The New Age Book Shop

The image at left came from one of the proprietors of The Paper Hound Bookshop, Rod Clarke. Rod and his business partner, Kim Koch, kindly keep their eyes peeled for bookstore-related items that I can use in VAIW posts. This item surfaced when Rod was making a decision about whether or not to buy a single volume of Tolstoy’s Complete Works. Because it was just a solitary volume, he chose not to purchase it for Paper Hound, but he had the presence of mind to take a picture of the title page with the stamp showing “new age bookshop [and] lending library”.¹ He shared the image with me. Neither of us had heard of this shop before, so it certainly seemed worthy of a historical scrounge!

The shop lasted for only four years (1936-1940) at three locations.

In 1936-37, the bookstore was at the SE corner of Pender and Homer at 350 West Pender, (just steps from what would become, decades later, the home of Paper Hound). The original proprietor was a former sheet metal worker named Thomas R. O’Brien, who was in his early 30s at the time he ran the bookshop (Sun 25 Apr 1936).

CVA 1095-11338. 350 West Pender at Homer. The New Age Book Shop was located on the corner of the Victoria Block above. 1973.

Thanks to an astute reporter with the Sun, there is a record of some of the titles in the shop in Spring ‘36: Gorky’s Days with Lenin; Tretyakov’s Roar China; Social Planning for Canada by the League of Social Reconstruction; and Strachey’s The Nature of the Capitalist Crisis. Also in the shop were Herbert Spencer’s Autobiography and Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward as well as works by Henri Barbusse, Michael Gold (Isaac Granich’s pen name), and Anna Louise Strong. Not forgetting, of course, Leon Tolstoy’s War and Peace and others of his oeuvre. Said O’Brien in ‘36: “I intend to stock Social Credit literature and books on Technocracy; in fact examples of all the progressive trends of thought” (Sun, 25 Apr 1936). Whether most of us today would consider “Social Credit literature” to be “progressive” is an open question.

The shop plainly had a Communist perspective. O’Brien made the point that the store wasn’t an organ of the Communist Party of Canada: “[I]t’s a private venture, although I imagine the Communists wouldn’t disapprove of it” (Sun 25 Apr 1936). O’Brien may have been shading the truth a bit with that statement, however. By 1940, the then-owner admitted that one of the shop’s “creditors” was the New Era Publishing Company of Toronto which was backed by the Communist Party (Province 23 Sep 1940).

CVA 1095-10634. The bookstore seems to have been, in 1938-39 above where Steams Hot Dogs was in this image. In the
“Revival Centre”. 1969.

In 1938-39, the shop was located at 50-A East Hastings. The ownership of the shop also changed; instead of O’Brien it was run by C. (probably Carl) Schwartz.

In 1940, the shop changed hands and locations one last time. It moved into the Flack block at 14-163 West Hastings under the management of Wilfred F. Ravenor. He was an inventor of some local fame in the 1920s for producing the Ravenor Liquid Hearth, an efficient tool for heating oil combustion that was in use in the late ‘20s in the furnace of the CPR Depot (Sun 11 Aug 1928). Ravenor apparently bought out Schwartz in 1940 and took over the New Age Book Shop.

CVA 260-776. In its final year of operation, the bookshop was in one of the commercial spaces within the Flack Block (the building on the NE corner of Cambie at Hastings shown behind the cenotaph at Victory Square. 1937.

In August 1940 police raided the shop, seizing some 1600+ books and documents. The Crown succeeded in making their case that about 100 of these books were “prejudicial to the safety of the state”, whatever that meant; nobody seemed to fully understand it — including the judge (Province 24 Sep 1940). The quote was from the Defence of Canada regulations attached to the War Measures Act. Ravenor was found guilty and sentenced to 14 months in the clink. The conviction was upheld on appeal, although the sentence was reduced to 8 months (Sun 11 Jan 1941).²

Of the seized books, 1000 were ordered to be destroyed. 630 other books were ultimately returned to Ravenor (Province 23 Apr 1942). He died in 1951.

The Ravenor case was part of much larger national and international events.

The CPC’s [Communist Party of Canada’s] opposition to World War II led to it being banned under the Defence of Canada Regulations of the War Measures Act in 1940 shortly after Canada entered into the war. In many cases communist leaders were interned in camps, long before fascists….With Germany’s 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union and the collapse of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, the party argued that the nature of the war had changed to a genuine anti-fascist struggle. The CPC reversed its opposition to the war and argued the danger to the working class on the international level superseded its interests nationally.³

Wikipedia – Communist Party of Canada (World War II)

***

Notes

¹ Although there was a lending library component to the book shop, it was not mentioned in the very limited advertising they did. (Note: My friend, Neil Whaley, has pointed out that in 1938 issues of People’s Advocate, New Age Bookshop placed ads noting that they had a lending library of progressive titles and a complete line of stationery.)

² At about the same time as the Ravenor trial was taking place, Ravenor and three other men were charged with being Communists. Sidney Zlotnik was charged with “being an officer or member of an illegal organization.” Harry Asson, Julius Fuerst and Wilfred Ravenor were accused of advocating the principles of the Communist party. All of the men received sentences of about one year. (I am a friend of Sidney’s son and have learned that after finishing his sentence for being a member of the Communist Party of Canada, he enlisted in WW2. I don’t know how willingly I would have served the country that had suspended my rights! Plainly, Sidney didn’t hold a grudge.)

³ For more information, see Reg Whitaker’s essay, Official Repression of Communism During World War II and John Mackie’s piece in the Sun, “Canada Banned Left-Wing Groups During WW2“.

The Incarcerated Ones

This post was inspired by a series of CVA records that share the tag, “Incarcerated Persons”. All of these records are part of the Vancouver Police Department fonds and each consists of a mug shot and the date on which it was taken. Most were identified with a name and sometimes also an alias; a few were not. The incarcerated included women, men, caucasians, Asians, blacks, and indigenous people.

What appears below is a small sample of the incarcerated persons shown in CVA’s records along with a summation of the charge(s) brought against these people.

CVA 480-401 – H. J. Dennis

H. J. Dennis and Henry Carter were sentenced to two months for “borrowing” a lawn mower and a pair of shears from Mrs. Percy Smith and then selling them to a Mr. Hatch for $1 so that they could purchase booze from John Beattie of the Empire saloon (Province 23 Aug 1898).

CVA 490-413 – Joseph Perry

Joseph Perry, a “coloured” man, was sentenced to six years for attempted rape (Province 18 Nov 1898).

CVA 480-437 – Rita King

Rita King was sentenced to five years for unlawfully wounding Tessie McDonald in a fight over the affections of Bert Washington. King and McDonald were both residents of Mrs. Mckenzie’s “disorderly house” at 37 Dupont (East Pender, today). Washington was “as lusty a young coloured man as ever graced a chain gang and for a number of years he has been shamelessly living on the avails of prostitution, which he extorted from his mistress, [Rita] King.” In early July 1899, Tessie McDonald began practicing prostitution at Mrs. Mckenzie’s house and caught Washington’s eye. “[King] implored Washington to cease paying attention to the other girl but his only replies were taunts and brutal jests at her passe appearance.” This continued until Washington and McDonald went to the Opera Resort saloon for drinks. King, secreting a revolver in her clothes, followed the two to the saloon and shot and wounded McDonald. Washington was not hit (Province 21 Jul 1899).

CVA 480-450 – Charles A. Schroeder

Charles A. Schroeder, a hypnotist from Victoria, was charged with robbing his assistant of $35 while the latter was in a “hypnotic sleep” (Province 9 May 1899). The judge gave Schroeder a suspended sentence in this case. However, when Schroeder was charged shortly afterwards with stealing a cheque valued at more than $87, he was sentenced to a year (Province 26 Jun 1899).

CVA 480-447 – Rose Gaylord

Rose Gaylord was sentenced to 18 months for the theft of $50 from a Lulu Island farmer staying in a Vancouver hotel (Province 10 Apr 1900).

CVA 480-445 – Richard Fleming

Richard Fleming was sentenced to 18 months. He was employed at the Oriental Hotel and was found guilty of stealing “a considerable sum of money” and a gold watch and chain. James Thompson, against whom the theft was committed, had left the cash and watch in the hotel’s safe. The goods were nicked from the safe by Fleming, who claimed in court that the cash was spent on liquor (Province 12 May 1900).

CVA 480-451 – Walter Bradley

Walter Bradley was sentenced to three months for theft. Bradley, who claimed to be a dentist from Victoria, pled guilty to stealing a watch from William Gray who was staying at the Revere House (World, 21 Sep 1901). Apparently, Bradley bore a striking resemblance to Victor Spencer, a resident of Victoria, who was a son of dry goods retailer, David Spencer. He had a scheme going whereby he traded on his resemblance to Spencer with folks who had once lived in Victoria and had some acquaintance with the Spencer family. He would spin a hard luck story to these people (“a dozen or so”) to persuade them to advance him a “loan” (World, 18 Oct 1901). By the time this was reported in the press, Bradley was serving his sentence for theft from Mr. Gray. I wasn’t able to find any reports of Bradley receiving a further sentence for the Spencer scam.

CVA 480-461 – Joseph Flynn

Joseph Flynn, aka “Liverpool Shorty”, was charged with stealing a shawl from an “Indian woman” (Province 23 Sept 1901). In 1903, Flynn and a Mr. Grower were charged with stealing $20 from James Ingram (Province 8 Aug 1903). In 1911, Flynn was sentenced to 4 months for snatching a purse containing 45 cents and a few trolley tickets from a lady on the street. (News Advertiser 2 Aug 1911).

CVA 480-474 – Mitchell Doyle

Mitchell Doyle, “a boy of tender years but hard experience”, was sentenced to three months for stealing three bicycles (News Advertiser 28 Aug 1903).

CVA 480-471 – J. W. Darche

J. W. Darche, who earlier lived in Sherbrooke, Quebec, pled guilty to theft from the Palace Clothing Store, where he worked as a clerk. He admitted stealing $50 worth of clothing from the establishment. Sentence was reserved for two days while the police telegraphed his former residence in Quebec to determine if he’d ever had similar trouble there. I don’t know what the police learned from Sherbrooke (Province 2 Sep 1903).

CVA 480-462 – George Williams

George Williams was charged with stealing two pairs of shoes from Hugh Harvey, a shoemaker whose shop was located at 155 West Cordova street. He left his old shoes on the floor of the shop, and was wearing one pair of the two that he took from Harvey’s store at the time of his arrest. He claimed to know nothing of the theft, although Harvey positively identified the shoes. Williams claimed to be a shoemaker from Victoria. (Province 17 Aug 1903).

CVA 480-542 – Emil Jensen

Emil Jensen was sentenced to “three months hard labor” for stealing 500 cigars from H. Wilson on Cordova street. Detectives found Jensen in a shack on Beach avenue near the Granville street bridge (Sun 9 Nov 1912).

CVA 48\0-589b – Susy Denny

Susy Denny, a “coloured” woman, was charged with theft of $12 from Thomas Carlyle (a white guy, presumably) while he was walking down an alley “between Prior and Union streets east of Main” (that sounds a lot like Hogan’s Alley). Police officers “discovered their quarry” inside a room on Main Street. (World, 6 Dec 1912). In 1913, Susy was sentenced to 6 months in prison for the theft of $100 from a William Chilles. The judge in this case, Mr. McInnes, felt moved to comment on this case while passing sentence: “[I]f it were within my power to pass a sentence upon the male wretches who make this sort of thing possible, I would pass a greater sentence upon them than I am now imposing upon you” (News Advertiser 9 Feb 1913). What exactly McInnes meant by this is unclear to me.

CVA 480-491 – John Lyons

John Lyons was given a suspended sentence for vagrancy (homelessness), provided he found work in Vancouver or else left the city by the next day (Province 14 Oct 1912).

CVA 480-545 – Thomas Morrison

Thomas Morrison, a boiler maker, was sentenced to 4 months for leaving his wife and five small children to fend for themselves from May until November. The judge said, in passing sentence: “I wish there was some law that would let me send you downstairs and order the biggest sergeant on the force to punch you good and hard. I’ll give you a good chance too sober up and you can turn over a new leaf when you come out” (Province 13 Nov 1912).

Chain Gangs in the City

CVA 480-111 The city hall and police station on Powell Street. (I would have shown a photo of a city chain gang if there were one available; but, alas, no). The officer at far left seated in the front row is Officer Grady, a chain gang guard at the time this was taken. An earlier chain gang guard (at the time this was taken, the caretaker) was John Clough, the man seated at far right who is missing part of his right arm. 1903. (I guess in that year, it was obligatory for all police officers to sport facial hair!)

To my surprise, and perhaps to yours, chain gangs were a reality in the City of Vancouver in its early years (roughly from city incorporation in 1886 until 1910). Evidently, in no province except B.C. was prison labour used (World, 5 June 1889).

Of whom did the chain gang consist? According to a contemporary of the gang, about 85% of those who were members appeared to be Caucasian (Province, 14 March 1901). The gang was composed entirely of men. And they all were convicted of minor offences — from vagrancy, to “supplying liquor to Indians”, to robbery — nothing more serious than a 6-month sentence. Quite often, it seems, those so convicted were given an option. For example, one fellow was given the option of paying $8 or he could opt for 16 days on the chain gang (World, 10 Sept 1890). Another person, an indigenous fellow named Alec, was found guilty of supplying liquor to other “Indians” and he could pay $25 plus court costs or else spend 2 months on the chain gang (News Advertiser, 6 Nov 1891). There seems to have been a lack of consistency in sentencing, however: a Chinese gent by the name of Ah Why, for stealing a can of coal oil, was given a sentence of 6 months on the chain gang (no mention was made of a fine option in his case) (Province, 22 April 1899). It is shocking from our vantage today, but a large proportion of the men sentenced to serve on the chain gang were convicted of vagrancy (homelessness, essentially). To borrow the parlance of the day, they were “vags”.

The gang was housed in the city jail when they weren’t working. Men of the city chain gang were not sent to the provincial jail in New Westminster as that was considered too costly. If they were sent to New Westminster, their board would have been about 50 cents per day; whereas if they remained in Vancouver, they would cost nearer to 17 or 18 cents a day (Province, 8 Jan 1901).

Judging from press accounts, the gangs did not go out to work if it was raining (News Advertiser 3 June 1899). But if it wasn’t raining, they would be transported to the job site for the day in a horse-drawn wagon. According to Major J. S. Matthews, Vancouver’s first archivist:

Their “chains” consisted of two ankle cuffs, two links about 18 inches long and a ring, and in addition a stout leather waist belt to which the ring was affixed. The links connected the ring to the ankle cuffs. When walking, the links were suspended from the waist belt and ring and the links lay inside each leg, perpendicularly, so that it could scarcely be seen as the trousers hid it. When at rest, seated or on a log or root of a stump, the waist belt was unfastened and the links thrown on the ground, so that no weight of iron whatever was felt by the prisoner. There were no chains, and there was no noise of clanking as there was nothing to clank.

Early Vancouver, J. S. Matthews, Vol. 7, p. 97

They would also have a pair of city-issued overalls that they would wear over top of whatever clothing they were arrested in (Province, 8 Jan 1901). But, according to Matthews, the guards would ensure that by the time the prisoners were released from the chain gang, they were outfitted in seasonally-appropriate clothing (Matthews, Vol. 7, p. 97).

Once somebody had been sentenced to serve on the city chain gang, he fell under the jurisdiction of the Vancouver Board of Works — a body which today has no equivalent. It was a standing committee of City Council, composed of city aldermen who were charged with making decisions regarding infrastructure improvements in the city. For the chain gang this included such tasks as: levelling recreation grounds such as those on Cambie Street and those on Powell Street; “opening” lanes (back alleys) — this probably included refuse removal and rough grading of these alleys; cutting grass of the Alexandra Orphanage; whitewashing the jail; removing rocks from English Bay; cutting grass and piling wood in the basement of the City Hospital. One of the early chain gang projects was to clean up Granville Street south of the Hotel Vancouver in preparation for the Fall horse racing event to be held there (World, 26 Oct 1888).

The value of work done by city chain gangs totalled somewhere around $4,100 per annum (News Advertiser, 19 Jan 1898; Province, 5 Jan 1901). It isn’t clear what formula was used for arriving at such a sum.

Police personnel responsible for guarding the chain gang were, in turn, officers Haywood, Clough, Grady, Leatherdale, and Burr. The guards were apparently armed while guarding the gang, but as far as I can tell, they never discharged their weapons while on duty.

The chain gang was abolished in 1910 (News Advertiser, 4 June 1910).¹ Those who would previously have been put on the city chain gang were from then on sent to the provincial jail.

About a decade before the end of the city chain gang, a Province editorial noted that there were increasing calls for putting an end to the practice. However, those calls were apparently not for the benefit of the prisoners, but rather “for the honest men who might be glad of such work as is now performed by the chain gang” (Province, 8 Jan 1901). As for those who would have otherwise been consigned to the chain gang, according to the Province, they should be employed “breaking rock” or some other occupation unlikely to be sought after by “honest men”!

Notes

¹ Major Matthews, inaccurately, has the year that the city chain gang was abolished as 1907.

IAQs about Early FBC I

This is the first post in which I will present a number of Infrequently Asked Questions and answers about the early First Baptist Church.

CVA Ch N66 – First Baptist Church (and the manse next door) at Hamilton and Dunsmuir. 190-.

When did FBC become FIRST Baptist Church?

It has been called “First Baptist Church” from the very beginning. It so identified itself in its 1887 incorporation document. However, before the congregation moved into its second building at Hamilton and Dunsmuir in 1889, the congregation identified itself in press ads simply as the “Baptist” church and after they moved into the chapel building at Westminster Avenue (Main Street) at Dupont (East Pender) as “Baptist Church, Westminster Avenue”.

Was First Baptist ever on a piece of land known as “Zion Hill”?

Yes, when the church was housed in the building at Hamilton and Dunsmuir (World, 28 July 1923). There were several early churches on this “hill” in the early years of Vancouver, in addition to the Baptists: Homer Street Methodist Church (where the Labour Hall is located today at NW corner of Homer and Dunsmuir; Holy Rosary Catholic Church at Richards and Dunsmuir; St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church at NE corner of Richards and Georgia Streets; and kitty corner to St. Andrew’s, the Congregational Church. Today, the only church still on Zion Hill is Holy Rosary. All of the others have moved or folded. This rising land was only referred to as Zion Hill by pioneer residents in a joking fashion (it could scarcely be called a “hill” even in Vancouver’s earliest days). It was never as institutionalized as “Church Hill” in Victoria, which was home to the Anglican Cathedral of that city.

Who was the architect of the Hamilton and Dunsmuir building?

It was widely reported in the local press that Thomas Hooper was the architect. But he was merely the “supervising architect”. William R. King (of New Westminster) was the actual architect of the building (World, 21 September 1889).

Was the initial Baptist building (at Westminster Avenue) immediately substantially repurposed once the congregation moved into their new quarters at Hamilton and Dunsmuir in September, 1889?

No. The Baptist Chapel was sold in July 1889 for $1,750. But the building continued to stand in its Chapel form for a couple of years after the Baptists moved out. There is a press record of it serving as the home of the tiny Zion Presbyterian Church as late as September 1890. (World, 13 September 1890). According to pioneer resident, Joe Cameron, the chapel was ultimately put on stilts and a hardware store was built beneath it (Matthews, Early Vancouver, Vol. 4, p. 86).

The third (and current) FBC building at Burrard and Nelson has a Gothic Revival style. What was the design of its predecessor at Hamilton and Dunsmuir?

Elizabethan Revival.

Was the Baptist church at Hamilton and Dunsmuir the first church building to be opened among the Protestant churches on Zion Hill?

No. The first Protestant church opened on Zion Hill was Homer Street Methodist, dedicated in May 1889; the Baptist building opened in September 1889; the Congregational Church in December 1889; and St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in May 1890.

Is it true that the Vancouver Fire Department used the not-quite-completed FBC at Hamilton and Dunsmuir to practice shooting water?

Yes. Fire Engine No. 2 shot a fine spray over the 110-foot tall spire in May 1889 (World, 10 May 1889). There are no photos of this, as far as I know.

What was the capacity of the Baptist Church at Westminster Avenue?

According to press ads at the time, the Chapel could seat 200. But, to me, this is stretching it a bit. I’d bet that the Chapel could have comfortably sat no more than about 150.

Were there baptismal tanks in both the church at Westminster Avenue and the one at Hamilton and Dunsmuir?

No. There was a tank in the Hamilton and Dunsmuir church. But in the Chapel, there was no tank. When the congregation was at Westminster Avenue, they relied on False Creek for baptisms.

Was “Home Cheer” a Vancouver Baptist magazine?

No. It was a local monthly publication of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union under the editorship of Sarah Bowes. It seems to me to have been an odd choice of title, as it smacks of “home brew”!

Was there more or less evidence of inter-denominationalism among Protestant churches in the early years of Vancouver compared with today?

More. It wasn’t uncommon for the Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Methodists and Baptists to hold “union” services together — especially at Thanksgiving. And there was an active Ministerial Association in place at the time. Today, there is no inter-denominational ministerial association, to the best of my knowledge (certainly not one that FBC is a member of).

How many Sundays did First Baptist minister, Rev. J. B. Kennedy, have off during his three years pastoring the church from 1887-1890?

One, and that one was for attending a convention in Tacoma! (World, 3 Jan. 1890)

William Henry Wood, Jr.

City of Burnaby Archives, 1924.

William Henry Wood, Jr. was born in England in 1872 and immigrated from Chesterfield to Vancouver in about 1888 with his parents W. H. Wood, Sr. and Jane Oliver. He was one of a family of two boys and five girls. He worked briefly for Rand Bros Real Estate and later became the accountant for the Vancouver News-Advertister newspaper. In June, 1896, he married Esther Giffen. She was born in Ontario and later moved with her family to Brandon, Manitoba; Esther moved to Vancouver in the 1890s, where she got work as “one of the most popular lady operators” with the New Westminster and Burrard Inlet Telephone Co (an ancestor of BC Tel), which was located in the Empire Building at that time. She gave up that position upon marrying Wood (Daily News Advertister, June 26, 1896). Together, they had a family of two boys and four girls (one of whom died of dysentery) (News-Advertiser, 29 Aug 1906).

Wood was successful in his very first bid for civic electoral office in 1899, becoming at that time the youngest alderman to be elected to Vancouver City Council; he was 27. Civic elections functioned on the ward system at the time, with elections held annually in January. The two candidates who polled the greatest number of votes in each ward were deemed elected.

In 1899, the two who polled the most votes in Ward V (Mount Pleasant) were A. Bruce (188) and Wood (173) from a total of 761. In 1900, Wood (300) and T. S. Baxter (295) polled the most votes from a total of 1153. In 1901, R. Fraser (298) and Wood (255) of a total of 781 were elected to represent Mount Pleasant. In 1902, Peter Wylie (391) and Wood (213) were elected from a total of 1139 votes. (Note: It was announced in November 1901 that G. Clayton Leonard of the Oyster Bay restaurant and later of Leonard’s Coffee, would run in Ward V in 1902, but nothing ever came of that; perhaps he realized that his real talent was not sitting around in meetings, but instead making money in the restaurant and coffee shop biz!). In 1903, John Morton (284) was successful in being elected for Ward V along with Wood (282); (Note: The John Morton who was elected alderman in Mt Pleasant was not one of the Three Greenhorns; Greenhorn Morton lived on Denman Street in the West End). The total number of votes cast in Ward V in 1903 was 992. Wood’s final year running for Vancouver city council was 1904. Wood (285) was beaten in Ward V by J. Brydone-Jack (369) and John Morton (308). (Note: In 1906, Wood’s father, W. H. Wood, Sr gave civic electoral politics a try, but he was not successful; Wood Senior was a one-time CPR car builder and later was caretaker of Mount Pleasant School).

During his years as alderman, Wood was regularly referred to in the Province newspaper as “Willie” or even on one occasion as “Wee Wullie”. This was derisive and seems to have been a reference to Wood’s perceived youth and to the Wee Willie Winkie character created in a nursery rhyme by Scottish poet William Miller. A typical excerpt from the Province showing this way they refered to Wood appears below.

Hitherto Ald. Willie Wood has been regarded with a sort of good-humored tolerance. His views possessed no particular weight and he did not do much harm. He was young and his errors were supposed to be the errors of youth out of which he would grow. Instead, however, he is ever developing an intolerable bumptiousness though relief is found in the thought that perchance he reached his limit last night when he suggested that the city council was above accepting the suggestions of reputable citizens. Pain must then be felt when Alderman Willie Wood is seriously regarded — and contrition, too, when it is remembered that perhaps he has been sent us for our sins.

The Province, 5 March 1901

It seems to me that the Province’s intolerance of Wood’s (relative) youth was an indirect way of getting at him for being a Conservative. The Province’s editor at the time, W C Nichol, was a strong Liberal Party supporter (and later a Lieutenant Governor of BC). However, the newspaper’s treatment of Wood seems not to have harmed Wood electorally. He held Ward V as alderman for four consecutive years. Most Ward V aldermen did not retain their seats for more than a single term (one year).

After his defeat in the 1904 election, Wood found work as the accountant/paymaster with BC Electric Railway (earlier, Vancouver Power Company). He stayed with them until about 1914, when he enlisted in the 102nd Battalion in the Great War. He enlisted as a Private and was de-mobilized as a Sergeant. He came out of the war with his skin intact and found work in late 1921 with the Burnaby School Board as their “secretary” — essentially his role was as the School Board manager; we’d probably refer to the position today as “executive director”. His responsibilities included everything from the hiring of teachers to the putting out of tenders for building and repair of school buildings in Burnaby. Probably, today, his job is handled by several people.

He remained with the School Board in Burnaby until 1934 when he was mysteriously “retired” by them, although, as Wood made clear, he wasn’t retired for age-related reasons (Wood was 62 and his replacement was a couple of years older) nor for any job performance reason of which he was aware (The Province, 16 April 1934). I suspect the decision to let Wood go was a case of “jobs for the boys”. Wood was a Conservative and his replacement at the School Board office, Frank J. Russell, was a prominent Liberal, as was the recently elected provincial government.

After he was “retired” from the Burnaby School Board, Wood seems to have had no significant work. His death certificate refers to the Burnaby schools post as his last job. He continued his association with the BC Conservative Party, even running for the nomination to be a candidate in 1941; he was defeated on the first ballot (Sun, 20 Aug 1941).

Wood died in 1947. Ironically, it was The Province newspaper which honoured Wood with an article on the occasion of his death detailing his years of service as city alderman, his service in the 102nd Battalion, and his work with the Burnaby School Board. Esther Wood died in 1954.

In A Sentimental Mood

Edward Kennedy (“Duke”) Ellington was a ‘jazz’ pianist, although he wasn’t keen on such categories; he preferred ‘the music of today’ rather than ‘jazz’. He wasn’t one of the great jazz pianists — he couldn’t compete with Errol Garner or Teddy Wilson or Oscar Peterson. But he was peerless when it came to composing (he is reputed to have composed 1000+ songs, many of which have become standards) and was probably an unmatched band leader. I’ll bet that the mere mention of some of his tunes will have you humming them: Mood Indigo, It Don’t Mean a Thing (if it ain’t got that swing), Take the ‘A’ Train, C Jam Blues, and Rockin’ in Rhythm are just a few examples. He maintained a big band long past the time when his fellow big band leaders had packed it in, at least partly so that he could have access to the band for the purpose of trying out new compositions.

My first encounter with the Duke’s music came after he had been dead for four years. My family was making a cross-continental trip from Western Canada to Indiana and my folks ensured that our Ford Bronco was well-stocked with recorded music. The time was 1979, I was in Grade 11, and the current audio playback technology was the 8-track tape. Among the tapes that my parents had purchased for the trip was a compilation of some of the hits of Duke Ellington and his Orchestra. I’d be lying if I claimed that this was among my favourite tapes; in fact, I think it might have been my least favourite. My jazz taste hadn’t matured much at that time, and Duke’s music wasn’t for kids. But over the next year I would be exposed to a great deal of big band and jazz music (not least through the Big Band (radio) Station) and, slowly, I came to appreciate the Ellington sound. (Parenthetically, allow me to point out what is probably obvious: I wasn’t an ordinary ‘70s kid when it came to my musical tastes; I was into the music produced by Goodman, the Dorseys, and Peterson).

CVA 134-086 – Duke Ellington leading Salvation Army Band to kick off Salvation Army capital building fundraiser. Note the two anti-Vietnam War posters in the background. 1970. Photo: Vancouver Express.

The Duke in Vancouver

Duke Ellington’s Orchestra first played Vancouver in movies (for which he produced several scores) and in radio broadcasts. He was first professionally active in the 1920s, and it was awhile —1940 — before he began to come to Vancouver with his orchestra to perform live.

His 1940 appearance came about as a result of negotiations between Gordon Hilker, manager of Hilker Attractions, and the local Musicians Union. The Union had opposed, for 11 years, the appearance of big-name American bands in Vancouver on the grounds that they represented unfair competition with local bands. Ellington’s band coming in 1940 was a breakthrough (Sun 9 April 1940).

In Ellington’s first two years appearing in Vancouver, he was advertised as “Harlem’s Aristocrat of Jazz”. This wasn’t at all accurate. Ellington grew up in Washington, D.C., not New York City (in which Harlem is located).

Ellington spent about 6 weeks in Vancouver in total over 33 years. Both figures I find remarkable:

• 1940 – Exhibition Forum for one night.
• 1941 – Garden Auditorium for a one-night stand; an autograph session at Spencer’s Radio Dept.
• 1942 – Beacon Theatre for a week-long engagement.
• 1947 – Marion Malkin Bowl for a single night.
• 1952 – Palomar Supper Club for a week.
• 1957 – Garden Auditorium for one night.
• 1960 – Queen E. Theatre for a night.
• 1962 – Isy’s Supper Club for a week.
• 1965 – Isy’s for three nights.
• 1970 – The Cave Supper Club for a week; he’d also lead the Salvation Army band as part of their early ‘70s fundraising effort; and an appearance on a short-lived CBC Vancouver variety show.
• 1972 – Duke and his Orchestra shared the Queen E. stage with Sarah Vaughn and Billy Eckstine.
• 1973 – Queen E. Theatre for one night.

There are three CVA photos of Ellington in town for his 1970 Vancouver appearance. He played the Cave for a week, he spent some time with the Salvation Army working to plug a fundraiser they were involved with. And he made an appearance in a TV variety show called “In the Round” (a short-lived CBC-TV Vancouver variety show).

Ellington was originally scheduled to play at the Orpheum Theatre in early April 1974 as a fundraiser for the Save-the-Orpheum fund. I’m not sure why he was approached for this, as he had never played a live concert at the Orpheum. But, in any case, he was forced to cancel this Vancouver appearance as he was hospitalized in New York with what was described as “flu”, but which was in fact lung cancer and pneumonia, and which ultimately killed him in May (Sun 30 March 1974; Sun 24 May 1974).

CVA 134-152 – Miss Sally Ann (who was, in fact, Mrs. Evelyn Caldwell) of the Salvation Army with former BC Attorney-General, Robert Bonner holding tambourine, and Duke Ellington. The gent at far left is unidentified. 1970.

CVA 134-153 – Duke Ellington as special guest for Vancouver Variety Show “In The Round” 1970 Photo – Franz Lindner. Note that there is a gent just behind Ellington who looks to me a lot like Fraser McPherson (see comment from Andy Nemeth below; I had originally thought it might be Dal Richards).

The Tragic Tale of the Toupee King

One of the earliest commercial tenants of Hartney Chambers (347 West Pender at Homer) was The B.C. Hair Goods Establishment, with Leo Mueller as proprietor. Mueller was born in 1878 in Braunshweig, Germany. He immigrated to Canada ca1906 and married Martha Persike in Vancouver in 1908; they had four children. Mueller’s profession was hairdresser.

Mueller, in an early Vancouver ad (1907), cited a number of cities in which he’d earlier worked at his profession, including Paris, Nice, Monte Carlo, London, Dublin “and other fashionable centres” as well as Winnipeg, where he managed The New York Hair Store for 18 months before making the move to Vancouver (World 31 Aug 1907). Mueller’s first Vancouver location was at the NW corner of Granville and Georgia (across Granville from the Hudson Bay) on the third floor of the Johnston and Howe block. By November 1907, the shop had moved to 436 Granville Street and by March 1910 to the then-recently finished Hartney Chambers.

By 1909, the B.C. Hair Goods Establishment was referring to itself more simply and memorably as the headquarters of “The Toupee King”. Mueller didn’t deal exclusively in toupees, however. He also provided wigs, pompadours and pin-tails and specialized in producing marcel waves for ladies.

In 1910, Mueller moved his business from Hartney Chambers to the Masonic Rooms at the corner of Georgia at Seymour Streets. B.C. Hair remained there for about 3 years. Then, ca 1913, for reasons that are unclear, he decided to shut the Vancouver business and moved with his family to the Okanagan district. This choice proved to be a profoundly unlucky one for the Muellers. In the summer of 1914, their two-year-old boy, Victor, succumbed to accidental poisoning while the family was in Penticton. He died as a result of

taking a number of pills containing a compound of strychnine and arsenic, which his mother had hidden away in the tent where the Muellers are living on Lakeshore Drive. The child climbed upon the dresser and secured the pills from behind one of the joists of the frame of the tent, where it had been placed for safe keeping.

Province 28 July 1914

War was declared in 1914, when the Mueller family were residents of Rossland and they were arrested as “interns” in the Vernon camp.

Leo got into a brawl in the summer of 1919 with another internee, named Carl Wagner, and in the brief tussle, one of Mueller’s vertebrae was broken; he died three days later. Before dying, however, Mueller made a magnanimous statement clearing Wagner of responsibility for Mueller’s death (Province 14 July 1919). At the coroner’s inquest following Mueller’s death, witness testimony seemed to verify Mueller’s claim. Apparently Mueller had run head-first into Wagner’s stomach and broke a vertrebra when he made contact, causing paralysis and ultimately his death (Province 13 July 1919).

Notwithstanding Mueller’s pre-death statement, Wagner was tried on a charge of manslaughter but was found not guilty in November 1919.

Mueller’s remains were initially buried in Vernon’s Mount Pleasant Cemetery, however sometime later he was moved to a cemetery in Kitchener, ON (Vernon Morning Star 22 May 2015).

Fred Tibbott, Local Composer

Sun March 25, 1924.

Alfred (Fred) Noel Tibbott was born to David Tibbott (1869-1955) and Kezia Lewis (1868-1936) in 1893. He had two brothers and a sister: A. Victor (1894-?), Leonard (1900-1979) and Thelma (later Hargreaves) (1905-1994). Their parents immigrated to Canada from Wales. The family seems to have been religious (members at Mount Pleasant Baptist Church) and musical.

Not too much is publicly known about Tibbott’s life prior to the 1920s. But it is a fact that he enlisted in the Great War, although there are few details about that available (Canadian Great War personnel records seem to be redacted for Sergeant Tibbott, even all these years later). Secondary sources, however, report that Tibbott suffered from “shell shock” while he was overseas and that the condition persisted when he was back in Vancouver. He was subject to gassing, up-close bayonet fighting, and was wounded in a hand and had several shrapnel wounds in various parts of his body. In short, as the Province reporter put it, his war was one of “hard campaigning” (Province 7 Sept 1917). His mental illness exhibited, in part at least, as fainting spells. He apparently spent some time at Shaughnessy Military Hospital in Vancouver getting what limited treatment was then available for that disability.

Upon returning to Vancouver after his war service, Tibbott worked at a day job as a representative with Ellwood Ward Co., a printer. By 1922, he was working in his own capacity as a printer. And by 1923, he and George Rex (by that time, Tibbott’s second music compositional partner) had set up their own music publishing company, Le Roy Publishing, with offices in Vancouver (in the Empire Block) and San Francisco (where George Rex was the representative). Tibbott’s first compositional partner was A. Paul Michelin (1895-1955), a noted Vancouver organist for many years. In short, by 1923, Tibbott’s night job became his day job. From the time he had left war service, he was cranking out popular music in both unpublished and published form.

Tibbott’s compositions included the following unpublished ones:

• When I Get Back to My Hometown Tonight. n.d. Tibbott & A. Victor Tibbott (Sun 6 Nov 1919)
• Back in Civies. n.d. Tibbott & A. Victor Tibbott (Sun 6 Nov 1919)
• I Have a Lovely Garden. n.d. Tibbott. (Daily World 12 Nov 1919)
• Aeroplane Songs. n.d. Tibbott (Province 05 Jan 1921)

. . . and the following published compositions:

• I Just Want You. 1921. Tibbott & Paul Michelin. Arranged by Calvin Winter.
• Georgia (That’s Where I’m Longing To Be). 1921. Tibbott & Paul Michelin.
• The Land of Yesterday. 1922. Tibbott & George Rex.
• Sleepy Town. 1922. Tibbott & George Rex.
• Cat’s Whiskers. 1923. Tibbott & George Rex. (This version of the tune was recorded for RCA-Victor in 1954 by Lou Monte; it isn’t the entire song, however, it is just the chorus. The verses of the Tibbott & Rex tune appear below.) Note: Coincidentally, Ed Gladstone and Felix Austead published a completely different tune/words than the one by Tibbott and Rex, also in 1923!
• That’s Why I’m Longing for You. 1923. Tibbott & George Rex.
• Vancouver. 1923. Tibbott & George Rex.

The last of the published songs, Vancouver, was pitched to the Vancouver Publicity Bureau as a possible booster for the city. Tibbott and Rex offered it to the city for $5000. The City demurred (Sun 18 Dec 1923).

On March 23rd, 1924, an unidentified body was found in the “woods” two blocks south of West 25th Avenue between Heather and Willow Streets. The body had been there, it was estimated, a week or more. And in the pocket of the person was an envelope addressed to David Tibbot — Fred’s father — and his Hoy Street address. It didn’t take the police long to establish the identity of the body: It was Fred Tibbott’s (Sun 24 March 1924).

Tibbott’s friends were at pains not to describe his death as a suicide. George Rex attributed his passing to one of his fainting spells due to shell shock (Sun 25 March 1924). There was an inquest, and the jury found that he came to his death “while of unsound mind caused by injuries received while on military service overseas” (Sun 25 March 1924). In other words, he died by his own hand but indirectly due to mental injury sustained in the War.

Hastings Park Zoo

VPL 21921 – Deer at Hastings Park Zoo – 1925. Dominion Photo.

The Hastings Park Zoo endured at the park for about 30 years, however it is all but ignored in most histories of Vancouver parks and the Exhibition which has called Hastings Park home, the Pacific National Exhibition (PNE).

When the Zoo got its start in 1911, there was ambition on the part of the Exhibition Association to have one of “big proportions”. However, when the association was asked what buildings it was working on for the Exhibition, none of those mentioned had anything to do with a zoo. This would be typical of the association in future years, too. They would happily accept donations of various critters (especially “members of the feathery tribe”), but when it came to capital investment for the zoo, that was another story (Daily News Advertiser, 17 Jan 1911).

CVA 180 – 3547. Plan of the Vancouver Exhibition Grounds, 1915. As shown in the Index, the Zoo was located at 11-K, in the ravine.

In 1913, a shipment arrived at the Hastings Park Zoo of Chinese pheasants (probably Golden Pheasants) and Mandarin Ducks aboard the steamship Monteagle (Sun 7 Jan 1913). A couple of years later, a “deodorized skunk” was donated by boat builders, Pascoe & Co., who in turn received it from a northern BC lumber camp. In addition, P. Burns & Co. donated a seal (Province 2 Oct 1915).

The Zoo seemed to reach its zenith in terms of breadth of collection by the early 1920s: a pair of porcupines, deer, several guinea fowl, canaries, finches, bears, coyotes, swans, South American birds, Swedish ducks, Muscovy ducks, among others. In addition, the federal Department of Fisheries had established a well-stocked aquarium at Hastings Park that was considered to be part of the Zoo. The manager of the Exhibition Association in 1920, H. S. Rolston, made so bold as to forecast that within a “short time” the Zoo’s collection would be “second to none” in BC (Province 7 Apr 1920).

Where in Hastings Park was the Zoo? According to newspaper accounts, it was located in the “ravine” — probably a former Vancouver urban creek bed. The plan (at left) confirms that location. I imagine that the birds and various other harmless animals were allowed to roam pretty freely. Bears and coyotes, however, were likely caged someplace in the ravine.

VPL 21923 – Cassowary. Part of the “Feathery Tribe” at the Hastings Park Zoo. 1925. Dominion Photo.

In 1922, thieves made off with a part of the collection. The robbers’ sense of value could have been improved, however. Their “haul” consisted of five pigeons and a duck (Sun 6 Mar 1922). Perhaps they were hungry!

It isn’t clear to me exactly when the Hastings Park Zoo packed it in, but it seems likely that it was sometime in the early years of WW2. That was about the time that the aquarium in the Park shut down and I suspect that it was about the same time for the rest of the Zoo. Since most of the critters were birds, however, I expect that they were allowed to live out their lives in the ravine.

Sun 25 Aug 1975. An ad for the 1970s Animal Fair – with pretty awful poetry!

There was an “Animal Fair” at the PNE in the mid-1970s, however the fair seems to have been a petting zoo designed mainly for young kids to cuddle the bunnies and sheep.

It must be admitted that the Zoo at Hastings Park was never much of a Zoo, Mr. Ralston’s optimistic prognostication notwithstanding. However, the Stanley Park Zoo was never much of a zoo, either, and it hasn’t been ignored to the extent that the Hastings Park Zoo has been. In Vancouver’s Fair, for example, there is just the most passing reference to a zoo ever existing at the Park: “Further developments included…the beginnings of a small zoological collection” (Breen & Coates, 32). There are no illustrations of the Zoo in the accompanying volume of photographs.

