Wooden Cobbles Underneath Union Street?!?

Union Street is part of an east-west cycle path that stretches all the way from Boundary Road to the False Creek Seawall. I wonder if the cyclists that barrel down my neighbourhood road give more than a passing thought to the causes of the bumpity bumps they must experience in the 200-block of Union. Just in front of the new V6A development construction site, parts of the asphalt have come off revealing something surprising underneath. Speeding cars must experience them too. It is almost as if the ghosts of my old neighbourhood are working a bit of magic, telling the frantic passers by to slow down and pay attention to what they are passing by.

In August, when I was planning my first history walking tour of the East End, I did a run through of my route. That's when I found them. I was crossing the street from where the main part of Hogan's Alley was--the block bounded by Main, Union, Gore Avenue and Prior-- north toward where Vie's Chicken and Steak House had once stood at 209 Union. In the westbound lane of Union Street, there were three or four places where the asphalt had come off exposing of all things wooden cobbles. Now I have seen brick exposed in a number of places in the city. There is, or was, large sections of exposed brick in Victoria Drive between Powell and East Hastings. I don't know how old it is. In my imagination it was laid that way so that horses could easier climb the hill. Maybe it is not that old at all and has nothing to do with horses. If anyone knows the story, please let me know. 

Then there are large sections of East Pender, or is it Frances, on both sides of Clark Drive, where you can see granite cobbles that once lined some old BC Electric tram route. But nowhere had I seen wooden cobbles before.

Quite coincidentally, during a search for an article on the opening of the Connaught Hotel (see earlier post) in the February 28, 1913 Daily News Advertiser I found an article on those very wooden blocks. Rather than reiterate what is written there, have a read for yourself. Just so you know, and the article will talk about it, the cobbles were not left exposed like that, but were covered with a layer of creosote and sand. This method of road paving was supposed to be the best for horse traffic, which in 1913, still dominated our city’s roadways.

Remember that all images in these blogs will enlarge when you click them.

Since this piece was first posted, a friend of mine sent me a link to an article on Waddington Alley in Victoria. It is still completely paved with wooden cobbles. Here is the link: http://www.islandnet.com/~jar/streetscapes/topics/waddington.htm

207 Union & Jimi Hendrix - Some Clarification

There have been a number of articles in the Vancouver media and online recently about the discovery of a Jimi Hendrix connection to a small red brick building on Union Street, just east of Main at 207 Union. The little building has been turned into a shrine of sorts to Jimi's memory.


There is, of course, a Hendrix family connection to Vancouver's East End. Jimi's grandparents Ross and Zenora Hendrix came here from the US in 1911 and lived in a number of places, including Davie Street in the West End, Triumph Street in the East End, etc. The best known of these Hendrix houses at 827 East Georgia has been beautifully renovated and just recently has had a heritage plaque installed in its front garden. 


But before anyone goes to arrange for a permanent plaque in front of the little brick house at 207 Union I need to interject what I know about this building.


How I came across what I know is from the time I was researching the now demolished little blue house that stood about 100 feet to the east of the red brick building at 227 Union. (See earlier posts below).


I studied about 20 addresses both on the north and south side of the of the 200 block of Union, originally Barnard Street. On the north side, I researched 207 to 227 Union and on the south I researched 208 to 230 Union.


207 Union, the address in question, first appears in the directories in 1902 as the home of bricklayer William H. Hooper, but then in 1903 it appears as a boarding house run by Ontario-born Christopher Foley and his wife Bridget. 


From 1905 to 1911, the address is listed as a rooming house run by Abraham and Elizabeth Turner. Then from 1912 to about 1919 it was again listed as a rooming house run by English-born warehouseman John C. Parkyn and his family.


Wow! A boarding house or rooming house in that little building? What cramped quarters it must have been.


From 1920 to 1939 the address appears as the Westminster Rooms. By now I hope you have gotten it. Just because a house or building in 2009 appears as 207 Union, it doesn't mean that 207 Union is the actual historical address of the building.

Historically, 207 Union has been the address for a house which once stood on the site of the youth hostel building on the corner of Main and Union and then for a Union Street facing entrance of the hostel building. If you look at the wall facing Union Street near the south east corner of the building you will see the faint trace of that entrance which is now bricked up.


So what was the little red brick building that has been now converted into a Jimi Hendrix shrine? And what connection, if any, did it have with Jimi Hendrix?


The little red brick building first makes it appearance in the city directories in 1936 as 207½ Union. That year it is listed as vacant, but from 1936 to 1941 it is listed as the offices for Columbia Taxi. From 1942 to 1946 it is again listed as vacant, but in 1947, it appears as Jee's Grocery & Confectionery. It disappears from the records until 1971 when it reappears as the vacant 207a Union. In 1972 it appears as an Antique Auto Parts & Accessories shop. From 1973 to 1975, 207a Union is the W. Lim Company, a Chinese grocery. From 1976 to 1980, it was vacant. Then in 1981 it was listed as the home of K. S. Fong. In 1982 it was again vacant. That is the last time the little red brick building was listed in the directories. 207 Union as a Union Street-facing entrance of what is now the hostel building disappears from the directories in 1998. I am not able to determine when the little brick building inherited 207 as an address, but it must have been after 2001 when the last Criss-Cross city directory was published.


So what is the Jimi Hendrix connection? Well, if there is any connection at all it is because the address next door, 209 Union--now the parking lot between the brick building and the alley--was from about 1948 to 1979 the location of the legendary Vie's Chicken and Steak House. Vie's was a famous Hogan's Alley landmark known all across the city. It was a favourite destination for visiting Black performers, including Louis Armstrong and Nat King Cole. If Jimi's grandmother worked in a restaurant anywhere on Union it was likely here and Jimi would no doubt have visited her there, perhaps even played there, but that history is not written down anywhere I have seen so far.

So does the little brick house have any connection to Jimi Hendrix? Who can really say? There is that period from 1948 to 1970 when the building is not listed in the directories. It might have been used as storage by Robert and Viva Moore during that period, so who went there or played there is something we will never really know. The little building did stand exactly beside 209 Union. From what we can tell from the only picture we have of 209 Union, the little brick building did indeed touch 209 Union. It was only a handshake away from the real thing. And if that type of association is good enough for the shrines dedicated to prophets, patriarchs and saints in the Holy Land, shouldn't it be good enough for us?


Thanks to Wayde Compton of the Hogan's Alley Memorial Project for the use of the photo of 207 Union.

For a great article on Vie's Chicken and Steak House check out Keith McKellar's fascinating book, Neon Eulogy. See page 83.

Also, for more on the history of the Black Community in Hogan's Alley and the East End read Carole Itter and Daphne Marlatt's book, Opening Doors. There is a great interview with Nora Hendrix, Jimi's grandmother from age 53.