stood at 152 East Cordova and looked like this.

This is VPL Photo #7986 and was taken in 1907 by Philip
Timms.

414 Alexander, built sometime around 1889, is a real
interesting old house. Water service was applied for
on June 24, 1889 by carpenter Thomas Dale. He and
his family lived in the house for one year. In 1890,
the house was vacant. Then in 1891, a shipwright
named James Doherty lived here. This is how the
house looks now. It is covered in asbestos shingles
and is a little worse for wear, but this is how the house
looked in 1890, shortly after it was built.

This is City of Vancouver Archives Photo SGN 295. Notice
the rich architectural detail that was lost. The darkish house
behind it still stands. The little house to the left still stood up
until the 1970s. Here is what they looked like in April of
1969. Quite a change, eh? CVA 780-352.

A few houses down are 472 (one the left) and 422
Alexander. 422 Alexander was built in 1890 and
first occupied by the Woodward family. 472 was
built in 1905 and for most of the years it is listed
in the directories, there is no information on who
lived there. The address is listed merely as "cabins".
CVA 780-350.

Across the street, at 439 Alexander Street, the Japanese
community built their first Japanese language school in
1906. I have lived in Japan, and I can tell you that this
building looks like a lot of the old country school buildings
that can still be seen across Japan today. This is CVA
99-2468. This photo was taken by Stuart Thomson in
1929.

475 Alexander Street in 1929 by Stuart Thomson CVA 99-2469.
It was built in 1928 and designed by the firm Sharp & Thompson.
It, along with all other property owned by the coastal BC
Nikkei community was expropriated by the government. A
heritage plaque outside the building indicates that this is the
only building owned by Japanese prior to WW2 that was
returned to the community.

Here is how the Japanese Hall looks now. In the distance is the
500 block of Alexander, the old red light district of the 1910s,
and the American Can Company building which obliterated
many bordellos on the north side of the street.

Vancouver fans of punk rock remember the Japanese
Hall as the place where the Vancouver punk scene was born.
The first official punk concert in Vancouver took place
at the Japanese Hall on July 30, 1977. 400 people turned up
to hear the all-girl Vancouver Island band, The Dishrags
open the show, followed by The Furies.

As mentioned above, the 500 and 600 blocks of Alexander was
a red light district in the 1910s. Prior to its relocation to these
blocks, it was in the 100 block of Harris (Shore Street) which
was obliterated from the map when the first Georgia Viaduct
connecting the West and East End was built. Harris Street was
renamed East Georgia in 1915 when the viaduct opened. Here
are pictures of a number of buildings that still stand. Most
were built as brothels.

The building at 500 Alexander later became the British Seaman's
Mission. Oh, the irony... Madam Dolly Darlington who built the
building had a mission for seamen there from the very beginning.

500 Alexander as it is today

Here are two photos taken of the same building by renowned
Vancouver photographer Leonard Frank. One was taken
in 1924 and the other in 1940. VPL Photos #3127 and #3128

Note that there has been some change in the line of the front
cornice. Perhaps this was done when the flagpole was removed.

500 Alexander is listed on Vancouver's Heritage Register as

Heritage B. Here's a link to a fascinating story connected to
this building.

502 Alexander, built circa 1888 for merchant john B. Henderson
was run as a brothel by Ruth Richards in 1912

502 Alexander is listed as Heritage C.

The next two pictures show 504 Alexander--not on the
Heritage Register--which was built by Kathryn A.
Maynard in 1913. This is a rather grand brick-built
building currently operating as social housing.

514 Alexander was built by Alice Bernard. Alice turns up in both the
1901 census on Dupont Street and in the 1911 census on Shore
Street. She was a veteran in the business.

At the corner of Alexander and Princess is an empty lot. This was the

site of a derelict social housing unit at 598 Alexander, which is slated

to become a ten storey social housing project. On the same vacant

lot stood 578 Alexander, a brothel run by a woman named Marie

Gomez. Like a number of other Alexander Street brothels, Marie

advertised her business with her name in ceramic tiles on her door

step. There are two pictures of her old home in Vancouver Public

Library's Special Collections taken in 1972 by Curt Lang. The tiles

were still there when the photos (VPL#85872Z and VPL#85872X) were

taken.