The True Fable of the “Old Safe Block”

I was paging through an early Vancouver directory the other day and stumbled across a building named the “Old Safe block”. (For the uninitiated, “block” is just another word for building). It was common for early Vancouver designers to name their buildings, but typically they used a surname, like Flack or Williams or Crews. Usually, the names would be after the owner. In that regard, the Old Safe block was unusual. Indeed, it seemed likely there was a story behind it!

First, a little background.

The building which would be known as Old Safe was built in 1887 (the year following Vancouver’s incorporation as a city and a year after the Great Fire) at the SE corner of Hastings at Seymour. It was the first brick building to be constructed on Hastings (World, 7 Aug 1919). It was built by the CPR (who owned the land on which it would sit) for the Bank of British Columbia and the Bank of Montreal, who would share the property.

VPL 9632. The Old Safe Block was the two-storey building in the foreground at SE corner of Hastings and Seymour (where the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue stands today). 189- Edwards Bros.

Old safe, enter stage right.

The Bank of BC arranged to buy a large and hefty safe. According to one account, it tipped the scales at 3 tons (World 26 Nov 1906)! A vault was built by the Bank to surround the safe. A couple of years later, the Bank of B.C. merged with the Canadian Bank of Commerce and the amalgamated bank moved out of the Bank of BC’s former premises — without the safe (World Nov 26, 1906). This seems a reasonable decision, as the old safe was just that – old (it was thought to have been shipped to Vancouver in the 1860s) – and furthermore, unnecessary, since the new amalgamated premises at the SE corner of Hastings and Granville (the building in which Birk’s is today) already had a commodious and modern safe (Province 2 Jan 1919).

In 1903, Edward Lewis got ownership of the former Bank of BC building and he converted the building into one suitable for several businesses. But no sooner had Lewis acquired the property than the CPR/Bank of Commerce decided that the safe belonged to them. Please note that they reached this conclusion fully four years after they moved out of the building. Lewis disputed the claim of the CPR/Bank and a court case ensued.

Scene change to a courtroom somewhere in Vancouver.

Judge Henderson tried the case and found in favour of the CPR/Bank, awarding them $75 in damages and . . . (you guessed it), the old safe (World Nov 26, 1906). I cannot help wondering whether the CPR/Bank did not regret its court action, successful though it was. It seems a pyrrhic victory.

But the tale of the Old Safe block didn’t end with Judge Henderson’s verdict. Lewis appealed the decision and won. Lewis’ most persuasive argument seems to have been that the safe wouldn’t be recoverable without greatly damaging his property (World Nov 26 1906).

Denouement.

There was no appeal by the CPR/Bank, which suggests that they had reached the conclusion that “winning” would be meaningless. The safe seems to have been likewise useless to Lewis and later owners for anything more than as a cool storage space for the occasional dairy items. The Old Safe block would be what the building would be called after the court action ended. The old safe would remain within the structure until the former Bank of BC was demolished in ca1919 to make way for the Union Bank’s new building on the site (later, the Bank of Toronto; it still stands today as the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue).

It seems that the moral of this true fable (a variant of The Dog in the Manger) is applicable to both parties to the court dispute: “Don’t grudge others — you bankers, railway barons and shop owners — what you aren’t able to enjoy yourselves.”

Forgotten Philanthropist

CVA 136-419 – Portrait of Rufus Gibbs. 1964. Allan Ray, photographer.

When the subject of Vancouver philanthropists comes up in conversation, the names H. R. MacMillan, Leon Koerner, Jimmy Pattison, Jack Diamond, and David Lam are likely to arise. But the name of Rufus Gibbs is less likely to come up. Who was he? How did he make his bucks? To whom did he distribute them? And why has his name faded into relative obscurity today?

Rufus Charles Gibbs was born to John and Eliza in 1882 in Ontario. His father seems to have made a living painting carriages in his home town of Peterborough. Rufus made a living for awhile as an electrical worker in Ontario. In his mid-20s, he made his way west-ish until he reached BC. He settled in Vancouver in 1908, where he established Gibbs Tool & Stamping Works, which specialized in manufacturing fishing lures. His business had three locations including one on Main Street, which was destroyed by fire, another at 356 West Dufferin Street, and a third at 290 West 3rd Avenue (starting in 1938) where it remained until after his death in 1968.

I found a bit of evidence that Gibbs had some experience as an inventor. He won a U.S. patent in 1927 for a match striker (Sun, 26 July 1927). As far as I can tell, however, this invention was never manufactured and Gibbs earned nothing from it. An avid cigar smoker, I suspect that the striker was as much for his own use as anything!

Gibbs had been a member of the executive of the Vancouver Boys Club Association for some time. In 1948, however, he notched up his involvement by purchasing a building for the Eastside Boys Club at 700 East Pender Street. The building at this site had formerly been a Jewish place of worship, an early location of the Schara Tzedeck Synagogue. Gibbs purchased the property for $15,000 and then paid for updates to turn it into a recreation centre for the Eastside Boys Club (a total outlay of some $40,000). It was to be known as the Rufe Gibbs Unit of the Association. This was the first of Gibbs’ major public donations.

St. John the Divine (Anglican) Church in Yale, BC had Gibbs to thank for advancing $12,000 toward its major restoration project in 1953.

In 1954, he helped the Ornamental Swim Club of Peterborough to attend and compete in the Synchronized Swimming event in the British Empire Games in Vancouver with a donation of over $5,000.

In 1963, Gibbs made a donation of $50,000 to Trent University in Peterborough. The plan was for five $500 scholarships to be awarded annually. These scholarships are still being awarded to this day “to students in all years on the basis of academic standing, all-round achievement and character.”

In February of 1964, the sod was turned on a development of the Canadian Arthritis and Rheumatism Society (later, Canadian Arthritis Society) to be known as the “Rufus Gibbs Lodge”. The Lodge (at 3255 Ash) would serve as a residence for out-of-towners from elsewhere in BC who were in Vancouver for treatment for arthritis (from which Gibbs suffered). He donated $60,000 of the $75,0000 cost of construction of the lodge.

In the mid-1960s, Gibbs donated $100,000 toward the development of the 1967 extension to the Vancouver Aquarium. Specifically, the donation went toward the creation of the Rufe Gibbs Hall of sport fishes.

In 1959, the Native Sons of BC awarded Gibbs the Good Citizen of the Year medal. In 1964, he received from the City of Vancouver the Freedom of the City, the principal tangible benefit of which is exclusion from having to pay for city parking. That was a benefit which Gibbs could not enjoy, however, as he didn’t drive.

CVA 1435-574. The Rufe Gibbs Hall at Vancouver Aquarium ca 1967.

In 1966, after 57 years in business, Gibbs closed the doors on his fishing lure manufacturing works. This came about following a labour dispute with his employees who demanded wage increases. He remained president and sole owner of the firm at the time of his passing.

Gibbs lived simply. He was a life-long bachelor; he rented a floor of the Patricia Hotel on East Hastings for some 44 years, moving into a rental apartment in Berwick House at 1375 Nicola in the West End for the last eight years of his life; he flew just once. And apart from an affection for cigars and the occasional glass of whiskey, he had no known vices.

Why has Rufus Gibbs become a relatively unknown personality, today? Well, the capital projects he funded (such as the Eastside Boys Club and the Rufus Gibbs Lodge) have not stood the test of time. The Boys Club at 700 East Pender was sold and redeveloped into condo units in 1987. And the Arthritis Society seems not to still retain the Rufus Gibbs Lodge. While the Rufe Gibbs Hall at the Aquarium seems still to be extant, the signage identifying the hall is very small and is in a dark space which makes it almost impossible to read unless one is looking for it. In addition, the amount of money which Gibbs donated to various causes — when compared with the amount splashed about by the likes of Pattison — was admittedly quite small. But he gave what he had to those causes that presented themselves to him in his day.

Interestingly, the Gibbs fishing lure company has endured. After several mergers, Gibbs Fishing is today a going concern, some 115 years after it was founded by Rufus Gibbs in Vancouver.

When he died in 1968, aged 86, Gibbs left an estate of about $466,000. A small portion of this was designated for individuals; $25,000 was for the Salvation Army; and $300,000 was to be given to impoverished Anglican churches in BC.

As he was often quoted as saying, “What are you going to do with it if you don’t give it away? I can’t take it with me, that’s certain” (Sun 8 Jan 1964). Whether he’s remembered by the average Vancouverite today or not, may I lead us in three cheers for the memory of what Rufus Gibbs did in his relatively small way . . . and may we follow his example!

Local ‘royal’ hostelries abound

I used to be convinced that there was a Cecil Hotel in virtually every urban centre in North America. And for all I know, that may have been true. But the Cecil had nothing on the Windsor Hotels. These were everywhere in BC — Trout Lake City, Fergusson, Rossland, Greenwood, Morissey, Revelstoke, Nanaimo and Van Anda. And they were in other provinces, too, notably Alberta (Red Deer, Lundbreck, Edmonton, Lethbridge, Calgary, Camrose, and Hughenden) and Ontario (Kingston, Sault Ste. Marie, Windsor (naturally), Ottawa, and North Bay). To say nothing of larger North American locales such as Montreal and New York City.

But this blog looks exclusively to Vancouver history. And there were no fewer than six Windsor Hotels here from almost the incorporation of the city until 1980.

Westminster Avenue

SGN 1118 – 792 Westminster Avenue (later Main Street) Windsor Hotel (at corner of Barnard Street, later Union Street). ca1888 Charles Bailey photo.

The first Windsor Hotel I could find in Vancouver was at the NE corner of Westminster and Barnard (today, Main and Union). G. A. Langley was an early proprietor. The hotel seems to have been built in ca 1888. However in late 1888, another Windsor was so named and it got to be confusing having two such hotels in the city and so by 1889, this hotel changed its name (unimaginatively) to the Victoria (News-Advertiser 13 Nov 1889). By 1902, and under new management, this establishment was calling itself, once again, the Windsor — no doubt at least in part because the Windsor at Pender and Seymour was no longer using the name (Province, 4 Jan 1902).

The rooming houses at this location have included: Westminster Rooms (1920s-1930s), Luck Man Rooms (1940s), and Three Star Rooms (1950s). There were several different lunch spots on the main floor: the American Cafe (1920s), Stella’s Cafe (1930s), Woodland Cafe (1940s), the Koh-I-Noor (1967-1969) and the Punjab Restaurant (1970-1993).

The building which stands at this corner today, although quite ancient (by Vancouver standards) doesn’t appear to be the same structure as the first Windsor was in. Adjacent to this rooming house for a number of years was the notable Vie’s Chicken and Steak House (1950s-1979).

West Pender and Seymour

The second Windsor Hotel (the one with which the first one was sometimes confused) was located at 605 West Pender. It had a dining room (which would seat 48), and 22 bedrooms. It was built by Dr. James Whetham. The first manager was Ed Ermatinger (1888) who had formerly managed the CPR hotel in North Bend (World, 31 Jan 1889). Management was taken over in September 1889 by H. A. Brocklesby and William H. Allen (later, just Brocklesby) who were formerly employed at the Hotel Vancouver (World, 14 Sept 1889). T. A. Shaw was a later manager (1891); he was followed by William Brown (1892).

By ca1894, the Windsor on Pender at Seymour folded and became the Delmonico Hotel, taking the name for the hotel which had been, for a number of years prior, the name of the dining room attached to it. In the 1912 period, it became the Terminal Rooming House; in the 1920s, it was known as the Mason Rooms; in the 1930s, Manor Rooms.

In about 1960, the former Windsor #2 was demolished, presumably to make way, ultimately, for the parking garage which seems to have been erected there in the late 1960s and which remains on that corner.

East Hastings and Gore

CVA 371-2119 -NE Corner of East Hastings Street at Gore Street ca 1910. Windsor House – latterly the B.C. Salvation Army HQ.

Windsor House was established at 301 East Hastings Street (at Gore) in 1903. It had 23 bedrooms. The first manager was Mrs. D. McCannell; by 1905, the manager was Ellen Ostrom.

This Windsor was purchased in September 1906 by the Salvation Army. It was enlarged and remodelled (shown above in its early Salvation Army form) to serve as their BC headquarters with an auditorium that would seat up to 600. The Sally Ann replaced the three-storey structure with a new and much larger concrete deco-style “citadel” in 1949. In the mid-1980s it became the Gold Buddha Sagely Monastery. In 2001, it was purchased by the Vancouver Health Board (for a cool $1.5 million); it was supposed to be converted into a health centre that would integrate Eastside health services. But nothing came of those plans and ever since, it has been used as a huge storage facility by Vancouver Coastal Health. In 2016, there was talk by the province of demolishing the structure for social housing, but nothing has come of that plan, either.

Granville (Across from Vancouver Opera House)

2015-028.22 – Robson and Granville looking toward the Windsor Hotel at 750 Granville, ca 1913.

The Hepburn block (built for Alderman Water Hepburn shortly before) and built across from the Vancouver Opera House on Granville Street just south of Georgia, was leased in 1908 to become the Windsor Hotel, initially with 50 bedrooms (Province 20 Feb 1908). Early managers were W. H. Allen and Charles D. McKenzie (1908); later Houde and C. Thibault (1909); J. B. Simpson (1910); T. J. Ogle and Dave Burton (1914); and J. B. Teevens (1914). Ogle and Burton added another 100 bedrooms to the initial offering (World 6 Jan 1912).

There was a Windsor Cafe attached to the hotel (“Why cook at home when you can get a dinner…served with all white service?”) (News Advertiser 3 May 1908). From ca1913 until it folded, the Cafe had as its manager, Henri Aubenau (Province 27 Aug 1913), formerly of Vancouver’s London Grill, Dutch Grill, French Cafe, and Olympic Cafe.

By November 1914, the Windsor Hotel on Granville called it quits and the space was leased to the Castle Hotel. The Castle remained at the site of the former Windsor until the early 1990s when it too folded. The Winners/Best Buy stores went in this space by the early 2000s (in a new building).

55 East Hastings

The Windsor at 52 East Hastings was extant from 1929-1934. Sam Plastino was manager 1929-30; Lou S. Barrack from 1931-34. This Windsor was probably the least reputable of all of the hostelries of the name. Barrack was arrested (along with five women and two Chinese men) for “keeping a disorderly house” (code for a house of prostitution) in a raid on the Windsor. Barrack pleaded guilty and faced a fine of $100 and two months at the Oakalla prison farm (Sun 23 March 1933). The other seven were fined $25. In 1935, Barrack was convicted of “living off the avails of prostitution” and spent 5 more years courtesy of His Majesty, this time at the New Westminster Penitentiary (Province 13 May1936). In January 1935, the city refused to renew the license of this Windsor and indicated that any further use of the establishment as a hostelry would result in prosecution (Province 24 Jan 1935).

By 1936, the hotel was back in business under the new name of the St. James (and, presumably, new ownership) (News-Herald 17 June 1936). The structure that once housed a Windsor seems still to be standing, although it’s in very bad shape. There was talk in 2021 of demolishing it, but nothing seems to have come of that proposal (Sun 10 Nov 2021).

Nicola at Harwood

CVA 1095-01357 – Windsor Lodge at Nicola and Harwood streets in 1974, looking down at the heels and towards the end of its life.

Before this was the Windsor Lodge it was a private residence. The address was 1279 Nicola. Early owners were Henry J. Thorne (tea wholesaler); Ernest J. Deacon (lawyer); and John G. Billings (building inspector).

The Windsor Lodge was established in 1938. Early managers included J. Barnes (1940); F. Cloak (1942); and A. K. Courtney (1945). By 1970 they were limiting renters those “over 30”; by March 1973, that had changed to those “over 35” and by July 1973, to “over 40”!

The Lodge lasted until ca1980. It was replaced by the low-rise (5-storey) Ocean Vista apartments ca1982. It still stands at the original address.

Reginald Brock and his Remarkable Funeral Procession

CVA 99-2867 Funeral Procession on Georgia Street for RW and Mildred Brock. August 1935. Stuart Thomson photo.

Well, his funeral procession is remarkable to me, at any rate.

The photo above has been a source of puzzlement to me since I first laid eyes on it some years ago. I knew in a general way who Brock was. He was the Dean of Applied Science at UBC and the namesake of a building on UBC campus in which I’d spent some time in the early 1990s (Brock Memorial Hall Annex), as it then served as office space for grad school teaching assistants in the political science department, of which I was then one. But I couldn’t conceive why a dean should rate a major funeral procession through downtown Vancouver, as I couldn’t think of any other UBC staff (deans or otherwise) who had merited such treatment.

So why was RW (as he was widely known) – rarely as Reginald – accorded such an honour? Some details are in order – about his life and the manner of his passing – before we’ll be in a position to speculate on why a major public funeral procession.

RW’s life (Briefly)

RW was born in January 1874 in Perth, Ontario to a Methodist pastor, Rev. Thomas Brock and his wife, Marian Jenkins. He earned his M.A. degree from the School of Mines at Queen’s University in 1895. RW did post-grad work at Heidelberg University, Germany and served for several years as an explorer in the Kootenay region of BC as a member of the permanent staff of the Geological Survey. From 1907-1913, he was Director of the Geological Survey of Canada. He was appointed a Royal Commissioner to investigate the cause of the tragic slide of part of Turtle Mountain into the town of Frank, Alberta in 1903. Brock left the Geological Survey to accept the Dean-ship of the Faculty of Applied Science at UBC in 1913.

RW Brock. The Totem, 1931.

Shortly after becoming Dean, he became actively involved in the Great War as a Captain initially and later with the rank of Major. He was, early on in the war, involved in the recruitment of men among the western universities of Canada (which were, at the time, UofA, UofS, UofM and UBC). Later, he was attached to General Allenby’s staff in Palestine, and in 1918 he was seconded to the War Office in London. Brock was de-mobilized in 1919.

RW seemed to enjoy public speaking as he spoke regularly to a variety of groups about his war experiences and about travels he took after the war to different locations. Among the topics of Dean Brock’s public speaking outings were: “With Allenby in Palestine”, “Vancouver’s Ancient History”, “Palestine and the Last Crusade”, “Bible Lands”, “Life in China”, “A City Built For Gentlemen by Gentlemen: A History of Malta”, “The History of Man Revealed in the Rocks”, and “The Future of Canada”. So more than just re-runs of old talks about rocks and bones!

Millie Brock. UBC Photograph Collection.

RW married Mildred Gertrude (“Millie”) Britton in November 1900. Together they raised five boys (Willet, Byron, David, Thomas, and Phillip). In 1922, Millie was appointed District Commissioner for Vancouver of the Girl Guides. She was appointed commissioner for the Girl Guides for the Burrard Division (which included most of the Vancouver suburban areas) in 1926. That seems to have been a promotion.

In 1928, Brock was appointed second-in-command of the (Vancouver-based) Seaforth Highlanders; and by 1933, he took over command of the Highlanders as Lieutenant-Colonel. In January, 1935, RW was appointed Chairman of the Vancouver Harbour Commission.

The Deaths of RW & Millie

On July 30, 1935, RW and Millie Brock died from injuries sustained from a (Vancouver-built) Boeing flying boat accident upon take-off from Alta Lake (which is located about 50 miles north of Vancouver); the aircraft seems to have been bound for Vancouver from Pioneer Mine. The plane had stopped at Alta Lake to pick up Millie who was vacationing there. Death was instantaneous for the Dean and pilot of the plane, who were both in front seats and took the full force of the crash. Death came about 8 hours later for Millie after being sped to Squamish via train which was met by Victor Spencer’s yacht, Deerleap, which took her and Pioneer Mine executive, David Sloan, as well as the dead to Horseshoe Bay where they were transferred to an Exclusive ambulance to VGH. Millie died upon reaching Horseshoe Bay. She was 56; RW was 61.

CVA 99-7263. RW’s casket being loaded on the gun carriage following the service at St. John’s United Church for the military funeral procession. August 1935. Stuart Thomson photo.

The service for the Brocks was held at St. John’s United Church at Comox and Broughton in the West End. Once the service was concluded, RW’s casket was placed on a gun carriage (and Millie’s in a hearse) for transport east on Georgia Street as far as the Georgia Viaduct after which the remains of both Brocks were transferred to a hearse which then proceeded to the family’s burial plot at Ocean View Park. The funeral procession was part of the “full military honours” which the Seaforth Highlanders laid on for the Dean. For the Georgia Street/gun carriage leg of the procession, RW’s casket was covered with a Union Jack and following the casket was a black led charger with empty saddle and reversed boots in the stirrups. The Province newspaper described the crowds at the funeral procession which it claimed numbered in the thousands to be “one of the greatest expressions of public sympathy in Vancouver’s history” (Province, 5.Aug 1935).

Conclusions

It is pretty plain from the above details that the funeral procession was sponsored by the Seaforth Highlanders rather than the City. However, it is one thing to have such a thing; it is quite another to attract thousands of people to the procession. I think at least three elements contributed to the people of Vancouver coming out in such numbers for the Brocks’ funeral.

First, I think that the willingness of the Dean to speak publicly, and presumably effectively, to a diverse array of audiences in the city served to make him more popular than your average UBC prof/administrator. Second, I suspect that the shocking nature of the way in which the Brocks died, and the fact that they were taken in the prime of their lives was a factor. Finally, the Brocks seem to have had personalities that attracted people to them. That factor, and the fact that they had met such a wide variety of folks over the course of their lives in the City contributed, I think, to the numbers at their funeral: students, UBC staff, girl guides and girl guide commissioners, miners, prospectors, harbour commission people, geologists, and mililtary personnel, to cite just a few.

The Padmore

VPL 20268. Showing St. Francis Hotel and Almer Hotel (the Padmore Block) adjacent to each other.

The narrow building adjacent to the St. Francis Hotel on the south side of the 600 block of Cordova (between Granville and Seymour) was built in 1912 and was known as the Padmore Block after its initial owner, F. W. Padmore. The building was 25′ wide by 122′ deep and was of “concrete, brick, and mill construction” (Province, 2 Mar 1912). In print accounts of the construction, various numbers of floors were anticipated. One account said it would have nine floors, another said six, and others claimed (accurately) eight. Padmore bought the land on which he would ultimately build his structure fully 10 years prior, in about 1902 — several years before the St. Francis Hotel was built (at the time, the adjacent structure was the (wood frame) Revere House Hotel; preceded by the White Swan Hotel). The Padmore was built at about the same time as the new CPR depot (today’s Waterfront Skytrain Station) was being constructed to replace the earlier chateau-style depot.

Saturday Sunset 28 June 1913.

The first occupant of the hotel space was the Bachelor’s Club (1913-1914). The Club took over the entire Padmore Block. It claimed to offer a “fine view over harbour; new building; new furniture; hot and cold water and phone to each room; smoking, reading and writing rooms” (Daily News Advertiser 28 May 1913). It had about 90 rooms, all with outside views. Annual club dues were $5. There were meals available in a dining room at modest cost and an orchestra played in the dining room in the evenings. The Club didn’t last long; it seems to have folded within a year of its establishment. It had the misfortune to be launched just prior to the start of the Great War, when most young bachelors were Europe-bound. Another similar club, the Jolly Bachelor’s Club was founded in Kerrisdale at 2118 West 41st Avenue by 1917. But unlike the short-lived Cordova Street Club, the Jolly Bachelor’s didn’t have a residential component.

Saturday Sunset 28 June 1913.

World. 18 August 1920

The next group to lease the Padmore Block was Vancouver’s Red Triangle Club (1919-1920). This was a YMCA hotel for returned soldiers of which there were several others in Canadian and international cities. Captain Robert C. Horn was in charge of the Vancouver Red Triangle Club. The Club was never intended to be a long-term prospect, and it wasn’t, lasting just one year in Vancouver.

The Padmore Block became the Almer Hotel under the management of Mrs. M. Greer shortly after the Red Triangle Club disbanded. The Almer continued on under that name until it was demolished in the 1980s, giving way to high-rise office space in the area once occupied by the St. Francis, Almer and Grandview Hotels.

Postcard header showing where the “red triangle” of the YMCA came from.

In Celebration of Mezzanines

I’m a big fan of mezzanines. I like their architectural function in keeping a space open and “airy”. This post is intended to be a celebration of mezzanine floors in Vancouver by touching on some of my favourite examples, past and present, existing and demolished.

What do I Mean by a Mezzanine Floor?

I like the Wiktionary definition of a mezzanine: “An intermediate floor or storey in between the main floors of a building; specifically, one that is directly above the ground floor which does not extend over the whole floorspace of the building, and so resembles a large balcony overlooking the ground floor.” I would add that in order for a mezzanine to truly “count” in my definition, the space in the intermediate floor must not be separated from the ground floor space by a barrier – including glass.

I’m most interested in those mezzanines that exist or existed in Vancouver that were/are in retail spaces or eateries. I’m less interested (although I’ll spend some time on) those intermediate floors that are in office or residential spaces. I will ignore in this post those spaces that are sometimes referred to as “mezzanines” that exist in churches, hotels, theatres, and stadia. I’ve found that the “mezzanines” in those spaces don’t really fit the definition above and are really, in the case of churches, “galleries”, and in the other spaces, often glorified staircases.

Early Commercial Mezzanines

One of the first floors that came to mind when I was brainstorming mezzanines in Vancouver was the Marine Building. It used to have at least two mezzanines: the one that we probably most often think of today above the terra cotta features in the main lobby; and there used to be a second one in the Merchant’s Exchange section of the building.

Looking from the Marine Building mezzanine out onto the terra cotta. MDM Photo.

There was a mezzanine in the old Inns of Court building, apparently, but it was renovated out of existence early on (by 1906) to make room for more office space (World, 23 Feb 1906). The Inns building was, of course, demolished long ago.

There is one extant from about 1908 in the former B.C. Permanent Savings and Loan building (today an “event space” known simply as “The Permanent”) on Pender Street. The mezzanine is above the former vault and takes one near to the building’s quite remarkable dome.

Almost from the opening of the Standard Bank Building, the mezzanine floor had a hair-dressing outfit in it. This continued at least through the 1970s (although with different operators).

The former Bank of Commerce block at the SE corner of Granville and Hastings (today’s Birks) had and, to their credit, still has a mezzanine with wide, sweeping steps leading one up to it. I can imagine ladies and gents of the ‘20s who were dressed to “the nines” posing dramatically on those stairs!

Retail Mezzanines

One of the earliest references I could find to a mezzanine in a retail space was a “cosy tea room” in addition to a “rest and writing room” located on the mezzanine of Stark’s Glasgow House – a prominent early dry goods department store in Vancouver (World, 28 Sept 1909). Why would a person go to a department store and suddenly feel the overwhelming compulsion to write — and require a whole room for that function? Mysterious.

There was a mezzanine in Edward Chapman’s men’s wear in the old Bower Building at 545 Granville (there is currently a new Bower Block at the same location) which drew the following enthusiasm from the Province:

A mezzanine floor…goes around part of the walls like a gigantic and convenient shelf…. [and] on its walls are to be found a few of the choice pictures which it is Mr. Chapman’s hobby to collect and which are always worth looking at.

Province 01 Dec 1910

Presumably, the “gigantic shelf” is gone in the new Bower, but I cannot confirm, as the security guys there are not overly fond of historical busy-bodies who ask peculiar questions. There is more about Edward Chapman’s to come.

Stairs up to the mezzanine in the Birk’s Building (Georgia at Granville). Photo courtesy of Angus McIntyre.

The David Spencer department store had a mezzanine from 1908, when they built the building facing onto Cordova Street. In a sense, though, all of the floors in this new structure were mezzanines. All eight floors faced into a common light well with a portal at the rooftop to admit the sunshine. This structure pre-dated the ready availability of electrical light and so this helped solve that problem. What was on the mezzanine? Well, as was common among dry goods stores with mezzanines, shoes. Shoes for everyone: men, women, and kids. Also the optical department was there.

An early and longstanding retail mezzanine (spanning roughly 1927-1979) was at the Hudson’s Bay Company. Initially, there was just the one mezzanine on the west (Granville) side of the store. On that floor, were the bookstore, HBC’s circulating library, and the optical parlour, post office, parcel check desk and public telephones (by 1932, you could also find clock and watch repair facilities on the mezzanine). Indeed, just about anything you could think of that didn’t fit readily into any other department, could be found on the mezzanine floor of the Bay. By 1952, there were two mezzanines mentioned in HBC ad copy: a west mezzanine and an east one. Both of these seem to have been remodelled out of existence by 1979.

CVA 586-1722 – Looking upwards toward the mezzanine floor at the Hudson Bay Company. Don Coltman ca 1943.

In 1929, Cut Rate Drugs on Hastings and Granville opened a ‘Truss Room” on their mezzanine floor! “In the seclusion and privacy of this department you will find courteous attendants ready to give you the very thing you want in Surgical Supports” (Sun 14 March 1929).

In 1930, Rae-Son Shoes for ladies began crowing about the mezzanine floor in their establishment at 644 Granville. Rae-Son wasn’t new to the shoe biz; they’d been in the business for about 30 years. But this shop with a mezzanine was new to them, and they intended to make the most of its presence. They engaged in a “merchandising experiment” (more accurately, a marketing experiment) in this first year of the Great Depression to provide on the mezzanine floor, shoes for ladies marked at no more than $7.50. It evidently was a success, as they enlarged the mezzanine only a few months later to twice its original size (Sun, May 30, 1930). Rae- Son arguably made the most effective use of mezzanines among Vancouver retailers over the course of their corporate life, making the word “mezzanine” almost synonymous with great shoes for ladies at reasonable prices. By the 1960s, Rae-Son, though continuing to exist in the shoe business, seemed to discontinue their “merchandising experiment” with the mezzanine.

About the same time as Rae-Son was having its initial success with its mezzanine, Bert Love was establishing a restaurant that featured a mezzanine “with several private dining rooms where business men may dine and discuss business affairs in privacy” (Sun 26 May 1930). Not much later, Mr. and Mrs. Winterbottom had opened the Devon Cafe at 675 Granville with a Mezzanine Lounge.

CVA 99-4438 – Devon Cafe interior at 675 Granville Street. Stuart Thomson, 1935.

By 1938, Woodward’s had obtained a building permit for an addition to their Vancouver store at Hastings and Abbott and it would include a mezzanine with washrooms for men and women and, later, a shoe department (of course) featuring Woodward’s brand Woodsonia shoes. The location of the mezzanine was a bit obscure, however. It rather confusingly described its shoe department as being on the “Mezzanine, Woodward’s, Main Floor” (Province 3 Jan 1949). Which was it? On the mezzanine or the main floor?! By 1949, the men’s tailored-to-measure department was also on the mezzanine in Woodward’s and by 1951, it was joined by the Mezzanine Dinette – a sort of 1950s-era cafe.

By the 1940s, Copp the Shoe Man was crowing about its mezzanine in ads for its shop at 339 W. Hastings.

In 1948, Tip Top Tailors moved into its space on Hastings near Hamilton along with a mezzanine-cum-catwalk for both male and female fashion shows. The space has been used for several retail purposes since Tip Top moved out in about 1955, and I strongly suspect that the mezzanine is long gone.

In the same year, Tracy’s Fashion Centre had opened at 524 Granville (where Moore’s the Suit People is today). Tracy’s would remain there – with it’s mezzanine – until the mid-1970s. I have a feeling that there is still a mezzanine there, now that it is Moore’s. Tracy’s and Jermaine’s at Granville & Smithe (although operating in a wider range of business than just shoes, seemed to adopt Rae-Son’s strategy with mezzanines for shoes). Starting in 1963, Jermaine’s had a “Mezzanine Coffee Perch” up there, as well (Sun 1 Oct 1963).

In 1959, an entrepreneur named Ross Brown opened a new restaurant opposite the Capital Theatre (at 823 Granville) with a mezzanine that featured lunch “for men only”. Brown referred to his mezzanine as a “lounge” or a “retreat” rather than as a floor and to the whole “men only” experience as being “outstandingly different” (Sun 14 Sept 1959; Sun 12 Oct 1960). Brown claimed to be “always ready to serve you”, presumably only if you were of the appropriate gender!

The Fraser Book Bin (later A-Aabaca Books) at 1247 Granville had a mezzanine floor, which I recall fondly.

In the early 1970s (and perhaps later, too), Edward Chapman’s Men’s Wear on 833 W. Pender Street had an atypical mezzanine. “The balcony [by which they seemed to mean the mezzanine]…is really an antique and art gallery” (Province 2 Aug 1972). Clothing was seemingly almost an afterthought at Edward Chapman’s – both at this shop and at their earlier Granville Street store! This Chapman’s shop was recently demolished as part of the Exchange development on West Pender.

The Mr. Big ‘n Tall Shop by the early 1970s was located at 578 Seymour Street. They had a mezzanine floor on which they put their Mr. Short Store, for shopping by those who were “5’8″ and under” (Sun 30 Mar 1974).

Post-Mezzanine Era

In the post-war period, retail mezzanines seemed to gradually fade out of vogue. They continued to exist, but few seemed to be products of new construction. Most mezzanines that were cropping up as new builds by the late ’60s and early ’70s were in commercial/office spaces and even in residential spaces – particularly as condominiums became more popular.

There was a mezzanine in the BC Hydro building on Burrard at Nelson by the 1950s. This floor housed the personnel department and perhaps other Hydro offices. It seems still to be extant, now that it is the residential “Electra”, though for what purpose I don’t know – possibly just decorative.

Granville Square (200 Granville) and the MacBlo (Georgia near Burrard) buildings both had mezzanines. These are both brutalist office buildings and I suspect that the mezzanines were installed by the architects as a way of mitigating the otherwise unremitting verticalness of the buildings.

There was a mezzanine in the former Baron Gallery at 293 Columbia Street. Artist Tom Carter had an exhibit at the Baron in 2011. But the space hasn’t been an art gallery for years, and recently seems to have become a private residence (condo) of which photographs are not currently available.

The Finest Example (With Functional Corrective)

VPL 3415. Main Branch Robson at Burrard mezzanine.

In my opinion, the mezzanine of the Main Branch of Vancouver Public Library (Robson and Burrard) is a great example of a mezzanine in Vancouver. I think it was one of the first mezzanines that I saw upon coming to Vancouver and I had many positive associations with it. I loved it!

The purchase of the building by Victoria’s Secret after the Main Branch moved down to the “coliseum” site was a real travesty. Although Victoria’s Secret evidently kept the old mezzanine (to their credit), they’ve tarted up the interior of the building to such an extent that one cannot appreciate the mezzanine for what it was.

Mezzanine at Victoria’s Secret.

A friend, who was on the staff of VPL at the time of the move from Robson/Burrard to the coliseum site, had this to say about mezzanines at VPL:

When the present library was being built, admin heard a lot of begging from staff NOT to have a mezzanine at the new site. The staff feared having a mezzanine because it makes it hard to direct people to the floors above.

This (dis)functional feature of mezzanines in a public space hadn’t occurred to me. Her words served as a corrective for my nearly blind affection for the old mezzanine. As with so many other things, context matters.

But I remain fond of that former VPL mezzanine – if only in memory!

The Invisible Cast of Early Vancouver Theatres

This is the scene backstage at the Beacon Theatre. This photo has been given to CVA, but it hasn’t yet been processed by them. Courtesy of Tom Carter’s Collection. This photo was one of several in possession of Arthur Irving and this one was likely made in the early 1930s.

“Stage hand” is an inclusive term used to refer to people (mostly men) carrying out different tasks backstage in live theatre. The term can include stage mechanics, carpenters, property men (or boys), electricians, scenic artists, and many other jobs. Some of these jobs were preparatory (costume design and scenic artistry), while others happened while the play unfolded (scene movers and lighting). One thing that all of these people had in common, however, was that unlike the cast of plays, stage hands were typically invisible to the audience.

Beginning in 1904, with the establishment of the IATSE (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees), Local 118, Vancouver stage hands were protected by a labour union. The IATSE included “stage managers” among those it covered. These managers were not considered “management” in the labour relations sense of the word.

Early Stage Hands

I’m showing below the very basic bios I have been able to assemble (principally from local newspapers; also from Royal B.C. Archives and city directories). It is probably safe to assume that if there is no press citation then the source is either the provincial archives or a city directory. The list is in no particular order. The concluding paragraph shows those for whom I have even less information. I wanted to include them; it seemed wrong to leave them out just because I wasn’t able to put together much information about their lives.

Rod Martin. Crop of CVA 132-1.

James Roderick (Rod) Martin (1889-1973). Martin’s first occupation was in the hotel business. He was a partner with William Routley in ownership of the landmark Coquitlam Hotel on the south side of Dewdney Trunk Road across the street from the CPR Depot. The hotel burned in the big Port Coquitlam fire of 1920 (World 6 Aug 1920). It isn’t clear whether the fire made his mind up to go into the theatre biz or if he’d already made that decision before the fire, but he seems to have made the leap by the 1920s. He married Alice May Welcher (1894-1977) in 1914 when they were still living in Port Coquitlam.

Walter Henry Blake (1887-1957). He began his working life as a Vaudevillian “hoofer” (slang for tap dancer) (Province 4 Nov 1939). He started his backstage career at People’s Theatre around the turn of the 20th century, moved to the original Pantages after that, and in the ‘30s, he worked the Beacon Theatre. He retired four years before his death, leaving a job as utility man at Theatre Under the Stars in the early ‘50s. He was known in the trade as a “flyman,” the stage hand who handles the fly ropes (Sun 4 Sept 1957). Blake married Janet Davis.

George D. Collins. This gent may not “count” strictly speaking as a stage hand, as he was an independent carpentry contractor from Montreal, but I’m including him because he was largely responsible for the construction and outfitting of the Vancouver Opera House, our first fully-outfitted playhouse. Collins later was an advance man for Bronson and Derville’s comedy company (which was a short-lived outfit) (News-Advertiser 9 Dec 1891).

Mutt Martin. Crop of CVA 132-3.

Gordon Charles (Mutt) Martin (1886-1956). He worked backstage at the Pantages (it isn’t clear which one), Beacon, and Orpheum (again, it isn’t clear which one) Theatres (Sun, 6 March 1956). He was at the Capitol in the 1950s (Sun, 6 Sept 1955). Mutt was married to May Halley.

John C. Kloos (1856-1935). An early stage manager employed by Ernest R. Ricketts at the Vancouver Opera House from 1903-1906. He was brought by Ricketts to Vancouver from the United States (one of Kloos’s recent jobs was in Pittsburgh, Kansas) and was praised greatly for the wide experience and technical ability which he brought to the local stage.

Kloos was wise enough to see the value of continuing ed among stage hands, but savvy enough to know that doing so in a classroom setting would not be productive. What he needed was something practical. So he arranged for stage hands at the Vancouver Opera House to take on their colleagues at the People’s Theatre in a stage-setting contest:

The People’s Theatre crew went at it first, and set a handsome “interior” scene in exactly seven minutes. Then they struck it again [presumably, this means they dismantled the scene] in four minutes. The Opera House crew then undertook the same stunt, but they were ten seconds longer in setting. The work of both crews was then criticized by Mr. Kloos….

Province 26 June 1905

The People’s Theatre crew won.

Kloos was also instrumental in bringing the IATSE to Vancouver and he served on the local’s executive. He left B.C. in 1906 for San Francisco. Kloos was married to Lillie Stober. He died in Highland Park, California, a suburb of Los Angeles.

Albert Henry (Harry) Robins (1884-1960). He came to Vancouver from London, England in 1901. He was the property man for awhile at the old Pantages Theatre and later went to work in the Empress and Columbia Theatres (Province 6 Jan 1960). He was married to Elizabeth Angel (1891-1989).

Frank Coates. He was a carpenter in the Empress Theatre who was crippled in an accident that occurred there in 1909. At the end of the play called “A Message from Mars”, Coates fell from “his place in the flies” some 30 feet to the stage floor, but evidently suffered no broken bones (Province 29 Oct 1909).

Frank Woodruff. A stage hand at the Imperial Theatre in 1913, he suffered a scary snake bite as part of the Sherlock Holmes play, “The Speckled Band”. During the final act of the play, apparently, a “giant cobra” sunk its fangs into Woodruff’s forearm. A doctor was called and gave him immediate attention and he evidently didn’t suffer long term effects (World 27 Nov 1913).

Buck Taylor. Crop of CVA 132-1.

William Henry (Buck) Taylor (1882-1966). He began his life in the entertainment biz by becoming a call boy at age 11 in the Vancouver Opera House (Province 15 Dec 1966). He became a full-time stage hand in 1903 and went on to work in that capacity in most local theatres. Taylor’s specialization was as a stage electrician, but he truly was a “stage hand” in the fullest sense, and could (and did) turn his hand to most anything. In a Province feature (by later CBC radio luminary, Clyde Gilmour), Taylor’s professional life was described. In particular, his time as senior stage hand at the Strand Theatre in the ‘40s. At a concert, if the grand piano lid had to be lifted during the concert, Taylor would stroll onto the stage to do the deed and would then take a bow before the audience, who would invariably clap (Province 16 Jan 1948). He was married to Della Garland (1898-1963).

Sidney (Sid) A. Summers (?-1958). He was a stage carpenter at the Orpheum in 1921 (World 23 July 1921). Apparently, during Harry Belafonte’s tour which included Vancouver (at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre) in the 1950s, Belafonte “begged” to have Summers join his team for the balance of his tour through the Pacific Northwest, so impressed was he with the skills of the veteran stage hand (Sun 27 July 1963). Whether Belafonte’s pleas were met with an affirmative isn’t clear. Summers was married to Mary Cody (1888-1968).

William (Wallace) Copp (1878-1938). Copp was a stage carpenter at People’s Theatre in 1905. He was struck by a piece of scenery and rendered unconscious. It was quite some time before he revived (World 17 Feb 1905). He married Manilla Woodworth in 1909.

Barney McGlone
Crop of CVA 132-3.

Jack McCance (1886-1962) was Gail McCance’s father, written up here. Arthur Elwood was stage hand at the Royal Theatre in 1919. W. J. Park (1880-?) was stage hand at Pantages Theatre in 1923. John Hood (1875–?) was a stage hand at Orpheum Theatre (on west side of 700 block Granville) in 1923. Jack Andrews was a stage carpenter in 1923. Jack Anderson was a stage hand at the Empress Theatre in 1919. James Barr was a stage hand at the Empress Theatre in 1919. Reginald Patrick Devine was a stage hand in 1928 (Province 20 Sept 1928). Gordon Martin was a stage hand at the Imperial and Beacon Theatres (Province 13 June 1941). He was also a stage hand at the Empress Theatre in 1926. Frederick William (Bill) Baker (1869-1907) was an early stage hand. Ira Parks was the property man at the Empress Theatre in its early years (Province 13 May 1940). Frederick Collins was a stage carpenter in 1910. Bernard (Barney) McGlone (1882-1937) trod the other side of the stage during the performance of “Rob Roy” in which he played the part of Andrew Fairservice (Province 24 Feb 1912). He was a stage hand at the original Pantages in 1919. Ernest Glover was a scenic artist at the Lyric (at Pender and Hamilton) for the Howard Stock Company in 1908. Harry Spear (?-1942) was a stage hand in Vancouver theatres. He died in San Francisco where he was living with his family at the time. Frankie Killain was a stage carpenter at Capitol Theatre in 1927. A. J. Theal was a scenic artist working at the Empress Theatre in 1908. Edgar McKie (?-1918) was a scenic artist in Vancouver where he painted the production scenery for F. Stuart Whyte’s pantos, “Aladdin” and “Robinson Crusoe” (World 14 Feb 1918) and in his later years in Calgary, where he died. George Birrell started out as a stage mechanic and became stage manager at the People’s Theatre (Province 20 Nov 1905). “Fats” Robinson was an early stage hand (Province, 1 May 1965). Adoniran (Ad) Nehemiah Harrington (1871-1918) was the leading stage hand at the Avenue Theatre in his later years (World, 19 April 1918). O.D. Bailey was stage director at the Lyric in 1910. Ferry Creon was stage manager at the National Theatre in 1910. James B. Norton was assistant stage manager at the Lyric in 1910. Henry Russell was stage manager at the Grand Theatre in 1910. Frank Woodworth was stage manager at the Grand Theatre in 1906 and at the Orpheum in 1910. He was awarded the Military Medal for service during the Great War (World, 12 Nov 1921). Alfred Levi Harmon Harrington (1873-1957) worked backstage at the Empress, Avenue and Imperial Theatres; at the original and new Pantages, at the Vancouver Opera House and the Grand Theatre. He finished up at the Theatre Under the Stars. He married Susan Lutz. Bob Taylor was stage carpenter at the Orpheum in 1921 (World 23 July 1921).

CVA 132-5 – Rod Martin (centre, necktie), with fellow employees, probably at Theatre Under the Stars 1953 production of “Carousel”.

The Early Vancouver Public Library During the 20-Year Term of Edwin Machin, Librarian

James Edwin Machin, the librarian of Vancouver’s Free Library and Reading Room, later known as Vancouver Public Library, from 1890 – 1910, was not a trained librarian. But he was, along with his wife and daughter, a great lover of books, and of people — a desirable but uncommon combination.

Before Machin became the librarian, the Free Library and Reading Room was in the care of George R. Pollay (1888-1890) and before Pollay, Alfred J. Morton (1887-1888).

Machin was a lawyer by profession and arrived in Canada in November 1889, with his wife, Eliza, and daughter, Elsie. Machin’s starting salary was woefully small: $65/month. It was boosted to $100/month in 1893, but it remained at that level until 1898. (History of the Vancouver Public Library, 1975, p.16). Mrs. Machin and Elsie Machin both lent voluntary assistance in the library.

The library in 1890 was open from 9am – 10pm. Borrowers had to make requests for titles which the librarian handed them from the shelves.

Under Machin, the library was as much a social centre as a place to consult periodicals and books. Starting in 1892 and continuing for as long as Machin was librarian, the Machin family sponsored a free Christmas spread for all of the unfortunate down-and-outers who cared to partake. Unlike the Union Gospel Mission Christmas meals today, however, Machin’s meals had an amateur entertainment component. Music, recitations, and the like were performed.

CVA Bu P118 – YMCA Building in which the Vancouver Free Library and Reading Room would have its home from 1893-1903. The figure at left is Edwin Machin. 1893, Bailey Bros. photo.

The library was located during Machin’s early years as librarian at 144 Cordova (between Abbott and Cambie; on the floor above Robertson Bros. Stoves and Tinware). By 1890, debate had begun as to where to move the library, as the Cordova digs were considered by nearly everyone to be woefully inadequate. One early contender was the “hall in the upper floor” of the City Market Hall (Daily News Advertiser 19 Sept 1890). By 1891, the Market Hall idea seems to have been set aside and there was talk of whether the CPR would be willing to donate one of its properties for use of the library (Daily News Advertiser, 21 Apr 1891). Nothing came of this proposal. Finally, in late 1892, the Library Board gave consideration to renting part of the “new Y.M.C.A. building” for the library. The lease was finalized in mid-1893.¹ Finally, the library was shifted from Cordova Street to its new digs on West Hastings and Cambie (roughly located where Purebread bakery is today). This would be its home for the next decade.²

Upon moving into the Y building, it was noted that “Mr. Machin is at present engaged in preparing a catalogue of the books in the library of which there are at present over 2,000…” (Daily News Advertiser, 14 July 1893). It isn’t clear from press reports of the time just what system of cataloguing was practiced at this time, but it seems very unlikely that it was the Dewey Decimal System. Indeed, cataloguing did not seem to involve cards until after it moved to Carnegie Library. Instead, the various titles were typed up onto sheets of paper (possibly organized by themes, such as “Theology”, “Geology”, etc.) and the sheets were then printed by a local printer so that there would be catalogues available not only for in-library use, but also for patrons to purchase for a nominal sum and take home with them.

As time went by, there was invented a means of keeping track of which books were “in” the library and which were “out”. One variation on this invention was called “Cotgreave’s Library Indicator”, invented by A. Cotgreave. An indicator was installed in Vancouver’s library in 1898.

Cotgreave’s Indicator.

A witty letter to the editor from “C. Gaylin” (which appears to have been a pen name) may have summed up the confusion of many patrons when faced with this invention:

In the good old days we used to request the courteous librarian to give us “No.— or if that is out No.—, please” and in five minutes we were on our homeward way. Now we go to a table where there is a signboard which has printed upon it a wordy description of the indicator and numerous rules telling how it is to be used. A bright person may learn the rules in half an hour or so and be able to apply them. I am not bright and have not learned them yet. Then there is the indicator itself, a tall, forbidding glass frame over a white board whereon are stamped 12,000 numbers in small narrow black figures. [the “12,000” figure is undoubtedly hyperbole, as the Free Library at this time had no more than about 3000 books]. The numbers represent the books. So much I have learned. Under each number is a hole — a wee hole — and in each wee hole a wee-er scarlet peg. When No. 50, for instance, is “out” then the peg under 50 is also out. If the peg remains in its hole then 50 is on the shelf. After studying that black and white board for a second or two one can distinguish nothing but an animated blur. As for the top numbers, no one can see them at all, except Goliath, and he is dead. Shortsighted people need not look. They cannot see anything. The effect of the black and white is bad enough for one’s eyes, but when added to it you have 12,000 scarlet peg heads piercing your eyeballs like so many red-not needles, there is even greater opening here for oculists.

Province, 13 Aug 1898

All of the fuss generated by whether a book was “in” or “out” could have been resolved by granting patrons access to the bookshelves! It would have been obvious when a book was “out”, as it would not be present in its place on the shelf. It isn’t clear how long the indicator lasted at Vancouver’s library, but I suspect not long.

In a mention made in 1896, there was the first press reference I could find to “tickets” being issued to new members. A library ticket was not a negative thing. It was the same thing as today we’d refer to as a “library card”.

A blank form for patrons of 1890s VPL to apply for a borrower’s ticket and for someone who could speak to the good character of the applicant to recommend him/her.

A Market Lavington Library borrower’s ticket.

A “borrowers’ ticket” is referred to in the form shown above. This blank form evidently was completed by an applicant for a borrower’s ticket and by someone who could attest to the wanna-be-new-borrower’s good character. Note that in the small print at the bottom of the form, the endorser could withdraw their “guarantee” of the new borrower’s character if they later learned that he/she was a ne’er-do-well! Just what these “tickets” looked like, we can only speculate, as none of the Vancouver library examples, so far as I know, survive. But I wonder if they might have resembled the example at left of a ticket from Market Lavington Library in England.

By 1899, there was already talk of a new building expressly for the library, mainly because the lease at the Hastings/Cambie building was to expire in June, 1900. In 1899, it was the original courthouse (on the site where Victory Square is today) which was initially in favour. Nothing came of that proposal (Province, 4 March 1899). In the same year, the SW corner of Hastings at Westminster (now, Main St.) was proposed. The feature most desirable about this site was that it was already owned by the City and, therefore, there would be no cost to acquire the site.

In March 1901, New York millionaire, Andrew Carnegie, offered the City of Vancouver $50,000 to build the Carnegie Library. Carnegie had just two conditions: (1) that the city furnish a site and (2) that the city spend $5000 on its library. The city and the library board were both very chuffed to receive this news, needless to say! Now, as to the location, work had to be done.

In May 1901, Mayor Townley had had a tete-a-tete with CPR mucky-muck, Richard Marpole, with a view to getting the CPR to donate a site free of charge. Apparently, Marpole favoured the property on the SE corner of Cordova at Seymour (kitty-corner to the CPR Station, now Waterfront Station) (Daily News Advertiser 11 May 1901). But, having made this remark to Townley, Marpole and the CPR proved very difficult to pin down. Ultimately, the City, feeling pressed for time, decided not to pursue the CPR further on the proposed Cordova/Seymour lot. Instead, the purchase of the lots (for $8,800) on the NW corner of Pender at Hamilton was proposed – where Avenue Road is located today (World 23 July 1901). City Council was nearly evenly divided on the question of whether they supported the West location (Pender/Hamilton) or the East End alternative (Hastings/Westminster). Finally, it was decided to put it to a vote of the people.³ On August, 3, 1901, Vancouverites voted in favour of the Carnegie Library being located at the Hastings/Westminster site. The Carnegie Library was designed by architect G. W. Grant, contractor: Albert Adams; it opened its doors to the public in late 1903.

In October of 1909, Edwin Machin was involved in an accident while disembarking from a tram car. He subsequently retired from his position as librarian and just a few weeks later, in early 1910, succumbed to internal injuries sustained in the accident and died (Weekly News-Advertiser 5 April 1910)

CVA Port P286. Portrait of Edwin Machin with his remarkable moustache, 190-. Wadds Bros.

Ex-Alderman A. E. Goodman was (briefly) Machin’s replacement in the library. This seems to have been a pretty blatant example of “jobs for the boys”. Goodman resigned within a year of being appointed after being the subject of pretty critical newspaper coverage of his lack of credentials and earning more than twice the salary paid to Machin (World 8 Feb 1910).

The portrait of Machin made by Wadds Bros. (at right) was mounted on a wall of the reference room of the Carnegie Library after his passing as a mark of lasting affection for the man who loved both books and people.

Notes

¹The “new Y building” was probably misnamed, as the structure wasn’t owned by the Y, but by the Rand Bros. (later by Credit Foncier, I believe). When, a few years later, the Y was forced to move out of this building for inability to pay meet their lease amount, the building became known (in the press, at least) as the Free Library Building, although the city and library had NOT agreed to pay the owner the asking amount of $33,000 for the structure. They remained tenants until the Carnegie Library was built.

²Nearly a year after the library had moved into the Y digs, apparently there was still signage for the Library/Reading Room at their old Cordova Street address! A couple of letters to the editor mentioned this oversight (Weekly World, 15 March 1894).

³Of course, the voters in 1901 were quite distinct from the those of 2023. We were still several years away from achieving women’s suffrage in B.C. (1917). To say nothing of Chinese (1947), Aboriginal (1949), Japanese (1949), and incarcerated persons suffrage (2002).

800 Keefer

The home at 800 Keefer has stood for many years. About 125, in fact! During its time, there have been many occupants of the place: residence dwellers, businesses, and artisans. There have been several owners, and even more tenants over the years (we will focus primarily on owners in this post).

The first recorded resident at 800 Keefer Street appears to have been George W. Maynard, a carpenter and foreman.¹ He seems to have been about 29 when he moved into the home circa 1898 with his wife, Mary, and their infant son. Their boy died the same year that they moved into the home. Maynard had a colourful future ahead of him. In 1908 he was charged (along with a Mr. Sharman) with falsifying the payrolls of BC Electric Railway, of which company he was a foreman (Province 8 Sept 1908). Sharman was found guilty, but Maynard jumped bail and skedaddled out of the country (presumably to the U.S.) for several months. In 1909, upon his return to Vancouver, he was charged with cheque forging while in the employ of the rail company and was jailed for some months (Province 15 Dec 1909).

Henry Dowse took up residence at 800 Keefer in 1901 and remained there until 1910. Dowse was a contractor/builder and a senior member of the firm Carver & Dowse. He moved to Los Angeles shortly after moving out of Keefer and died in L.A. in 1916.

By 1911, Captain Paul Zellinsky and his wife, Annie, had moved in. Zellinsky was a master mariner. His career focussed on captaining tugboats. The Zellinskys were at the home through 1916. The couple lived on Keefer Street with their adult sons Victor (a draper with Edgetts’s grocery store) and Frederick (a clerk with Northern Electric Co.), and an adult daughter, Nellie (an employee of J. Leckie Co., a shoe retailer).

In 1917, Adam Jack moved into 800 Keefer; he stayed there very briefly, moving out less than a year later. He was a brick builder and contractor who specialized in kilns, furnaces, and boilers.

In 1918, the Keefer property saw John Waite move in. He was a security guard (or a “watchman”, to borrow the parlance of the time). Waite moved out of Keefer in 1921. Nearly 25 years after Waite moved from Keefer, when he was 60, he was still a watchman, at that time for the parkade at the Georgia Medical-Dental Building (at Hornby and Georgia). While he was working there one night in 1944, he was beaten unconscious by a thief wielding a tire iron who stole $800 in cash from the cash box (Sun 27 May 1944). Remarkably, Waite survived the beating.

Edward Constable moved into Keefer in 1922. He was a second-hand dealer on Victoria Drive. He remained at Keefer less than a year.

In 1923, Yuen Gow moved in. It is remarkable that his full name is cited in the city directory; typically, Chinese residents were referred to at this time as “Chinese” or “Oriental” rather than with their names. But I take it that he was relatively well-to-do because, upon his death in 1922, his body was shipped to China for burial. Further, it was stated in his obituary that “he owned extensive properties throughout the province.” (Sun 28 Jun 1922). Then, as now, money talks! He remained at Keefer into 1926.

A Mrs. A. Cymbiuk was resident at Keefer in 1927. I was unable to learn anything about Mrs. Cymbiuk, except that she had a very brief time at Keefer. I suspect Edward Constable, Adam Jack, and Mrs. Cymbiuk were tenants, rather than owners.

Less than a year later, Mrs. J. Johnson moved in. Not much is known about Mrs. Johnson, either, except that she was responsible for constructing a garage at 800 Keefer. Johnson remained a resident of Keefer until circa 1934.

When Mrs. Johnson moved out, a commercial establishment moved in: Montreal Bakery with proprietor, Lucien Zanon (together with his wife, Cecelia). A couple of years prior to moving into 800 Keefer, Zanon had his baking business across Hawks Street but, finding that space too cramped, he moved across the street in 1935. Zanon was responsible for building the Art Deco inspired commercial structures surrounding the home.

Zanon’s eyesight was never optimal, and he was forced to retire from the business in 1948 due to blindness. The Montreal Bakery folded in 1955. Lucien died in 1957. Cecelia died in 1968.

Following the retirement of the Zanons, Willibald Tafferner took over the bakery, naming it Willy’s Bakery. Willy’s lasted until 1966. The Zanon family continued to live there and they also operated a convenience store at the site. The store can be seen in one of Fred Herzog’s photos, Black Cat (1968).

In 1971, Pong C. Quan bought 800 Keefer. He remained there into his 90s, renting out empty rooms to tenants, until 1993.

In 1993, six artists who were known as the Paneficio group (named after the Italian word for bread as a homage to the bakeries that had been on the site) moved into 800 Keefer. Two of the owner-residents of Paneficio, Arnt and Valerie Arntzen were founders of the East Side Culture Crawl. The Arntzens (and the current incarnation of Paneficio) still reside/work at 800 Keefer.

Note:

¹At least one source disagrees with me. He claims that the home was built in 1894. But I couldn’t find any evidence of that in building permit records or city directories.

Seattle’s Lotus Skyliners at Pender Auditorium

“In this image members of the Lotus Skyliners prepare for a 19-day tour of Oregon and California cities. The band was made up of 20 male musicians and female vocalist Pat Nakashima. They were directed by Don Kinsley, a Seattle teacher. Welcoming the band onto the Northwest Greyhound Lines bus is driver E. G. Rhodes.” Museum of History and Industry, Seattle. Photo by Royal C. Crooks, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 1956. (Akira remembered that the driver for their California/Oregon trip was the same driver for their Vancouver gig). Akira described himself in this and other photos of the band as “the creepy-looking guy in the black glasses”. That was unhelpful with this photo, though, as there are at least three gents with black glasses!

Probably sometime in 1955 or 1956, a group of mostly young men came from Seattle to play at a Vancouver dance at the Pender Auditorium. One of those men would become some 30 years later my favourite undergrad professor of Political Science at the University of Lethbridge and my good friend, Akira Ichikawa.

Akira. August 2011. MDM Photo.

Akira died on January 3rd this year. In the months before his death, I pestered Akira for details pertaining to the Skyliners’ visit to Vancouver. That information, although quite sketchy, is in this post. If any of my readers recall being at the dance where the Skyliners played, or otherwise know of the group, I’d be obliged if you’d comment below.

The Lotus Skyliners band was sponsored by the Seattle Betsuin Buddhist Temple and all of the members were of Japanese ancestry. All groups sponsored by the Temple carried the name “Lotus”. Akira told me that the name “Skyliners” was borrowed from the Charlie Barnett tune of that name. He mentioned that although the band had that tune in their portfolio of music, “we were never really able to play it”. (Apparently, the first name given the band was the “Royal Knights” but “the Skyliners” was thought to be much preferable to that, and so the initial name didn’t stick for long).

The Skyliners had their start in 1953 and endured until Akira graduated high school in 1956. The group seems to have been started and led by Don Kinsley, a white gent who was a Seattle music teacher. Not much else seems to be known about Kinsely or the band, for that matter.¹ Akira played piano for the band. (He told me with characteristic modesty that he “sat at the piano” rather than played it!)

Unknown newspaper photo. Akira is at the piano with his back to the photographer. Shinya Ichikawa is Akira’s younger brother. Mamo Yoshida is, I believe, aka Ron Yoshida (a good friend to Akira over many years and a colleague of his at the University of Lethbridge in the Philosophy Department).

Very, very little is known of the Vancouver dance except for one thing: the location. It was held at the Pender Auditorium on the north side of the 300 block of West Pender Street.

CVA 780-16 – Buildings and businesses in the 300 block West Pender Street. 1960-80. Photographer unknown. The entry to the Pender Auditorium is marked by the “Dance” marquee. This building is long gone.

Note

¹For more on the Skyliners band, see: https://nonoboymusic.tumblr.com/post/158965900408/the-lotus-skyliners-post-war-seattle-dance-band, and https://napost.com/2016/fond-memories-of-my-first-skyliners-dance-2/, and https://mobile.twitter.com/lotusskyliners.

The Shearman Brothers: Weather Prophets

Province, 17 Nov 1929. “One Weather Man at Work”

Between Thomas and Eustace Shearman, these brothers had the weather biz in Vancouver pretty well tied up for the best part of half a century. These were the days before every media outlet had its own meteorologists on staff (preferably, today, those that are long on looks and if possible, female); this was the period in the first half of the 20th century when the federal government had a virtual monopoly on people who were so trained and the local staffer was known affectionately (most of the time) as the “Weather Man” or “Weather Prophet”.

Thomas S. H. Shearman, the eldest brother, was born in 1859 and apparently remained single all his days (he died in 1944). He should not be confused with his father, Thomas Stimson Shearman (1834-1933), who was a machinist and was married to Jane Evans. A brother, resident in Vancouver for much of his adult life was Arthur Evans Shearman (1862-1930), who earned a living as a contractor/painter. Eustace Becket Shearman (1873-1955) married Bertha Olive Shearman (1876-1951) and he became Vancouver’s second Weather Man. There were two other siblings who lived to adulthood, Ruyter Stimson Sherman (1866-1941) — note that he changed the spelling of his surname, slightly. Ruyter married Nellie Page (1863-1943) and he became a teacher and later principal at Seymour School. A sister, Jane Rees Shearman (1844-1923), married Walter Hardwick. Two other siblings didn’t survive into adulthood: a brother, W. E. Shearman, and a sister, Mary Shearman.

T. S. H. and E. B. Shearman are the focus of this post. They became, in turn, meteorologists attached to the federal government’s Vancouver weather bureau. The first of them, Thomas, from 1904-1925; and Eustace, Thomas’s assistant at the weather bureau, who succeeded him.

T. S. H. Shearman

CVA Port N332. T. S. H. Shearman.

The story begins quite a distance from Vancouver.
T. S. H. (as he was almost invariably known; his middle initials stood for Springett Henry) lived in Ontario for the first four decades of his life, in Brantford first, and later in Woodstock. It isn’t clear just what education/training T. S. H. had, but it seems that some of his post-secondary education was at Woodstock College. The College had Baptist origins, but the Shearmans were, as far as I can tell, Methodists (if anything), so it doesn’t appear to have been his faith that took T. S. H. to Woodstock College. Presumably, however, Thomas had additional training elsewhere, as he claimed to have the — now archaic? — probably meteorology-related graduate degree designation of M. B. A. A. (Province, 30 Oct 1916).

In his later years in Ontario, T. S. H. seemed to be employed by the feds as a meteorologist. But I’m assuming that that alone didn’t give him a living wage, as there is some evidence that he worked also in a bicycle shop.

In 1904, T. S. H. moved to Vancouver. Why isn’t clear. But it appears to have been a family decision, as his siblings and parents came with him. Ruyter had come to Vancouver as early as 1894.

T. S. H. became the first Vancouver “Weather Man” in 1904. The Dominion government established its first office in “West Fairview” in that year (Province, March 30, 1905) with Shearman running it. The office remained there (someplace on West 6th Avenue, evidently, probably at the Shearman residence on 6th near Pine) until 1914, when, with help from local M.P., H. H. Stevens, intervention was made to move and improve the weather “observatory”. From this point, the office would be located on the top floor of the Post Office building at Granville and Hastings. In addition, there would be an electrical hookup between the weather office and the 9 O’Clock Gun at Stanley Park. Starting then, the Gun would be triggered from the weather office instead of from the C.P.R. office whence, since 1898, it had been fired upon receipt of the ‘correct time’ from Montreal via telegraph (Daily Advertiser, 8 Jan 1914).¹ The “button” for firing the Gun was located in the Post Office space allotted to the meteorologist, thus necessitating that T. S. H. be present in the office at 9pm every night!

I get the impression that T. S. H. was a bit bored being the Dominion meteorologist in Vancouver. I think there were a couple of reasons for that. First, his role was as a weather “observer” (recording the weather that had happened), not as a forecaster. All forecasts for the City of Vancouver were prepared in Victoria.

Second, T. S. H. seems to have considered himself an astronomer every bit as much as a meteorologist, and the job didn’t really allow him scope to be an astronomer, too. He was passionate about constructing a 10-foot diameter telescope. He initially had plans for it to be built atop Grouse Mountain, before the Great War. Later, he made a pitch for it to be placed on the Point Grey grounds of UBC and also at Hastings Park. None of these plans bore fruit, and T. S. H. worked hard in his retirement years to get the telescope built, in turn, in Seattle and on the Hawaiian Islands. Again, no dice.

J. S. Plaskett, a bigwig in the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, had this to say in 1916 of Shearman’s plan for Grouse Mountain: “I am afraid he condemns himself by his own words as a dreamer for I do not see how any practical man could talk of mounting a ten foot mirror with wooden appliances. He called on me last year . . . and I tried to get some definite information as to how he proposed to cast, grind, and mount a ten foot mirror but he skillfully evaded the issue and although I believe he is sincere enough I would be very unwilling to invest any money in such an enterprise.”

Plaskett’s opinion of Shearman and his various plans for a 10-foot telescope seemed to be shared by potential investors in each project, for all of them failed to stir the needed interest or dollars. This left T. H. S. bitter, declaring Vancouverites as “apathetic” to matters astronomical because the residents of the city didn’t share his enthusiasm for his pet projects (Sun, 9 Nov 1919).

E. B. Shearman

CVA Port N332. E. B. Shearman.

In 1925, T. H. S. retired from his post as Dominion meteorologist in Vancouver and handed the reigns for the Vancouver weather bureau to his assistant, brother Eustace.

In early 1928, the weather bureau office moved again. This time from the Post Office block to the “Stock Exchange Building”. The stock exchange wasn’t at this time in the large block at the NW corner of Pender and Howe. It was the Leigh Spencer building at 553 Granville (near Dunsmuir). The weather bureau remained there until 1931 when the Vancouver Airport opened. From then on, observations and forecasts were made from the airport.

Eustace seems not to have had many outside interests besides the weather to distract him, except for annual summer vacations to the family cabin on Savary Island. He had the correct intuition — which T. H. S. didn’t seem to have — that the job was as much about public relations as it was about science. In short, Eustace had the right temperament to be a Weather Man. The number of mentions of “E. B. Shearman, the Weather Man” in local newspapers rose to at least 3/paper/month for most of then years that Eustace was on the job.. It had never been so high in Thomas’s day and would never reach that number again after Eustace retired in 1948.

Notes

¹A crossing of electrical wires — those that carried power to Stanley Park’s electrical lights with the one carrying current between the Post Office and the Gun — occurred just a few months after this, in October 1914. This caused the Gun to ‘fire’ at a time different from 9 o’clock and caused some residents in the area to believe that “the German cruisers had at last arrived in Burrard Inlet…” (Daily Advertiser, 23 Oct 1914).

The Elcho

CVA 786-7.16 – The Elcho Apartments and commercial properties (including the Davie Art Shop, Nora Goodall Antiques, and Mitchell TV), 845 Davie Street, 1978. Photographer unknown.

The Elcho Apartments (and commercial) building was on the NE corner of Davie and Hornby at 845 Davie Street. The block was built for the Hood Bros. (William B. and Robert A. Hood, real estate brokers) in ca1908.

Where does the name, “Elcho” come from? It seems probable that it was derived from Scottish history, given that the Hoods hailed from Scotland. It may be a tribute to Lord Elcho and/or Elcho Castle.

The Elcho was apparently demolished circa 1978. Currently on the site is an office tower with commercial space at street level, including an outlet of Breka Bakery.

Elcho Tenants

I’m going to introduce you to a few of the tenants of the Elcho from the 1912-1950s period. With one exception, these were ordinary people; not celebrities by any stretch. Most residents of the Elcho didn’t stay there for long – typically for a two- or three-year period. It was most uncommon for residents to remain there for a decade or longer.

The Elcho’s longest-tern tenant was James C. McNaughton, a Scot who served as the building’s caretaker from 1925-46. He married Mary. James died in 1951, while still residing at the Elcho, at age 74.

The most notable tenant of The Elcho whom I could find was hockey worthy, Frank A. Patrick, living at the Elcho 1912-14. His Vancouver Millionaires hockey team was successful in winning the Stanley Cup in 1915. He also married Catherine M. Porter that year. He died at age 74 in 1960.

Alfred O. Swanby was a noteworthy officer in the Great War. He started the war with the rank of lieutenant and was demobilized with the rank of major. He was wounded twice: at Vimy Ridge and Ypres (Province 16 March 1929). City directories show him being a resident of the Elcho in 1921-22. His marriage certificate, to Dorothy E. Morgan, shows him as an accountant after the war. He died at age 34 in 1929. It isn’t clear what he died from, as there is no online death certificate available for him.

James Slight and Archibald Strang were both residents of the Elcho for a number of years (1922-29) and both of them were also professional bakers most of their lives. They were partners in a local Davie Street bakery known first as Slight & Strang Bakery and later, in the ’30s, as Elcho Bakery. Strang married Bertha Hartwell in 1918 and Slight married Mary McLean in 1926. Their business was at 855 Davie, likely one of the commercial spaces at the Elcho. By the 1930s, the two men and their families moved out of the Elcho. Slight purchased Clyde Apts at 1116 Harwood and both families moved into the Clyde. By 1937, the Strangs had moved out of the Clyde and into a single family dwelling less than a block away at 1142 Harwood. The Slights remained at the Clyde. Archie Strang seems to have enlisted for war service (and, while he was gone, Bertha helped support their family by working as a salesperson at Spencers department store), but by 1947, Archie was back in town working as a baker at the Tam O’Shanter Bakery in the heart of Kerrisdale on 41st Avenue (roughly where the BCAA office is located today). By 1947, James Slight had retired from professional baking; he lived a very long life, dying in 1990 at the age of 101. Strang retired from baking in 1956; he died in 1967 at age 76.

Leopold Zoller was a bar tender on C.N.R. Steamship lines for 12 years. He was married to Elizabeth Sager. Zoller died of heart disease in 1955 at the age of 59. Mr. Zoller passed away while he was still a resident at the Elcho. He was taken to Shaughnessy Hospital from wherever his final illness took place. But he was dead on arrival.

Ernest A. Dean was a railwayman who worked for the CPR. He married Winona Corning in 1909. Ernest died at a young age of gruesome injuries suffered on the job. He was working as a “spare conductor” at the Ashcroft rail yards. When the eastbound freight train of which he was conductor reached Ashcroft, Dean went ahead to throw the switch for a westbound train to pass. “It is believed as this freight passed, he attempted to board one of the cars to ride back to his train, and in doing so slipped on to the rails. He died three minutes afterwards.” Both of Dean’s legs were severed (Province 14 Sep 1925). He was 41. Well before this tragic accident, Ernest and Winona briefly resided at the Elcho in 1917 (for just a year, as far as I can tell).

Louise Tremayne was a long-term resident at the Elcho. She worked as a BC Telephones operator for most of her working life. Louise resided at the Elcho (in various suites) through most of the 1930s. She was a single person. She died in 1970 at age 82.

Matric Annual for King Ed High School: 1921

In 1921, King Edward High School was just 12 years old. The principal of King Ed, George Fergusson, would live only seven more years, dying suddenly in 1928. And one of the grads would live only to 1925, passing away after spending two years in Tranquille Sanitorium – which at the time was a hospital that treated tuberculosis. I find yearbooks to be at once incredibly interesting and sort of sad, as they can be reminders of the brevity of our time on this globe.

This particular yearbook (called then a “matric annual”) belonged to Frank Leong, a Chinese-Canadian who would operate with his wife, Anne, Cambie Grocery in the 4000 block (west side) of Cambie Street near King Edward Avenue. He seems to have been among the earliest enrolees in the new Technical School that had recently branched off from King Ed High School to take up occupancy in the former Labour Temple on Dunsmuir at Homer. As far as I can tell, he was the only Chinese-Canadian student at King Ed named in the 1921 annual. Frank later became a mechanical engineer in the city. Interestingly, Frank did not get any autographs from any of his classmates. This may say something about the warmth (or lack thereof) of other students for a Chinese-Canadian student. Or it may have as much to do with shyness on Frank’s part.

When I compare this yearbook with my own graduating high school yearbook, published about 60 years later, I’m struck by the differences. One was the emphasis in the 1921 annual on the graduating class. This class was referred to as the “matrics”, which I take to mean about the same thing as “graduands” or “seniors” in contemporary parlance (“matriculation”, in my day, was a term reserved for that subset of graduands who planned to apply for post-secondary studies at universities.) I could find no mention of Grade 10 students (or “sophomores” as they are referred to in the U.S.) Only “matrics” and “juniors” were given any space in the volume. Unlike my yearbook, the 1921 annual did not include a photo of each student. Even among the matrics, only those students who held an office of some description merited a photograph.

One of the most striking differences in the 1921 book is that all of the matrics have beside their names a quotation (or alleged quotation) of some sort. Some of these quotes were more appropriate than others, to my 21st century eyes. I cannot believe, for instance, that Hazel Brooks was delighted with this quotation next to her name: “Oh, gentle maiden, tell me straight; why are you so often late?” Nor do I imagine that Florence Clarke was best pleased with “A simple child that lightly draws its breath.” And W. Clark’s quotation, “An animated question mark” leaves me with little more than a giant interrogatory!

King Edward High School building was located from 1905-1973 at 12th and Laurel. It started out as “Vancouver High School and College” and was the first high school to be established south of False Creek. The “College” was the Vancouver branch of McGill, which later became UBC. King Edward High School assumed that name in 1909 upon the establishment of other “named” high schools in the city, such as Britannia. The school motto was Ad Summum — meaning to “reach for the top“, to borrow the name of a CBC high school quiz show of my generation. The “lions” of North Vancouver appear on the crest, as does also the water (Pacific Ocean, Fraser River, False Creek) which nearly surrounds the city. The school colours were blue and white. A fire destroyed the building in 1973 (Province 20 Jun 1973).

A List of King Ed Teachers

I don’t claim to have a complete record of the teachers at King Ed High School in the year our annual was published, but I’ve done my best to get the names of what I think is most of them. This is another discrepancy in the 1921 annual from mine: the teaching staff isn’t listed as a group. The only mention of teachers is as honorary presidents of sports and other clubs. The most striking feature of the list below is the overwhelming maleness of it. Only one woman appears. They are Mssrs. Armstrong, Fergusson (Principal), Vining, Grant, Woods, Chodat, Connor, MacLeish, Maggs, Hall, Ogilvie, Bell, Tait, and Miss McQueen.

A Few King Ed Students and Their Later Lives

Clarence Domoney was, atypically (and, from my perspective, mercifully), not assigned a quotation, but instead it was said of him: “A jolly good sport is C.D.; famous at basketball and rugby.” He was one of the “prefects” at King Ed. What is a prefect? Well, one would assume that the annual would offer help in defining the term, but it doesn’t: “The main aim of the prefect has been to act as an example rather than as policemen.” That is as close as the annual gets to a definition. I conclude from this that a prefect was a glorified “hall monitor”. Clarence married Elizabeth MacKenzie in 1936 and when he passed away in 1973, he was the manager of Harbour Ferries Ltd., which still exists today, offering excursions up Indian Arm.

Everett Lees was attributed the following quotation: “Strange to the world, he wore a bashful look”. You don’t find that overly enlightening about Lees? Well, I can add that he went to UBC after finishing at King Ed where he did a bachelor’s degree in Science. He was in the Science program with Chris Robson, a fellow King Ed student and the two men were Secretary and Treasurer of their class. In 1935, Everett married Kathleen Ralph. He went on to become a Geologist/Mining Engineer and in the late 1960s, created the firm known as Gulf Titanium Ltd., a Titanium mining concern. He passed away in 1980 in Vancouver.

Marjorie Thorburn’s assigned quotation was “I go to bed with a latin verse and rise with a phrase in French,” thus suggesting that she was a very studious scholar. This was evidently true, if not necesarily literally! She was recognized in 1921 as “the leading student” in all Vancouver high schools on the matriculation exams, scoring “full marks in geometry, although the paper was an unusually stiff one, made 87 per cent in chemistry, 76 in Latin authors and 75 in Latin composition” (Province 7 Oct 1921). Miss Thorburn later became a school teacher in the city — for a time teaching at Lord Beaconsfield School. She died in 2007 in Vancouver at the ripe age of 102 years.

Dorothy Moe’s quote was “Right noble is thy merit”. She was another of those who was a prefect at King Edward. She later married Gordon H. Rae and, following graduation from normal school, became a school teacher. She taught at Lord Kitchener School in the 1930s. She passed away in the city in 1997.

Frank Penwill’s (‘Penny’ to his high school friends) quotation was “His limbs are cast in manly mold for hardy sport or contest hold”, which seems to have been appropriate both at high school and later at UBC where he studied to be a dentist, but was also actively involved in sport. He was a swimming club diver while studying at UBC (he was also on UBC’s McKechnie Cup rugby team in the 1920s) and after finishing his degree, became diving coach for the UBC swim club for a year and later was on the executive of the Crescent Swimming Club in the city. He married Betty Green in 1937 and passed away in 1960 at the relatively young age of 57.

Early Palmists

“Madame X”. Sun, 22 Oct 1924,

I should begin by commenting briefly on what it is that palmists do. They are palm readers. Meaning that they claim to be able to tell a person’s fortune from lines on palms. I won’t get into the details of the practice; instead, I will point readers to a link on the subject and leave it to you if you wish to chase the palmistry rabbit down its hole(s).

The earliest mention I could find of Vancouver palmists in the local press was in an August 1896 edition of the Weekly News-Advertiser. The article in question spoke of a St. James (Anglican) Church social in which “the phrenologist and the palmist were kept fully occupied, disclosing to all who sought their services much that was previously unknown to them (19 Aug 1896 Weekly News-Advertiser). This apparently lighthearted attitude to palmistry seems to have been pretty typical of Vancouver residents. It wasn’t illegal to practice palmistry. The City Council took a pretty pragmatic attitude to palmists. As long as they paid their business license ($10/year in the early period), they could practice.

Who Were They?

We don’t know much about the individuals who worked at this occupation, but we can make some remarks about the Vancouver palmists as a group, mainly from their advertisements in the press over the years.

The overwhelming majority of Vancouver palmists were women. Typically, they referred to themselves in their ads as “Madam(e)” or (infrequently) “Mrs”. Perhaps most were married; perhaps not. But the important point is that they seemed to want to be so perceived. I expect that this gave them a desired gravitas which they might not have had if they were identified as “Miss” or “Mademoiselle”.

Bu P634 – Building at SE Corner of Granville and Dunsmuir Street. Just prior to demolition. Shows Madam Rawney’s business digs on second floor, complete with the hand symbol which indicated the practice of palmistry within. 1927. W. J. Moore photo.

Province 13 Jan 1927. An ad for Madam Rawney when she was still working on West Hastings (before assuming the space shown above at Granville and Dunsmuir). I think “menthist” is a typo; probably should have been “mentalist”.

There were a couple of qualifiers that were added to the words “Palmist” and “Palmistry”. One was Egyptian Palmist. I haven’t been able to find out whether this had any meaning beyond sounding romantic. It doesn’t seem to have had much to do with the practitioner’s ethnicity. Nor, apparently, to the type of palmistry practiced. We probably will never know whether “Princess Pyterlyngero” was of Egyptian decent — or even black, for that matter (although one of her ads claims that she was born in Alexandria, Egypt). We can probably safely rule out a royal bloodline, however (Province 11 Jan 1906)!

Another common qualifier was Scientific Palmistry. “Madame Bayla” was one who so sold her services. Those, like Bayla, who put an emphasis on the science of palmistry were probably at pains to de-emphasize the “art” or the “seat of the pants” aspects of the practice. “Palmistry,” she remarked in an ad, “is a true science . . . . and she has read the hands of the most noted people in Europe and this country and . . . her patrons rank up to royalty.” (Manitoba Morning Free Press, 13 July 1904). She claimed to come from France, and that seems to be true; her actual name was Louise Robert (b. ca1877). I established that she was well-travelled in Canada. From Quebec to B.C., she covered all the principal cities thoroughly. Even some of the then-towns were graced with Bayla’s presence — including Lethbridge and tiny Frank, Alberta!

There were a couple of other more clunky qualifiers in addition to “Egyptian” and “scientific”. Seemingly, wishing to cover most of the bases, Madame Vordya sold herself as “the Royal English Egyptian Palmist” (World 25 Jan 1913). Queen Maze, however, described her work as being “the Royal English Gypsy palmist” (Sun 4 Feb 1913).

Everybody’s Wonderful! (Except When They’re Not)

One peculiar commonality among the many ads that I reviewed (from the 1890s to 1970) was the regular use of the word “wonderful”. Everyone who practiced palmistry, it seems, was “wonderful”! Permit a few examples:

“informs the public of her wonderful powers in reading the history of one’s life by examining the palms” un-named Egyptian Palmist. (World 31 March 1908)

“most wonderful delineator and gifted reader” La Fayette the Great (Province 12 June 1909)

“the wonderful palmists” un-named palmists in New Westminster (Province 15 Nov 1909)

“the wonderful Scotch palmist” John Muir (Province 24 Mar 1910)

“the wonderful card reader and palmist” Madame Damsky (World 2 July 1910)

“her wonderful gift of second sight enables her to lift the veil of mystery and reveal to you important matters of your future life.” Ceola (World 20 June 1912)

But there was at least one early palmist who did not feel so “wonderful” about herself. Lilian Field was a palmist who practiced in Victoria. However, this poor woman was judged to be insane and was moved to the hospital for the insane in New Westminster in November 1896. According to the Province, she was treated (as was typical at the time) as a criminal and only one day after being admitted in New Westminster, she was dead. What did the Province mean about her being treated as if she were a criminal? Apparently, she was bound hand and foot in shackles and was imprisoned in Victoria just as a criminal would be. Little use was made at the time of “camisoles” — which I take to be a reference to straitjackets. The Province editor summed it up well: “The principle of treating the insane as criminals is wrong and should no longer be allowed in practice” (Province 21 Nov 1896).