One wonders what happened to the tiles in the foyer. Are they
in the Vancouver Museum? Does a collector have them? Or
did they end up as land fill?

The North Foot of Heatley was the entrance to Ballantyne Pier,
the site of a number of violent confrontations between the police
and unemployed or locked out workers. The most famous,
and the bloodiest of these was the Battle of Ballantyne Pier on
June 18, 1935. Here is a picture from the Vancouver
Public Library Special Collections (VPL#8829) showing police
guarding the entrance to the docks.

And here is a picture of the police attack on the stricking workers.

This is CVA Photo 371-1127. It shows the mounted police literally following thestriking worked on horse up people's front steps. for a great explanation and illustration of the event, please check out Lani Russwurm's amazing Blog called Past Tense. Lani, to my mind, is Chuck Davis TNG. He is a brilliant researcher and writer with a fresh new focuss. I can't wait for Lani's hard work to be recognized and rewarded with the first of many book contracts.

Before we leave Alexander Street and head south on Heatley, there are two things I would like to mention.

North of the current CPR tracks, between Heatley and Campbell Avenue (east of the Hastings Mill) was site of a First Nations settlement known as the Indian Rancherie. This is where the First Nations employees of the Hastings Sawmill lived. It was actually visited in 1876 by Lady Dufferin, the wife of the first Governor General to visit Burrard Inlet and apparently was the site of some extravagant potlatches. Here is an excerpt from the 15th of January 1886 issue of the Vancouver Weekly Herald. This was the first issue of the first newspaper to be published in Vancouver:

“A dance took plane in the Indian camp near the Hastings Mill on New Year’s Eve. Several ladies of Vancouver went to see the affair, and looked with great interest at their dusky sisters dancing around the fires in bare feet. The music was made by beating sticks on boards. A few aristocrats had instruments made by stretching skins over barrel hoops, but their softer melody was not discernable in the hubbub made by hammering lumber.”

The second thing is the small triangle of land south of the tracks just east of Heatley. This was the site of a CPR railway stop, Heatley Station. The station building was actually the very first CPR station to be built in Vancouver at the foot of Granville in 1886. Here is a picture of the station the day the first CPR train arrived in Vancouver.

LGN 460 First train to Vancouver May 23, 1887

Here is what it looked like after it was moved to the foot of Heatley when a larger, 'permanent' brick structure was built at Vancouver Station. This is CVA Photo Can P229 by Erwin R. Gordon.

Here is a picture of the station in August of 1945 when a group of Vancouver pioneers gathered here to reenact the arrival of the first CPR train. CVA 1184-3402. You can see the American Can Company building in the back.

Let's walk north on Heatley to Powell Street. Before we turn west toward Old Japan Town, lets turn our attention to a couple of blocks east to Powell and Campbell.

This is 204 Campbell Avenue. From 1928 to 1946, this was the site of St. Joseph's Oriental Hospital, the precursor to Mount St. Joseph's Hospital on Prince Edward Street. The hospital got its start in 1926 when the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception bought a house on the site at 236 Campbell Avenue. I am not sure if, at this time, Japanese and Chinese Vancouverites were not welcome at other hospitals, or if this was a special gesture to, or mission for these communities.

At the corner of Powell and Heatley is 686 Powell Street. It was once known as the Bows and Arrows Hall and was the headquarters for the Squamish Longshoremen's Union, local 38-57 of the International Longsoremen's Assocation. 686 Powell can be seen at the right.

Powell Street between Heatley and Princess was the subject of a number of old photos currently preserved in the City of Vancouver Archives.

City of Vancouver Archives photo LGN 1014 shows work crews laying down street car rails on Powell between Princess and Heatley 1889. If my hunch is correct, the little house second from the left still stands behind a rather ornately muralled concrete brick wall.

CVA Photo LGN 1213 shows the same block of Powell Street looking east from Princess in 1912. The little house that still stands is hidden behind some trees.