As the World Turned

By the early ’30s, there were changes evident in the occupation. Madame Sonia was partnering with David Spencer’s department stores. She would tell fortunes during lunch and tea hours in Spencer’s dining room. Madame X was broadcasting over CKCD and CHLS radio stations. In short, it became less common, as the years went by for palmists to function as solo acts. More and more, they relied on cafes and radio broadcasts to help them ply their trade. By the 1940s, to my surprise, the number of palmists advertising in the press fell dramatically. (I say that this surprised me, as I had expected these years to be a period of growth for palmists, given the uncertainties of war). There were just two palmists who were advertising regularly in the papers in that decade and by the ’60s that number fell to zero. I am sure that palmists continued to work in Vancouver in the ‘60s, but they made little use of the press in advertising the fact.

A related change I noted was that palmists tended less often to be based in the commercial district as the century wore on. Less frequently were they on the Granville or West Hastings “great white ways”; more often, they were in lower-rent East Hastings.

The Unfinished Story of Rev. W. C. Weir at First Baptist

Rev. W. C. Weir, Pastor at First Baptist (Vancouver), 1890-1894. Guelph Museums.

Of all the ministers at First Baptist Church over the years, the work of W. C. Weir (1890-1894) is among the most obscure and lacking in detail. The two FBC historians — William Carmichael (1947) and Les Cummings (1987) — make remarkably scant mention of him. We don’t even know Weir’s first name. In this post, I’ll try to assemble as many facts as I can about Weir using the tools available to me which weren’t around for earlier FBC historians to draw on.

William Cornett Weir was born in 1854. He married Elizabeth Louise Dutton in 1886 (one of the witnesses of their marriage was James B. Kennedy, who would very shortly become FBC’s pastor and whom Weir would succeed). Together, William and Elizabeth had 5 boys: Frederick (1888), William Arnold (1890), Charles (1892), Gordon (1895), and George (1898). Weir did his bachelor’s degree at Toronto and McMaster Universities and upon completing his education, accepted a call from Woolwich Street Baptist Church in 1890. He resigned his ministry at Woolwich Street after four years with that congregation. In a 1928 Woolwich Street anniversary souvenir, it was stated that “For some time, the church had suffered from a lack of unity in spirit and action. In the summer of 1890 the smouldering embers of disharmony burst into sudden flame.”¹ It was in the wake of this disharmony that Weir submitted his resignation (and, further, that about one hundred members split from Woolwich Street to start Trinity Baptist Church in Guelph).

Whatever were the specific reason(s) that motivated Weir’s departure from the Guelph church to accept the call to distant Vancouver, he assumed the FBC pulpit in short order. His swan song sermon in Guelph was on August 3rd; he arrived at the Vancouver CPR station on September 11th and was preaching at FBC on September 15th — at both morning and evening services, if you please! (Typical of early Baptist churches, since Weir travelled through Winnipeg on a Sunday, the local church there snagged him to be their guest preacher; there was little rest for anyone who could preach in those early days).

By all accounts, Weir’s ministry in Vancouver was a successful one. His preaching style was frequently described in the local press as “earnest”. And although today such a description might be perceived as damning with faint praise, I get the impression that it was not so intended at the time.

In March, 1893, Weir’s youngest child, William Arnold, contracted diptheritic croup. Arnold died. He was 3 years old (Daily World, 16 March 1893).

At the end of August, 1893, Weir submitted his first resignation to FBC. Today, when a resignation letter is submitted to an employer, the employee had better be prepared to leave; rarely are there second chances. But that wasn’t so, at least for pastors, in the early years; it was very probable that if a pastor was popular, his resignation wouldn’t be accepted by a congregation and they would request that the pastor reconsider. Weir did reconsider, ultimately deciding that he’d acted hastily and that he’d stick with FBC for awhile longer. The reason for his initial decision to resign was a difference of opinion between him and several congregants over the interpretation of a pretty obscure element of theology: millenarianism (Weekly World, 31 August 1893).

Weir and the Congregational Church minister at the time, J. W. Pedley, engaged in a public disagreement (in the local press as well as from their pulpits) as to the morality of attending the theatre. Although the two men took a great deal of time to set out their respective positions on this subject, their perspectives may be summed up as follows: Pedley argued that it was okay to attend the theatre under some circumstances; Weir argued that it was never okay to attend the theatre, that the theatre was in and of itself evil and ought always to be avoided (Daily World, 17 January 1893).

Weir’s second resignation from FBC was in October, 1894. No fuss was made in the press, this time. His “farewell sermon” was mentioned on October 28th, and that was all (Daily News Advertiser 28 October 1894).

After leaving FBC, Weir ministered with the Baptist Church in Everett, WA from 1894-1898. Weir would succeed Rev. D. J. Pierce as the head of “Seattle University” (Post-Intelligencer, 31 May 1895). Robert Moen has established that this was not the same institution that goes by that name today — one founded by Jesuits — but rather a Baptist school.

Around the turn of the century, the Weirs returned to their home province of Ontario. Here, he served several Baptist churches, including Carleton Place in the Ottawa area and Oxford Street Baptist Church in Woodstock.

Elizabeth died of tuberculosis in July 1909. William married Emily Gertrude Laycock in December 1910.

From early in 1911, Weir had been feeling poorly and early in 1912 his illness caused him to resign from Oxford Street church in Woodstock. However, within months of resigning, he was feeling so much better that he attended the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec, and “supplied” pulpits for pastors who had to be away from their home churches (Brantford Daily Expositor, 29 October 1912). Ironically, one of the last churches where he preached was a Congregational church (Daily Expositor, 19 October 1912). It isn’t mentioned in the local press if his sermon subject while preaching there pertained to the immorality of theatre attendance!

W. C. Weir died in October, 1912 at age 58 from angina.

Weir’s second wife, Emily, married a former FBC minister, Dr. H. Francis Perry in 1922 (who was minister at FBC during the move from Hamilton Street to Burrard & Nelson).

Notes

¹From a Historical Sketch of Woolwich Baptist Church on the occasion of their 75th anniversary services (1928) https://guelph.pastperfectonline.com/Archive/92411C5F-EB8C-4C23-BBD6-210814693148#gallery-14.

Jeff Wall . . . Cartoonist?

Honest confession, I was raised to believe, is good for the soul. So I need to begin this post by admitting that Jeff Wall‘s photographic work – the work for which he is best known worldwide – doesn’t really “rock my world”.

But when I was browsing through back issues of UBC’s student newspaper, The Ubyssey, recently, I discovered that Wall had a pre-photographic period as a cartoonist, and some of his drawings struck me as being quite good.

I’ve had a look at online sources of Wall’s work and cannot find any sites that show his cartoons. Therefore, I’ll share some of my favourites of Wall’s cartoons that were produced in the 1960s, when he was pursuing his B.A. and M.A. degrees at UBC. I hope you’ll enjoy these as much as I have.

The Ubyssey. February 12, 1965. This drawing accompanied an editorial which had guarded applause for a grant from MacMillan Bloedel Co. that would triple the university’s library holdings. The funding would be directed to Union College and Anglican Theological College.

The Ubyssey. November 6, 1964. This is a good caricature of Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson. It accompanied a negative review of a film about Pearson which followed the PM to work in the Parliament Buildings until he went home at day’s end. The final paragraph sums up the reviewer’s opinion of the film: “Blah Oatmeal.”

UBC Alumni Chronicle Summer 1965. This drawing accompanied an article titled “Computers in White”, which pertained to the “new” UBC hospital which was “fully computerized”.

UBC Alumni Chronicle. Summer 1965. This drawing accompanied an article titled “Problem-Solver at Work”. This was another article in a series in this edition of the Chronicle pertaining to the “wonders” of computers.

UBC Alumni Chronicle. Autumn 1965. This drawing accompanied an article titled “Mothers in Academe”.

Vancouver Reachout

Front cover of program for Four Party Forum on December 2, 1975. MDM’s Collection.

The Political Forum (at the Agrodome, appropriately)

The program cover shown above came to me last week, courtesy of my old friend, Bill Reimer, bookstore manager at Regent College. Within it was outlined the program for the debate which took place on December 2, 1975 and was sponsored by the Christian Action Committee of Vancouver Reachout. The Opening Address was presented by Dr. Clark Pinnock, who filled the systematic theology chair at Regent College at the time.¹ Interestingly, the local press didn’t even mention Pinnock’s address. I have heard from then-Regent College president, Carl Amerding (via Reimer) that Pinnock took as his topic the Kingdom of God and how it supersedes earthly politics.²

Following Pinnock’s talk, each of the four major political party leaders running in the provincial election (due to happen a week later on December 11th) spoke. Their subject was supposed to be the “moral and ethical implications” of the provincial election. Dave Barrett (NDP and incumbent): “We (politicians) try our best to behave as [if] we really are our brother’s keeper and that’s really what life is all about.” Scott Wallace (Conservative): “The principal role of the politician is to give fair play and justice to all groups in society.” Gordon Gibson (Liberal): “There must be morals and ethics in politics because government is here to unite people and help them.” Bill Bennett (Social Credit): “Government must be the servant of the people and never the master; government must do things for people and not to people.” (Province 3 Dec 1975). He later expanded upon this by proclaiming that “The enemy of the people is big government…” but he was apparently prevented from completing his statement by boos from the crowd (Province, 3 Dec 1975). Senator Ray Perrault was Moderator of the debate and one assumes he was an effective one, as he failed to earn any press coverage for his role!

Bennett’s attendance at the debate was iffy from the get-go. About a month before it was to happen, Bennett’s campaign team said he couldn’t attend due to prior commitments. However the Christian Action Committee must have had some clout as Bennett’s team said they would try to get him to the debate somehow. And he did ultimately attend it — the only all-party-leaders debate that he would participate in in that election campaign (Sun 18 Nov 1975).³

5,500 people attended the debate. Once Pinnock and the party leaders had presented their remarks, the audience was able to ask questions of the leaders. Topics ranged from abortion to juvenile delinquency to labour issues.

Finally, there was a “Response” section on the program (just before Rev. Roy Bell led the closing prayer). Just what the Response was is vague and must not have been considered newsworthy by reporters attending the event, as nothing was said about it in either of the local papers. The responders consisted of religion writer for the Province newspaper, David W. Virtue, and the following clergy: Rev. Calvin W. Netterfield of Ellendale Heights Baptist Church, Jon L. Jessiman, past president of the United Church of Canada in B.C., and Rev. Bernice M. Gerard, pastor of Fraserview Assembly. Of the three, the most well-known was doubtless Gerard. I haven’t heard of Jessiman or Netterfield before (nor of Ellendale Baptist – which appears to have been located in Surrey).

The Vancouver Reachout (read “Evangelistic Campaign”)

The “Vancouver Reachout” was the wider context in which the Political Forum took place. Indeed, the Forum seems to have been almost an after-thought, as it wasn’t mentioned in press accounts of the Reachout until November 1975.

The Reachout was, for all intents and purposes, an evangelistic campaign led by Leighton Ford and his team, which was, in turn, part of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Ford was a Vice-President of BGEA and Graham’s brother-in-law.⁴ During the Reachout, Ford traded liberally on his Canuck creds (which seem to me to have been a bit feeble; he was born in Canada). The Reachout included 150 local Greater Vancouver churches representing approximately 23 denominations.

The Reachout wasn’t a typical evangelistic campaign, however. At least, it was quite unlike the typical Graham campaigns with which so many of us are familiar (parachute the evangelist into the city, preach at the audience, and culminate with an “invitation” whilst umpteen verses of “Just As I Am” are belted out by the mass choir).

No, the Reachout was to be a two-year “people-to-people” effort.⁵ The inspiration for the project seems to have come from Ford’s involvement in a similar effort in Lausanne, Switzerland. A curriculum of material was prepared to assist Christians in the city to “reach out” to their non-Christian neighbours, family, and friends. There would also be a survey taken of Vancouver residents to get a better picture of who we were from a spiritual perspective. Findings of the survey included:

• Roughly 2/3 of respondents were satisfied with “life as it is”
• Only 7-9% felt guilty about or discouraged about the state of their lives
• The primary motivation of most respondents was to “live the good life”
• Most residents were not especially religious (only 22.5% claimed to be active in church)
• 25-30% of those interviewed were agnostic or skeptical about Christian claims.

The two-year project concluded with traditional crusade-like gatherings. The first of four such gatherings wasn’t great from an optics perspective, attendance-wise. It was held in the Pacific Coliseum which holds up to 17,000; there was an audience of 4,500 (about 1/4 full). Leighton Ford spoke on the reality of hell on another night. And on all four occasions, he issued a Graham-like invitation.

It isn’t clear whether “Just As I Am” was sung.

Notes

¹Pinnock would be replaced in that chair within a few years by J. I. Packer. Pinnock’s views underwent a shift as he grew older. For example, in his 70s, he embraced “open theology” This is viewed by some Christians as heretical.

²Email message from Bill Reimer to MDM, August 22, 2022. Reimer spoke to Amerding about Pinnock’s talk at the debate.

³The press seemed to have more than the usual number of typo errors when it came to Vancouver Reachout. In this newspaper article, for example, the “ethical and moral implications” of the election, which the leaders were asked to speak on became the “moral and liberal implications” when printed. In a related article, “Vancouver Reachout” was printed as “Vancouver Beachout“!

⁴There had been a Billy Graham crusade in Greater Vancouver in 1965.

⁵In July 1975, it was announced that Reachout was sponsoring Yellow Bird Taxi which would offer free taxi service to elderly and moderately handicapped residents (Sun 5 July 1975).

The Forgotten Elphinstone

CVA 70-11 – Art Grice photo. 1973. The Elphinstone Building with the iconic Scott’s Cafe at 722 Granville wedged between the Vancouver Block (with the somewhat confusing Birk’s logo atop it) to the south and the (now gone) Birk’s Block to the north. Prior to the construction of Birk’s, there were two other buildings on that site: the Strathcona and the Durham blocks.

The Elphinstone Block was the southernmost of three buildings across Granville Street from the first and second Hotels Vancouver. All three were owned by British peers (members of the House of Lords): at the SE corner of Granville and Georgia was the (Lord) Strathcona block, then the (Lord) Durham, and finally the (Lord) Elphinstone. All three seem to have been constructed in about 1888. Only the Elphinstone survived into the mid-1970s. The Strathcona and Durham were demolished so that the Birk’s Building could rise in their stead in 1912 (Province 10 Jan 1912). Oddly, the 3-storey Elphinstone was allowed to stand, squeezed uncomfortably (and with its history increasingly forgotten over the years) between the ‘skyscrapers’ on either side of it: 11-storey Birk’s and 14-storey Vancouver Block. The Elphinstone was finally demolished in 1974 along with Birk’s and the Strand Theatre to make way for Scotia Tower and the rather ho-hum Vancouver Centre.

The Lord Elphinstone who was the original owner of the Elphinstone Block was the 15th Baron Elphinstone; he was born William Buller Elphinstone (1828-1893). He was connected with the C.P.R., not least as a shareholder (Weekly News-Advertiser 2 Sept 1891). He died at his home in Edinburgh in January 1893 (World 19 Jan 1893). His heir was brother, Mount-Stuart Elphinstone, who continued the family practice of owning property in Western Canada; in 1910, he bought 60 acres near Kamloops for the purpose of growing fruit (Province 15 Aug 1911). He sold the Elphinstone block in 1911 for $125,000 (Province 2 Jan 1912). The Starbucks on Granville (722) adjacent to London Drugs is the former site of the Elphinstone Block.

The Elphinstone block served as an early home for parishioners of Christ Church in the days before they had a building of their own. Although the Elphinstone block on Granville is gone, there are various other B.C. and Canadian sites that still bear his name. There is an Elphinstone, Manitoba, Mount Elphinstone Provincial Park and a YMCA Camp Elphinstone (the latter two both loccated on the Sunshine Coast). There was a settlement in Howe Sound, at one time, called Elphinstone; it seems to have been part of what today is known as Gibson’s (Daily News Advertiser 28 Aug 1893). Doubtless there are other sites that bear the Elphinstone name.

In the early years of Vancouver, property ownership was central to the privilege of having one’s name on the voter’s list. Rudyard Kipling¹ got his name on the voter’s list by this means, although he never voted here. Likewise Donald A. Smith (Lord Strathcona) and Lord Elphinstone (Province 21 Jan 1902).

I should say a little about Scott’s Cafe, as it was an iconic tenant at the Elphinstone for many years. It wasn’t the first eatery at 722 Granville, however. The Mission Confectionary seems to hold that honour (1912-1925). It was followed by the Picardy Candy Shop (1925-27), which was a Winnipeg chain of candy stores that thought it could duplicate its success in Vancouver — but didn’t, for some reason. Then came Scott’s Cafe (1927-1974). Scott’s on Granville, of course, was demolished in 1974. They opened a restaurant for a brief period on West Broadway, but by 1976 they had moved back downtown to 580 West Georgia (just around the corner from their Granville location at the SE corner of Georgia and Seymour). Scott’s endured at Georgia until 1985 when they were bought by the White Spot chain. White Spot kept the Georgia site until it was demolished just a few years ago to make way for the Telus Garden condo development.

Notes

¹It was likely during his 1892 visit to Vancouver that Kipling succumbed to the wiles of a local realtor. He apparently purchased land in North Vancouver (Province 1 Oct 1907).

SGN 1542 – View of Georgia Street at Granville Street, showing parked cars and the demolition of the Strathcona and Durham blocks to make way for the Birk’s Building. The Elphinstone block (at far right) would stand until the mid-1970s. 1910-1912. Charles Bradbury photo.

Radio FBC

In 1974, under the innovative¹ Senior Pastorate of Rev. Dr. Roy Bell (1970-1981), First Baptist Church Vancouver participated for the first time in a radio broadcast of its morning service.² The radio station – CJVB 1470 – was a relatively new one; it had been in business only since 1971.³ It was a multilingual “ethnic” station, carrying programs in Croatian, Portuguese, Estonian, Finnish, Dutch, Japanese, Chinese, Hindi, Punjabi, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Ukrainian, Greek, German, Danish, and French (Province 2 May 1972). But the station’s license required it to have at least 60% of its programming in English. An inexpensive means of achieving a healthy proportion of that percentage was by providing local worship services over the air. This seems to have been something the station provided to the church free of charge (with the possible exception of some basic set-up costs).

Rev, Dr. Roy Bell

The church radio broadcasts from FBC had a similar function to the Zoom internet broadcasts of recent years: they were to serve the “shut-ins”, seniors, and others who found it difficult to attend services in person.

A major constraint of the broadcasts, however, was time. The radio station could only offer a 1-hour time slot for church services. Immediately following the FBC service there was either another church service scheduled or a news broadcast “at the top of the hour”. This meant that the service had to be very carefully timed in order to ensure that it ended exactly one hour after it began.

Linda Zlotnik was Administrative Assistant (1986-2001) to Rev. Dr. Bruce Milne, Senior Pastor (1984-2001). Linda had this to say about the radio services:

Everything, on every service, was timed to the second by Bruce . . . . If we didn’t stick to our time [in other elements of the service; the announcements, for example] there would not be time for his sermon, which came last.

Email to mdm from Linda Zlotnik, July 11, 2022.

Rev. Dr. Bruce Milne. n.d. Jennifer Friesen photo.

According to another source, when the one-hour point was approaching, a light bulb on the pulpit – visible only to the preacher – would begin to flash. Thus, a visual cue to mark the end of the broadcast. Ideally, the broadcast would fade during the singing of the final hymn.

The radio broadcasts at FBC ended in 1987. It isn’t clear whether this was partly a decision of FBC or if it was wholly the decision of CJVB. The station was sold in 1993 for over $5 million.

Notes

¹During Dr. Bell’s pastorate, a folk choir was established and a coffee house ministry, known as Hobbit House at 1025 Nelson Street, came into being. Hobbit House would endure for much longer than the folk choir or the radio broadcasts!

Linda Zlotnik

²FBC wasn’t the first or only church to participate in CJVB’s radio broadcasts. The first church to take part was St. Andrew’s-Wesley United Church. First Presbyterian Church in New Westminster was another participant.

³CJVB got its last two call letters from the surname of the owner: Jan Van Bruchem. Van Bruchem and his family, apparently attended FBC from time to time.

I’m appreciative of Linda Zlotnik, Mary Cramond, Saad Zarifeh, Peter Findlay, and Cathie McGuire for their memories and willingness to share them with me for this post.

Man Plunges From 15th Floor! (And Other Tales – Thrilling and Banal – at the Standard Bank Building)

AM1052 P-211 – Weart Building (later known as the Standard Bank Building), SW Corner of Hastings at Richards Street, Vancouver, B.C. ca 1912 Valenetine and Sons Publishing Co., Ltd. Note: This is a pre-construction illustration.

Construction started on the “Weart Building” in Spring 1913; it was finished by August 1914. By the time the building opened, it was referred to as the Standard Bank Building as that was the name of the anchor tenant at the time. The name stuck, even though the Standard Bank didn’t.

The building would rise to 15 stories, even though City Council had, in 1911, passed a by-law putting a height limit of 10 stories/120 feet on downtown structures. The City later made an exception for the Standard, since its building permit had been approved prior to the height by-law being passed.

There was some early wild reportage claiming that the Standard’s height would make it the tallest in the British Empire. This was never in the cards, because by 1910 the Dominion Building was already due to exceed the planned height of the Standard (174 vs 171 feet); and, by the time the Standard was built, it would be thoroughly outstripped in height by the World Tower (17 stories/269 feet).

The anticipated building was described by the Province in 1910 – with no little hyperbole – as “a prose-poem in steel, stone and marble (Province 18 Jun 1910)”

CVA 99 – 3312 – Vancouver Harbour [view of Waterfront looking east] 1920 Stuart Thomson. Note the giant light bulbs lining the rooftop of the Standard Bank Building.

I don’t know (and I am assuming other researchers don’t know either) what year changes were made to the upper stories of the Standard. But we know that at some point, a number of the gothic flourishes along the roof were toned down to what is there today. Among these were several large light bulbs (see photo above). It isn’t clear to me whether these were purely decorative, although I’m assuming so, as it was a bit early in the century for there to be much concern with urban aeronautics and tall buildings. Stuart Thomson is the only early photographer who seems to have gotten access to the roof of the Standard in its original incarnation. This photo may be a CVA sleeper, as the location where the image was made – plainly, to me, the Standard Bank Building – wasn’t identified.

What follows is a collection of bits and pieces from print news media pertaining to the Standard:

• In November 1913, there was a construction accident involving a W. M. Thompson. “While working on a scaffolding on the fifth floor . . . the scaffolding gave way. Thompson was thrown toward the ground, but just in the nick of time caught one of the steel girders from where his fellow-workmen pulled him to a position of safety. He suffered no injuries except a slightly strained back.” (World 26 Nov 1913).
• In 1915, Miss Cal Young and Mrs. Frances Lohman announced that their business, Venetian Hair Co. would move out of their former digs at 767 Granville (Orpheum Building) and onto the mezzanine floor of the Standard. “Facial massage and hair dyeing are specialties with us.” Hours: 9am-6pm (M-Fri); 9am-8pm (Sat) (News Advertiser 19 Sept 1915).
• “Mrs. F. Pearce . . . was the victim of a brutal attack yesterday when an unidentified bandit beat her into unconsciousness and looted the offices of the Continental Credit company, 408 Standard Bank building where she is employed. The robber obtained $7 from a desk in the office and $20 from the purse of his victim” (Sun 6 Aug 1920).
• On April 1, 1941, relative newcomer to the city (from Regina 15 months before), Thomas W. Farmer “plunged 15 stories from the Standard Bank Building . . . to his death on the floor of a cafe immediately adjoining . . . . E. B. Bull sustained cuts on his head from glass which shattered from the skylight as Farmer’s body plunged into Ziegler’s Cafe, 512 West Hastings Street, where about 30 persons were having their midday meal. . . . V. C. Spink, manager of the Standard Bank Building, said the man had apparently fallen from the window of a washroom on the 15th floor of the building (Sun 2 Apr 1941). Farmer was a hotelier in Regina before moving to Vancouver, where, presumably, he’d planned to retire. He was 69.
• Some of the Standard Bank Building’s tenants over its 100+ year history have included: Li Chao, Chinese Consul; Girish Mathur, Vancouver’s first Indian trade commissioner; the National Council for Canadian-Soviet Friendship; the Vancouver Detective Agency, John O’Grady, Manager, “Complete dicta-phone service”; First Church of Christ Scientist’s “free reading room”; the B.C. Aquarium Society; and, currently, the Vancouver Heritage Foundation.
• J. W. Weart, former Reeve of Burnaby, who was the principal promoter of the construction of the Standard Bank Building, lived with his family for a few years after construction was completed in the penthouse of the Standard (the 15th floor) from 1914 until ca1920 (Sun 24 July 1951).
• In 1952, Japan’s first post-WWII consul, Takeshi Yusakawa, had his office in an “over-size suite atop the Standard Bank Building.” Presumably, this meant that he was in the former penthouse of J. W. Weart on the 15th floor. “There is practically no trade from Japan to Canada now,” he said. “Your ships come full to us, with wheat, lumber and, at present, some heavy cargoes of iron ore from Vancouver Island. But they have to go back empty. That is bad.” (Sun 5 July 1952).
• Sheridan’s Physiotherapy and Slenderizing Salon: “It’s new in this city, but already the women have heard about it and are lugging their excess fat up to room 525 Standard Bank Building. There they leave it without a parting tear.” (Not necessary, it seems, for men to lug their excess fat up to the fifth floor!) (Sun 11 Oct 1945).
• The Standard, like most tall downtown buildings, was an air raid shelter during WWII.
• 20 years after Thomas Farmer’s death, a woman was thwarted in attempting to jump from a 15th floor window in the Standard. She later went to the Cypress Hotel, 655 Robson, and asked the manager to see a room on the top floor. She left her purse and gloves on the dresser of the room and leaped from the window. Police escorted the woman to VGH, where she was reported to be in “poor condition” with a fractured leg and ribs and internal injuries. The 45-year-old woman had earlier been a patient at Essondale (Province 3 Mar 1961).
• During the Great War, strawberries, lettuce, onions, and beans were grown on the roof of the Standard in answer to the national call for additional food production (Sun 28 July 1937).

Current roof line (minus many original gothic features) of the Standard. June 28, 2022, mdm photo.

A. W. Sullivan: Black Pioneer and Hall-Builder

Crop of CVA Port P334 – 1888 church picnic showing, I strongly suspect, Arthur Sullivan surrounded by several ladies. Arthur Sullivan is identified on the photo at CVA as being present in the image (but it doesn’t specify where in the image he is). But, given the small number of males in the original photo and the tiny number of blacks in Vancouver at this time, I concluded that the black gent was, in fact, Arthur Sullivan.

Arthur Willis Sullivan (1860-1921) was a black pioneer who was very popular in early (and pre-) Vancouver.¹ He was born in New Westminster to Philip ( – 1886), who came originally from the West Indies, and Josephine Sullivan (1818-1894), who came from the U.S. (but may have had at least one parent from France). Josephine came to the area that would become Vancouver (Granville) in 1859 from Panama aboard the S. S. Beaver (World, Aug 23, 1894). Philip cleared much of Granville of trees and stumps and he served as cook for a number of years at the Moodyville Mill (Vancouver Voters, 1886 p. 672). The Sullivans were the first Methodists living in Granville. Philip and Josephine (and Arthur and his siblings) were described in their day as being “mulattos“, a distinction not commonly made today; they would doubtless be described today simply as Black).

In 1887, when they were both 26, Arthur married Annie Elizabeth Thomson, a native of Campbellton, NB. Interestingly, he identified his profession on the marriage certificate as “Gentleman”. She died in 1909 when she was only 48. He died in 1921.

Arthur played the organ for services at St. James Anglican Church and for the Princess Street Methodist Church for a number of years.

Sullivan’s Halls

Crop of drawing showing Bird’s Eye View of Gastown ca 1875. Made by Beverly Justice for Granville Revisited, 1970. The Community Arts Council. (Annotations added by mdm). The Maple Tree (located just to the left of ‘Gassy’ Jack Deighton’s Hotel and Saloon) is at far left of drawing; the next street south of the tree (‘up’ on the drawing) is Cordova. The first Sullivan’s Hall is located on the south side of Cordova at the right.

There have been three structures associated with Arthur’s family in Vancouver and known as Sullivan’s Hall. The first building was in Old Granville from the 1870s until 1886, when it was destroyed, along with most other structures, in the Great Fire. This first Hall was built by Arthur’s father, Philip.

The second hall replaced the first one on the same property. This structure was built by 1887 by Arthur. It was in this hall that First Baptist Church held some of its early meetings. First Baptist historian, W.M. Carmichael has remarked in These Sixty Years: 1887-1947 that meetings after the Fire were held at various locations, including “Sullivan Hall, owned by a well-known coloured resident whose father had been cook at the Moodyville Mill for many years. His mother was the first Methodist in Granville” (Carmichael, p. 5). Trade unions often met in this hall (e.g., United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners).

The third Sullivan Hall was built on the north side of the same street at 61 Cordova by 1903. This building was a 3-storey brick building. Secret societies, such as the Odd Fellows often met in this hall. Some church groups also rented space there, such as the First Spiritual Church of the Soul. There were also businesses that had permanent digs in this building. The Fricke-Schenke photographic studio was one such. As the building got older, it seems that some of the space was converted into residential suites. I don’t know when the third hall was demolished, but on its site currently is a residential co-op building (adjacent to the Fortin Building).

VPL 8389. Looking NE from Abbott and Cordova. 1912. R Broadbridge photo. This shows the third (and final) Sullivan Hall. It is the tallest structure on the street near the bottom of the image.

A Ladies’ Man?

Well, the first photo in this post certainly is suggestive that Sullivan was not opposed to reclining into the laps of ladies! Perhaps I’m imagining it, but it seems to me that there is a twinkle in his eye which conveys the message pretty clearly that he was enjoying himself.

As you will see in the Changing Vancouver post, Arthur was part of a huge scandal at the time (1889) in which Sullivan and a Dr. Langis faced charges of procuring an abortion of a Mrs. Amanda Hogg with whom he was accused of having an intimate relationship while he was married to Annie (and while Amanda was married to local photographic professional, James Hogg). Although Sullivan and the doc were found “not guilty” of any crime, it remains an open question as to whether or not Sullivan committed adultery with Mrs. Hogg. I must say, however, that whenever I see the photo above, I wonder whether one of the ladies in that 1888 photo was Amanda Hogg! That will probably need to remain in the realm of historical imagination, as there doesn’t seem to be a publicly available photo identifying Mrs. Hogg! And that is probably just as well.

Notes

¹The blog, Changing Vancouver, has a number of additional details pertaining to Arthur Sullivan. I will generally avoid going over ground covered by that post and will seek to add bits and pieces about the life of Sullivan that they haven’t covered. I suggest that the two posts be read in conjunction with each other.

The Unusual Life of Ruby Kay, Bookseller

Ruby Ellis was born in Bradford, England to Angus Ellis and Charlotte Emily Hudson in November 1905. There is no record of Charlotte having a career (but it’s likely she stayed at home to raise Ruby and her sister, Beatrice Maud). Angus was a factory worker. A year after Ruby was born, the Ellis family immigrated to Canada and by 1911 they had settled in Montreal.¹

By the late 1940s, Ruby had hooked up with an American lad named Wesley John Kay, who supported himself by working in a gift shop in Niagara Falls, NY. When Ruby tried to cross the Canada/U.S. border in 1947, presumably to live with Wes in New York state, she was “debarred”. It isn’t entirely clear what the most important reason was for her debarment; it seems likely to have been due to a combination of factors: she wasn’t married to “boyfriend” Wes; she wasn’t an American citizen; she had no money on her person; and her reasons for entering the U.S. weren’t clear.

In 1955, Ruby and Wes Kay had moved together to Vancouver. They apparently got hitched at some point in the decade after Ruby’s debarment from the U.S. They were co-proprietors of Kay’s Magic Shop at 666 West Cordova, 1124 Commercial Drive, and 6166 Fraser St (they seemed to reside at the latter address).

CVA SGN 1070.05 – East side of Granville Street just south of Nelson, 1912? I figure that the Magic Book Store in 1961 (the time of Ruby’s arrest) was located just south of Cunningham Hardware in the structure with the narrow facade and the two 2nd floor bay windows.

Their 1955 ads in local papers claimed that they carried “party jokes, magic tricks, and model kits”. Another ad, a couple of years later for a shop at 1026 Granville, indicated that “DOLLS repaired, dressed. We buy and sell.” There was no mention made of books being on offer at this stage of their careers.

That had changed by 1961, when Ruby was described in Vancouver newspapers as being “a bookseller” at the same Granville Street address. In March of that year, Ruby was sentenced in Assize Court to do 18 months jail time for possession of stolen property. She had an adding machine, a typewriter, and a record player stolen from different people. Said Mr. Justice H. W. McInnes to Ruby: “The evidence indicates to me that you were carrying on the business of a fence. You were an inducement to thieves to steal by providing a ready market for their loot.” (Vancouver Sun 17 Mar 1961).

So Ruby spent the next year and a half in the hoosegow courtesy of Her Majesty’s Government. Chances are she spent that spell either in Oakalla prison (which by 1953 could accommodate 12 female inmates) or in Twin Maples Farm for women.

Wes kept the Magic and Book Store operating while jailbird Ruby served her time.

In 1965, the following incident was reported in the Sun:

An armed bandit bound a bookstore proprietor’s hands with her nylon stockings Friday night, robbed her and escaped with about $35. Ruby Kay, owner of Kay’s Magic Book Store, 307 West Pender, told police the well-dressed bandit entered the store about 8:30 p.m. and demanded money. She said he threatened her with a gun and a knife before forcing her to take off her nylons.

Vancouver Sun. 6 Feb 1965.

Crop of CVA 780-16 – North side of 300 block W. Pender, 1960-80. I’m guessing that 307 (the Kays’ shop when it was robbed in 1965) was just east of the building with the light blue facade.

I imagine that after this development, Ruby was feeling as though she couldn’t catch a break from either the cops or the robbers!

In 1967, Wes died. His early death at age 65 seems to have been due to a combination of acute renal failure and heart disease.

The Magic Book Store seemed to fold upon Wes’s death. There is no sign of it being in operation in the 1970s or 1980s. The bookshop was a second-hand store, dealing in, primarily, used paperbacks and magazines.

Ruby died in her 90th year in 1995.

Notes

¹I am indebted to Robert Moen for his invaluable genealogical research on Ruby & Wes Kay for this post. He is the author of his own blog at https://westendvancouver.wordpress.com/

Gone . . . But Not Forgotten: Used/Antiquarian Bookshops (1970-2023)

This post pays tribute to used and antiquarian bookshops (and their booksellers) which existed between 1970 and 2023 and are no longer operating in Vancouver. It will not include existing shops such as The Paper Hound, MacLeod’s, People’s Co-op, Lawrence, Stillman’s, Spartacus, Antiquarius, Michael Thompson, Wilkinson’s Automobilia*, etc. In order to qualify for inclusion in this post, the shops listed need to be out of business and to have been located within Vancouver’s city limits (and to have sold principally English-language books).

Each listing shows the shop’s name, the approximate dates it was in business (in decades), the shop’s proprietor (if known) and its address(es).**

For those of you who are interested not only in Vancouver history, but also older books, you may be interested in this site where I attempted a ‘love letter’ to a few of my favourite books: https://residentinoak.home.blog/

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A-Aabaca Book Bin (1970s-1980s) – Proprietor: Lloyd Cartwright. 1247 Granville. By 1988, it was purchased by Skip Mabee. See: Fraser Book Bin and ABC Book & Comic Emporium.

Albert Eddy, Nan Vie photo.

Aardvark Books (1970s-1980s) – Founder proprietor: Albert Eddy. Started in business ca 1971 at 4185 Main. By 1979, it was at 4331 Main. By 1982, ownership had changed to Fred Miller. By 1989, the name of the shop had changed slightly to Aardvark Books & Comics. There were several video machines in Aardvark by Miller’s time.

Mabee

ABC Book & Comic Emporium (1990-2010s) – Louis “Skip” Mabee, proprietor. 1247 Granville. It was bought by Mabee in 1988 after it was sold a couple of times after Ted Fraser sold it. By ca2000, the shop had a date with re-developers and it was moved over to the east side of Granville (1200 block). Within a short time, it was moved yet again by Mabee to Broadway just west of Granville, where it remained until 2012. See: Fraser Book Bin.

Abraxas Books (1970s) – Proprietor unknown. 3210 Dunbar.

Cartwright of A-Aabaca
Book Bin.

Acorn Books (1980s-1990s) – Don Stewart, proprietor. (Catriona Strang managed it for Stewart for about a year and then Renee Rodin took over). 321 W. Pender. Acorn was a low-end version of Stewart’s main shop, MacLeod’s Books.

Ahrens’ Books – John Ahrens (1960s-1980s), proprietor. The shop was located at 756 Davie. It had a reputation as a chaotic (book-wise) meeting place of book people.

Ahren’s Books on Davie Street at Howe, 1981.. CVA 779 W03.24.

Ainsworth

Ainsworth Books (1930s-1990s) – A. J. Ainsworth established his shop at 321 W. Pender in 1939. He was the third generation of his family to be in the book business; he had learned the business from his father in England. A.J.A. died in 1950 at age 75. One of his daughters, Doreen Crombie, took over the business. Crombie sold the shop to Russ Cunningham in the 1980s. The shop continued under the Ainsworth name and at the same location until ca1995, when it apparently folded.

Albion Books (ca1985-2022) – David Beaver, proprietor. Location: 523 Richards Street. Beaver closed the shop in 2022. Specialties: Bestsellers, modern first editions, classics, science fiction, mysteries, new age, philosophy, vinyl LPs.

Albion Books. MDM photo. ca 2016.

Arcanum Books (1990s-2000s) – Kevin Dale McKeown, proprietor. Was open in Vancouver from 1998-2006. Location: 317A Cambie Street (one of the retail spaces beneath the rooms of Danny’s Inn). Arcanum was originally opened in Burnaby in 1969 with Everett Foley, proprietor. It had several locations just east of Boundary on Hastings, the last being where Brown’s Books is today until McKeown bought the business and moved it to Vancouver. Specialties: Religion, philosophy, metaphysics, miscellaneous conspiracy theories and inexplicable phenomena.

Ashley’s Books (1990s-2000s) – Ashley Offill, proprietor. 3754 W 10th. Specialties: history, art, literature, psychology, eastern religion. See: Baehr Books.

Baehr Books (2000s) – Scot Baehr, proprietor. 3754 W 10th. Specialties: history, literature, art, psychology, science fiction.

Beland’s Bookshop (1970s) – Proprietor unknown. 3315 Kingsway (at Joyce). Specialties: pocket books, magazines, comics.

Belly Button Books and Novel Cafe (1980s-1990s) – Collectively owned, but according to his obituary, James C. Campbell was “very involved” in the business. He died of AIDS in 1994 and, from what I can tell, the bookshop didn’t outlive him by long. 109 W. Cordova. Generalist shop.

Better Buy Books (1960s-1990s) – Ron Webber, proprietor. 4393 W. 10th. A UBC-area source of used books. I recall finding many supplementary, out-of-print books there when I was working on my M.A. at UBC in the early 1990s.

Bidwell Books (1980s-1990s) – Dalia Sinius (later Dalia Dargis), proprietor. 824 Bidwell. This wee shop felt to me very much like a West End neighbourhood bookstore (at a time when the West End was more truly a neighbourhood). Specialties: architecture, boating, cooking, philosophy.

The Blue Heron (1980s-90s) – Alma McIntyre, proprietor (Stephen McIntyre‘s spouse). At 8321 Oak St. in 1990. By 1992, at 3516-A Main. Specialty: books about antiques/collectibles. Not sure how long this shop lasted, but it hasn’t been in business for at least a decade. Alma McIntyre died in 2005.

Black Sheep Books (1990s) – Trent & Denise Highnell, (later, George Kroller), proprietors. 2742 W. 4th Ave. When Renee Rodin decided in 1994 to sell R2B2 Books Books, the Highnell’s bought it and renamed it Black Sheep Books. It was operated by them for 4 years, after which George Kroller bought it and ran it for another 3 years under the same name. Black Sheep’s specialties: alternative literature, poetry, drama.

Bond’s Bookshop (1930s-1990s) – A generalist shop run by Francis Carradice (originally) and later by Ed R. Bowes. In the 1930s, it was located at 575 Dunsmuir. Gordon Bowes bought the Dunsmuir shop and put his son, Ed (Ned) Bowes, in charge; he was then 20. By 1969, it had moved to 523 Dunsmuir. In the late ’70s, it had moved to 579 Richards. By the 1980s, it had moved to 319 W. Hastings. It was in business there until the early 1990s, I believe. Ed Bowes died on January 21, 2021; he was working as a book scout at the time of his death.

The Book Basket (1960s-1970s) – Ted Fraser. 1070 Robson.

The Bookends (1970s-90s) – Proprietors: Gwenne and Earle Huston. 937 Davie.

Profile of proprietors of The Bookends. By Glen Johnson, Vancouver Sun. Oct. 30, 1993.Download

The Bookends at Davie location.

The Book Mantel (1990s) and Coffee Bar – Bonnie Murray, proprietor (1990); Cynthia Brooke (1994). At 1444 Kingsway (1990); 1002 Commercial Dr. (1994). Specialities: feminist lit, poetry, philosophy.

The Book Mantel (1980s-1990s) – Was co-owned by Frank Davis, who also owned Frank’s Records next door. The Mantel had two locations: one at 2551 Alma (near 10th Ave., approximately where Buntain Insurance is today); the other in Kerrisdale at 2065 West 41st. The shop seems to have closed ca1990. Davis died in 2017. Specialties: Classics, art, music, theatre, poetry, philosophy, natural history and science.

Busy ‘B’ (1920s-1970s) – George Biswanger, proprietor. The shop started in 1926 at 706 Seymour and advertised itself as selling “2nd hand goods”; books were not specified. It moved by 1927 to 540 W. Pender. By 1955, it had expanded to become two shops, both called “Busy B Book and [postage, presumbaly] Stamp” store at 445 W. Pender and 508 Richards. Biswanger died in 1966 (after which Don Duggan seemed to be proprietor, at least for awhile). Busy ‘B’ carried on through the mid-1970s; it seems finally to have folded by ca1976 (closing its final location at 748 E Broadway). Note: There is a photo which shows another outlet of Busy ‘B’ at 144 (shown in at least one record as “146”) West Hastings in 1968. (I’m indebted to Angus McIntyre and Gordon Watson for their help with the history of Busy ‘B’).

748 E Broadway location.

Carillon Books (1990s) – George Carroll, proprietor. 1926 W. 4th Ave. (1994). 822 Howe St. (1996). In 1998, the shop moved across the inlet to North Vancouver. I patronized Carroll’s Howe shop. I remember being on a Tchaikovsky kick in the late ‘80s and purchasing from his shop the full orchestral score of one of T’s piano concertos.

Cat & Fiddle Bookshop (1970s) – (Murray Schoolbraid), proprietor. The Point Grey shop was at 4529 W. 10th Ave. New and used books for and about children. It closed in August 1979.

Bell

Chef Bell – the Cookbook Man (1980s) – Lionel J. Bell, proprietor. The shop was located at 335 W. Pender in 1982. In 1983, he moved his “2000 cookbooks” to 434 W. Pender. He custom-built bookshelves for this space which I’m certain are the ones still in Criterion Books, the succeeding shop in that space (which is now also defunct). Bell died in 1989.

Coho Books – Michael Baker, proprietor. 3211 Dunbar. General stock.

Shows Chef Bell’s Coookbooks entrance (to the 2nd floor) at 434 W. Pender. This is the space most recently occupied by Criterion Books. CVA 790-1852.

Collectors’ Books and Records (1980s-1990s) – David Grannis, proprietor (later, Andy Stone). 648 Kingsway. (For more details, see Gordon Watson’s comment below – 07/03/2021).

McIntosh

Colophon Books (1980s-1990s) – James F. McIntosh, proprietor. This shop was located at 407 W. Cordova. It was an excellent general shop. I remember with fondness browsing through the stacks in his second-floor shop. McIntosh died in 2019.

Colophon Books (upstairs) on Water Street. CVA 790-2118.

Connoisseur Art Books (1980s-1990s) – Proprietor, Charles Anderson. 5957 W. Boulevard. Specialties: art, collectables.

Criterion Books (1990s-2000s) – Lance McCaughran, proprietor. 434 W. Pender. I suspect that the custom bookshelves in this shop were the same ones constructed by Lionel Bell when he owned Chef Bell Cookbooks at this location in the 1980s. McCaughran retired ca2015 and sold most of his general stock to Don Stewart (of MacLeod’s Books). Stewart took over the space as one of his book storage locations.

DeJong Books. 7 – 980 Denman Street. General stock.

EP Books (1990s) – Ed Peasgood, proprietor. 4495 Dunbar. Specialties: mystery, children’s, Christian studies/spirituality.

Fahrenheit 451 Books (1980s) – Linda Stackhouse, proprietor. NE corner Homer and Pender. Specialties: Literature, Sci-Fi.

CVA.790-1856 – Fahrenheit 451. Cropped.

Evelyn’s Book Shelf (1950s-1970s) – 3075 W. Broadway. This was the self-proclaimed “largest bookshop in Kitsilano“ during its time. That claim was probably quite exaggerated. See comment below from Gordon Watson. I have had Gordon’s general impressions confirmed (privately) by someone else.

A. H. Falstaff Books (1970s) – Co-owned by William Hoffer and Van Andruss. 4529 W. 10th Ave. The shop opened in 1972 and closed after a year.

The Fiction Co. (1990s) – Gordon McRae, proprietor. 425 Abbott. Generalist shop.

Fraser Book Bin (1940s-1970s) – Ted Fraser, proprietor. 6184 Fraser; also at 1247 Granville. The 1247 Granville location first became Fraser’s in 1946. In 1963, Fraser and his manager were charged with “possession of obscene material for the purpose of publication, distribution or circulation.” Fraser appealed all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, but was ultimately convicted and fined $3,400. Skip Mabee took over the 1247 Granville site in 1988 and changed the name from A-Aabaca Book Bin (the interim name of the shop between Fraser’s and Mabee’s proprietorships) to the ABC Book & Comic Emporium.

CVA – 1095-00979: 1247 Granville Street. 1974.

Fraser Book Bin (No. 2) (1990s) – Brian Wright & Gerri Ironsides, proprietors. 4750 Main. By 1996, the name of the shop had changed to Fraser Books.

Funston’s Christian Book Centre (1970s-2000s) – William T. Funston, founder (died 1992); Dave Powell was the manager of the Cambie outlet. 8146 Cambie Street. Their stock was divided about equally between new and used Christian literature.

Margaret Gabriel, Bookseller (1990s) – 3036 W. Broadway. Gabriel ‘packed it in’ with a closing out sale in 1995. Specialties: religions of the world, children’s, and 12-step books.

Hermit Books (1990s-2000s) – Sharon & Eileen Hansen, proprietors. 2509 W. Broadway. Specialties: poetry, eastern and western religion/philosophy, fine arts, women’s studies.

Hoffer, here, in his Granville Street shop. From Harrison & Dobson’s First Vancouver Catalogue. 1978. Photo credit: Chris Bickford/Jurgen Vogt.

William Hoffer Books (1960s-1990s) – Hoffer (1944-1997) had his first bookshop on Water Street in Gastown in 1969 while he was an SFU student (Province 25 Oct 1969). Hoffer had a shop at 3293 Dunbar, briefly, in the early ’70s. In the mid-1970s, he opened a shop with Van Andruss called Falstaff Books, at 4529 W. 10th Ave. His fourth location was on the second floor (#104) of 570 Granville (in retail space directly above The Love Shop). His final bookselling location was at 58/60 Powell St. Hoffer had a reputation as a ‘difficult’ person. But he could be charming and generous as well. He left Vancouver and his book selling business for Russia. He married Marsha there (his first wife was Pat; they parted company in the early 1970s). Hoffer died on Vancouver Island from lung cancer. There is an amusing Hoffer quote that pertains to his Dunbar shop: “It was an unnerving experience, trying to operate a bookshop in a largely working class neighbourhood in a short terrace of shops. Across the street there was a small cafe, the owner of which had a son who had been aboard an alien space craft. Very few people came into the shop, but occasionally I would notice faces pressed like snails’ feet against the plate glass windows.” (From Hoffer’s book catalogue, STIGMA #80).

Below are the full text of three of Hoffer’s less readily available articles written in the mid-1980s for the Alcuin Society in their Amphoras 56, 58, and 59 and titled “Letter from a Bookseller” in which he reflects upon his early years in bookselling. Many thanks are due to Richard Hopkins for supplying these seemingly scarce issues of Amphora:

Amphora 56 – Hoffer’s Letter from bookseller Part IDownload

Amphora 58- Hoffer Part IIDownload

Amphora 59 – Hoffer Part IIIDownload

CVA 790-2167. William Hoffer’s shop on Powell Street.

Hummingbird Books (1970s) – Proprietor: Albert Eddy (the same person who founded Aardvark Books ca1971). 337 W. Pender (second floor) starting in ca1978.

Kirkwood’s Fine Used Books (1990s-2000s) – Carol Kirkwood, proprietor. Was established in Marpole in about 1994 at 8662 Granville. By 2000, it became Characters Fine Books and Coffee Bar and moved to the west side of Granville at 8419 Granville.. The shop ultimately was the victim of high rent charged by the landlord and they called it quits ca2008. I lived in Marpole when Carol Kirkwood started Kirkwood’s Books and I faithfully returned to the neighbourhood shop after it became Characters (and we’d moved to Burnaby).

Kitsilano Bookstore (1970s) – Proprietor unknown. 2887 and 3075 West Broadway. Their tag line was “Books for all of the family.”

CVA 800-0182 – 2800 Block of West Broadway. 1978. Alan J. Ingram photo. The bookstore on the north side of the street appears to be Kitsilano Books.

Reginald Lissel, Bookseller (1990s) – 434 Homer. Specialties: science fiction and literature.

Stephen C. Lunsford – 341 W. Pender. #711 – 207 W. Hastings. Specialties: Western Canadiana/Americana.

McIntyre. Bill Cunningham photo

Stephen McIntyre Books (1940s-1980s) – Was involved in the used/antiquarian book trade from the 1930s until his death from lung cancer in 1984. Initially, he was a book scout, but by the 1940s, he was a book dealer. The first of his shops of which I am aware was at 340-B Cambie; where the 340 Pub is today. In the 1970s, he was at 833 Davie. Later, he moved to a shop at 319 W. Pender. He traded in the occult and science fiction, but was best known as a generalist.

Makara Books (1990s) – Barbara Draskoy, proprietor (later Barbara Stefan). 2868 W. 4th. Specialties: metaphysical and oriental philosophy. It closed in 1992.

CVA 786-7.17 – The Elcho Apt and commercial space showing the building from an oblique angle that shows a vacant space which used to be a book business. Thanks to Gordon Watson (in comments at VAIW’s ‘The Elcho’ post, December 2023), we can now identify this space as having been let to Stephen McIntyre in the 1970s. 1978.

William Matthews, Bookseller (1980s) – His shop was at 434 W. Pender in the early ’80s, presumably before Lionel Bell took over the space in 1983. Bill was Terry Rutherford‘s business partner in the 1970s. He has been on Vancouver Island for several years. He recently bought The Haunted Bookshop in Sidney.

Mei Lei Holdings (1970s) – 33 W. Broadway. Used and new (English language) paperbacks.

Brendan M. Moss, Esq. (1980s-2000s) – Moss was formerly an auctioneer. He had an antique map and print shop. In 1986, his shop was at 402 W. Pender (#804). In the late 1980s, the shop was at 101 W. Pender. By 1990, the shop had moved to a basement unit at 332 Water Street (formerly, Cloth Hall; today known better as (Le Magasin). I am not certain when his Water Street shop closed, but was probably ca2005.

Murray’s Books (1950s-1980s) – Murray Hughson, proprietor. 856 Granville (1954-1974). Hughson died in 1971. The shop carried on for about a decade after his death under the management of Peter C. Lawrence. The shop moved to 942 Granville in 1974 due to high rent. It closed in late 1980.

The Mystery Merchant Bookstore (1990s) – Proprietor: Christa Pritchard. 1952 W. 4th Ave. Specialties: Mystery, true crime, detective, espionage fiction (used and new).

Narnia Books (1990s) – David & Joanne Anderson. 5585 Dunbar. A small generalist shop with a specialty in Christian literature. I recall my wife finding a couple of unusual John Buchan-related items for me at Narnia.

Norris Books (1980s) – T. I. B. Norris. 420 W. Pender; later, Norris apparently moved to W. 4th Ave. at Alma. General Stock.

Octopus Books (1970s-1980s) – P. R. Brown (“Brownie) and Juils Comeault, proprietors. The two proprietors bought Octopus Books on the 2200 block of West 4th from Bill Fletcher in 1977. 2705 W. 4th Ave. Specialties: literature, journals. Comeault died in 1983 and shortly after that, Brownie sold West to Renee Rodin and poet Billy Little. The new owners changed the name of the shop (at the same address as West was at) to R&B Books.

Octopus Books East (1980s-1990s) – P. R. Brown (“Brownie) and Juils Comeault, proprietors. Brownie and Comeault bought this second store in 1980. Both East and West stores were popular literary and social centres. Comeault died in 1983 and Brownie decided to focus on Octopus East. It traded in used and new books and magazines and was a regular site of readings and workshops. Finally, after 17 years of running East, 11 years on her own, Brownie closed the shop in 1994. 1146 Commercial Drive. Regular poetry readings were held at Octopus Books. CVA has an hour-plus-long recording of one such reading in August 1987 at East; it is good way to get a flavor of the place.

Octopus Books BookmarksDownload

Paul’s Books (1970s) – Proprietor unknown. Denman and Robson. Became the Sunset Book Exchange in mid-70s.

Richard Pender Books (1970s) – Van Andruss, proprietor. 445 W. Pender (1974); 438 Richards (1975-76). It appears to have closed ca1976.

Peregrine Books (1980s) – Proprietor unknown. 2932 West Broadway. Specialties: Feminist literature, children’s books.

Octopus Books on West 4th. CVA 790-1428.

Proprioception Books (1980s-1990s) – Ralph Maud started the store in the early 1980s (1956 W. Broadway) as a sort of replica of the library of poet, Charles Olson. Lisa Robertson (one of the poets featured on a CVA recording of a 1987 Octopus East bookshop poetry reading) bought the shop in 1988 and moved it to 432 Homer (1993). She closed the store in 1994 after the rent at her Homer location tripled in two years (this is a not-uncommon but disturbing theme among used bookshops and among small businesses generally in Vancouver). The term “proprioception” was a favourite of avant-garde poet, Charles Olsen, thus the name of the shop.

Pulpfiction Books – Kitsilano (ca2002-2023). Chris Brayshaw, proprietor. 2754 West Broadway. Closed the Kits location but kept other two (Main Street and Commercial Dr).

R&B Books; later R2B2 Books Books (1980s; 1990s) – Renee Rodin (and, for a year, with Billy Little), proprietor. Rodin and Little bought the former Octopus West store at 2250 W. 4th Ave. in 1985 and named it R&B Books. There was a bad fire at R&B at around Christmas of that year; the building was destroyed. The shop moved to a small space at 2742 W. 4th Ave. and changed the shop’s name to R2B2 Books Books to convey that it was R&B Books, ’round two’. Little left the store within the year and Rodin carried on until 1994. She sold the shop to Denise and Trent Highnell who renamed it Black Sheep Books. R2B2’s specialties: Art, poetry, literature. (See: https://bcbooklook.com/2008/03/13/bookselling-remembering-r2b2-a-na-f-s-story/)

Rostan’s Books (1970s) – 1029 Commercial Dr. General stock.

Rutherford. Rick Loughran photo.

Terry Rutherford (1990s) – She had her first Vancouver shop with Bill Matthews at the former location of Falstaff Books: 4529 W. 10th. This shop specialized in science fiction. Later, Rutherford worked at Star Treader Books. She later opened a mystery/detective shop at 432 Homer. She then moved to 415 W. Pender before leaving Vancouver for Port Moody where she took on a book and paper restoration business. She later moved to Eastern Canada where she continued her restoration business. Rutherford has recently moved back to B.C.

Shows Richard Pender Books for the brief period (1974) when it was located next door to the Niagra Hotel (today, the Ramada) at 445 W. Pender. Today, Richard Pender is part of MacLeod’s shop which also includes the space in this image where the Luggage shop was. CVA 778-270.

Secondo Music Store (1990s) – Chris Held, proprietor. 2744 W. 4th Ave. Used and out-of-print classical music and books on music.

Star Treader Books (1970s-1980s) – Was located in the mid-1970s at 4325 W. 10th. It was gone from there by ca1982, moving to 434 W. Pender. Its second location was taken over in ’83 by the shop run by Lionel Bell. Specialties: fantasy/science fiction.

Sunset Book Exchange (1970s) – One shop at 1795 Robson. Another at 1993 E. 41st Ave. Used paperbacks.

Terminal City Books (1990s) – Judy Fraser, proprietor. 231 Main. Specialties: science, trades and mechanical books.

Charles H. Tupper (1980s) – 2868 West 4th Ave. Specialties: Fine arts, Canadiana, history, travel. This seems to have lasted from about 1987-1990.

We Call With Cash (1950s-1970s) – Proprietor unknown. The shop first appeared in 1955 Vancouver directory and continued at least until 1977. 3621 W. 4th Ave.

West Coast Books (1980s) – George Carroll, proprietor. Carroll crossed Burrard Inlet to open WCB and later Carillon Books in Vancouver. He had owned and operated Pacific Books in North Vancouver. WCB was at 1130 Granville, when it first opened in September 1980. Gordon Watson, a WCB employee remarks that “In order to start with a good selection, George had bought a large stock of books from the renowned Peter Howard of Serendipity Books in Berkeley, CA…and many of them were snapped up [on the opening] night” — not least by Bill Hoffer, at the dealer-only, by-invitation affair. “The best stock we would ever have was on that opening night.” Locating WCB at 1130 Granville was ill-advised; it was (and is) a rough neighbourhood. By early 1983, WCB moved to 3209 W. Broadway until it finally folded ca1986. A generalist shop.

Joyce Williams (originally Bishop-Williams with Lois Bishop as JW’s partner) Antique Prints and Maps (1980s-2000s) – From 1984 and into the 1990s Williams had her shop at 346 W. Pender. Her shop later moved to Yaletown for a number of years before closing.

Y’s Books (2010s-2020) – Pam Townsend and David Gagne, proprietors. 4307 Main Street. Y’s opened 2013 on Main at 27th and seems to have succumbed to COVID in Spring 2020, closing its Vancouver space “indefinitely”. The shop was small, but it appears not to have had any specialties; it was a general shop. Shop closed February, 2020.

Yoga Vedanta Metaphsyical Bookstore (1960s-1970s) – Ursula Sylvia Hellmann (founder) and (later) William Balderstone, proprietors. The shop was apparently initially on Robson (opening sometime after 1957) and moved later to Georgia just east of Granville. Balderstone apparently did psychic readings on CFUN radio. Not sure what year it closed.

Zona Arq (or Arc) (1980s) – Proprietor unknown. Was located at Broadway & Alma. It lasted for 1-2 years in the 1980s.

Notes

*Wilkinson’s Automobilia (specializing in automotive-related books, magazines and shop manuals) has closed their Main St. warehouse, recently, given the COVID-19 pandemic. They have an online presence, however: https://www.eautomobilia.com/.

**Principal sources for the information in this post are various editions of Guide to the Secondhand & Antiquarian Bookstores of Greater Vancouver, The Province, Vancouver Sun, Vancouver News-Herald, and of course the City of Vancouver Archives photo database. I am appreciative of details provided by Kim Koch, Rod Clarke, Neil Whaley, Jason Vanderhill, Catriona Strang, Renee Rodin, Don Stewart, Kevin Dale McKeown, Angus McIntyre, Erwin Wodarczak, Peter Findlay, Joscelyn Barnard, Doug Sarti, Gary Sim, Bill Reimer, William V. Lee, Gordon Watson, and Don Young (who kindly gave me access to his stash of 1980s editions of the Guide to Secondhand and Antiquarian Bookstores as well as numerous pertinent newspaper clippings).

H. E. Lazarus and the Hotel Vancouver Cigar Stand

Hotel Vancouver (#2) Corona Cigar Box (inside), H. E. Lazarus, Proprietor. Note: Hotel Vancouver is misspelled here; it is spelled correctly on the other side of the lid. The gold-colored emblem seems to be a monogram of H. E. Lazarus. Photo courtesy Tom Carter, the owner of the box.

Hyman Edward Lazarus (1872-1961) came to Canada from London, England when he was about 30, arriving in Vancouver in about 1902. When he got here, he found work with a tobacco vendor named Solomon Blackson at 506 Granville. Lazarus remained with Blackson until 1909, when he started as the proprietor of the Hotel Vancouver Cigar Stand.

Lazarus married Miriam Robinson (d.1944) in 1904; he was 32 and she was 25. Together they had a family of a boy (Bernard Horace) and two girls (Louise and Minnie-Ray Nina). Miriam was very active in community organizations (indeed, I’d venture to say that her name more frequently appeared in local newspapers than did Hyman’s). She was at one time the president of the Alexandra Orphanage. She was a member of the ladies auxiliary that was responsible for erecting the first Crippled Children’s Hospital in the city in 1933 (at Manitoba and 59th; across the street from where Sexsmith Community Pre-School is today), and was active in the work of the Red Cross during WW1. Bernard became a manager at Miller and Coe, the tableware retailer on West Hastings Street (The Province, 7 Oct 1944). Minnie worked as a clerk for the City; Louise was a stenographer.

Lazarus’s Cigar Stand was on the NE corner of the ground floor of the old hotel, as shown below.

CVA 362-19 – Ground floor plan, Hotel Vancouver (#2) at Granville & Georgia Streets, 1916.

In the Victoria Daily Times in 1922, I found a piece that indicated that Lazarus was, in that year at least, also vending tobacco and newspapers at The Empress Hotel. Presumably, he had employees either in Vancouver or Victoria (or both) whom he trusted to carry on the business when he was away (Victoria Daily Times Feb 7 1922). According to his obituary, he also operated cigar/news stands in the Banff Springs Hotel and at the Lake Louise Hotel (Vancouver Sun 19 Jan 1961). However, I was unable to find any supporting evidence of this claim. (It may be a mistake to put too much faith in the ‘facts’ in H. E. Lazarus’s obituary in the Sun. His wife was shown, incorrectly, as “Marion Robertson” instead of, correctly, as “Miriam Robinson”!)

At his Hotel Vancouver Stand, Lazarus sold cigars and other tobacco products, as well as newspapers and magazines and tickets to local performances being held at such locations at Vancouver theatres. He also sold postcards, at least some of which were published by him of B.C. scenes, including this one of the city of Vancouver ca 1910 taken by photographers Bullen & Lamb.

Vancouver Daily World 20 May 1922.

The tobacco business seems to have been kind to Lazarus. In 1922, he purchased a Lexington automobile. I had initially assumed that this must have been a very high-end car (as I hadn’t heard of the maker before). But upon consulting classic car expert, Peter Findlay, I learned differently:

The Lexington Motor Company in Indiana was a subsidiary of the United States Automotive Corporation. It was what we call an “assembled car”, meaning that the company purchased all the components from other manufacturers and assembled them all into a car on their premises.

For 1922, Lexington cut prices in an effort to boost sales. It didn’t work, as the company was bought by the Auburn Automobile Company in 1926. The 1922 price for Lazarus’s Lexington was $1745 at the factory, probably around $2000 in Vancouver. This puts it somewhere in the middle. The Lexington and others like it would be considered a nice family car. Many of them would not survive for 10 more years. It might be like buying a basic Chev or Buick sedan these days.

Peter Findlay, email sent May 30, 2022

Even if the Lexington wasn’t a high-end vehicle, Lazarus certainly seemed to be doing well enough at his Cigar Stand(s) that he could afford a $2000 vehicle in the early 1920s. Whether he could afford to keep it into the depression years a decade into his future (or if his Lexington even survived that long), I don’t know.

Lazarus retired from the Hotel Vancouver Cigar Stand in 1928.

His replacement at the Cigar Stand was one Charles William Dixon. He met with a mysterious death just before he began working at Lazarus’s former business. Dixon hailed from Victoria and he disappeared almost without a trace upon arriving in Vancouver in February 1929. Only a coat and hat bearing Dixon’s initials were found on the centre span of the Connaught Bridge (aka Cambie Street Bridge). It was assumed, therefore, that he must have drowned in False Creek. But there was no further sign of Dixon until a decomposing body was found in the Fraser River near Marpole in early April 1929. A distinctive ring worn on the left hand was the means by which Dixon was identified (The Province 7 April 1929).

Very peculiar.

Lazarus’s retirement from the Hotel Cigar Stand wasn’t the conclusion of Lazarus’s career in the tobacco business. He established a tobacco retail shop at 605 West Hastings, after leaving the hotel. This business seemed to fizzle by the early 1930s (with the onset of the Great Depression).

In a 1940 Sun retrospective on the old Hotel Vancouver, H. E. Lazarus was fondly recalled:

For twenty years kindly Hyman E. Lazarus conducted the cigar stand in the old hotel. Lazarus was a great artist, he knew the vagaries of his clientele. Lazarus studied the likes and dislikes of his customers and while the bulk of his trade demanded the quality of the “Corona de Corona,” retailing at four-bits [50 cents each], Lazarus had ever the same kindly smile as he served the lobby lizards a “stinkdoro” for a nickel….Today he lovingly hovers over a real Havana cigar like a tea-taster. Lazarus knows Havana; ’tis a dying art, few like him are left.

Vancouver Sun 16 March 1940

H. E. Lazarus died in 1961 when he was 88.

The Home of Photographer S. J. Thompson (1275 Haro)

Stephen Joseph Thompson (1864-1929) was a fine early Vancouver photographer – arguably the best early B.C. landscape photographer. Eve Lazarus has written a piece about Thompson’s life and career here. This post is less about Thompson than it is about his family’s home for several years at 1275 Haro Street (Mr Thompson was married and they had two boys and two girls).

CVA 635-2 – 1275 Haro St – Residence of S.J. Thompson – Exterior and Garden. 191-. Presumably a photo by S. J. Thompson.

I stumbled across the series of photos of Thompson’s home when browsing through the photos on the City of Vancouver Archives today. It was love at first sight. I would love to have lived in this home!

CVA 635-7 – Residence of S.J. Thompson – 1275 Haro Street – Interior Entryway. 191-. Presumably a photo by S. J. Thompson.

I don’t think I would retain the big horn sheep’s head if I owned this home, but everything else visible in the entryway would suit me fine. The grandfather clock seems to just barely have fitted the ceiling height. Could that be the kitchen on the other side of the curtain?

CVA 635-4 – Residence of S.J. Thompson – 1275 Haro Street – Interior Living Area. 191-. Presumably a photo by S. J. Thompson.

The room shown above appears to be what we’d today call the living room (although in Thompson’s day it was probably called either the drawing room or the parlour). The fireplace is charming with the row of books above it and the (presumably family) portraits and other knick-knacks above the books. There appears to be an extension to the living room to the right and another room just visible beyond it. The room past the drawing room appears to be the formal dining room and it is shown in greater detail in the next photo.

CVA 635-6 – Residence of S.J. Thompson – 1275 Haro Street – “Interior Parlour”, according to CVA, but looks to me like a Dining Room. 191-. Presumably a photo by S. J. Thompson.

The table in this room appears to be expandable and the several chairs seem to match the table, thus why I conclude that it is the dining room. The stained glass in the upper windows is very appealing to me. As are all of the photos on the walls. More of a “confounding” mystery, in friend Jenn Friesen’s language, are what appear to be three doors in the room! There appear to be two doors on the left side of the room (on either side of the sideboard) and one designed for a very short person or a child on the right side! Why all these entryways?! Jenn suggested that the short door may have been a pass-through (assuming that the kitchen is on the other side of that wall or, if the kitchen is on another floor (presumably below) there may be a dumb waiter behind it. Who can say for sure?

CVA 635.5 – Residence of S.J. Thompson – 1275 Haro Street – Back Yard Tennis Court. 191-. Presumably a photo by S. J. Thompson.

The lot on which the home sat was plainly a very large one as it could fit a backyard tennis court. I’m assuming that the woman on the back balcony is Mrs. Thompson.

The Thompsons took up residence at 1275 Haro in 1907 and remained there until 1924. Stephen died in 1929. Prior to the Thompsons buying it, the home was occupied by Fred Buscombe (crockery merchant and later Mayor) and his family from about 1899-1905.

Shortly after the home was sold by the Thompsons, the single occupancy residence was split into 6 rooms and became an apartment block known as the Ellsworth Apartments. As far as I can tell, the home remained more or less intact until the 1960s when it was demolished to make way for the 10-story Logan Villa apartment block. Logan Villa still stands.

An Alternate Version of House Layout (and Likely Much Closer to True!)

The account below comes from Jenn Friesen (a friend of mine, mentioned earlier in this post):

The photo of the entryway is taken from the front door. Through the curtain is the dining room (not the kitchen as you had speculated earlier). To the right is the staircase going up and you can see the light from the second floor small window (almost hidden by foliage on the shot of the front exterior of the house) touching on the stair bannister.

From the drawing room photo, you can see the front door with the curtained window. That changes the orientation of your so-called “kitchen” (through the curtains in the entryway photo) because the light if definitely at the photographer’s back (looks as though he shot with the door open and his camera on the front porch).

Through the entryway curtain/door we can see the sideboard in the dining room! Look closely at the front edge and the item that is sitting on the front right corner and look also at the placement of the throw rugs! Then look at the dining room photo and you see the same configuration of the rugs and just a little peep of that thing on the sideboard and its edge. That is the same sideboard but it is so huge and complicated that it looks very different from the perspectives of the two photos (of the entryway and the dining room).

So, if all of that is true, then the little door is a storage area beneath the stairs!

Early Vancouver “Ontario” Businesses

Crop of CVA Van Sc P38.4 – Looking south toward Pender Street from Hastings Street and Seymour Street 1892. Charles S. Bailey photo. Ontario House is at the SW corner of Pender and Richards. The Homer Street Methodist Church looms in the background (and to the right of it, Sacred Heart Academy).

There were a couple of early Vancouver businesses that were named “Ontario”: a rooming house/hotel and a grocery store.

Ontario House

J. G. Taylor was the proprietor of the Ontario House from 1889 to 1892. It apparently was so named because proprietor Taylor had come to Vancouver from Ontario, specifically from Gravenhurst. Ontario House was a business that operated on temperance principles; meaning, I assume, that there was no liquor sold (or permitted?) on the premises. The rate was $1/day.

By 1892, Taylor was worn out and he sold his business to one Isaac Brown. The only thing notable about Brown’s ownership was that he advertised (with apparent pride) that “no Chinese” were employed by the hostelry. Whether that was a change introduced by Brown or a policy that was established by Taylor and continued by Brown isn’t clear.

In 1894, Ontario House was leased by Mrs. Henry Wise and renamed, grandly, “The Palace Boarding House.” The rooming house seems to have stood at this corner at least until the 1950s — in these later years as Lamona Rooms.

Ontario Grocery

CVA 677-640 – Carrall Street at Hastings Street. 190- P. T. TImms. Ontario Grocery was located in the space where McTaggart & Moscrop Hardware was in this later photo.

Port P134.2 – Mayor William Templeton 1897?

The Ontario Grocery was owned initially by William Templeton and Joseph Northcott (Northcott withdrew from the partnership, apparently, by 1889). It had to be one of the first grocery stores in Vancouver. It was destroyed in the 1886 Great Fire and was speedily re-built with bricks on the site of the first grocery — the NE corner of Carrall and Hastings — and was known as the Templeton Block. Indeed, according to the Vancouver Weekly Herald (cited in Major Matthews’ Early Vancouver, Volume 4, p. 70), it was the second brick building to be erected in the City.¹

Like Ontario House, Ontario Grocery was named apparently because Templeton came to Vancouver from Belleville, ON.

Templeton unsuccessfully ran for Mayor of Vancouver in 1890 and in 1891 was successful in becoming an Alderman of the Vancouver City Council. After serving one year as an Alderman, he was elected a member of the Vancouver School Board. He ran for Mayor successfully in 1897.

Templeton died suddenly in his 45th year (in January 1898) of an “apoplectic stroke” just weeks before his first term as Mayor was over and the next election was due. In August 1898, James Foran (a former clerk at the grocery) and N. Frost (the former book-keeper) took over the Ontario Grocery. At some point, Frost withdrew from the partnership and Ontario Grocery was taken over by the Foran Brothers. By 1901, the name of the firm became Foran Bros. Grocery and in the same year they moved the business from the Templeton Block up Carrall a bit and across the street to the Harris Block (309 Carrall).

The Templeton Block still stands. As does the Harris Block (which today also houses the Rainier Hotel).

Notes

¹Maurice Guibord has pointed out that at least two buildings claim the honor of being the first brick building in the city (the Tremont Building on Carrall just south of Water Street and the Oppenheimer Building on Powell Street where Bryan Adams has his recording studio), so the claim that the new Templeton Block was the second building built with bricks is probably open to question.

Vaughn Moore’s Studio of Terpsichorean Art

CVA 99-1917 – Vaughn Moore group at Lost Lagoon. 1929. Stuart Thomson. I think Vaughn is the gent on the left. The other man appears to me to be Vaughn’s brother.

For those of you who (like me) are not well-versed in advanced crossword clues, the term “Terpsichorean” pertains to dancing. Vaughn Drier Moore (1894-1965) made a career out of providing dancing instruction in the Pacific Northwest from about 1919 until his death in 1965.

Vaughn was born to LeBaron and Thirza Moore in Connell, New Brunswick and came to Vancouver at a relatively young age (about 21), circa 1915. Moore played on a local amateur lacrosse team, the Olympics, from 1913-1915. He was also team captain.

A wedding notice in 1917 mentioned that Moore had been studying at Columbia College — a Methodist school in New Westminster — for a number of years. This would be the first of two marriages for Moore; this time to Lilas May van Houten.

Vaughn and Lilas’s marriage certificate shows Vaughn as being an “advertising agent” at the time of their wedding. But his directory listing in that year indicates he was a law student (if that’s accurate, he didn’t pursue studies in the law for long).

Oddly, I could not find any record that indicated that Moore was involved in WW1.

By 1919, Moore had established the first of his dancing schools, which he called “The Vaughn Moore Studio of Terpsichorean Art”. I’m guessing that he received some negative feedback on the name of his studio and within a year, it became the somewhat more pedestrian-sounding “The Lilas and Vaughn Moore Studio of Graceful Ballroom Dancing” and less than a year later, simply “The Vaughn Moore School of Dancing”. The studio’s first location was above the Colonial Theatre at the SW corner of Granville and Dunsmuir (603 Granville). It had branch studios, as early as 1920, in the Fairview and Grandview districts and a studio in Seattle. In the early 1920s, the downtown studio was moved from the Colonial Theatre building to a space on the second floor across the street from David Spencer’s store at 518 W. Hastings.

CVA 447-399 – Colonial Theatre. 1972. Walter Edwin Frost. This image was made just before the Colonial Building (aka the Kinemacolor Building) was demolished to make way for Pacific Centre Mall.

In 1923, Vaughn and Lilas were awarded by Mr. and Mrs. Rudolph Valentino the Valentino Dancing Trophy (a loving cup), upon being judged to be Vancouver’s best ballroom dancers (Sun. 3 June 1923).

The Moores taught classical ballroom dance and also tap dance and the latest dance moves. In 1928, for example, they taught the Lindbergh Waltz (aka, the Lindy Hop) and the Varsity Drag.

Moore was divorced from Lilas Moore in 1929. Interestingly, Lilas married another dancer in 1943, one Arthur G. Lewis. In 1931, Moore married Lilian Bonython. He was also divorced from Lilian at some point.

Moore fell down the stairs in his apartment at 1374 W. Broadway in September 1965, fracturing his skull. He was 71. His death was found by Coroner Glen McDonald (whose autobiography, How Come I’m Dead?, I highly recommend) to be a suicide. The Vaughn Moore Dance Studio continued to operate until February 1966.

CVA 99-4186 – Vaughn Moore Tap Review at Capital Theatre. 1932. Stuart Thomson.

Gai Paree Supper Club in South Burnaby

CVA 2018-020.10436 – The Gai Paree Supper Club, NW corner at Kingsway and Sperling .

The Gai Paree Supper Club was established in 1947 by the Morin family on Kingsway at Sperling. Anne Marie and R. P. (Rene Pierre) Morin were born in France, later moving to the Channel Islands in the U.K. where they worked as farm laborers, met and ultimately married in 1903. They migrated to Bonnyville, AB — a French-Canadian community NE of Edmonton — in 1912. “Dad” Morin served with the Canadian Forces overseas and, upon returning to Canada, worked for the CNR until taking his pension in 1943. Meanwhile, Mom was busily operating her own community grocery and buying three houses which she rented, all the while raising a family of four (Sun 12 Jun 1954).

Mom (Anne Marie) Morin.
Sun 24 Oct 1953.

In 1942, Mom left Bonnyville with her ailing daughter, Adele, and settled on Sperling Avenue in Burnaby. (Adele died in 1945 at age 38 of Addison’s Disease). Mom had a real entrepreneurial flare, as she soon had her eye on the corner of Kingsway and Sperling and had an idea for establishing a food service business there. At that time, her eldest boy, Rene, was managing the Spokane Spartans’ hockey team. And another son, Rudy, had his own band in the Kootneys, the Rossland Ramblers (Sun 12 Jun 1954). The family was called together in Burnaby.

Mom sent Rudy and another son, Severin, out to learn the food business. They moonlit with Nat Bailey’s White Spot restaurants for awhile. Everyone pitched in with the construction of the Gai Paree until it was completed in November 1947.

The Gai Paree Supper Club was born! Every Friday and Saturday night, from 10 ’til 2 a.m., there was dancing. All other nights, the Paree was available to be booked for corporate get-togethers, wedding receptions, birthdays or any other catering occasion. And on Saturday nights, the Gai Paree Party Bus brought folks from Vancouver into the Burnaby location and took Paree-ers back to Vancouver at 2 a.m. There was also a nightly (except Monday) drive-in service provided at the Paree until 1 a.m.

There was a band, of course. Early on, music was supplied by Arne Moller and his Band. Later on, it was supplied by Pierre and His Gai Paree Orchestra. “Pierre” was, in fact, Rudy. He doubled as “Pierre the Arteest” who drew cartoons of guests on their souvenir photos. Photos were taken, in 1953, by Bart Van Den Beld.

Rene, Rudy and Severin Morin (Ray Allan photo for the Sun). Sun 12 June 1954.

In 1976, the Gai Paree became Severin’s, named after the manager of both establishments: Severin Morin. There was a dining room, and adjacent to it a room called “That’s Entertainment”which featured live entertainment, no cover charge, and no reservations. And there was a club upstairs that paid tribute to local radio host, Jack Cullen, called Jack’s. Severin’s was open every night from 5 p.m. (Province 5 Aug 1976).

Severin’s quietly disappeared in 1985 and, in its place, Diego’s was established. But the Morin family had nothing to do with Diego’s. Today, there is a condominium residential tower where The Gai Paree/Severin’s once were.

The eldest son, Rene, died suddenly in 1954 at age 49. The Morin family contributed to the establishment of the Rene Memorial Playground in 1956 just behind the Gai Paree at Sperling and Balmoral; it is still there. Mom passed in 1956; Dad in 1963; and Severin in 2014.

The Rene Memorial Playground – in memory of Rene Morin – at Sperling and Balmoral. Google Street View 2022.

Many thanks are due to Maurice Guibord for his assistance with
details pertaining to the Morins and the Gai Paree.

The Happy Wanderers: Findlater’s Elgar Choir – Updated

Findlater and the Elgar Choir posing on the steps of St. Andrew’s-Wesley United Church (First Baptist Church tower in the background). The Choir consisted mainly of teenaged girls, but a few boys whose voices hadn’t yet changed were also members. n.d. BC Archives.

Charles E. Findlater (1893-1975) founded and led the Elgar Junior Choir from 1924 until shortly before his death.¹ Until Findlater received permission from English composer Sir Edward Elgar’s daughter in 1932 (there is some disagreement as to the year; in some places, 1935 is cited) to use “Elgar” to identify the choir, it was known as the “Wesley Methodist Sunday School Choir” which later evolved to the “St. Andrew’s-Wesley United Church Junior Choir”.² According to the Canadian Encylopedia, the repertoire of the choir was drawn principally from Elgar and his British contemporaries.

The choir’s name change to Elgar, according to “The Story of the Elgar Choir”, recounted in the programme for the Choir’s 3rd Canadian Tour (1940), came about mainly due to the growth of the group in both numbers and reputation:

The Choir had steadily grown, until it became usual for a season’s enrolment to far exceed one hundred. Although the membership changed a little each year, there was always a large number of girls who had received several years’ training and were experienced junior choristers. It was apparent that from these trained singers a special demonstration group could be formed, which under good auspices, could visit other parts of the Province and carry on the work which had been so successfully begun by the Sunday School Choir. The experiment was decided upon and in 1932 the new organization was formed and named the Elgar Junior Choir, after the eminent British Composer and Master of the King’s Music, Sir Edward Elgar.³

The Choir began as a competitor in provincial and more distant music festivals. But later, the choir was considered to be of such high calibre, that they no longer engaged in competitions. They toured (at the choristers’ own expense) as a goodwill gesture and as a fund raiser during WWII for the Red Cross and other charitable organizations. I will summarize some of the Choir’s travels below (not all; most texts agree that the Choir made 13 overseas trips to some 27 countries):

• 1934: To Chicago World’s Fair and cities in Eastern Canada (later referred to, collectively – in some texts – as the First Canadian Tour);
• 1936: Tour to U.K. and Norway (Highlights: World’s Sunday School Convention at Oslo; Bournemouth Musical Festival, and the National Welsh Eisteddfod at Fishguard, Wales) – later called the First British Tour.
• Early 1940s: Plans for a second British tour were cancelled due to wartime hostilities; instead, the Second Canadian Tour (1941) and the Third Canadian Tour (1942) were arranged. The object of both tours was principally to fundraise for war charities.
• 1949: Second British Tour;
• 1950: A local tour (of B.C. and parts of Washington state);
• 1954/55: Tour of Europe and Britain, including appearances in: Pairs, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Holland, Belgium, and various cities in Britain;
• 1960: First USSR tour (“the first Canadian cultural group” to visit there);
• 1963: A Round-the-World tour, with appearances in the following places: Switzerland, East Berlin, Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, Rome, Vienna, Paris, West Berlin, and “the British Isles”. Following this, C. E. Findlater apparently decided, briefly, to “retire his baton”;
• 1971: CEF evidently picked up his baton again to lead another overseas tour by the Choir (Europe and Asia);
• 1974: Choir’s 50th Anniversary Reunion was held at St. Andrew’s-Wesley United Church. It was estimated at the time that over 6,000 choristers (boys and girls) had been Choir members during its lifetime. (A 14th overseas trip had been planned for summer of 1974, but that seems not to have happened, presumably due to Findlater’s worsening health.) I suspect that most of the photographs in this post that are courtesy of BC Archives were originally supplied from this reunion.