At Jackson and Powell stands the Vancouver Japanese Buddhist Church. It is owned and run by a branch of Japanese Buddhism known as Jodo Shinshu, or, the New Pure Land Sect. Prior to WW II, this was the site of the Japanese Methodist Mission Church.

VPL#6840 Methodist Japanese Mission 1907 Philip Timms

There are some amazing panorama shots of a funeral taken in front of the Church on March 5th of 1927. Here is CVA Photo Pan N143A. Click on the picture to enlarge it.

Across from the Buddhist Church is Oppenheimer Park, also known as the Powell Street Grounds. Originally this park was encircled with a tall wooden fence. This is CVA Photo M-3-19.4, taken sometime between 1897 and 1902.

The Powell Street Grounds from early on was used as a site for labour rallies and freedom of speech demonstrations. In the newspapers of the day, it was sometimes touted as Vancouver's Hyde Park.

Above we see mounted police keeping an eye on a freedom of speech demonstration in 1912. This is CVA Photo 371-971. During the Great Depression this park was the site of mass rallies by the unemployed. There are a number of photos from this period at VPL Special Collections and at the CVA. Here are a few of them:

CVA 99-2642 May May Demonstration, 1932, Stuart Thomson

CVA 99-2643 May Day Demonstration, 1932, Stuart Thomson

VPL Photo# 6645 Mass Meeting of the Unemployed in 1938, Stuart Thomson

VPL Photo# 13347 Demonstration during Art Gallery and Post Office Sit In, 1938

Oppenheimer Park was also the home of Japan Town's most famous sons, the Asahi Tigers Baseball Team. The Asahi Tigers were Vancouver's only non-white team in the years leading up to World War II. Below is VPL Photo#86005 showing the Asahi Tigers team in 1931. There is a wonderful 51 minute long CBC documentary called "Sleeping Tigers". You should be able to watch it online by clicking the link.

Asahi Baseball Team on Powell Grounds 1931 - VPL 86005

There are a number of historically significant buildings on the north side of the 400 block of Powell Street, many with significant Nikkei (Japanese Canadian) history. People interested in finding out more about these buildings should take the tour of Japantown offered by volunteers from the Nikkei Heritage Centre and Heritage Vancouver when it is offered again, or search out the booklet called Powell Street, by Dr. Audrey Kobayashi.

Marr Hotel - 401 Powell Street

At 401 Powell Street stands a rather nondescript three storey hotel now housing an SRO. Today it is called the Marr Hotel. but when it was first built in the late 1880s, this hotel was known as the Secord Hotel, and it looked much fancier than it does today.

Secord Hotel circa 1890, CVA Photo Hot P85

Over the years, the Secord Hotel lost its wraparound balconies. By the 1940s, the hotel was renamed The Imperial Hotel and was owned by the Honda family. It is not on the Vancouver Heritage Register.

There are several pictures of Powell Street take from the original balconies of the Secord Hotel. Here are a couple of them. This photo taken in the early 1890s shows a very undeveloped Powell Street. The largish house at the corner of Alexander and Gore Avenue in the background to the right is R. H. Alexander's mansion. To the left is St. James Anglican Church.

VPL Photo# 19755 1890s Bailey Brothers

CVA Photo Str P74.2 View from Secord Hotel 1890 Bailey Brothers

CVA Photo Str P74.3 View from Secord Hotel 1890 Bailey Brothers

There is also a great shot of the interior of a hotel room at the Secord Hotel showing "ladies parlour".

Secord Hotel Ladies Parlour circa 1890 CVA Photo Hot P23.1 by C. S. Bailey

The 300 and 200 blocks of Powell formed the heart of Japan Town's business district. The showpiece building in the area is of course the Tamura Building at 390 Powell Street. Even today, this building with its pressed tin Corinthian columns, cornices and other decoration is very impressive, but in it's heyday, the Tamura Building was truly a showpiece. The Tamura Building, or New World Hotel, as it is also called, was built by Shinkichi Tamura who came to Vancouver in 1888 and made his fortune exporting the first Canadian wheat and lumber to Japan. The New World Hotel gets an A listing on the Vancouver Heritage Register. However, there are no other buildings in the old Japan Town area that are protected.