Elgar Choir touring U.K. They appear to be posed in front of Canada House in London, England. n.d. BC Archives.

Findlater was born and educated in England, coming to Canada in 1914 and settling in Vancouver in 1918. He did much of the recruitment for the Elgar Choir through his “Elgar

Vancouver Sun. 4 Oct 1963, p.3. Photograph in honour of CEF’s “retirement”. A bit premature! Crop of a Brian Kent photo. (The article from which this was taken was generously provided by former Elgar Choir member, Nancy Nelson (nee Haines).

School of Music”, which was established ca1935 and continued to thrive until his death. The school consisted of space in the Fairfield Building (no longer extant; at the NW corner of Granville and Pender).

Findlater was Music Superintendent of Vancouver Schools from 1928-31. He taught piano, music theory, and directed the choirs at Crofton House School. Beginning in 1941, he was Director of the choir at Vancouver College (a Roman Catholic school established by the Christian Brothers; it was/is located at Cartier and 39th Ave.). He was choir director at Knox United Church and at St. Mary’s Anglican Church (both in Kerrisdale) at different periods. And he served as a music adjudicator at music festivals across Canada.

Mrs. (Amy) Findlater, the choir director’s wife, was chaperone and ‘mother’ to the Choir. She accompanied her husband and the choir on every tour they made (she died in 1973, just two years before CEF’s passing).

Nancy Nelson (nee Haines), a member of the Choir (ca1944-54), now 81º, has a couple of anecdotes about touring with the Choir, in which the Findlaters figure prominently. Nancy’s first recollection is of the ‘special’ train car arranged to carry the the Choir across Canada:

My recollection is that Mr. Findlater told us that the Choir had a special train car from an arrangement with either CPR or CNR (probably one of their older cars that had been taken out of regular service) which was renovated to the Findlaters’ specifications.  The forward part of the car included a lavatory, a space that Mrs. F had fixed up as a kitchen (with a fridge and hot plate) and their sleeping quarters. We were not permitted to go into their end of the car. Mrs. F handled the money and she also had a list of staples – provided by our parents – so she could make sure we ate properly.

We would pull down the upper bunks and arrange the lower bunks for our sleeping arrangements and then, somehow, put them out of the way during the day when we sat facing each other over tables for travel and eating. It was ingenious to have that ‘special’ car, with it only having to be shoved in a corner of the rail yards when we were on tour and stored between tours. There were no porters, conductors or other rail personnel on our car and no dining car was required of the train company. We were completely autonomous, except for being towed around. The special car was probably Mrs. F’s brain child. She was quite a lady, and a force to be reckoned with!

We certainly didn’t travel First Class or even Business Class, by any stretch of the imagination. It was bare bones, going and coming.  But for those young singers who worked so hard studying, then auditioning, and then spent months practicing to get to go on tour with the Elgar Choir, it didn’t matter a fig!

Nancy’s other vivid memory is of preparation, near the end of the train trip, for intercontinental travel by ocean liner:

Mrs. F was a law unto herself. She didn’t want any of the choristers to get sea sick. So, 2 or 3 days before our train car arrived at Montreal, she hauled out a huge metal container and stirred up what we called ‘the witch’s brew’. I can’t tell you what it was made of, but it was pink! It wasn’t just a laxative…it was a purgative! We lined up and each of us had to drink our dose in front of her! If you barfed it up, she made you drink another. It was bitterly terrible!

There was one lavatory for the 18+ choristers and a pianist. We were running literally all night and most of the next day! Unfortunately, someone forgot to check the cupboard on the rail car before we left Vancouver to ensure we had sufficient toilet paper. So, we had to line up (again) to receive from Mrs. F our individual allotment of four squares of TP. The squares came with instructions, delivered by Mrs. F with a straight face, that we were to fold each square and use it carefully! Oh, my. It was a wild trip into Quebec!

Mrs F’s witch’s brew sure paid off, though. While some passengers were stuck in their shipboard cabins during rough weather, we Elgar choristers were all practicing our hearts out! The Findlaters were hardened and savvy travellers. They knew that the best prevention for sea sickness is to clean out the gut!

The signature song for the 1954 international tour (the one Nancy was on) was The Happy Wanderer. “We did it at the end of every performance, and we sang it again for all the kind people who came to the dock in Liverpool to see us off as Cunard’s Samaria slowly pulled away to begin our return trip to Canada. It was quite a memorable moment for everyone, I think.”

I love to go a-wandering
Along the mountain track
And as I go, I love to sing
My knapsack on my back

Music: Frank Weir. Music: Friedrich W. Moller. Lyrics: Antonia Ridge.

_____

Notes

¹In a 1970 ad, I noticed that the Elgar Choir had changed their name to the “Eldigar Singers (formerly the Elgar Choir)”. Coast News, June 10, 1970, p. 8. What prompted this apparently very brief name change isn’t clear to me. In any event, the use of the name seems never to recur.

Note also that there were several other “Elgar” choirs based in other Canadian cities in the first few decades of the 20th century: in Winnipeg, Montreal, Brockville, Sudbury, and perhaps elsewhere. None of these seems to have been anywhere near as long-lasting  nor as renowned as the Vancouver choir, however.

²Wesley Methodist in the 1930s merged with St Andrew’s Presbyterian to become St. Andrew’s-Wesley United Church. They also moved to a different church structure. When it was a Methodist only congregation they made their home at Burrard and Robson. When it became St. Andrew’s-Wesley, they moved to Burrard and Nelson.

³City of Vancouver Archives.

ºSadly, Nancy Nelson (nee Haines) passed away in late 2021. I miss our regular correspondence. I never had an opportunity to meet her face-to-face. I’m greatly indebted to Nancy for her recollections in this post of her Elgar Choir experiences.

Drinking Fountains in the City

Early

A very early (if not the first) Vancouver water fountain was situated at the corner which, from the 1930s, was known as Pioneer Place but is better known, today, as Pigeon Park. This piece of real estate was useless for much of anything, and so the CPR (which owned it), gave it to the City (with typical CPR ‘generosity’).

I have been instructed [said CPR Land Commissioner, J. M. Browning] by the trustees of the Vancouver townsite to offer to the city, free of charge, that triangular piece of ground at the intersection of Hastings and Carrall Streets, measuring 17 ft. 6 in. x 16 ft. 1 in. x 11 ft. 8 in., upon which to erect a public drinking fountain.

Daily World, 2 April 1889

For a very early drawing of the park, which shows a drinking fountain, see below. I cannot see any sign of a fountain in mid-century city archives photos of the site, however there seems to be a fountain there today.

MAP 780 – Early map showing Pioneer Place, 1895.

New Slaking Stations

In 1904, it was reported in the local press that a few new drinking fountains (constructed of concrete and faced with portland cement) would be installed in the city that year (Province, 17 June 1904):

• At the ‘triangle’ on the corner of Georgia at Pender streets. There is still a ‘triangle’ there today, but it is populated primarily by flagpoles. Few pedestrians walk past this corner these days, so it isn’t surprising that no fountain is extant.
• On the road at the base of the reservoir within Stanley Park. This is almost certainly gone today.
• The location of a third fountain was still up for grabs in June, 1904, but it was thought likely to be placed at “the depot” (which, I take to be the main B.C.E.R. depot in the city).

By 1912, ten other quaffing sites had been chosen by the city. To the best of my knowledge, there are no drinking fountains today at any of these locations:

• City Hall (it was located, at that time, on Main Street, just south of what today is Carnegie Centre)
• Hastings at the old courthouse (what would ultimately become Victory Square)
• Corner of Georgia and Nichol
• Fifteenth and Westminster Road (Main Street)
• Powell and Victoria
• Victoria and Keefer
• Commercial and Broadway
• Cornwall and Yew
• Heather and Broadway
• Granville and Davie

Two Types

There were two sorts of drinking fountains which were popular in Vancouver over a large chunk of our history.  If you grew up in the 1960s or later, you are likely accustomed to water fountains that conform to a pretty standard form: a unit with a device on it which you press or twist that sends water out the top from which you slurp to take in a mouthful (or, perhaps more typically, less than a mouthful!)

Until the mid-20th-century, things were different.

Memorials

Our forbears, for reasons which I don’t pretend to understand, often considered it fitting, when a major personality died, to create a memorial to him/her that included a public drinking fountain.

Three Vancouver examples of this type of fountain are discussed below.¹

King Ed VII: One is the King Edward VII memorial, which, after it was created by local sculptor, Charles Marega, for the Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire (IODE), was located on the south side of Georgia Street in front of the then-new courthouse building.  Here is my favourite photo of it:

From Vancouver and Beyond, Thirkell and Scullion. Girls drinking at the King Ed VII Memorial.

What are the two young gals drinking from? Well you may ask! They were tin cups that were attached to the memorial with metal chains. Yes, community cups, quite literally! (I can hear your 21st century, germ-sensitive self reacting to this. I know. Me, too.) Water flowed from the mouth of the lion figure and into the basin over which the girls were drinking.² Today, the Edward VII fountain has been shifted out of its proud place in front of the courthouse/Art Gallery has been moved to the west side of the Art Gallery. It has suffered significantly from vandalism and wear/tear over the years.

Vicky: Another example of a memorial fountain — one which pre-dated Ed VII by a few years — was the Queen Victoria memorial (Victoria died in 1901; Ed, Victoria’s son, died in 1910).

CVA Mon P32.1 – Women in roller skates around the Queen Victoria Memorial Fountain, ca 1940. The girl on far right has hold of one of the metal chains that held one of the bronze cups once upon a time. It was long gone, by the time this image was taken.

This monument has been within Stanley Park from the date it was first established there (in 1906) to the present. Victoria’s memorial was designed by local artist, James Blomfield. The cups (which had disappeared by the time the above 1940s-era image was made, leaving just the metal chains) were made of bronze, rather than tin.

The Maple Tree: This final example of a memorial fountain commemorated not a deceased person but a former tree (and the memories associated with it by Vancouver pioneers). The memorial plaque, which originally resided above the fountain (as shown below) was removed from the fountain pedestal (the fountain was scrapped, probably during a 1970s refit of Gastown) and integrated instead into the ‘Gassy Jack’ monument.

The Maple Tree Fountain bridged the two sorts of drinking fountains in Vancouver: not only was it s memorial, it was also a ‘bubbler’.

CVA 677-167 – Drinking fountain at Powell and Carrall Streets. The Maple Tree monument and Drinking Fountain, 1928. Charles Marega (the gent nearest to the fountain monument) was its creator

Bubblers

Two disadvantages of the memorial sort of fountain were germ issues and the fact that the cups were very prone to vandalism (they were invariably stolen).

Bubblers didn’t have the second problem; but they still had the former issue.

Bubbler drinking fountains (sometimes called – with more than a little wishful thinking – “sanitary” fountains) bubbled the water upward, as most fountains do today. The crucial difference is that public bubblers in the city until about the 1960s didn’t have an on/off valve, so they bubbled water ‘eternally’, and a person could slake his/her thirst by simply bending over the fountain and interrupting the stream with their mouth.

The problem with this design was that birds, dogs, and other critters liked the bubblers, too, and weren’t shy about partaking of its life-giving flow when humans weren’t using the devices.

Province columnist, D. A. McGregor, expanded on this shortcoming of bubblers in this 1948 piece:

Where the diagonal pedestrian traffic way through Victory Square divides across Cambie Street from the Province office, is a bubbling drinking fountain much used by birds and dogs and humans. The sparrows have a rather hard time of it when thirst drives them to the fountain, for they must perch precariously on the edge of the cement basin and take their drink a drop at a time. The pigeons having more bulk, do better.

Some of the dogs show considerable ingenuity at the fountain. One little black spaniel comes quite frequently, always approaches joyously with a run and a jump that lands him square on top of the basin and there he sits and laps and laps. Other little dogs look longingly and pass by. Some have to be held up to the water spout by their owners. The larger dogs stand up much like people, and yesterday a big old fellow embraced the whole fountain with his forepaws while he quenched his thirst for a good five minutes, pausing now and then to take in the scenery.

The humans seem seldom to come by when the birds or dogs are at the fountain. so, they do not know when they drink they drink from the bird bath and from the dogs’ dish. It may be all right at that. Perhaps what the patrons of the fountain do not know doesn’t hurt them, and perhaps Fido’s tongue is antiseptic and the much-licked water spout quite sanitary. It merely occurred to me that the park board and the medical health officer might like to know what is going on, and might be persuaded to place a bird bath and dog trough at the foot of the fountain.

Province 11 May 1948

CVA 180-3647 – Dog drinking from water a bubbler drinking fountain in Hastings Park. A human looks on. 194-

I applaud Mr McGregor for his concern and for making his fellow-residents aware of this public health problem, but it seems to me that his proposed solution would have had little effect as long as bubblers continued to bubble ‘eternally’ with no shut off/on valve.”

Why Did Bubblers Persist in Vancouver So Long?

The public health issues associated with memorial fountains was solved by their other disadvantage: cups were stolen almost as soon as the memorials were erected!

But what about bubblers? Why is it that Vancouver allowed these things to continue until roughly the 1960s — when fountains were by default in the ‘off’ mode?

I was able to suss out at least three possible reasons:

Reason 1: Anti-Alcohol Movement. There were those who maintained that if fountains were readily available, they would serve to discourage folks from entering saloons (Daily World, 2 Oct 1914).

Reason 2: City cheapness. I’m certain that lack of technology for a ‘default off’ bubbler was not a reason. It may have been that this option was more expensive, however. And from what I saw in press reports, the city seemed to always been on the lookout for cheaper models of bubblers, over the years. Oddly, it wasn’t until the late 1950s, when a major drought hit the Vancouver area, that folks seemed to give much consideration to the cost of lost water due to the ‘eternal’ bubblers.

Reason 3: Willful ignorance. The general public didn’t seem to be hugely worked up about the public health issues associated with bubblers (if the few letters to editors can be taken as indicative).

It wasn’t that there wasn’t public health information warning locals away from the dangers of fountains. A New Westminster physician by the name of Dr. Hall was quoted in the Province as early as 1906, remarking on a connection between tuberculosis and public fountains:

The greatest need . . . is for the taking of ordinary precautions against the spread of [tuberculosis]. Some of the very worst centres of infection are the public drinking fountains. Not only tuberculosis, but all manner of diseases are spread from these . . . . If a man wants a drink when he is out, let him go to a saloon — they will give him a drink of water for nothing; but avoid the drinking fountain.

Province, 26 Oct 1906

Well, Dr. Hall has put Reason 1 and 3 in their place; and I suspect that he wouldn’t have much positive to say about Reason 2! What is monetary cost when compared with threats to public health?

Notes

¹Other memorial type drinking fountains included: the Pauline Johnson memorial in Stanley Park (yes, when it was first unveiled, it had a “drinking fountain” component) – Province, 22 May 1922. Also the Joe Fortes memorial was originally, in part, a drinking fountain. (Province, 25 June 1927). The final memorial fountain that I could find being erected in the city was one that was in 1957 dedicated to the memory of Mrs. Sally Birmingham and Mrs. Agnes Lutes. It was sponsored by the Kiwassa Girls Club and was located at the Club headquarters at 600 Vernon Drive.

²For more about the King Ed VII monument, see this VAIW post. This other VAIW ‘fountain’ post may also be of interest.

The Nanaimo Street Foundry

Associated Foundry at 25th and Nanaimo Street. From: The Days Before Yesterday: A History of Cedar Cottage. Produced by the Students of Gladstone Secondary School, 1968. Note: The prominent ‘cone’ atop the foundry seems to be the one which so dramatically blew off in 1965.

The foundry at 4080 Nanaimo Street, shown above, was Vancouver Pipe and Foundry from ca1913-1919, then Anthes-Tait Foundry (1919-1944) and finally Associated Foundry (1944-69). From 1969 until ca1980, the site was City of Vancouver property. I have been unable to find written confirmation of this, but I’m assuming that the Province bought the land from the City sometime in the early 1980s so that the Nanaimo Street Skytrain Station could be built on the site.

Having a foundry at this location was the source of headaches over the years (both literally and figuratively, I suspect) — for nearby residents and for City Council and its officials. The foundry was the only industrial business in the Cedar Cottage area; most of the neighborhood was/is residences and “mom and pop” shops.

From the 1940s through the 1960s, as Cedar Cottage became more densely populated, there were regular calls for the City to rezone the foundry site from industrial to residential (which the City refused to do) or to buy the foundry land outright (which it ultimately did after decades of complaints). Principal concerns were that the foundry was producing too much smoke and noise pollution, especially after the period around 1950 when Associated Foundry moved to a 24-hour production schedule. (News-Herald 31 Aug 1950). When foundry-related noise complaints reached a fevered pitch, the City referred the issue to the City Engineer’s anti-noise pollution committee. Nothing much seemed to come of such referrals.

Two incidents, however, made the Nanaimo Street foundry too hot a political potato to be ignored. In 1965, there was a “shattering explosion” at the plant that “hurled molten metal and pieces of iron from a melting pot . . . and blew a 10-foot diameter cone off the top of a chimney stack above the pot. One piece of metal, weighing about 25 pounds, landed on the roof of a house 200 yards away” (Sun 23 April 1965). There were no injuries, but it was considered a wonder that there weren’t. The other incident was less explosive. A “blaze broke out in a tank used for painting pipes, and spread to a shipping office and pattern shop” (Province 3 May 1967). Nobody was hurt in the fire, but on top of the explosion two years before, this added weight to rezoning calls, and the City asked its officials to begin quiet negotiations with Associated Foundry.

A week before the fire, the City officials reported back to Council, but Council believed that they couldn’t afford the purchase price negotiated — pending Council’s approval — with Associated Foundry ($250,000). This price included the cost of moving the plant to Associated property in Surrey ($116,000) (Sun 3 May 1967).

Presumably, the city was in a position, post-fire, to negotiate a better price with Associated Foundry. The price the city ultimately paid to Associated in 1969 was $149,000 (Sun 29 October 1969).

The Nanaimo Street Skytrain Station. Google Street View. 2022.

Union Steam Ship Cutch

Bo P82 – Union Steamship Company S.S. Cutch’s arrival at Vancouver. ca 1890.

Old Cutch¹, as she was affectionately referred to in the press in later years, was built in Hull, England in 1884 as a yacht of the British Raj in India but was sold to Captain Webster, the Manager of Vancouver’s Union Steamships Co. in 1890. Its original specs were:

• Engines: Compound Condensers capable of making an average speed of 12 knots
• Lenght: 180 feet
• Beam: 23 feet
• Depth of hold: 11 feet, 6 inches
• Capacity: 400 tons

According to the World‘s account (based on the ship’s log), she departed Bombay on March 23, 1890, reaching Singapore April 5. She left Singapore April 20th and docked at Nagasaki on May 2. She departed Nagasaki the next day for the short trip to Yokohama, arriving there May 6. Her final leg consisted of departure from Japan May 14th, reaching Victoria June 2. The Cutch docked in her new home port of “English Bay” on the evening of June 3rd (in fact, based on the context of the article, she docked in Burrard Inlet, which in early accounts was often misidentified as English Bay) (World, June 3, 1890).

A month later, Cutch was ready to take a trial/shakedown voyage to Nanaimo. Union Steamships issued 70 invitations to prominent Vancouver businessmen to be gratis passengers (World, 7 July, 1890). It was perfect sailing weather and no reported mechanical or other hitches occurred on the trip. She left at 10 a.m. and tied up in Nanaimo at 1 p.m. The businessmen must have squeezed a lot of Nanaimo schmoozing into their brief time in the city, as the Cutch set off for Vancouver again at about 4 p.m. She docked at Vancouver by 7 that evening.

The Cutch would make that journey between Vancouver and Nanaimo many, many more times, as it was soon announced that she would be Union Steamships’ daily passenger ship to the “Black Diamond City”². It would leave the CPR dock at 2.30 (except Saturdays) and return to Vancouver by 7 a.m. (except Sundays). It would make the round trip 6 days a week (with occasional breaks for excursions to other nearby ports and for maintenance) until late 1897. The ship was known throughout this period as being staunch, reliable, fast, and safe.

In October 1897, the Cutch was taken out of service for a thorough overhaul to prepare her for a quite different sort of regular service: she would be making longish-haul trips between Vancouver and Alaska. Union Steamships spent about $40,000 to install (among other things) two new boilers so that her engines could achieve up to 14 knots, a hurricane deck, and a new deck house. Accommodations on the ship would also be spruced up to better suit passengers who would be spending not hours but days aboard her (World, 4 October 1897)

By May 1898, the Cutch was all ready to go ‘north, to Alaska’ (she would stop in Skagway, Wrangel, Dyea, as well as northern BC ports, such as Atlin). The principal objective of Union Steamships in fitting up the Cutch for northern service was to take advantage of the northern gold rush. As it turned out, the Klondike rush was just about finished by the time the Cutch got into regular northern service. There was a mini-rush in Atlin a bit later, but it too was short-lived. The captain of the Cutch on the northern route was Holmes Newcombe; H. W. Taylor, purser; Mr. Saunders, chief officer; and Mr. Kick, chief engineer (World, 10 May 1898)

SGN 60 – Steamer “Cutch” covered in ice. Feb 1900. E. A. Hegg Photo.

There were no serious incidents with the Cutch in northern waters from 1898-1900. In February 1900, however, there was a dramatic turn when the ship was docked in Skagway. The steamer was literally coated with thick ice. Captain Newcombe brought a photograph of the ice-encrusted Cutch back to her home port of Vancouver as evidence of this.

Six months later, Cutch’s captain and crew may have looked back to the ice-encrustation incident with some nostalgia.

On August 24, 1900, the Cutch foundered on Horseshoe Reef in Stephens Passage, 25 miles south of Juneau. She never completely sank. But the steamer did have a sizable hole in her. The bow was high and dry; the stern seemed to be the part of the ship where the trouble lay, as it was down and filled with water. Passengers and crew all safely reached “the beach”.³ (World, 31 August 1900)

CVA 260-1178 – The foundering of the S.S. Cutch at Horseshoe Reef in Stephens Passage.

Over a month after the foundering of the Cutch, a report came from Union Steamship’s Coquitlam on a northern run, that the Cutch was still lying on Horseshoe Reef, owing to an especially nasty several weeks of weather which had prevented any successful attempt to re-float her (World, 26 September 1900).

Finally, she was raised in early October and towed to “Douglas”⁴ by tug, where she was put whole again. In 1901, Union Steamships was paid about $30,000 by the insurers. She was then sold to a Captain Clinton of Portland, Oregon. The little steamer would, flying the American flag, ply the Columbia River between Portland and Astoria. It would also have a new name. No longer would it proudly bear the name of Cutch. During its time as an American riverboat, it would be known as the Jessie Banning (World, 2 May 1902).

By 1904, the Jessie Banning was for sold again, this time to the nation of Colombia, and not as a riverboat, this time. She was fitted out with guns, and would be known as the gunboat Bogata. (Province, 4 April 1904).

Thereafter, the history of the former Cutch becomes hazy. It seems improbable, however, that the Bogata made it out of Colombia. It seems more likely that, when she had served her purpose in the eyes of her Columbian masters, she was abandoned in some corner or other of that state.

It was an ignoble passing of a little ship with a proud heritage.

Notes

¹Why was she called Cutch? After a region in India, and allegedly, after a Maharajah of that region.

²Nanaimo was known as the Black Diamond City in the Victorian era due to coal which powered the local economy there during that period.

³Just where “the beach” was located was a bit vague in press reports, probably because this was pretty obvious to readers of the day (versus this landlubber researcher). The “beach” had to be on the land on one side or other of Stephens Passage.

⁴I take it that by the reference to “Douglas” is meant Douglas Island, Alaska, which is near to Juneau. Not Port Douglas (part of Surrey, B.C.), which would have been a far greater distance than a tug would have been able to go.

Kerrisdale Baptist Church

CVA 660-927 – Kerrisdale Baptist Church en route from Port Coquitlam on a barge on the Fraser River. It looks to me as though it is just across from Eburne/Marpole at the foot of Hudson Street. It would be taken ashore not far from here at the foot of Angus Drive where Marpole’s Fraser River Park (across the Fraser from YVR) is today. May 1921 John Davidson.

As is true of most Baptist churches in the Greater Vancouver area, Kerrisdale Baptist Church had quite humble origins.¹ Baptists living in the Kerrisdale neighbourhood met, starting ca1913, at the home of Ralph Daggett at 38th and Dunbar (which seems to me to be outside of the Kerrisdale precinct and more accurately within Dunbar district). Later, they moved to another temporary site at Wilson Road (41st Avenue) and Carnarvon where Kerrsisdale Elementary school is located today.

The church was formally organized in February 1914 with Rev. Joshua T. Marshall as pastor. They continued to meet at the school site during this time. Later that year, the church reported to the denominational HQ that they had a charter membership of 32 souls. Over the next couple of years, two decisions were taken by the congregation. First, they adopted a formal name. Nope, not Kerrisdale Baptist; Calvary Baptist Church! Second, they moved from the school site to a store at the corner of 41st Ave. and Balsam Street.

Around 1917, the congregation purchased a lot at the corner of 37th Ave. and Yew Street. However, by 1920, they had found and bought another lot at the corner of 43rd Ave. and East Boulevard. So the church had a lot, but no building. And so it was with guarded glee that they received news from the Home Mission Board (the local denominational office) that there was a former Baptist building available. And at no cost to the Kerrisdale Baptists.

There was just one wrinkle: It was situated in Port Coquitlam!

The Kerrisdale Baptists were made of pretty stern stuff. The fact that their future building was located in Port Coquitlam was viewed as a challenge, rather than as the insoluble bureaucratic tangle which it would doubtless be today. In charge of planning and carrying out the project was Canadian General Electric Co. manager and Baptist church member, Frank McNeill.²

There were two principal stages to the journey from PoCo; a rivers segment; and a land one. For the rivers leg, the church-on-barge needed to proceed down the Pitt River and the Fraser. Six bridges had to be raised along the way. Finally, just west of Marpole, the barge was beached at the foot of Angus Drive (at that time, Angus Drive was called Angus Ave. and went as far as the Fraser River).

The land leg required that huge rollers be used to carry the structure to its final destination north on Angus and over to East Boulevard — at night. Several BC Electric wires needed to be cut along the way. Meanwhile, a foundation and basement walls of the correct proportions were set at the East Boulevard site. The foundation fitted the structure perfectly.

Before the building was moved to its new site, the name of the church was changed to Kerrisdale Baptist.

CVA 660-920 – Kerrisdale Baptist Church at 5870 East Boulevard. ca1922. John Davidson.³

The Kerrisdale Baptists had a tendency to call ministers who were at the tail end of their ministry careers. This meant that these men were less energetic than one might hope for in a pastor of a new congregation. Joshua Marshall lasted scarcely a year (1914-15); likewise John Pirie (1921-1922). George Reynolds lasted longer (1922-30), but his replacement, Charles Morse didn’t (1931). Merle Mason (1934-37) made it just three years. J. Willard Litch (1937-43) had a respectable pieriod in the pulpit at KBC, but poor health and 50 years of continuous ministry in Baptist churches (including First Baptist) made it advisable for him to resign in 1943. His replacement, Clarence Wright (1943-46) endured in the pastorate for just over three years. And J. Leroy Sloat (1946-51), while he had a longish period in KBC’s pulpit, finished his 50th year of ministry there in 1951 and resigned later that year.

Trinity Baptist Church. Sun 9 July 1955. H. E. Addington photographer.

By the early 1950s, it was apparent that a larger building was needed to accommodate the growing congregation, but no adjacent lots were available. Clark Bentall donated a large property located at the SE corner of Granville and 49th avenue. Sod was turned for the new building in January 1955 and the sanctuary was dedicated on July 10, 1955. Because the church was located outside of Kerrisdale, it would be known as Trinity Baptist Church.

Former Kerrisdale Baptist Church for Sale in 2013.
Source: Vancouver Street Blog. January 26, 2013

The old church structure was sold to the Christian Scientists for $50,000. It was sold by the Christian Scientists in 2013 (listed for just under $6 million). On November 8, 2016, an early morning fire destroyed the church building. Today, there is a four-story condominium at this location with retail space at street level (5888 East Boulevard).

Notes

¹ I am very grateful for the eagle eyes of my old friend, Bill Reimer, manager of Regent Bookstore, for setting aside the little booklet for me on which much of this post is based: The Past is the Prologue: A History of Trinity Baptist Church Prepared for the Celebration of its Diamond Jubilee, 1914-1974. n.d. [1975]. At first, I thought that the (unnamed) author(s) had been playing a bit fast and loose with another Canadian book title, the memoirs of Vincent Massey, What’s Past is Prologue. But I have since learned that ‘past is prologue’ references are common in historical literature!

²In January 1950, Frank McNeill managed to steer his car into a ditch (it must have had some unspecified issue). He didn’t consider it safe (for others) to leave his automobile there, so he walked until he found a service station. He asked the service station attendant to move his car to a safer location and then McNeill collapsed. He died before he reached hospital (Province 20 Jan 1950).

CVA 660-686 – John and Annie Davidson. 1903-08

³John Davidson, the photographer of the early views of Kerrisdale Baptist shown in this post, was the BC Provincial Botanist and was a professor at UBC. Known as “Botany John”, he was the founder of the Vancouver Natural History Society and was a charter member with his wife, Annie, of Kerrisdale Baptist Church.

B. T. Rogers Family Silent Film

Duke (Duncan Bell-Irving) and Duchess (Irene Rogers) of Faversham are in a tizzy, as their breakfast is interrupted by news that the Duke’s ‘bachelor brother’, Claud, has married and will be coming to Faversham Towers (the ‘Tawse’). Screen capture.

This is an atypical post about an unusual item at the City of Vancouver Archives.

The item is a silent film. That in itself is not uncommon among CVA’s holdings – they have several early silent films. But most of them are non-fiction-oriented (e.g., the construction of a bridge, gas stations of the Lower Mainland, etc). This film, however, is a silent fictitious film which includes several of the B.T. Rogers family and their friends among the actors. The play was called “Bastard Love” and was produced around 1928. This was not an undertaking for people with very limited budgets – and the Rogers family, who bankrolled the venture, certainly weren’t strapped for cash; this is the family that built B.C. Sugar, after all.

Who were some of the prominent players in “Bastard Love”? Duncan Bell-Irving, who played the Duke, was a Great War hero and his parents were neighbours of the B.T. Rogers family. Ernie Rogers, a son of B.T. was in the role of Claud Faversham and his real-life wife, Irene Rogers, was in the role of the Duchess of Faversham. Captain Tucker was played by Reggie Tupper; and Tupper’s wife, Isobel, played Millicent (Claud’s wife). Harold E. Molson (aka “Moley”) played the ”son and heir” (although it isn’t clear to me whose son he was playing; Molson’s future wife, Lila Malkin, played the maid. Elspeth Cherniavsky (who was a daughter of B.T.) was in the part of the native girl; her husband, Jan Cherniavsky (who became an internationally-acclaimed concert pianist), played the parts of the butler and minister. There were several other players, but the pattern is, by now, clear. Those acting in the film were offspring of B.T. Rogers, their spouses, or others of distinction who were likely friends of the Rogers clan.

Plot

Faversham Tawse (aka Shannon Mansion). Screen capture.

The play opens with the Duke and Duchess of Faversham sitting down to breakfast. They are supposedly in London at Faversham Towers (‘Tawse’), but in fact they are dining at the Rogers’ Shannon mansion (at Granville and 57th Avenue). Most of the scenes, like this one, are set outdoors, presumably due to the low light indoors which would no doubt have resulted in poor film quality. The Duke opens the morning mail, to find a letter from his ‘bachelor brother’, Claud, in which he notifies the Duke of his recent marriage to Millicent. Claud describes the wedding as having been “more sudden than is perhaps proper for a man in my position”, thereby hinting broadly that their wedding had something of the shotgun about it.

“What can be done?” the Duke and Duchess ask themselves. To which the Duchess points out that “not all the Favershams died in their beds,” thus hinting at fratricide as a solution.

The recently married Claud and Millicent pay a visit to Faversham Tawse. The Duke and Duchess invite Claud and Millicent to join them on a trip to the Swiss Alps, to which they reply with Bertie Wooster-like enthusiasm: “How perfectly ripping!”

The two couples climb Swiss Alps. Screen capture.

The scene shifts to the mountains of Switzerland, one of which the two couples are climbing. (I suspect that the location at which this was shot was one of the local Vancouver mountains).

The title card reads: “Ambitious wife inspires fratricide.” The Duchess produces a knife for the Duke to stab Claud to death. But the Duke, to his credit, proclaims “I can’t!” However, fate steps in and the rope which was holding all of them together on the mountain breaks — just above Claud’s position at the end of it. Claud went tumbling down the mountain to his death. Millicent is inconsolable in her loss.

It’s at this point in the play that I think the plot begins to unravel.

The ciggie-to-ciggie snogging scene. Screen capture.

Two characters who have not hitherto been introduced, a Captain Tucker, and a lady wearing crown-like head gear, spend a nuit d’amour, prior to Tucker leaving for Africa for an unspecified reason. (This is the only scene filmed indoors and is notable for ciggie-to-ciggie snogging!). Tucker sails for Africa aboard a North Vancouver ferry, the next day! A real puzzler was a brief scene of a baby pram being pushed by a nun. In the pram is an adult male!

Bear scene. Screen capture.

The scene changes to Africa, where a man is being mauled by a North American black bear! Whether the bear is a real (presumably, tame) bear or a person in a bear suit, isn’t clear. The bear’s hoped-for luncheon escapes from it by jumping into a pool.

Scene change, still in Africa, but now in the jungle. Here, the guy who had the lucky escape from the bear happens upon a native girl to whom he is abusive (he kicks her repeatedly).

GWHs with dead birds. Screen capture.

Scene change, apparently still in Africa, but in a sort of plain (likely filmed somewhere in Stanley Park) where two gents are out with long guns to shoot birds. They successfully bring down a bird apiece. The great white hunters stumble across a n’er-do-well who is striking a young white girl. The GWHs cannot allow this and so intervene, rescuing said girl from the clutches of the n’er-do-well.

We seem now to be back in London, apparently at the home of the Favershams. Judging by appearances, the Duke and Duchess have aged considerably. It’s possible that one of the GWHs is their son.

The girl rescued from the African plains is in this scene. She is introduced to a matriarch (perhaps the mother of GWH?) and curtsies multiple times. The girl next appears in a maid’s uniform, presumably in the employ of GWH’s mother. GWH gets into hot water (with his mother?) on a couple of occasions for snogging with the now-maid.

Scene change to what appears to be a drug den. What the point is of this scene is utterly beyond me.

The many kids of about the same age. Screen capture.

The play ends with a wedding . . . apparently of GWH to the maid. A title card claims that the union was a very fruitful one and then shows a few frames of about 12 children — all of whom seem to be of about the same age. Fruitful, indeed!

Conclusions

It would be unfair of me to be hyper-critical of this wee movie/play, since, to the best of my knowledge, it was never intended to be anything serious. Given that, I’d make one principal critique of “Bastard Love”. It would have helped viewers to hang onto the plot thread if there had been more title cards throughout. After we moved out of Switzerland, there were very few titles in the film. Having more title cards would have gone a long way toward helping the viewer follow what was going on.

The big and probably unintentional mystery of this film is “who is the bastard love child” and whose child is he/she? If, upon watching “Bastard Love”, you think you know the answer, please comment!

I should note that in January 1979, “Bastard Love” and another film produced by a prominent lower mainland family, “Done by the Son,” were shown at Centennial Theatre (North Vancouver).

I was all prepared to dislike this film; but I found the acting (for an amateur production) to be pretty good, and the “production values”, as they would be called today, weren’t bad at all. In fact, aside from the fact that the plot seemed to meander aimlessly part way through, it was an entertaining way to spend 45 minutes!

A Lubritorium at Broadway Auto Dealership!

CVA 586-16399 – Opening of Dueck Motors at 1305 W. Broadway at night. (Note that a searchlight was used as part of the opening). 1947 Don Coltman photo.

Dueck Chevrolet Oldsmobile established a large, multi-service structure at 1305 West Broadway (just a couple of blocks east of Granville at Hemlock) in 1947. In addition to new cars on display in Dueck’s swanky glass-enclosed showroom, there was a used car department, a huge service centre (which, starting in 1948 would be open 24-hours a day), a U-Drive where folks who were having their vehicle serviced could arrange to get a temporary for-hire vehicle, and a safety inspection division to give drivers an alternative to the provincial safety inspection services.

And a lubritorium.

What, you may fairly inquire, was a lubritorium?* It was where you went to get your car lubed; also known as a grease rack. Dueck seems to have been the first outfit in the city to use this term, although by 1950, at least one other service station (identified as being just south of the Pattullo Bridge) was also employing the term (Sun 25 June 1954); as was a service station toy sold by local firm, Millar & Coe (Sun 10 Nov 1953).

Leonard Dueck (1901-1954), the president and general manager of Dueck’s, had been working out of this Broadway address since 1927 (during that year, it was known as Champion Garage). With the establishment of this new building, Leonard invited his two brothers, Edward (1905-1995) and Ben to join the firm. Ben would become the head of the used car division. Ed had been running his own company, known as Ed Motors (Kingsway at Victoria) until 1946, when he sold that business to assume his responsibilities as assistant to the president and customer relations manager at Dueck Motors (Sun 2 Oct 1947).

Dueck moved out of their Broadway digs in the early 1980s. It still stands today, although the distinctive tower and the deco-ish neon features at the Broadway side of the building have been modified out of existence. During the 1983 B.C. provincial election, the showroom served as the Social Credit Party’s Vancouver campaign HQ (Sun, 16 Apr 1983). Later, it was the Mercedes Benz dealership and today it is Jim Pattison’s Toyota dealership.

Dueck Motors has expanded to become Dueck Auto Group.

CVA 586-11219 – Interior of garage. 1948 Don Coltman photo. If you are interested in seeing others of Coltman’s Dueck photos, go to this link.

Notes

*”Lubritorium” seems to have been coined with ancient Roman bathing in mind. In Roman baths, there were three main rooms: the tepidarium (warm room), calderium (hot room) and frigidarium (cold room). The term was in use in the U.S.A. long before Dueck used it at his Vancouver service station. It was used in Decatur, Illinois in 1926 and in Joplin, Missouri in 1927 and in countless other cities, subsequently. The term seems to have fallen out of vogue by the 1950s.

Up, Up and Away!

CVA 2010-006.157 – Balloon on PNE Grounds. May 5 1958. Ernie H. Reksten.

The image above shows the hydrogen-filled* balloon that was featured in the 1956 blockbuster film, Around the World in 80 Days. It was in Vancouver as part of the B.C. International Trade Fair which was held at the PNE grounds in Hastings Park. There wasn’t a balloon used in the original book by Jules Verne of the same title. Verne’s book has been made into various films, the most recent being a TV PBS (2021) version and a Jackie Chan (2017) slapstick version.

The balloon flew on three occasions in Vancouver. The second and third flights were not big successes, as the prevailing winds took the balloon far off course. The first flight, however, was a relative success. Pilot, Francis Shields and passenger, Vancouver Sun reporter Audrey Down, lifted off from Hastings Park at 2.50 p.m. on May 3, 1958. They landed 40 minutes later in a North Vancouver back yard.

To launch the balloon pilot Shields dumped out sandbags while six strong men held it down.

Our first start was a bad one. The basket bumped along the ground and the balloon was heading into a mass of wires and poles at the north end of the ring.

Our human “anchors” caught us on the brink of disaster and dragged us back to the 1,000 onlookers. The pilot wasn’t worried. . . .

I didn’t realize we were moving until a cheer rose from the crowd. It was as if gravity had suddenly let go. The PNE grounds shrunk away. We were rising at the rate of 700 feet per minute but the smoothness and the silence made it seem like a dream. . . .

At 1,500 feet up we were free of the 10-mile-an-hour ground wind and ascent had slowed to 30 feet per minute. . . . We reached a height of 3,200 feet. . . .

Then it was time to come down. . . . Instructions for the landing were to brace myself against the side of the basket and hang onto the ropes.

“Don’t fall out,” warned Mr. Shields. He told of an experience of three of his friends riding in one balloon. “It was a rough landing and the two men fell out. With that weight out of the balloon, the woman in it went right back up to 2,000 feet. Luckily, she was an experienced pilot. . . .”

Below us a woman was industriously digging in her garden. We called to her and she looked up at us, about 500 feet above. “Don’t land that thing on my fruit trees,” she snapped. . . .

The pilot uncoiled a heavy rope and dropped it to the ground, calling to onlookers to grab it and tow us to a clear backyard. First to grab it were two boys. . . . Three men helped them and we were gently set down in the 50-foot backyard. . . .

Vancouver Sun, 5 May 1958

Notes

*Hydrogen is, today, still most commonly used in balloons of this sort for reasons of economy. Hydrogen is far less expensive than helium, although helium is the safer of the gases.

1175 Haro Street

Sch P141 – Exterior of The Granville School at 1175 Haro Street. ca 1900.

Granville School

The building shown above at 1175 Haro Street was built in 1898 for Mlle. Marie-Louise Kern (1861-1951), the principal of Granville School.

The school was a private boarding and day school for girls. Granville School was established in 1896 at 1021 Melville Street (located about where the outdoor seating area is at Bentall Centre today) by Kern and her sister, Salomé Aimee Kern (ca1858-1938). The Kerns were born in the much-disputed territory (between France and Germany) of Alsace-Lorraine. After having the Haro Street structure built, Granville School moved there.

Marie-Louise Thomson (nee Kern). Province 1 May 1954.

By 1906, there were reports in the local press that Mlle. Kern was planning to get out of the school business. It isn’t clear why, but it is probable that it was the usual reason: she was planning to marry soon, and it wasn’t seemly for a married woman to work. In 1907, Marie-Louise Kern married local bookshop and stationery pioneer entrepreneur, Melville Patrick Thomson. It was Thomson’s second marriage; his first wife, Marcella, with whom he had two sons, died in 1902. Melville and his brother, James followed the CPR from Ontario, where they had their earliest business, ultimately opening their Vancouver bookshop in 1889. The brothers retired in 1908, shortly after M. P. Thomson’s marriage, selling their business to Clarke & Stuart.

Marie-Louise Thomson (1861-1951) lived with Melville Thomson (1860-1944) in Oliver, B. C. , where they settled after marrying. She died in Victoria at the age of 90.

Lynwood

1175 Haro, meanwhile, passed into other hands ca 1907 and had a name change, becoming Granville House school. Miss Inglis was the school principal. The Granville House school was a “kindergarten and day school for girls” which also admitted boys to primary grades (Province 11 Aug 1909). A Miss Patterson, a graduate of Hoover University, San Francisco, taught physical culture, which seems to have been an early version of phys. ed. (World 15 Jan 1908).

By 1910, Granville House had another name change to reflect its change of purpose; it would become an apartment house and be known as Lynwood. The apartments would typically house the great and the good who were in the city temporarily, but for a period longer than a hotel would be practical accommodation. One of these people was C. Noel Wilde. At the time he was staying at Lynwood (1911), Wilde was a manager with C. N. Railway. Wilde went on to become Canada’s trade commissioner to Central America and shot himself to death in his home in Mexico City (Province 7 July 1932). Another was J. D. A. Tripp (1867-1945), a concert pianist who hailed from Toronto originally, but who moved to Greater Vancouver (for the gentler winters?) in 1910. Mr. and Mrs. Tripp made their summer home in Caulfeild and wintered in Vancouver proper, staying at Lynwood from time to time (Sun 26 July 1917).

Tower

Finally, in 1953, an auction was held at Lynwood to sell its contents. By 1967, there was a 10-story concrete apartment tower standing where Granville School once was. It had another name change: Villa Esto Apartments (literal translation, “this villa”). It would probably have been more aptly named ‘Lyncrete’ in tribute to the forest of residential towers being erected around it in the West End in the 1960s. In 1994, a 2-bedroom suite with heat and cable included cost about 1000/month. In 2004, a “new” 2-bedroom penthouse in the same building would set you back $1850/month. Goodness knows what sort of sum a suite commands today.

Thanks to Maurice Guibord for his assistance with some details in this post.

Pioneer Hotel and Current Bookstore Share Similar Logo Across 135 Years

Crop of CVA Bu P243.1 – Greyhound Hotel with an illustration of a hound at its secondary entry off of Cordova Street. (Its principal entry was at 232 Water Street).

The logo of The Paper Hound Bookshop at SE corner of Pender at Homer

The Greyhound Hotel (1886-1890) at 232 Water Street and a contemporary bookshop called The Paper Hound at 344 West Pender Street share a strikingly similar logo. I stumbled across the hotel illustration on CVA’s database yesterday. The photo from which the above was cropped is a view of Cordova Street from Cambie. This is a very uncommon view of the Greyhound. Typically, it was photographed at its principal entry: 232 Water Street. There doesn’t appear to be a hound illustration at the Water Street entry. I assume the illustration at the Cordova entry was intended to lure folks who were walking down Cordova in search of accommodation.

The Greyhound was a small hotel with a brief history. It was apparently a pre-Great Fire hostelry on Water Street, so presumably it went up sometime in early 1886. It was rebuilt following the fire and seems to have been up and running by 1887. It had a single proprietor, Harry T. Cole from its opening until it was sold by Cole in 1890 to Louis Wider who renamed it the Occidental Hotel; it was later renamed the Sherman House. Cole left Vancouver after the sale of the Greyhound to move to Victoria where he took on the proprietorship of the Leland Hotel (World 21 July 1891). He married Mary J. Mavis of Langley in 1891 (World 8 Aug 1891). Cole retired from the hotel business in 1894 (World 16 Feb 1894). He died in Victoria in 1911 from pneumonia at the relatively young age of 50.

The Paper Hound Bookshop – my favorite bookstore in Vancouver – opened in 2013 at its current location on Book Row with Kim Koch and Rod Clarke as the friendly and helpful proprietors. The bookshop’s hound is actually modeled on the artist’s now-deceased whippet, Trooper. It was drawn by Victoria artist, Carrie Walker.

The principal visual differences between the hotel’s illustration and that of the bookstore are that the hotel hound was facing right (as opposed to the left-facing book hound), and the hotel hound seems to be flanked by trees while the paper hound is standing upon a book.

Ad in 1888 City Directory.

Beatrice Shaw, Vancouver Vaudevillian, Dies on New York Stage

Beatrice Shaw. Daily News. 5 March 1924.

Beatrice Amelia Shaw (1901-1924), daughter of William Arthur Shaw (1866-1923) and Amanda Nelson (1876-1950) died in 1924 in New York City on stage, apparently due to heart disease. She was performing as one of “the Dale Sisters” in the International Perfume Exhibition at the 71st Regiment Armory.* Her act consisted of her dancing “eccentrically” while playing the soprano saxophone. An audience of some 1500 people watched as she danced and played her sax. Suddenly, she fainted, collapsing to the stage floor. “Restoratives” were applied by physicians, but she was pronounced dead when ambulance attendants arrived.

A few minutes before her collapse, Beatrice was photographed kissing a newspaper reporter as a demonstration of the ”kiss-proof” rouge manufactured by the cosmetics firm which sponsored the vaudeville act (Sun 5 March 1924).

Beatrice attended Sacred Heart Academy in West Point Grey in her younger years and later attended the Cumnock Hall School of Expression in Los Angeles where she studied violin with Russian-born violinist, Gregor Cherniavsky (1887-1926). She then went to Chicago and New York City where she further pursued musical studies (Sun 5 March 1924). In 1922, Beatrice took part in in the Vancouver Orpheum Theatre’s one-third of a century anniversary performance.

Her father, who predeceased Bearice by almost exactly a year, was the owner of Vancouver’s Strand Hotel (on West Hastings) and business partner with Harry Duker (1886-1982) in Duker & Shaw, Ltd., a major outdoor advertising (billboard) concern in the city.

Beatrice Shaw’s remains were returned to Vancouver and buried in Ocean View Burial Park in Burnaby.

Note

* The Dale Sisters were not truly sisters. They were a trio of unrelated people — Margaret Ranelle, Helen Leopold, and of course, Beatrice Shaw.

The DeMuths: Canadian Pacific Steamship Artists

Flora and Martin DeMuth were partners both in marriage and in art on Canadian Pacific Steamships. The pair made their first round-the-world cruise in 1925-26 aboard CP’s Empress of Scotland, a year after their wedding.

Memograms: What Are They? Empress of Australia Round-the-World Cruise, 1929-30. UBC Open Collections (both this one and the one at left advertising the “Greenwich Village Follies”).

Martin was a captain in the U.S. Infantry and later served with the American Expeditionary Forces in France during the Great War (Bradford Evening Star 4 Oct 1933). Flora received her artistic training at the Art Students’ League in NYC.

What they most wanted to do after they were married was to combine their love of art and travel and make a living at it. They did this by developing an idea which could be sold to a transportation company and would earn them passage on major trips. The idea was the Memogram. This was a series of “pictorial memoranda originated and produced on board by special cruise artists” (Memograms: What Are They?). Memograms would include graphic calendars, illustrated letter forms to save passengers time in writing correspondence, and maps and diagrams for reference during cruise lectures and on shore excursions.

CP’s Empress of Britain World Cruise Menu cover by Flora DeMuth. February 1939. (This was probably one of Flora’s final jobs for CP before the start of WW2).

The DeMuths sold the Memogram concept (and themselves) to Canadian Pacific Steamships Co. for its long-haul trips. Flora served as Cruise Artist and Martin was Cruise Artist and Lecturer. The DeMuths produced the Memograms aboard ship and duplicated them on the ship’s mimeograph machine. Ultimately, they expanded their artistic talents to producing cover art for CP’s menus (see left for an example).

Martin and Flora made a total of 15 round-the-world trips with CP. The cruises came to an end in 1939 with Canada’s declaration of war on Germany. The couple lived together in Connecticut for a number of years. Flora published illustrations in more than a dozen books during her life.

Martin died in 1961. Shortly after his death, Flora moved to Honolulu, HI where she lived until her death at the age of 87 in 1976; her ashes were scattered at sea (Honolulu Advertiser 4 Aug 1976).

Romance in Death Notices?

CVA 99-1035 – Double funeral for Captain M. D. & Mrs. Jessie McLennan. Sept 1922. Stuart Thomson photo.

One doesn’t often find stories of romance in the obits. But in early September 1922, if one looked in the local newspapers, you would certainly have found one. It was the love story told of Captain Murdock & Jessie McLennan, “one soul in two bodies” who, as their end approached, spoke openly and fearlessly of their desire to be buried side-by-side in the same grave. They had both lived to the ripe age of 82 and been married to one another for 56 years and 9 months. Capt. McLennan went first, on September 6th and approximately 48 hours later, Mrs. McLennan joined him in death — almost fulfilling their expressed wish that they would die together (Province 8 Sept 1922). Mrs. McLennan was doing so poorly when Mr. McLennan died, that the family decided to postpone his funeral for a couple of days. When she passed two days after his death, they decided that a double funeral would be appropriate.

CVA 99-1034 – Funeral of Mr. & Mrs. McLennan. The three sons of Captain McLennan are on the right side of one of the coffins. Sept 1922 Stuart Thomson photo.

Captain McLennan came to Vancouver in 1879 and was “one of the most widely known sea captains on the Pacific Coast.” Prior to that, had been a mariner based in Nova Scotia (Sun, 7 Sept 1922; Province 6 Sept 1922). The captain lived in Cuba for 20-some years; he returned to Vancouver to retire about 12 years before his and Mrs. McLennan’s passing. All three of his sons followed in his occupational footsteps and became sea captains. The McLennans also had a daughter, Mrs. Frank Gore, who along with the McLennan sons, lived in Greater Vancouver.

The funeral was at Armstrong & Hotson Funeral Home, located just north of Hastings on Dunlevy Street. The building shown in the first photo above, where Armstrong & Hotson was in 1922 still stands, although today it’s known as the “Chapel Arts” building. The crowded scene in the photo is probably largely due to the Vancouver Pioneers’ Association (of which the McLennans were members) turning out in force (Sun, 9 Sept 1922).

The octogenarian couple were laid together in the New Westminster Odd Fellow’s cemetery.

Jumpin’ Jehoshaphat, Batman, this is NUTS!

CVA 354-449 – Vancouver Fire Department District Chief Loftus jumping into a life net from the Winch Building (today, the Winch is part of Sinclair Centre at the corner of West Hastings and Granville). 1910. William Jefferson Carpenter photo. Exposure adjusted by mdm.

The life net (or the Browder Life Safety Net) was invented by Thomas Browder in 1847 to assist people who are stuck on the upper story of a building that is on fire.

The photo above, notwithstanding, I doubt that life nets were ever in common use by the Vancouver Fire Department, although they were purchased (from as early as 1907) and were available for use by VFD over several decades.

Given mixed success (to say the least) in other North American cities, the use of life nets in Vancouver only as a last resort makes a great deal of sense to me (World, 23 March 1907). In a New Jersey fire at the Newark Paper Box Company in 1910, for instance, a young woman who was stranded in an upper story of the building was faced with an unenviable dilemma:

Finally I realized that if I was to get out I must start, and I fought my way back to the window. As I looked out I saw women and girls jumping, crying as they fell. One girl struck a picket fence. That was so horrible I decided to stay there and burn. Before long I saw the life net and decided to jump into it. I hit the net alright, but bounced high in the air and sprained my arm.

World 28 November 1910

The sprained arm that came with use of the life net, in that case, definitely seems better than other alternatives available to her.

A Texas fire two years later at a Roman Catholic orphanage however, further demonstrated that jumping into a life net was not fool-proof.

Sister Kostka in jumping from the fourth floor window to reach a life net, evidently lost her balance. Her body struck a railing on the second story. Her back was broken…

Province 30 October 1912

A year following the orphanage fire, there was a fire in Montreal, this one in a multi-story shoe factory. In this case, several female employees (why is it that so many multi-story employees in fires seem to have been female?) were driven to jump 60 feet into life nets. “Many of them who took the jump were badly injured but only one…was seriously hurt…” (Province 23 August 1913. Emphasis mine).

These are just three of many examples of instances in other cities in which life nets were not successful in preserving life without causing injuries — some serious.

Life nets, it seems, required training for rescuers. There has been at least one case in Vancouver where the rescuers (who were not VFD members, in this case, but amateurs) were not trained in the appropriate way of holding a life net. Apparently, the net should be held at shoulder height. The amateurs held it at waist height. This caused the jumper to be injured, as there wasn’t enough space beneath the net to prevent him from hitting the ground (Sun 22 June 1920).

Sun. 23 January 1957. A little black humor.

But it wasn’t only rescuers who should be trained in the use of life nets; jumpers also should receive training. The fellow who was jumping into the life net in the photo above, VFD District Chief Loftus, was ”demonstrating to his men the proper way of jumping into a life net, a hazardous undertaking to the uninitiated.” Just what was the ”proper way” wasn’t explained, but the fact that jumpers would benefit from training when most jumpers are, by definition, amateurs, and unlikely to get training before they need to make use of a life net, makes the whole notion a bit ludicrous.

Life nets have been phased out in recent decades due to the development of modern aerial apparatus available on most fire trucks, today.¹

Note

¹ There is one variation on the life net which survives in Vancouver. That is the sort of semi-permanent net that serves as an anti-suicide feature beneath some of our major bridges (Lion’s Gate and Burrard Street are two examples).

Carter’s Vintage Vancouver Christmas!

I think the Christmas season is now near enough that I can safely notify you of an opportunity for you and/or yours (and, at the same time, to ‘toot the horn’ on behalf of a gifted friend)!

Tom Carter is a talented artist and conservator of things vintage Vancouver. (He has been mentioned on several occasions on this blog).

Well, now it’s your chance to own some of Tom’s work. By going to the Etsy link below and paying the nominal price stipulated, you can acquire twenty greeting cards (five different images of Tom’s).

If interested, the link is here.

Happy Holidays!

Cora McFarland, Public School Teacher

CVA – SGN 80. Cora McFarland, at right, sitting on a bench with an unidentified girl in a wooded area. Dated by CVA as 189-, but more likely ca1908.

Very little is known today about Cora Helen McFarland (1878-1966). She was born and raised in New Brunswick by John and Isabella McFarland and attended the University of New Brunswick (UNB). She earned a Bachelor’s degree from the UNB with a concentration in mathematics. Indeed, she was awarded the Brydone Jack Scholarship (1907) in that area of specialization.¹ She never married.

Class of 1908 (her year of graduation, presumably). Courtesy: University of New Brunswick Archives.

Her occupation from the early years of the 20th century (ca1908) until 1944 (when she retired) was as a school teacher at Queen Alexandra school.

She identified with the Baptist church, although it isn’t known which (if any) Baptist church she attended in Vancouver.

Cora died in Vancouver in 1966; her death was marked by just a single paragraph obituary. She was living at 1915 Haro (Stanley Park Manor) at the time of her passing.

The person on the right in the photo shown above was identified only as “Miss McFarland” by CVA. By reaching out to the Archives at UNB, I was able to obtain access to a photo of Cora H. McFarland (at right), and thereby confirmed that the person shown above was, indeed, Cora.

Queen Alexandra School – Adult to the left of the image appears to be Cora McFarland. Vancouver School Board Archives & Heritage.

Note

¹ William Brydone Jack was a Scot who became professor of mathematics, astronomy, and natural philosophy at King’s College (later to become UNB) and later became the President (1861-1885) of that institution.

In 1921, a contingent of 22 UNB graduates organized a UNB alumni association in B.C. Cora McFarland was among them. And Dr. W. D. Brydone Jack (William Brydone Jack’s son and a physician in Vancouver at that time) was present, too. The first meeting of the association was held at the Picadilly Tea Rooms (732 Dunsmuir) (World 14 May 1921).

‘Oops’ – 501 W. Pender Street

Bu P363 – Exterior of Provincial Government: Agent’s Office – 501 Pender Street. From l-r: Robert Alexander Burgoyne, Adele Mary Latimer, John Walker Mahony, Allan Peter Grant, and Frank Henry Behnsen.^* Jan. 1914.

The image above has been on my radar for quite some time. Ever since I first saw it in the City of Vancouver Archives online a few years ago, I have assumed that the address shown for it – 501 W. Pender – was a CVA error. For this to be 501 W. Pender, it would need to be located across Richards from MacLeod’s Books. But from the first, I assumed that this was an early image of the space which MacLeod’s Books (and a variety of other retailers) has occupied for several years (at 455 W. Pender).

But I was mistaken.

CVA 772-1304. 1980s. 455 W. Pender before it housed MacLeod’s Books – here it was an antique shop.

VPL43367 501 W. Pender. The site of Cristall’s major appliance shop. 1955.

The image above truly was of 501 W. Pender; the building was a near twin of the MacLeod’s block, but not quite an identical twin! Two features that distinguish the building above from 455 are: (1) that “501” appears above the heads of the Government Agent staff; and (2) the fenestration (the arrangement of windows and doors) is different in the first image above when compared with 455. As you can see, the doorway is substantially wider on 501 than it is at 455. And, more tellingly, there are two windows in the second story (and the third), but there is only one window at each story above the 455 entrance.

CVA 810-98 – The parking lot at the site of 501 W. Pender. 1979-80.

How long was 501 at the NW corner? Well, it was constructed in 1905 and was demolished following a fire in 1962. On street level during 501’s last years was an outlet of Cristall’s appliances (it also had retail space on Hastings). After Cristall’s on Pender was demolished, it was replaced for 30+ years with – you guessed it – a parking lot. After it had been the Governement Agent’s office (for little more than a single year: 1913-14; it later moved into the Provincial Courthouse) what other sorts of retailers had the space? There was an auctioneer’s at 501 in the mid-1920s (Harvey & Gorrie’s); there was a hobby shop there in the 1930s; and by the 1940s, the hobby shop was sharing the space with a gunsmith and a postage stamp outlet.

Today, the lot (515 W. Pender) is the low-rise office-space (and very underwhelming) component of the Conference Plaza (1993-96 construction).

Google Street View Dec 2020. 515 W. Pender Street (where 501 W. Pender once was).

Note

^* I’m appreciative of help from Robert Moen of WestEndVancouver.wordpress.com in identifying in the correct (l-r) order the people who appear in front of the Government Agent’s office at 501 W. Pender St.

The Radlett

CVA 786-6.05 – 862 Homer Street, 1978.

The rooming house shown above at 862 Homer Street was, early in its existence, called The Radlett. It was built in 1908 for about $3000 by owner, Thomas Foster. Depending who was counting, there were between 18 and 20 rooms in it. During some of the building’s history, it housed males, exclusively.

As with most multi-resident buildings, The Radlett had its share of tragedies. Like Angus Belfoy, a 76-year-old resident who was found dead on a 1952 afternoon in his gas-filled room (Province 15 Apr 1952).

Other residents were blessed with sunny dispositions, like Ronald Gordon-Cumming, who contributed the following poem to the Vancouver Sun. It concludes positively with a reflection upon his rented accommodation, be it ever so humble. As far as I know, this poem was original to Gordon-Cumming:

These have I loved — the silent woods,
The sea in all its restless moods,
The sunset with its crimson glow,
The murmur when a creek runs slow,
The rustle of dry autumn leaves,
The golden glow of ripe corn sheaves,
The smell of wood-smoke left behind
When softly blows the warm spring wind;
The song of birds, the swish of grass,
The whirr of wings as wild ducks pass;
The hum of bees, the smell of clover,
The wonderment when winter’s over;
The blue of lakes, the lovely sight
Of cloudless skies and bright starlight;
The drip of rain, the feel of loam —
But most of all the lights of home
When plodding back upon my way
They welcome me at close of day.

Vancouver Sun, 1 Aug 1956

The Radlett survived when buildings half its age were being knocked over for parking lots. It endured until it was all but destroyed by fire in 1991. It was later demolished and an office/residential condo was put in its place — The Beasley, named after one of Vancouver’s city planners, Larry Beasley.

Vancouver’s Zeller’s Ltd.

CVA LEG26.14. Zeller’s first Vancouver site (1948-63) at Granville and Dunsmuir. 1960. Vancouver Planning Dept. Artist’s concept of the Granville Mall. (Note: Vancouver’s Woolworth’s store – the chain in which Walter Zeller got his start in retailing – is just four doors down from his Granville/Dunsmuir shop).

Walter P. Zeller, the founder of Zeller’s Ltd., was born in Ontario to Swiss parents (Province 13 May 1949). He got his start in business working at Woolworth’s, but by 1931 he had started his own retail shop in Montreal for “thrifty Canadians”. During WWII, Zeller worked for the federal Liberal government as the principal advisor to the Wartime Prices Board.

Early in WWII, Zeller had the following to say about government and its tendencies. Presumably, these were lessons he’d learned (or perhaps re-learned) during his time advising the feds:

“There can be no such thing as partial control by the government of our economic life. Once the government starts to meddle in economic control, it has to go further and further until its economic control is complete. It can’t control prices, wages and money without controlling production, and it can’t control production without the state being master of the lives and welfare of every human being.” Mr. Zeller demands an end of this, once we have beaten Hitler.

Vancouver Sun 3 Dec 1942

However, what was advisable for governments (shrinkage), wasn’t necessarily good business, in Zeller’s opinion. By late 1943, Zeller began to plan corporate postwar expansion, and those plans included Vancouver. It was announced that Zeller’s had bought the MacMillan building at 413 West Hastings and the adjacent Evans-Sheppard building at 417 West Hastings for about $200,000 (Province 7 Oct 1943). But a Zeller’s store would never occupy either of those properties. The Evans-Sheppard site would be sold about a year later, at cost (Province 15 Aug 1944). The MacMillan block would be sold a few years later with the proceeds being donated to the Marpole Infirmary (aka “provincial home for incurables“) (Province 11 Apr 1950).

Nobody likes to be called “cheap”. “Thrifty” is a much more retail-friendly word!

The first property which Zeller’s would occupy in the city was bought for $800,000 and was in the heart of downtown: the three-story former BC Electric showroom at the corner of Granville and Dunsmuir Streets (Province 18 May 1948). (The building still stands; today it is occupied by The Keg). The manager of the Vancouver store was W. C. Soper. He wasn’t a local man (he came from Ontario where he got his start with with the firm), but most of the non-managerial Vancouver employees were from Greater Vancouver (Province 5 Oct 1948).

The year following, Zeller’s would open its second Lower Mainland store: this one at 604 Columbia in New Westminster. The building had earlier been occupied by Spencer’s and later by Eaton’s. (This building also still stands). I don’t recall ever seeing a restaurant inside any Zeller’s store during the 1970s or later. But apparently there was an eatery in the New West store. There was an ad in the Vancouver Sun in 1971 seeking waitresses and kitchen staff for Zeller’s “new skillet restaurant” in that city (Sun 21 Aug 1971).

Zeller’s acquired the former David Spencer building (and later, Eaton’s) in New Westminster at Columbia and 6th Street. NWPL 1207.

Zeller died in 1957 at the relatively young age of 66 (Province 27 Aug 1957).

The downtown Vancouver store closed in 1963. It was considered too small to accommodate all of the merchandise sold in other Greater Vancouver Zeller’s stores, of which there were then four: Brentwood Mall (the largest Zeller’s store at the time it opened), Middlegate Mall (today’s Highgate Mall in Burnaby), Dell Shopping Centre (Whalley), and the Columbia at 6th Street store in New Westminster. By 1965, Zeller’s had opened four other shops in the Lower Mainland: another in New West (near Woodward’s 6th and 6th store); one each in North Vancouver and Richmond; and one on Lougheed Highway.

In the late 1960s, W. T. Grant, an American department store concern purchased 51% of Zeller’s shares. This was the first in a series of mergers, acquisitions and buy-outs over the next several years. In 1976, Fields stores picked up the Grant shares after Grant went belly-up. Then, The Bay acquired all of Zeller’s shares. Zeller’s became the low-end arm of the Hudson’s Bay Co.

You know how the story ends.

This shuffling of ownership of the chain did no long term good for the store or its employees. Mainly, it made a few people, such as Vancouver’s Joseph Segal, fabulously wealthy. Zeller’s finally bit the dust around 2012 when Target bought it from the Bay. But Target got cold feet a short time later and sold the former Zeller’s real estate to Walmart; Target skedaddled back across the 49th parallel like a scalded cat.

I can’t believe that Walter Zeller would be pleased to know that his department store ended “not with a bang but a whimper”.¹

Note

¹ The quote is borrowed from T. S. Eliot’s poem, The Hollow Men.

Department Store Food Floors

David Spencer Ltd.

The food floor at Vancouver’s David Spencer Ltd. was fundamentally different from the other local department stores mentioned in this post. Its name was original: “David Spencer’s Model Food Market”. And it wasn’t located with the other departments of the store — it was off-site, at 4th Avenue and Vine Street.

Staff in front of Spencer’s Model Food Market, 1934. Photo courtesy of the late (and greatly missed) Gordon Poppy.

The Model Food Market opened at the end of 1926, and it continued until ca1946. In 1947, when the retailer had just another year or so of life before Eaton’s purchased it, Spencer’s ceased referring to the Model Food Market in their print ads and began to refer to their “culinary world” and to their “service and specialty” food shop. It seems as though in its last year or so, Spencer’s brought their food department into the main store on West Hastings along with other departments.

T. Eaton Co.

Sun. 7 Jan. 1953

The (poorly-named) Eaton’s Foodateria began advertising in local newspapers shortly after the retailer moved into David Spencer’s former space at what is today SFU’s Harbour Centre campus, in 1949. According to long-time Vancouver resident, Angus McIntyre, the Foodateria was on the sub-basement level facing Cordova Street. Eaton’s established a “Parcel Checking Centre” inside their customer garage ca1955 (about the same time as Woodward’s got the better-named “Parcel Pickup” at their department store – it isn’t clear which retailer had the idea first).

By 1959, Eaton’s had made an arrangement with Dominion Markets (at Main & 14th and Kingsway at Willingdon) to take over their food floor (Province 9 Jan 1959). This collaboration was reportedly the first of its kind in Canada. In the full-page ad to announce the Dominion/Eaton’s collaboration, it was announced that the former Foodateria would be known henceforth as Dominion at Eaton’s. Eaton’s Home Delivery Service (another service also offered by Woodward’s; there was a ‘nominal fee’ charged by both stores) and Eaton’s charge accounts would continue to be honoured on the new food floor. Eaton’s Foodateria employees were taken on by Dominion. They did not lose their pensions, seniority or other employee benefits; Dominion assumed all of those (Province 28 Apr 1959). The lease of Eaton’s food space to Dominion appeared to last until 1968.

The logos of T. Eaton Co. and Sears Canada on the door handles at the Granville/Robson St. locations of both department stores. ca1990s. Greg Burke photo.

Eaton’s moved to what would prove to be its final location on Granville Street in the early ’70s (where Sears and later Nordstrom’s would be located) with the opening of Pacific Centre Mall. My wife and I both recall there being a grocery department in the basement of the Granville outlet during the years after 1991 (when we moved to Vancouver) until Eaton’s closed its doors for the last time in 1999.

Hudson’s Bay Co.

CVA 586-10783. Hudson’s Bay Company’s Food Dept. 1948 Don Coltman Photo.

Yes, Vancouver’s Hudson’s Bay Co. had a food floor, too, at one time. It was located in the basement of the flagship store on Granville Street from the early 19-teens until the late-1960s. It’s likely that HBC sold food even earlier than the 19-teens — probably from the 1880s out of its first store at 150 Cordova, but it didn’t have the space to dedicate an entire floor to groceries until it moved into the larger space on Granville.

Woodward’s

CVA BuP704. Interior of Woodward’s Grocery Dept. (Hastings & Abbott). 1904.

Screen capture of Vancouver ad man, Fin Anthony (1929-2017) doing an ’80s TV spot for “Woodward’s Famous Food Floors”

As with HBC, I suspect that Woodward’s sold groceries from their very start as a business (in the case of Woodies, that was in 1892). However, Woodward’s didn’t have the space for a dedicated food floor until ca1902, when they moved into the large piece of real estate at Hastings and Abbott which they would hold onto (along with many other properties) until the chain closed in 1993.

When I think of Woodward’s (about which I freely admit that I am sentimental; I was a clerk on the food floor in Lethbridge, 1981-1986), among other memories are those of Fin Anthony, a Vancouver advertising man who became the face and voice of Woodies on TV (and also on radio, I think). He is rumored also to have been the wind behind the famous $1.49 Day whistle. Whether that is true or not, I do not know. The jingle was composed by the late Tony Antonias.

This appears to be one of the name tag variants worn by Woodward’s Food Floor staff. It was never one of the tags that I wore; either this came into use before my time on the food floor or (more probably) it was a tag worn exclusively by food floor managers. This was part of a display at the New Westminster City Hall lobby a few years ago.

An Early, Forgotten Hotel: The Cosmo

CVA 321-4 – Group outside Cosmopolitan Hotel & Restaurant at NW corner of Cordova and Abbott Streets. 188-. Canadian Photo Co. Photo modified somewhat by author to enhance features of the image.

World. 28 Dec 1888.

The Cosmopolitan Hotel [1], or ‘the Cosmo’ as it came to be known, was reputedly one of the first hotels to be opened after the 1886 Great Fire (World 11 Aug 1889). It was, presumably, open for business in 1887. According to Major Matthews, the first city archivist, the Cosmo took in a grand total of 65 cents on its first night in business. It was believed to be “too far uptown”! (Early Vancouver, Matthews, Vol. 4, p. 227)

The first owner of the Cosmo was Jacob Cohen. He died in 1889. Not long after Cohen’s death, ownership passed to a group of San Francisco owners.

The Cosmo Restaurant, “open day and night”, crowed that it was “the only first-class restaurant in town” and had “Eastern oysters in every style” (Sun 18 June 2016).

The manager of the Cosmo from nearly the outset was Vancouver’s earliest police officer, Jackson T. Abray (ca1856-1944). He was commissioned to be the first constable by Vancouver’s first mayor, M. A. MacLean, following the Great Fire and he remained in that job for three years. In 1890, Abray went into the hotel business, becoming the manager of the Cosmopolitan in that year and later of the Burrard Hotel.

In the summer of 1889, the Cosmo received a face-lift: the exterior was repainted; interior-wise, much of the work was done to the bar, including adding a new bar back (see photo below, which seems to show the improved bar). The architect responsible for the improvements was N. S. Hoffar.

CVA 321-2 – Interior of Cosmopolitan Hotel saloon 188-. The gent on the customer’s side of the bar, resting his left arm on the bar and with a cigar in his right hand looks like Jackson Abray.

World. 27 Aug 1894.

In the early years of the 20th century, the City waged a small war against the Como through its licensing regulations. Essentially, the city was embarrassed by the wood frame hotel and wanted the San Francisco owners to rip it down and rebuild — this time with brick and stone. The owners of the Cosmo were willing to do as the City requested, but they wouldn’t be rushed, much to the consternation of City officials.

There were others who wanted Abray’s liquor license yanked, notably among them, H. H. Stevens, secretary of the Moral Reform Association. In a letter written in 1906 to the civic licensing commissioners, Stevens claimed that the Cosmo was “the rendezvous of thugs, theives and rogues, and the resort of women of ill-fame” (World 9 May 1906). The licensing commissioners granted Abray the Cosmo liquor license.

Finally, the wood frame Cosmo Hotel was demolished in ca1908 and was replaced with a brick and stone structure which would house retail shops on the ground floor and office space above. This building doesn’t still stand. La Casita Mexican restaurant (ground floor) today is where the Cosmo was located.

CVA 321-5 – Interior of Cosmopolitan Hotel Restaurant and Oyster Bar 188-.
Photo modified somewhat by author to enhance features of the image.

CVA 371-1302 – Jackson T. Abray (far left) and others in front of the entrance to the Comopolitan Hotel at 101 Cordova Street, ca1900. Note the ad in background for Stanley Park Brewery.

The brick and stone building that replaced the old Cosmo Hotel at the NW Corner of Abbott & Cordova. This structure is not extant.

Notes

1. There were several other Cosmopolitan Hotels in BC around the same time: New Westminster, Kamloops, and even tiny Ymir, BC all boasted hostelries of the same name.

Space Towers

Postcard Image of the Spiro Tower at PNE. Plastichrome Natural Colour Productions, Burnaby.

The Spiro Tower, more commonly known as the Space Tower, on the Playland grounds at the Pacific National Exhibition (PNE) was Vancouver’s response to Seattle’s Space Needle. [1] The Seattle structure, built for Expo 1962, dwarfed Vancouver’s tower, however (Needle: 605 ft.; Tower: 330 ft; the traveling cabin ascended to 216 ft). Prospective ‘space travelers’ would cue up on the twisty concrete at the Tower’s base.

The Tower was built in 1968 and endured at the PNE site until 1979. The double decker cabin would hold a maximum of 60 people and would rotate three times on its way up the pole.

The Tower was designed in Switzerland and was imported from Mercedes-Benz of West Germany. The Mercedes logo was mounted atop the Tower, but it caused such a stink among the general public that it was later removed [2].

“[G]uides, dressed in authentic Swiss drindl costumes, are on each deck ready to answer your questions and show you the many points of interest.” [3]

Province columnnist, Lorne Patton, seemed to enjoy poking fun at the name of the Spiro Tower and the fact that it shared its name with Richard Nixon’s running mate and ultimately his V-P (until his resignation in the wake of the Watergate scandal), Spiro Agnew (Province 14 Sept 1968).

Sun 1 April 1969. Shows PNE Space Tower manager, Don Shaw, some 200+ feet above the PNE grounds on the Space Tower.

CVA 180-4279.11 – The PNE Space Tower with the Mercedes-Benz logo affixed to it. 1969.

CVA 180-4028.07 – Opening ceremonies of the PNE Space Tower showing some of the Tower Guides in their ‘authentic Swiss dirndl costumes’. 1969.

The PNE Space Tower was pretty popular for the first few years of its existence, but by the late 1970s, its popularity had waned, and it was operating in the red. It must be admitted that the tower wasn’t the most exciting ride at the PNE. It didn’t really count as a ride at all to any but the likes of me for whom ascending even a few feet is more than enough of a thrill! So, by 1979, the PNE authorities announced that the Spiro/Space Tower would be dismantled.

Expo Space Tower (Son of PNE)

A sexed-up version of the PNE Tower would be purchased by the province in time for Expo ’86. The Expo version would also be known as “Space Tower”. The Expo tower (at about 236 feet) was a little shorter than the PNE tower, but the new edition had a more thrilling component for those who were looking for more than a view of Vancouver: they could have an oxymoronic ‘controlled free-fall’ from ‘Parachute Drop’ pods from near the top of the tower.

CVA 2010-006.466 – Expo ’86 site including the Expo Space Tower. 1986. Ernie Reksten photo.

The Expo Tower, like that at the PNE was Swiss-designed. But unlike the PNE version, the Expo tower was plagued with mechanical issues. I counted at least 4 different occasions on which Expo tower riders were stranded. Headlines such as “Space Trap for Visitors” and “Stuck Fair Ride Scares 2 Teens” weren’t ideal from the perspective of Expo’s public relations staff! But it didn’t seem to unduly affect ridership — by mid-July 1986, the Space Tower Parachute Drop had “terrified just over $1 million out of 415,000 people” (Province 20 July 1986).

The Expo tower was sponsored by Minolta camera company, and, naturally, they wanted to have their logo displayed atop the tower. Yes, this is a case of ‘dejas-vu all over again’! When it became clear that the giant Minolta sign would be visible over much of the city, the Expo powers-that-were insisted that the sign be replaced by a more modest corporate flag (Sun 9 July 1986).

At the conclusion of Expo, of course, the Son of PNE was dismantled, just as the PNE Tower had been. But unlike Big Daddy (as far as I know), Expo Tower was sold. Environmental Systems Co. of Little Rock, Arkansas, reportedly paid just over $200,000 for the Expo Space Tower (Sun 17 June 1988).

Notes

1. Unlike the Space Needle, however, neither the PNE Tower nor the future Expo ’86 Tower had a restaurant at their summits.
2. Why the Mercedes logo should have caused such an uproar was likely due to it being a German company. American corporate logos (such as Gulf and Shell oil) adorned the tops of such buildings as the Vancouver Block well before this period, without outcry.
3. “Sprio-Tower Has a View With a Difference”. Pamphlet, ca1968

The Dramatic Life of Carl Berch

CVA Bu P190 – Group portrait of the Carl Berch Stock Company standing in front of the People’s Theatre. The gent third from the left is Berch. ca 1904.

Early Years

Carl E. Berch was born ca1866 in Wisconsin. But he wasn’t made for mid-western life. He was made for the stage. Indeed, he seems to have made dramatic gestures throughout his life.

Berch first came to the attention of the press in 1891, when he was about 25. He performed with the Howard Athenaeum Company in Louisville and later in Boston (and presumably, in other centers) in the drama, True Irish Hearts. By 1892, however, he’d moved to the land of greater stage opportunities – California – and during the rest of his life, he performed mainly on the west coast of the U.S. and Canada.

By 1894, he was managing a stock company in San Jose. It was widely reported in March of that year, however, that he’d taken advantage of his position as manager to steal $200 of the company’s funds. Oddly, this event didn’t seem to have a negative impact on his career, and indeed after its initial mention in the press in that month, it seems to have been hushed up and never mentioned again; mind you, he seems to have been removed from his managerial role. 1895 was a very busy year for Berch. He was leading man with the Cooper Stock Company at the Burbank Theatre (Los Angeles Herald 30 July 1895).

1895 was a Red Letter year for Berch in another way. In September, he married actress Carrie Clark Ward. It wasn’t a standard wedding, however. Oh, no. His wedding was incorporated into the play The Country Girl. It was Berch’s first marriage; Ward’s second. She had been married when she and Berch first met, to actor James Ward. Carrie decided that she’d prefer to trade in James for a younger model, however, and so six months before The Country Girl wedding, she’d obtained a divorce from him. Officiating at the ceremony, appropriately, I guess, was a preacher from the “Church of the New Era”!

A novel wedding announcement! Los Angeles Herald 29 Sept 1895.

From 1896-1900, Berch was on the west coast of the U.S. acting in various plays. By 1901, presumably, enough time had passed since the San Jose theft, and he assembled his own stock company: the Carl Berch Company (Sacramento Bee, 4 Oct 1901).

In Autumn of 1903, Berch decided to sign a three-year contract which would make him the lessee and manager of the People’s Theatre in Vancouver (NW corner Pender and Howe).

People’s Theatre Manager, Vancouver

The People’s hadn’t always been so named. The structure was built in 1899 and was initially known as the Alhambra Theatre. Presumably it was its moorish appearance that caused it to be so named. Later, it was the Theatre Royal [1]. Then, it was the People’s Theatre and after that it became the first Orpheum Theatre in Vancouver [2].

Prov 6 Sept 1898. This is an artist’s or architect’s drawing of the anticipated Alhambra Theatre (later Theatre Royal, People’s Theatre and the first Orpheum Theatre in Vancouver). The theatre NEVER looked this good, in reality. See a photo of the Alhambra below for comparison.

The Allen Stock Company was the first theatrical group to play at the People’s during Berch’s time as lessee/manager. More often than not, Berch took a role in whatever was playing.

In the summer of 1904, a Berch School of Dramatic Art, was established. Berch was to take on students in dramatic art, expression, oratory, and fencing. It seems to have been very short-lived, however, as I found no mention of it in press accounts or ads beyond June 1904. Perhaps registrations were dismal.

It seems that Berch’s marriage to Carrie Ward had fallen apart by or (probably) before 1905. This notice appeared in a local newspaper in October 1905:

On and after this date I will not be responsible for any debts contracted by Katherine Brennan, now known as Mrs. Carl Berch.
Carl Berch
Vancouver, Oct 11, 1905

The Province 11 Oct 1905

CVA Bu N424 – Alhambra Theatre, the first name of the People’s Theatre. 1899? The building was demolished in 1914. It was ultimately replaced by the still-standing Stock Exchange building.

The notice suggests that Katherine Brennan (birth name of someone who was later known as Mrs. John P. Dalton) had married Berch at some point and that they were no longer living as husband and wife. Just how many marriages Berch had isn’t clear.

As the end of November, 1905 approached, so did the end of Berch’s three-year lease of People’s Theatre. The theatre was owned by a syndicate of which the controlling interest was held by W. H. Lucas [3]. The new lessees were to be Tim Sullivan and John Considine. On November 24th, the theatre would pass out of Berch’s lesseee-ship and into that of Sullivan & Considine (S&C).

But Berch didn’t see things that way.

In the days leading up to the 24th, Berch was blabbing to anyone who would listen that there was a clause in his lease which granted him the option of a three-month renewal. So confident was he that the terms of the lease were in his favour, that he several times offered to bet Mr. Dorr (who would be acting as local lessee for S&C) $1000 that Berch’s interpretation of the lease contract would carry the day. Dorr didn’t take Berch up on his wager.