Tamura Building, 390 Powell Street c.1935, JCNM 95-102

There were a number of other large commercial buildings on these blocks. he Maikawa Shoten at 365 Powell Street, was the largest grocery store in Japan Town.

Leonard Frank Feb 1938 VPL#15773

Next door at 395 Powell Street was the Maikawa Shoe Store. Here is a picture taken by Leonard Frank on May 12, 1938. VPL#15953

There are a number of other interesting buildings on the block, especially on the south side with is more intact than the north. One of my favourites is this building which still stands, although a little worse for wear. This is the Fuji Chop Suey House.The architecture, with its second floor balcony, is evocative of some of the older buildings on Pender in Chinatown, butit also reminds me of the old two storey restaurant buildings I saw in Kyoto and other places in Japan that have a loggia on the second floor for patrons to enjoy the evening breezes as they eat.

Here are some other archival photos of the 300 and 200 blocks of Powell Street.

VPL #21174 - 337-341 Powell Street, Jan 5, 1928, Dominion Photo

CVA 99-2467 - 300 block Powell Street, 1929, Stuart Thomson

VPL #13300 - 300 block Powell looking west, 1900s, Philip Timms

VPL #11804 - 301 Powell, Taishodo Co. 1927, Stuart Thomson

VPL #11806 - 301 Powell St., Taishodo Co. Interior, 1927, Stuart Thomson

VPL #21773 - 250 Powell, Bunka Shokai Store, June 5, 1928
Dominion Photo

VPL #13433 - 200 block of Powell looking east, 1929, Stuart Thomson

VPL #16149 - 201 Powell Street, August 22, 1941, Leonard Frank

In reality, my walking tour actually turned south on Gore Avenue and then turned east of Cordova, but I thought I would include these pictures of the 200 and 100 blocks of Powell. Today, the western boundary of present day Strathcona is Gore Avenue, but in the 1890s most people would have thought of the East End as the residential area east of the old Gastown townsite. As downtown spread eastward, so did the boundary of the East End.

I am going to continue this tour of East End Irredenta in a subsequent posting. In the meantime, I leave you one last picture from the 100-block of Powell Street, the old City Hall built in the 1880s by Frederick William Sentell.

CVA Photo City P54 The Powell Street City Hall in 1893

Actually, I can't resist. In less than 40 years, the site of Vancouver's first City Hall looked like this.

CVA Photo City N6 - Site of Powell Street City Hall in 1931

So much for Vancouver heritage... See you back for the second half of East End Irredenta.

Click here to go to the second half of this posting.

Come Explore EAST END IRREDENTA Saturday August 28th at 10am

2010-08-27T21:27:00.000-07:00

CVA Photo Trans N7 - Men laying tracks on Powell Street near Dunlevy in 1889

I have a new walking tour in Vancouver's East End that focusses entirely on Strathcona North of East Hastings. Departs 611 Alexander (north foot of Princess Avenue) at 10am. $20 per person. Details are in my Walking Tour Blog. http://bit.ly/bBzUpF

You'll be surprised at just how much history and remaining heritage there is in this very underappreciated section of old Vancouver. Come and see where Vancouver began.

VPL# 18746 - Procession along Cordova from St. James Anglican Church in 1900s

Panorama Shot of the NE and SE corners of Franklin and Woodland

2010-08-10T22:16:00.000-07:00

City of Vancouver Archives Photo Pan N144

I am in the midst of preparing for a walking tour of Strathcona, north of Hastings Street. This is a fundraiser for Heritage Vancouver Society and starts at 10pm Saturday, August 14th. I was doing a search of the City of Vancouver Archives photos page when I came across this stunning panorama shot of the corner of Albert Street (now Franklin) and Woodland Drive.

Though technically outside the area my tour is concerned with, I was elated to find some information on a streetscape I have been interested in for a long time. Some of you know that I work part time at The Gourmet Warehouse at 1340 East Hastings. I actually began working at The Gourmet Warehouse back in 2002 after the repercussions of September 11th lost me my consulting contract with JTB International (Canada) Ltd., a Japanese travel company I had been working for in various capacities since 1983.

Eight years ago, The Gourmet Warehouse was located off the back alley behind Continental Importers at 1856 Pandora. For about three years I would walk to work taking various routes but would often follow Franklin Street east to Salsbury Drive, then north on Salsbury to the alley and then on to work. There are a number of interesting old houses and buildings along the route including a great old house built on a foundation of concrete bricks that look like stones... and there are some great old apartment blocks along Franklin and Woodland, some which you can see in this picture. I never knew before today that they were the Ontario Apartments.

Today, the Ontario Apartments on the SE corner of Franklin and Woodland Drive stands mostly empty. There are a number of ground level units being used as studio spaces, and a small business or two, but most of the building looks derelict.

Little did I know until I saw this picture, what a vibrant streetscape it once had. I have not done any research into any of the buildings yet, but the Buddhist Church looks like it might have been a Christian Church at one time, but who knows. I seem to remember that at some time in the early 1900s that the city attempted to move Chinatown to Albert Street (today's Franklin Street). A quick look at the 1914 city directory shows that around the time of World War I at least, these blocks of Albert Street were mostly occupied by Chinese businesses. I just looked back a little further at it would seem that the Buddhist Temple was in fact built as such, and was not a Christian Church. From what I can tell from the directories I looked at, it would seem that the neighbourhood transitioned to a mostly Chinese neighbourhood around 1913 or so.

Anyway, a whole new world opened up to me when I found this picture. I hope I can devote some time to doing some more research in the area.

But now I best get back to work. There is still lots to research to do for my upcoming tour of Strathcona North of Hastings. I understand there are still some spaces left. For those of you who are interested, you can buy tickets by paypal online via the Heritage Vancouver website.

Later that afternoon, I will be doing another one of my East End History Walks. This one starts at 2pm at 696 East Hastings Street. I hope to see some of you on Saturday, be it in the morning or the afternoon. Thanks for following my blog. For the latest news on my house history projects, walking tours or speaking engagements, follow me on Twitter. Or, you can always come down and talk to me at the Gourmet Warehouse on Sundays between 11 and 5. Cheers!

THE FRIENDS OF THE VANCOUVER CITY ARCHIVES SOCIETY PRESENTS:

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Bute and Nelson in 1890, CVA Photo Dist P 59 by Bailey Brothers

The Old West End Revisited:

An Interactive Street by Street Photographic Journey

Date: July 19^th

Time: 7pm

Location: City of Vancouver Archives, 1150 Chestnut Street

Enjoy a sentimental trip back to the time when the West End had no highrises and its streets were still lined with intact blocks of stately Victorian and Edwardian homes.

1900 and 2000-blocks of Nelson in 1908

Come time travel with Vancouver house historian, history walk guide and Chair of the Friends of the Vancouver City Archives, James Johnstone as he guides you on a street by street tour of the old West End using the City of Vancouver Archives’ fascinating collection of archival images.

Do you like old photographs of Vancouver? Did you grow up in the West End or have memories of the neighbourhood you would like to share? Or are you curious about what once stood on the site of your highrise apartment or condo? Can you help us identify some houses or people in some of our mystery photos? Then this would be a perfect night for you.

This is a FREE event for members of the Friends of the Vancouver City Archives.

Seating is limited.
Non-members are certainly welcome.

Suggested donation for non-members is $10.

or, you can buy a $20 membership to the Friends of the Vancouver city Archives and become immediately eligible for a 50% discount on all 8x10 B&W archival prints.
For more information call 604-736-8561

1461 West Georgia in November of 1958. A. L. Yates photo

The Things You Find When You Are Looking For Something Else

2010-05-31T22:35:00.000-07:00

Just now I am trying to put the finishing touches on three projects I am doing for two different clients. In the process of looking for newspaper clippings related to people living in a house on the 3000-block of West 7th I stumbled across this picture and article relating to frost heaving up wooden cobbles in the 600 block of Keefer Street. If you have been following my blog for a while you will probably remember the article on the wooden cobbles I found on the 200-block of Union. If you have been on one of my East End History Walks you will have seen them with your own eyes. Well, here is a news clipping from the front page of the November 14th Vancouver Province.

Wish I could tell from which direction the picture was taken and if any of the houses visible in the photo are still standing... now that I think of it, I wonder if the wooden cobbles are still there on the 600 block of Keefer under all that asphalt. If they are still down there, two days before the 2010 Winter Olympics opened here in Vancouver, the Olympic Torch was run over those very same cobbles. Huh!

Remember you can click on the image for magnification.

The Felsteins of Ferndale... Keefer... and East Pender

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Over the past couple of years I have been fortunate enough to do house history research work for a number of realtors. Sometimes this is for a full house history booklet that is given to the realtor's client as a housewarming gift. Other times it is a smaller project that gives a realtor some historical background on a property she or he is trying to sell—something that adds cachet to, and stimulates interest in the property being sold. Though not a full-blown, indepth study, sometimes these smaller projects can turn up some pretty interesting stuff.

Last week I finished one of these smaller projects for two realtors who have been great clients of mine, Ruth Chuang and David Jones. The house they wanted to research was at 2057 Ferndale, very close to my daughter's high school, Templeton. Ruth asked me to look and see if I could confirm that the house had been built in two stages... Perhaps there was some neighbourhood lore about this. She didn't explain that to me, but I went to the City of Vancouver Archives and got to work. This is a summary of what I found out.

2057 Ferndale was built in two stages on the south half of Lot 6 in Block 49 in District Lot 184 by two separate owners over a period of two years. On April 21, 1909 an M. W. Taylor applied for water service for the property. Then some months later, on August 30, 1909, M. W. Taylor applied for a building permit to build a framed dwelling estimated to cost $400. M. W. Taylor is listed as the owner, architect and builder of the house.

The 1909 and 1910 directories have a number of listings for M. Taylors but none for an M. W. Taylor. A search of the 1901 and 1911 Canadian censuses turn up no record of an M. W. Taylor, so he is a bit of a mystery. The house was built at a time when Vancouver was booming and real estate speculation was rife. Many people came to the city to make a quick buck during the boom and then moved on. M. W. Taylor was likely one of those men.

I went and looked for a fire insurance map of the neighbourhood. The one you see at left shows the immediate neighbourhood around the house in 1912. Quite a few of the lots were still undeveloped in the neighbourhood. Although MacDonald School at Victoria and Hastings is clearly shown on the map, my daughter's High School, Templeton, has not yet been built. The blocks where it will be later constructed though are occupied by Vancouver's Isolation Hospital. Hmmm. I wonder how many people at Templeton realize that little piece of history. (BTW, you can click on any of the images in this blog and they will enlarge).

On the map, what is now called Ferndale Street, was back then still called Keefer. You can see 2057 Ferndale on the south half of Lot 6 on block 49. It shows as a plain rectangle. There is not much in the way of interesting detail on this map.

Another search of the building permit records got me the piece of information I was looking for. On August 18, 1911, a carpenter named David Felstein applied for a building permit for an addition to his house at “2054 Keefer Street”. The addition cost $150.00. After going through the city directories for a number of decades I did some research online in the BC Archives Vital Events listings, then went to the 6th floor of the main branch of the Vancouver Public L and found that David Felstein was born in Russia on April 1, 1859, the son of Aaron and Tresa Felstein. His wife Annie was born in Russia in April of 1870, the daughter of Aaron and Pearl Kravitz. The Felsteins had at least three children at the time the house was built: Benjamin Myher born in “Poland” on July 25, 1900, Pearl, born in Russia on June 15, 1904, and Jacob, born in Russia in 1907. For a number of years, David Felstein is listed as "Henry" Felstein. From 1918 onward, David changes professions going into the second hand junk trade, listed during some years as a peddler, then later in the 1930s as the proprietor of a junk and second hand container store at 1322 Frances, near Clark Drive. The Felstein family lived at 2057 Ferndale until shortly after 1950 when the house was bought by carpenter Henry R. Southwell and his wife Mildred.

A glance at the fire insurance map for September 1927 shows that the Felsteins kept chickens in their back yard. There was also a small garage to the west of the house off Keefer (Ferndale). Note how the house is numbered 2054, which must mean an East Pender Address as all the even numbered houses should be on the south side of Keefer. I am not sure what this is all about. There is no alleyway behind the house so I haven't seen what this looked like, but until the lot was subdivided and a house built on the north side of Lot 6, the main entrance of the house early on may have been on the north side of the building.

The Felstein’s were Orthodox Jews. They attended the Schara Tzedeck Synagogue at Heatley and East Pender in the East End. There are no pictures of the Felstein family in either the City of Vancouver Archives or the Jewish Museum and Archives of British Columbia, but there are two pictures taken by David Felstein’s son, Benjamin Myher Felstein, in the Jewish Archives. One of the pictures shows a group of men gathered for prayer inside the old Synagogue at Heatley and Pender. The two men standing in the back of the photo are relatives of the photographer.

Though disappointed that I couldn't find a picture of the Felstein family, I was thrilled to see that some of the men immortalized in the picture were people who lived in houses I had researched on East Georgia, Union Street and Princess Avenue in my neighbourhood, Strathcona. Thanks to this piece of research work from Ruth and David, another couple of pieces of my East End history puzzle had fallen into place.

Photo L.00001 from the Jewish Museum and Archives of British Columbia has a caption which reads:

"Led by Rabbi P. Wohlgelernter, the Chevra Chovevi Torah are worshipping at regular morning service.

Top: L-R: Ed Kravitz; Samuel Kravitz.
Fourth row: L-R: Yudah Tischler; Itzik Berger; Schmil Hersh (Hayit) Hyatt; Mnachem Mendel Farber; Daniel Yochlowitz.
Third row: L-R: Alexander (Berezofsky) Barratt; Isaac Lipovsky; Samuel Klausner; unidentified; Gershen Bobroff.
Second row: L-R: Shmuel Gurevitch; Leiser Rome; Maurice Kushner; Solomon Stusser; Maurice Goldberg; Benjamin Baltman.
First row: L-R: Abraham Levinson; David Meier Davis; Rabbi Solomon Wohlgelernter; David Morris."

The names that are bolded above I have come across doing house histories in Strathcona. It was great to be able to put faces to some names.

I did an online search to see if I could track down any living relatives of the Felsteins but could not find any. If you read this and are a relative, I would love to have a picture of David and Annie Felstein or any of the children mentioned in this blog.

Strathcona Residents Association Website

2010-04-16T16:38:00.000-07:00

In between trying to make my living as a house history researcher and intermittent neighbourhood history walking tour guide, I also work on a number of boards. For a few years now I have been on the board and am currently the chair of the Friends of the Vancouver City Archives. It's a great organization that works to raise the profile of the work of the City of Vancouver Archives and also raise funds for specific projects at the archives. These include things like reprinting the old crumbling city directories used by house history researchers like me, scan and digitize thousands of old Vancouver photos and upload them to the CVA site, etc. Membership has its benefits. If you are interested in purchasing some archival photos of Vancouver's historic buildings, people, or scenes, you get a 50% discount on 8x10 black and white prints if you are a "Friend".

Another group I was involved with was the Heatley Block Preservation Society. We organized to fight against the planned demolition of a landmark East End building on East Hastings at Heatley and in the course of our fight, found out that one of the two old houses attached to the Heatley block was probably one of the four oldest houses still standing in Vancouver. After a year and a half of fighting tooth and nail against the Library Board, they finally listened to us and let the Heatley Block go. So you see you Borgs out there, "Resistance is NOT futile!".

At about the same time I got involved with the Heatley Block fight, I also joined the board of Heritage Vancouver Society. This is an amazing organization the advocates for Vancouver's built heritage. Each year they organize a Top Ten Endangered List. They helped us raise awareness of the Heatley Block struggle by including the Heatley Block in the Top Ten Endangered List two years running.

My most recent, and perhaps my most passionate involvement, because it concerns the neighbourhood I live in and love, is that I am now the Chair of the Strathcona Residents Association. The SRA was created in 1992 at the end of a three-year process of community meetings with city planners, during which very large numbers of residents participated in planning for the East End neighbourhood’s future. The community planning process asked the local residents to articulate what they wanted for their neighbourhood’s future, and the answers led to the formation of the Strathcona Community Plan. The Plan was written by City staff and includes zoning regulations, a traffic plan, and an expression of social goals.

In accordance with the goals of the residents, the plan was designed to preserve the heritage architectural character, to protect the streets from commuter traffic and make them safe for walking and cycling, and to maintain a multi-cultural and mixed-income family population through modest increases in density, and through a supportive attitude to the maintenance of affordable rental accommodation alongside owner-occupancy. The Strathcona Residents’ Association was formed in conjunction with the Community Plan and was recognized by City Council when the plan was approved.

I am a relative newcomer to Strathcona. I lived in the West End from 1978 to 1995, then moved to a house in the East End's Grandview Woodland neighbourhood where I lived for five years. I have been living with my partner Richard in a 1908 rowhouse unit on Hawks Avenue since Hallowe'en 2000. Though I have lived here for only a decade, it somehow feels like I have always been an East Ender. I explained the origins of my love affair with this neighbourhood in my Message From The Chair on our new website.

When I was considering taking the job of Chair I had to think about the goals I wanted to achieve if I took this job on. One was to raise the profile of the SRA within our neighbourhood. There have been lots of newcomers to the neighbourhood even since I have moved here, and many are seemingly unaware of this neighbourhood's history and how and why the SRA exists, and what the SRA does and has achieved.

Second was to ensure that the recently completed Strathcona Neighbourhood Vision Statement was uploaded on to the City's Strathcona Community Webpage. In the 1960sand 1970s this neighbourhood was almost bulldozed to the ground because City Hall thought they knew what was best for the East End and proceeded to enforce their vision without properly consulting the residents of this neighbourhood. Currently our neighbourhood is under threat again and depending on which city department or social agency you ask, Strathcona's boundaries jump all over the map.

Over a period of three years, an umbrella group called the Strathcona Revitalization Committee, composed of several Strathcona organizations including: the Strathcona Property & Tenants Association (SPOTA), the Strathcona Residents Association, The Strathcona Community Centre Association, the RayCam Cooperative Centre Association and the Strathcona Business Improvement Association, worked together to create the vision statement for Strathcona. Called Strathcona 2010: A Clear Vision For Our Community, this vision statement clearly defines the boundaries of Strathcona as from Gore to Clark, and from Railway to Malkin. I have contacted the person in charge of the City's Community Webpage's and asked herto ensure that our Vision Statement was uploaded. There have been several e-mails back and forth, but we are still waiting.

In order to achieve these two first goals, I thought it wwas absolutely necessary for the SRA to have its own website. Not only could we upload information about the SRA, its history, our community vision statement, neigbourhood events and news etc., we could also upload a much needed explanation of what this neighbourhood's specailly designed Zoning By-law, RT-3, was all about.

Long story short, our long awaited SRA Webpage is up and running. It still is a work in progress, but there is an awful lot to look at and read there. Please take a look. If you like the design and are in the market for a Content Management model website for your business or organization, I can highly recommend our webmaster Digiboy Pete. As you can see, he does some pretty amazing work. And you are only seeing the front end of the website.

Anyway, I best get back to work on a more history oriented posting. Until then, take care, and see you in the Blogosphere!

I have a dedicated new blogspot for my Walking Tours

2010-04-05T01:24:00.000-07:00

Hello all. Thanks for following my blog and from time to time following me around the East End on one of my History Walking Tours.

Just to let you know, there are more articles and essays coming soon to this blog, and that I have decided to dedicate a separate blogspot for my history walking tour information. This new blogspot's address will be http://historywalksinvancouver.blogspot.com/ and will be updated from time to time as new East End, West End and Downtown Tours are scheduled. See you in the blogosphere and see you around town!