On November 24th, the huge headlines (not quite in war-declaration type size, but nearly!) in the Province proclaimed:

CARL BERCH USED GUNS TO HOLD PEOPLE’S THEATRE

The opening of hostilities in the bloodless but highly exciting struggle for the possession of her People’s Theatre occurred at the unearthly hour of 3.35 this morning. The first engagement, as the war correspondents would say, was brief but decisive, lasting only twenty minutes. But during this time firearms were discharged, blows exchanged, doors broken in, padlocks wrenched from their fastenings, and volleys of cuss words exchanged between the opposing forces.

Province 24 Nov 1905

I won’t get into the details of the affair, except to say that Berch seemed not to grasp (or chose not to) the fundamental difference between leasing and owning a property. Lucas was the principal owner; Berch the lessee. As such, Berch had no dog in the fight for ownership of the theatre.

Needless to say, when all was said and done and everyone had had their day (and say!) in court a few weeks later, Berch was no longer the People’s lessee; he was professionally homeless.

String of Misfortune

Carl Berch in middle age. Edmonon Journal 20 May 1908.

After ‘losing’ the People’s Theatre (as he would probably have described it), Berch had a string of bad luck.

Berch expressed early interest in acquiring a theatre site which ultimately was developed by Alexander Pantages for his initial Vancouver theatre on Hastings Street — the ’first’ Pantages (Province 15 Feb 1906). Berch was unsuccessful in his bid for this property.

Berch had another flight of fancy, this time in Edmonton. He also considered building a theatre there. But, like the future Pantages site, this plan also came to naught (Edmonton Journal 20 May 1908).

He was in San Francisco when the big earthquake hit in April 1906 and, according to the World, he lost all his possessions. There was some talk of him settling in Vancouver after that, but he didn’t follow through (World 17 June 1908). Instead, he returned to coastal U.S. cities where he plied his acting trade.

Finally, Berch had the misfortune to be aboard the coastal steamer Alaska when it was wrecked on Blunt’s Reef (near Cape Mendocino, northern CA) in August 1921. He was missing and presumed dead at age 55. Presumably, he was not married at the time, as his sister, Mrs. Edna Berch Corbeau was the one who brought suit for his death in the accident (San Francisco Examiner 16 Nov 1921).

Notes

1. Tom Carter has made the observation that there have been at least four “Royal” Theatres in Vancouver over the years. This was the first; three other theatres on Hastings were so named at different times. (Email communication with the author, September 10, 2021).
2. Interestingly, as early as September 1899 (just a few months after the Alhambra first opened), it was advertising itself as “Alhambra, the People’s Theatre” (Province 14 Sept 1899).
3. Another member of the theatre syndicate (owners of Alhambra/Theatre Royal/People’s Theatre/Orpheum) was that musical fellow around town, Fred Dyke.

Vancouver Bible School

Update

(Crop of CVA 790-0634 – 1601 West 10th. 1985?). This was the campus of the VBTS, built at 10th and Fir (Fairview); it opened in September 1923 nearly debt-free. Because of its slightly peculiar, long and tall shape, it was known affectionately as “the Ark” by VBTS students over the years. By the time this photo was made ca1985, it had become home to Columbia College. I don’t know when the building was demolished, but there is no building currently at this location; just a green space adjacent to an apartment block.

The Vancouver Bible Training School (VBTS) was a child of the Vancouver Evangelistic Movement (VEM). Among the goals of VEM was the establishment of a Bible training school. The school was, accordingly, started in 1918. The raison d’etre of the school was to be an interdenominational evangelical school which had as its focus the training of the layperson to work in local churches. In this regard, it was an early predecessor of Regent College (at UBC).

The first principal of the interdenominational school was Anglican minister, Rev. Walter Ellis (1883-1944).¹ The first home of VBTS was VEM’s downtown office at 121 West Hastings. Within a year or so, it moved to a rented facility at 356 West Broadway (near Yukon). By autumn 1923, however, they moved into their own building shown above at the NW corner of 10th and Fir. Following Ellis’s death in 1944, the principal of the school was mainline Baptist minister, Rev. J. E. Harris.

CVA 400-1 – Vancouver Bible School – 1930-1931. 1930. R. A. Spencer photo. Note: First Baptist’s future long-time secretary, Edith Spain, appears above to the left of the calligraphic “1930-31”. The redoubtable Miss Spain served FBC as its secretary from the mid 1950s until her retirement in 1975. She died at age 100 in 2005.

The school was able to sustain itself as an interdenominational institution until 1956. It was then taken over by the Baptist General Conference (Swedish) denomination and the school’s curriculum became more narrowly defined and the name of the school changed at some point to become the Vancouver Bible Training Institute (VBTI).

VBTI wrapped up operations at this site by the mid-70s, I believe. It then moved to Surrey where it finally closed in 1977.

Notes

¹Historian, Robert K. Burkinshaw is the source of most of the material in this post. He has written about the Bible Training school and its influential principal, Rev. Walter Ellis, here. He also devoted the better part of Chapter 3 to VBTS and Ellis in his excellent volume, Pilgrims in Lotus Land: Conservative Protestantism in British Columbia, 1917-1981.

Sentimental About Lyric Rooms and Other Businesses Lost on 600 Granville in the ’70s

CVA Str P427: West side of 600 Granville, Looking South. 1921

The scene above is of 1921 Vancouver on the west side of Granville Street, bounded by Dunsmuir (behind the photographer) and Georgia Street (where Hotel Vancouver #2 stands). Our principal interest in this post is the rooming house which is marked by a sign just this side of the Old Country Lunch sign: Lyric Rooms (635 Granville).

The Lyric Rooms were located in the upper floors of the four-storey building immediately to the south of Walter Calder’s photography studio (its location is a bit clearer in the image below as the building in which Fletcher Bros. piano house was at street level). It advertised itself as being just half a block from the Colonial Theatre, which was at the SW corner of Granville and Dunsmuir.

Why am I sentimental about this pre-1970s block, when it was gone, in its photographed incarnation, long before I first set foot in this city? I think it is a sense of regret, as much as anything, which I feel for this lost block and for the attitudes of some Vancouverites who came before me who shrugged when asked if they would miss these buildings once they were demolished.

CVA 2015-028.18 – Mid-600s of West Side of Granville Street between Dunsmuir and West Georgia. 1920-1922.

Occupants

The building in which the rooming house was located was built in 1912. In 1913, when it opened, it was known, originally, as “Granville Lodge”. It was advertised as being “beautifully furnished; hot water in every room; steam heat, splendid view; moderate prices” (World 13 March 1913). The manager of the Lodge at the time was R. Ferguson.

In 1914, an auction was held at the rooming house: “Thirty-six rooms of first-class furniture in almost new condition and large quantity of bed linen; cost originally about $4000” (Province 11 Nov 1914) [1]. By 1917, the Granville Lodge became the Lyric Rooms. The proprietor of the ‘teen years was W. H. Dial. J. N. Kidd was the manager in the 1920s.

An assortment of palmists, phrenologists, clairvoyants, and providers of “vibratory treatments” were early and regular occupants of the Lyric. An example is Madam Stella, “the world’s greatest palmist and phrenologist. She reads the entire life just as the head and hand indicate, gives advice on all business matters, love and marriage. Are you in trouble? If so consult me. Gives advice on all affairs of life. Special readings this week only $1. Business hours 9 to 9. The Lyric Rooms. Room 2” (Province 27 March 1917).

In the 1940s, the proprietor of the Lyric was John Carrison. Paul Carrison was a brother of John; he ran a small business in one of the rooms in which eyeglass repairs were made.

In the early 1950s, the Lyric became for the rest of its days the “Marlboro Hotel”. Daily ($1.50) and weekly ($8) rates were advertised. In the 1960s, the manager of the Marlboro was Enoch Amos.

In the last decade or so of the life of the Marlboro it seemed to attract, principally, old-age pensioners.

Decision Made in ’60s: Demolish the Block!

Vancouver’s mayor in the late 60s, Tom Campbell (who will likely forever be associated with Project 200 and the destruction of Hogan’s Alley), also did the deal that saw the entire 600 block west side of Granville expropriated, demolished and sold to Cadillac Fairview (the owners, then and now, of Pacific Centre) for $1 Million.

But although Tom Campbell and the City Council of his day must own this decision to expropriate and demolish the west side of this block (among other buildings, such as the Angelus Hotel), it has to be acknowledged that the earlier Mayor Bill Rathie and his Council, as well as many members of the general public, were supportive of the poor decision ultimately made.

CVA 2009-001.060 – Shops along 600 block, west side, Granville Street. 1965. Leslie F. Sheraton, photographer.

Neighbours on the Block

I love browsing the street directories of early Vancouver. They are surprisingly revealing of the culture of a district over a number of decades. I’ve surveyed the neighbours of Granville Lodge/Lyric Rooms/Marlboro Hotel below by picking representative years: 1914, 1924, 1934, 1944, and 1954.

Does a pattern emerge, upon reading through the detailed decade-by-decade account of the shops on that block? I think so. It is a pattern of some of the essential businesses of a small town. There is entertainment (theatres, sweets shops), education (beauty schools, music teachers), there are physicians, optometrists, opticians, and druggists. Hobbies are catered to (photography, bookstores, tobacco outlets), housing, cafes, and no lack of men’s and women’s clothiers and shoe stores! Indeed, the only essential service that doesn’t seem to be catered to on the block is that of a general grocer.

Contrast the 1913-1970 period with today on that block, and you will see a substantially diminished range of goods and services offered on that block at street level. Today, you’ll find a Meinhardt’s at the Dunsmuir corner where the Colonial Theatre was; a Take Five coffee establishment next door; an H&M women’s fashion outlet adjacent to that; and next door to H&M, an Aritza women’s wear. One might argue that I’m not taking into account all of the businesses in the high-rise towers that crowd that block. But I’d reply that, even if one took those into account, they serve a pretty similar clientele (white collar businessmen and women) and don’t represent much of a retail street-level draw to the block. And, it’s worth noting, H&M and Aritza are both huge multi-national chains, rather than local entrepreneurs, as were most of those businesses that appear below.

1914

The Colonial Theatre building was at the Dunsmuir end of the block (603). Sautter jewellers was at 601; adjacent to the theatre was a cigar shop (605). Anderson and Warnock hardware was next (613), followed by Thomas Allan, jewellers (615). Singer Sewing Machines had a shop adjacent to (or above) the jewellers; Drs. McKenzie and Farish had surgeries (probably upstairs) (619) as did Progress photo studio (which seemed to sublet from the physicians (619). Next door was Edwards Brothers photo supply shop (623) and next to that, London Popular Cafe (625). At 627, was space rented by Harry Speck (a ladies tailor), George Little (an artist-craftsman-decorator; and, incidentally,an outspoken critic of liquor prohibition), and by Crown photo studio (purchased that year by A. T. Bridgman of Edmonton). 629 was host to The Ark Candy Kitchen, another cigar shop called Gold Standard and to Charles Cook’s pool hall. Fletcher Brothers piano house was the retail establishment at the time that was at the retail space beneath Granville Lodge (which would soon become Lyric Rooms) (633/635). At 637 was the Oriental Trading Co. and (probably above that) was Columbia Optical Parlors (639). 641 was the Sons of England building and had as lessees James Hildreth (tailor), W. G. Sutherland (decorator), Ferguson & Eaves (artists), and the Old Country Tea Rooms. A shoe retailer (A. S. Vachon) was at 649 and another hardware shop (Fraser Hardware) was adjacent to it (651). In 655 was Thomas & McBain clothiers and probably above it was Famous Ladies Tailoring Co. (657). Adjacent to the clothiers’ shop was A&B Co. liquor store. 661 was the Victoria Chambers building, which seems to have been a rooming house of sorts (with small businesses among its tenants, much like Granville Lodge/Lyric/Marlboro). Among its tenants was one who was particularly noteworthy: Hart McHarg, who would ultimately have the first Georgia Viaduct named in his honour. McHarg would die in 1915 at Ypres, among many thousands of other Canadians. Another photo supply shop, called United Photographic Stores, was at 665, and probably beneath it was Van Floral (667). At 673-675 was the Gardner Browne Co. furniture store. The Bell Irving building (similar to Victoria Chambers) was at 679 and Gaskell Book & Stationery Co. was at 681. At 693, at this time, was Granville Theater (a tiny space that house a theatre for just a short time — from 1911 to ca 1914; it would later serve as a retail space for a boy’s wear shop, a shoe store, and many other small businesses). Norman G. Cull, Optician (695), had his professional space above Georgia Pharmacy (699) at the Georgia Street end of the block.

1924

Again, 603 was the Colonial Theatre. Adjacent to the theatre by 1924 was no longer a cigar store, but Colonial Confectionary (605). At 615 was Dall’s Real Lace Co. (which retailed items such as handkerchiefs and boudoir caps!). 619 was shared by assorted individuals, including Dr. McKenzie and a retail firm, Benson & Hedges Ltd. (presumably a purveyor of tobacco-related items). At 623 was Scottish Ham Curers. 627 was shared by Dr. Casselman, dentist, and W. H. Calder’s photo studio. Turpin Bros. haberdashers (purveyors of men’s clothing) were at 629; Fletcher Bros. piano house was still at 633; and Lyric Rooms were at 635, of course. 637 was Calhoun’s Ltd. (a hatter). Ireland and Allan, booksellers were at 649. 653 was apparently the residence of A. B. Smith (the “passenger traffic manager” in Vancouver for Northern Pacific Railway). 655 was still Thomas & McBain clothiers. Walter F. Evans music shop was at 657. At 665 was Brown Bros. florists. Walter M. Gow, jeweler was next (669). 675 was R. C. Purdy’s, purveyor of chocolate and candy. 679 was still the Bell-Irving building (there was a tenant whose name I recognized occupying one of the rooms at this time: Fred W. Dyke, a teacher with Vancouver Schools and a musician of some distinction in early Vancouver). The Bootery (a shoe shop) was at 681, then Van Stationers (683), and Rae-Son shoes (Rae was James Rae – one of the earliest shoe retailers in the city; “Son” was literally his son, J. Arthur Rae) (693). Norman Cull and Georgia Pharmacy anchored the south end of the block.

1934

The Colonial Theatre building was still at the Dunsmuir end of the block. Bert Henry’s tobacco shop was on the north side of the theatre (601), then the theatre (603) and bracing it on the south side, J. McDonald’s confectioners. 613 was W. C. Stearman’s hardware store and 617 was Dall’s (known by this time as “Dall’s Linen“). 619 was a still-unnamed building that housed various small businesses, including R. H. Marlow’s, photo studio and Maison Henri beauty shop. At 623 was Ingledew’s shoe shop (until 1925, it had been across Granville on the east side; it would later move to the 500 block on the west side). 627 was shared by W. H. Calder’s, photo studio and dentist, Dr. R. F. Edmonds. Gordon’s women’s clothiers was at 629 and Edward Chapman’s Men’s Furnishings was at 633. Lyric Rooms were at 635. At 637 was Du Barry’s women’s wear and (probably above that) was space occupied by a church group identified as Unity Fellowship in Truth (641). Ireland & Allan, booksellers, were still at 649. 651 was shared by Rae’s Clever Shoes and Miss V. Dalgleish’s women’s furnishings. 653 was shared by an early site of the Bon Ton Cafe and H. F. Storry & Co, tailors. Turpin Bros., by this year, had moved up the block a bit to 655. And 657 was occupied by the Marilyn Hat Shoppe. 659 was J. W. Kelly Piano Co. 665 was Brown Bros. florists, and 669 was the professional space shared by W. M. Gow, Jeweler and H. A. LIphardt, optometrist. By this time, R. C. Purdy’s was no longer just a chocolate and candy shop, but also a cafe (675) (here is a photo from 1935 indicating that it was forced to move its cafe out of the 675 Granville space due to crippling rent increases from the landlord; how little has changed!). The Bell-Irving building (679), at this time, was occupied by a variety of folks, from a palmist to music teachers. 681 was T. Foster & Co. men’s clothiers. 683 was Great Northern Railway’s office. 691 was the Fashion Bootery; 693 was Sobie’s Silk Shop, and 695 was space shared by Potters Jewelers and I. P. Blyth optometrist (Blyth seems to have filled the space left vacant by Norman Cull). 699 was shared by Vancouver Drug Co. (replacing Georgia Pharmacy) and Con Jones Ltd. (of the famous Don’t Argue logo).

1944

There were in 1944 businesses on either side of the Colonial Theatre (603): Who’s Your Hosier lingerie (601) and Unusual Gift Shop (605). Dall’s Linens (613) was still going. At 615, was Sally Shops women’s clothiers and Pacific Dress and Uniform( 619) shared the space with Maxine’s Beauty School. At 623 was Ingledew’s shoes; Hollywood Dance School was at 627, and a later West Hastings Street stalwart, Millar & Co. China was at 629. Edward Chapman’s men’s wear was at 633 and, of course, Lyric Rooms was at 635. Tip Top Tailors was at 637 and, sharing the space of 641 were Mrs. P. M. Schuldt (music teacher), John Goss‘s vocal studio, and F. L. Smith (a dramatic artist). Ireland & Allan, booksellers continued to hold onto 649 and D’Allaird’s women’s clothiers had the space at 651. The Bon Ton Cafe was still at 653; and there were two tailoring establishments hidden away upstairs from them. At 655 was Turpin Bros. men’s wear and next door, at 657, was another men’s wear outlet, Charlton & Morgan. At 665 was Brown Bros. florists, next door was Gow’s Jewelers (669) and sharing 669, likely upstairs, was Liphardt the optician. Purdy’s maintained their chocolate/candy shop at 675, but now shared it with the Devon Cafe (instead of their own cafe). There continued to be an odd assortment of small businesses at 679, and at 681 was Willard’s women’s clothiers. Great Northern Railway had an office at 683; Vanity Shoes was at 691; Georgia Style Shop at 693; and Potter’s jewelers was at 695. Vancouver Drug Co. had become Cunningham Drugs at 699.

1954

By this year, bracing the Colonial Theatre (603) were Pauline Johnson’s Candy Store (601) and Jewel World (605). Rae-Son shoes had moved to 609, and Dall’s Linens were still at 613. Sterling Shoes was now at 615. 619 was shared, still, by Pacific Dress & Uniform and Maxine’s Beauty School. Edward Chapman’s men’s wear was at 633 and Marlboro Hotel was at 635. 637 was Tip Top Tailors, and 645 was Sweet Sixteen ladies’ wear. Ireland & Allan was still at 649 and Aaron’s Ladies’ Wear had moved into 651. 653 was the Alano Club; Turpin Bros. men’s wear weas at 655, and 657 was Charlton & Morgan men’s wear. D’Allaird’s ladies’ wear was at 665. Purdy’s Chocolates still shared space with Devon Cafe at 675. A peculiar mix of businesses was still at 679 (from barristers to music teachers to a beauty school), although it was no longer identified as the Bell-Irving building in the directory. 681 was McKenzie’s Style Shop (for ladies) and they shared the space above them, probably, with Rae-Bennett-MacKenzie properties (presumably some sort of real estate business). 691 was a men’s shoes outlet; 693 was Renfrews English Shop (for ladies); 695 was Potter’s Jewelers; and 699 was Cunningham Drugs.

Notes

1. There doesn’t seem to be a consensus on the number of rooms in the rooming house. In a later ad for another auction, it was described as having 37 rooms (Sun 29 Jan 1922). Another auction ad claims it had 24 rooms (Sun 2 Feb 1922). I suspect the higher numbers may have been in reference to the total number of rooms, including kitchens, bathrooms, etc. I don’t think it likely that 37 suites would have fit into three quite narrow floors.

The Neglected Place of George William Paterson in Local History

CVA 99-3425: George Paterson working on a bust of actor George Arliss while Paterson was a commercial artist working for Capital Theatre’s art department.

George William Paterson (whose name, more often appeared in print simply as “Geo Paterson” and frequently, although inaccurately, as “George Patterson”) was born to John Paterson and Ann Brown in Port Hope (west of Kingston), Ontario in 1877 [1]. His father was a banker at the time George was born, according to his birth certificate. But that was not the career path that George would take.

By 1901, George seemed to have heeded the call to “go west” and had come nearly as far west as it was possible for a Canadian to go and remain in his native land. By this year, he appeared in the B.C. Directory as a clerk for the C.P.R.

In 1902, George married a Vancouver French-Canadian girl by the name of Jeanne Henriette Delmas (Province 16 Dec 1902).

By 1904, he was clerking for B.C. Messenger Co., and in 1906 he had taken on work, briefly, as a (house, presumably) painter and wallpaper hanger; by 1907, he was a “traveler” for Henry Darling, a “dealer in paints, oils, varnishes, etc.” on the unit block of Powell Street. It isn’t clear how long George remained with the Darling firm, but it’s unlikely that it was much more than a couple of years.

By 1911, George and Henriette had moved to Vernon, where his occupation appeared in the Vernon Directory as “artist”. Henriette was a private nurse for a family. George apparently was principally a sign and show card painter for the rest of their time in Vernon.

In 1916, George enlisted with the Canadian Expeditionary Force to serve in France in the Great War. He remained with the CEF until May 1919. (Oddly, on his attestation papers, he indicated that his “trade or calling” was “Rancher”!) Sadly, Henriette died in October 1917, in Vancouver, to which city she must have moved while George was “somewhere in France”; she was just 33 years old (Sun 12 Oct 1917). According to the 1921 Census record, George lived in Vernon after being de-mobilized. He was the proprietor of a show card, decorating, and painting business. In June 1922, in Vernon, George married his second wife: Jane Haliburton Ogilvie.

New Westminster War Memorial

In 1922, Paterson won the commission to create a Great War memorial for New Westminster. It was designed by architect, Bernard Palmer. The original memorial was 1′ high; from this, it was transformed into a 6’ 6” Plaster of Paris model by Paterson and Alimando Fabri. It was then cast in bronze in Seattle by Leon Morel (this last part of the process was described in the local press as being “merely” mechanical). O. B. Allan, a Vancouver jeweler, sponsored the project (Sun 18 July 1922).

Paterson/Fabri War Memorial at Patullo Bridge location, 1952. Frank Goodship fonds. New Westminster Archives.

The memorial was initially to have been placed in front of the Women’s Building at Queen’s Park. But if it was ever there, it wasn’t for long. The Women’s Building, as with most other structures in the park, burned in a 1929 fire. According to the New Westminster archives, the memorial, for a while, was at the little park overlooking Patullo Bridge, and, finally, in 1954, was shifted to a space in front of New Westminster City Hall, where it remains today. The memorial is typically credited exclusively, and unfairly, it seems to me, to Alimando Fabri.

From 1924 until about 1927, Paterson worked as an artist in Vancouver, with a day job in the art department of Capital Theatre (see the first photo in this post), and also as an art instructor.

Paterson/Fabri War memorial on grounds of NW city hall. Feb 2018. MDM photo.

Historical Tableaux at David Spencer’s

Spencer’s department store (on north side Hastings at Richards) took it upon itself to sponsor a Diamond Jubilee of Confederation Historical and Industrial Exhibition in June/July 1927. It was on the fifth floor of their “new” building (the structure referred to today as SFU’s downtown campus).

“Tableau” isn’t a word that is used often in current English, so a definition seems appropriate. Oxford says it is “a group of models or motionless figures representing a scene from a story or history.”

Vancouver commercial artist, George Paterson, was responsible for creating and overseeing the creation of all historical tableaux in the exhibition. The tableaux which Paterson created were:

• Erection of the cross by Jacques Cartier
• Champlain discovers Georgian Bay
• The Hudson’s Bay Company receives its charter
• Madeleine de Vercheres defending the fort
• The capture of the Plains of Abraham by General Wolfe
• Visit of Captain Vancouver to Nootka
• Arrival of the United Empire Loyalists in Canada
• Laura Secord warning British troops
• Establishment of Lord Selkirk’s Settlement
• Completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway at the site of the Last Spike

Paterson touching up Jacques Cartier erecting the cross (although there is no sign of a cross!) Province 19 June 1927. The quality of this photo leaves much to be desired, but it is the only photo available, as far as I know.

Many of these tableaux were based on pictures of Canadian history in a book by Charles W. Jeffreys and Henry Sandham. Each tableau was set on its own stage “with life-sized figures against backgrounds typical of the event”. The backgrounds were painted by a fellow named Dan Lade who “also painted all the mural decorations in the room.” From this description and from the photo of Cartier erecting the cross, it seems that the tableau consisted of three-dimensional figures set against two-dimensional backgrounds. Just what the background murals were in the room, which were painted by Dan Lade, I don’t know (Province 19 June 1927). To the best of my knowledge, none of Paterson’s tableaux or Lade’s murals have survived.

There was another tableau created by Toronto sculptor, Miss Merle Foster: the Fathers of Confederation. “Mr. George Paterson was responsible for the tableaux and the arrangement of the Fathers of Confederation group of figures by Miss Merle Foster of Toronto” (Sun 7 Jul 1927).

The exhibition ran concurrently with the painting of historical murals by John Innes and George Southwell on another floor of Spencer’s. The story of these murals is told by Jason Vanderhill at his Illustrated Vancouver blog.

Later Years

By 1930, George was back in Vernon, working as a sign writer. All indications are that he’d given up working full-time as an artist, probably because in the ‘dirty-thirties’, with art as his sole occupation, he couldn’t hope to keep food on the table. The Patersons remained in Vernon until about 1946. According to his death certificate, he retired formally in 1942. In or around 1948, they retired to Saltspring Island.

George Paterson died in Ganges, Saltspring Island March 9, 1955. Jane Paterson died in Duncan in 1968.

It isn’t clear whether George received any formal training as an artist, or even as a sign-painter and show card designer. But, judging from the quality of his George Arliss bust shown above, he seems to have had a fair bit of skill.

It seems to me a pity that George’s artistic contributions to Vancouver and B.C. are today largely unacknowledged.

Notes

1. I’m very grateful to Robert Moen, of https://westendvancouver.wordpress.com/, for his research assistance with the genealogical details associated with George Paterson.

Vancouver Street Fair/Carnival, 1901

CVA 396-06 – Vancouver street fair and carnival on West Hastings (looking from Granville St – behind camera, probably from the MacKinnon building at the SW corner of Granville and Hastings – to the intersection with Burrard Street, where the Edward Mahon home was; where the Marine Building is today). 1901. Nakazo Hamamura photo [1].

A street fair was held in Vancouver August 5-10, 1901 on West Hastings Street between Granville and Burrard (it also included Howe and Hornby between Pender and Hastings). Along much of this stretch, there were booths set up where the wares and services of Vancouver merchants were on offer. The booths would also include ads for various products from the wider B.C. (e.g., iron ore from the Kootenays, placer gold from the Cariboo, and coal from the Crowsnest region).

CVA 396-01 – Vancouver street fair and carnival. Presumably, on the trapeze were the Austin Sisters. I’m guessing that this photo is taken facing east on West Hastings from near Burrard Street. 1901. Nakazo Hamamura photo [1].

The Street Fair was promoted by an American, Mr. Jabour. Jabour had sold the fair to various other Western centres (before Vancouver, it would be at Butte, Montana, and immediately afterwards, at Tacoma and then Seattle) and he had the first week of August unscheduled. Jabour’s suggestion to Vancouver decision-makers that the street fair could appear in the City of Vancouver on that week was met with substantial local enthusiasm. The Vancouver bigwigs saw coins dropping into coffers of Vancouver businesses and, with cut-rate rail fares to the city for the fair’s duration, there were visions of vast touristic throngs dancing in the heads of aldermen and merchants, alike.

Belle MacKinnon, Queen of the Fair. Province 6 Aug 1901.

Aside from the booths that would, it was believed, be raking in the dough, Jabour would supply typical ‘carnie show’ elements: Japanese jugglers, Hindu snake charmers, “and other easterners by the score”; black bears, an African lion, a (boxing) kangaroo and an ostritch (Province 1 Aug 1901). And getting headline billing for the event were the Austin sisters “who have performed for some of the crowned heads of Europe” with their trapeze act (Province 24 July 1901).

Crop of CVA Sp P16 – King Charles A. Ross. ca 1896. A. Savard photo.

As seems common in the first half of the 20th century, there was a Queen and King of the event. Belle MacKinnon was the chosen Queen this time around. The identity of the King, however, was kept a secret until the final ball of the fair, held at the Theatre Royal. The King was revealed to be Charles A. Ross, captain of the Terminal City Bicycle Club. Presumably, fair organizers thought that keeping the King’s identity secret would contribute to a sense of suspense which would result in a huge turnout at the closing ball. That dream went unfulfilled; scarcely 100 attended. (World, 10 Aug 1901).

So what was the final verdict on the street fair of 1901? Well, it is difficult to be sure from a vantage of 120 years hence but, I think it would be fair to say, “guarded”.

A report pertaining to the later Tacoma street fair claimed that 15,000 people paid admission on a single day (contrast with the most up-beat Vancouver report of 4000 attending, probably on Vancouver’s best attended day) (World 21 Aug 1901; Province 7 Aug 1901).

And, according to some Vancouver merchants, the organizing committee played fast and loose with the terms of admission. According to the merchants, the agreement was that admission would be 10 cents to get in to see the booths (where the merchants were) and an additional 50 cents to get into the carnival proper – the more amusing (dare I say it, the more interesting) part. Apparently, the organizers went with the 10c/50c procedure on the first day, but during the rest of the week, charged everyone a flat 50 cents to get into anything and everything (merchants booths and amusements, both). This alleged practice led those merchants to hold back rent from the organizers for their booths. (World, 13 Aug 1901). Although the fair was history by the time this minor controversy become public, it would have left something of a sour taste, and could not be construed as positive public relations.

I think this part of an assessment by Seattle a year later, of the Jabour “Street Fair/Carnival” enterprise gets close to identifying the problem with the Vancouver affair in 1901:

“Some of the merchants of the city had exhibits that were good as far as they went, but a stranger in the city can walk up either First or Second avenues and see, free of cost, a hundred fold better displays than were generally presented at the carnival.

World, 2 Sept 1902

In short, the merchants of Vancouver were motivated principally by greed. And, furthermore, it was foolish greed — founded on a misplaced perception that the general public would pay for admission plus the cost of their wares. All that Joe public was really interested in paying for was an evening of entertainment with the Austin sisters or the goofy boxing kangaroo!

Note

1. Nakazo Hamamura was a Japanese photographer who lived and worked in Vancouver at the time of the street fair (but not for too long after that, it seems). I very much like Hamamura’s photographic ‘eye’ for picturing things that were not often photographed by others in CVA’s collection.

Derril Warren BC Tory Ads from 1972

Encore Post

Derril Warren in BC Tory ads for 1972. This head shot is set against a background of labourers – similar to how one might expect an NDP ad to appear. Was this how BC Tories wanted to imagine themselves in ’72?

There are a series of television ads on CVA located here¹ (to find the first of the PC ads, go to the 7.08 minute mark in the clip) that represented another in a long series of attempts by BC Tories to woo voters away from the BC Social Credit Party.  Since 1956, the Tories had suffered shut-out after shut-out in all general elections. The party had also gone through leaders as often as they went through facial tissues on election night:

• In 1953, 1956, and 1960 Deane Finlayson (1919-2005) led the BC Tories. They won just one seat (but the leader lost his seat) and garnered less than 2% of the popular vote in 1953. In ’56, the popular vote rose to just over 3%, and the first-past-the-post system wasn’t kind to them – they lost their solitary seat. In the 1960 election, the Tories doubled their share of the popular vote (just under 6%), but didn’t win any seats.
• In 1963, the Tories under new leader, Davie Fulton (1916-2000), again nearly doubled their popular vote percentage (a little less than 12%); no seats.
• The PCs barely contested the 1966 election; there was no leader and they nominated only 3 candidates (they nominated 44 for the 1963 contest). The popular vote was hardly worth mentioning (less than 1%).
• John DeWolf (ca1931-2003) took up the Tory reigns of leadership (such as they were) in June, 1969. Premier W. A. C. Bennett (1909-1979) called the election for July. It was scarcely imaginable that the PCs could have performed any worse than they did in 1966, but they managed to do so. The popular vote was hovering close to that of the BC Communist Party!
• In November, 1971, Derril Warren (1939-2005) challenged and beat out DeWolf for leadership of the Party. In the ’72 general election, the Tories won two seats and captured over 12% of the popular vote. (To borrow from a 1980 pop tune, it was indeed “Celebration” time for the Tories). Unhappily, though, neither of the two seats won was the seat contested by the leader. Warren tried to get himself elected to the Legislature again in a 1973 by-election. But no soap.

Warren left political life shortly after his by-election loss in 1973. George Scott Wallace led the PCs into the 1975 general election; they would lose one of their two seats in that contest and their popular vote would again plummet to less than 4%.

Derril Warren had, arguably, one of the best minds in BC politics of his day. He earned his B.A. degree from UBC in 1961; graduated from Dalhousie Law School with a Bachelor of Laws; and earned a Masters of Law from Harvard in 1965.

He practiced law for several years, including a stint as General Counsel to the Mannix construction business, based in Calgary. Mannix had served as an incubator for another young lawyer who would lead another provincial Progressive Conservative Party – the difference being he would lead his party to big victories over SocCreds in his province, starting in 1971: Peter Lougheed (1928-2012) of Alberta.

In the early 1990s, Warren was Executive Director of the BC International Commercial Arbitration Centre. He died in 2005 at the age of 66.

The 1972 TV ads had pretty high production values, in my opinion, although the lyrics to the tune that played during each ad were schmalzy:

When we look out on the land we call BC
Does the future hold a place for you and me?
Will the waters and the seas still be as clean? (later, this word was changed to “blue”)
Will the sun come shining through?

There’s a man who’ll take a stand
To protect this land we love
For the people and the sea and sky above.

So raise your voices, spread the word
There is still time to be heard
It’s your British Columbia
And we can lead the way
And we can lead the way.

Male voice-over: “Darril Warren and the Progressive Conservative team — now you do have a choice.”

---

Note

¹For a laugh, there is a quite creative and well-made commercial near the start of the video (at about the 22 second mark). It seems to be a comedic play on The Creature from the Black Lagoon (ahem – from English Bay!) for Plimley Chrysler Dodge, featuring Basil Plimley (1924-2014). The ad seems to have been made ca1973. Watch it. I think you’ll agree that it’s superior to many of today’s TV ads made for much more moneyed businesses (and, arguably, superior to the ’54 feature film on which the ad was based)!

BCER Motorman Prevents Grim Scene Becoming Grimmer

Str P142.1 – Remains of a BCER street car near the south end of Main Street after a collision with a Dominion Creosote box car. W J Moore. Sept. 30, 1914.

The wreckage shown in the photo above shows part of the outcome of school boys playing around with the brakes on a Dominion Creosote boxcar that was parked on Main Street (as part of a reconstruction job going on at Main) on Wednesday, September 30, 1914. [1]

Shortly after noon, somewhere between 46th and 48th Avenues on Main, one of four boys removed the “dog” which served as the brake on the boxcar (A). The boxcar began to roll very slowly southward on the slight incline of Main at that location. The boxcar that had initially been set in motion, then hit another and it, in turn hit another boxcar. The boxcar that had initially been set in motion by the schoolboy was now stationery, but the other two boxcars were moving, and at a considerable rate.

At 57th Avenue, there were some members of a waterworks gang who were lunching on the side of the road. Seeing what was happening, these men attempted to halt the boxcars’ movement by putting obstacles (mostly spare pieces of wood that they had handy) in front of the cars. But to no avail. The two cars had picked up more speed and simply blew the blockades away.

A map showing the progress of the boxcars as they barrelled down Main. Made from a map within Street Names of Vancouver. Elizabeth Walker.

There was supposed to be a “temporary switch” on Main to keep the BCER track free from any other traffic; that switch was rendered ineffective, however, and the boxcars proceeded to roll south on the BCER track. As the boxcars got further south, the percentage of incline increased, causing them to speed up even more.

Meanwhile, a BCER passenger car was heading up Main, northbound. It stopped at 59th Avenue to pick up a passenger. The motorman, Charles J. Gaell was just getting up speed again at 58th Avenue, when he noticed the oncoming boxcars — on his track!

He stopped his car and began to back up, at first slowly and then violently, at the same time opening the doors and shouting at the passengers and conductor to look out and save themselves. William Price, the conductor, opened the closed door at the rear of the car and was leaning out to see what was coming when the runaway cars crashed with terrific force into the front part of the car.

Province 1 Oct 1914

The point of collision was at 60th Avenue (B). It was estimated later that at the time of collision, the boxcars were traveling at 45 mph. The boxcars kept moving until they reached River Road (Southeast Marine Dr, today) (C), where they finally came to rest.

The motorman was killed instantly and his body was found, badly mangled, two blocks from the impact site. The Conductor’s legs were injured. And all of the passengers, except for a lone Chinese gent (who walked away from the accident, unscathed, apparently), were injured to various degrees. The worst injury was to a young girl, whose leg had been almost cut off in the collision, and needed to have it amputated later at VGH.

At the inquest, the Coroner held Dominion Creosote responsible for not ensuring that their cars were adequately braked.

The Coroner said that one thing about the accident was certain: the motorman had ample time to jump from the street car, but he gave little thought to his own safety, so concerned was he to ensure that his passengers and the Conductor escaped from the car.

Note

1. This post is heavily reliant on news accounts of the accident. Among them: Vancouver Daily World, 30 September 1914; Province 1 Oct 1914; Sun 1 Oct 1914; Province 2 Oct 1914; Province 5 Oct 1914.

“Senator Grill” to White Spot’s “Garden Spot”

CVA 586-6971 – Senator Grill exterior at Cambie and 25th. Don Coltman photo. May 1948.

The Senator Grill was built in 1947 and opened in the summer of that year. The owners were Joseph W. Brault and John L. Cameron. Brault, a veteran restaurateur, had run an establishment just a few blocks away from where the Senator was (probably B & L Fountain Lunch). Cameron was new to the restaurant game.

1948 ad.

Brault and Cameron appeared to spare little expense on the Senator: architects of the “ultra-modern” building were Watson and Semmons. The furniture was of a “very high quality construction, specially designed to suit the luxury-type interior. In all, the building reportedly cost $55,000 in 1947 dollars (Province, 29 July 1947).

The Senator offered dining room and drive-in/take-away service, with a menu that focused on chicken and steak dinners. Yup, that sounds much like the service on offer by Nat Bailey’s White Spot in the 1940s and ’50s. Small wonder that Nat Bailey wanted to gobble up the Senator before it could become a major competitor.

1951 ad.

I suspect that the Senator didn’t come cheap. I couldn’t find any public references to the purchase by White Spot of the Senator or the numbers involved. But judging by what Brault and Cameron paid for the construction and outfitting the place and the apparent fact that buying the Senator was in Bailey’s interest, it seems probable that he had to pony up significant cash.

White Spot retained the Senator brand with their own for about 3 years. Then, in late 1951, they renovated the place to suit a new brand. The White Spot at Cambie and 25th would become the White Spot Garden Spot. (Jack and Joy Cullen can be seen here at KVOS Bellingham with his “Owl Prowl Theatre,” shilling for the Garden Spot. – in addition to Campbell Motors at 1234 Kingsway and ChanelMaster TV antennas).

A strike at White Spot in 1988, under then-owner Peter Toigo, led him to close two of the Spot’s locations: the one at Georgia and Cardero (in the West End) and the Garden Spot (Sun, 25 Oct 1988). Today, on the site of the Senator/Garden Spot is an office building.

Dining Out – 50 Years Ago

I’m indebted to my friend, Rod Clarke, one of the proprietors of The Paper Hound Bookshop, for pointing out the book on which this post is based. It is called Where to Eat in Canada: 1971 and is a guide to dining establishments in the nation that were judged by the editors (Anne Hardy and Sondra Gotlieb) to be worthy of note that year. 1971 doesn’t seem so awfully long ago to the likes of me and those of my generation (and earlier), but it was, surprisingly, half a century ago!

Included in this little guide are several listings for Vancouver, only one of which is still a restaurant (with a name that is almost the same, today). [1] In this post, I’ll pull out a few of the listings for further consideration.

Hy’s Encore, 637 Hornby

Hy’s Encore (today, Hy’s Steakhouse) is the only one of the Vancouver listings in Where to Eat which is still at its location of 50 years ago. The earliest mention of Encore in the local press was in 1962, so that is likely its first year in business. It was located across the street from The Cave nightclub (and, later, was adjacent to Sugar Daddy’s Discotheque).

According to Where to Eat,

The decor is the same the country over: the wall of books (glued in place), the paneling and the mirrors, all designed to give an air of conventional opulence.

Where to Eat in Canada: 1971, p.153

The crimes against books appear to have been removed [2], thankfully, but I suspect that the cave-like entry to Encore looks much the same today as it did in ’71.

Today’s Hy’s seems to have retained its classic feel of a stereotypically dimly lit, darkly and heavily furnished men’s club. It’s a minor puzzle to me how Hy’s has been able to sustain itself at its Hornby location for nearly 60 years. Probably it’s a testament to quality steak and seafood prepared and served well.

Interior contemporary shot of Hy’s Vancouver. I suspect the brick archway was present when Where to Eat in Canada 1971 was written. There is no sign of any pasted books, however. Photo credit Scoutmagazine.ca

La Cote D’Azur, 1216 Robson Street

Crop of CVA 778-354 – 1200 Robson Street south side 1974.

This French restaurant (which is “french riviera” en Francais), went out of business in 1995 as it faced demolition that year for redevelopment of the property. [3]

Where to Eat enthused:

Inside the old converted house, the atmosphere is comfortable and relaxed and the service deft and welcoming. The prices are rather high but the food is superb . . . . The menu is in French, and owners, Maurice Richez and Alex Katz, maintain that every dish is a specialty of the house.

Where to Eat in Canada: 1971, p. 151

Sun. 23 April 1976.

Iaci’s Casa Capri, 1020 Seymour Street

CVA 779-E06.35 – 1000 Seymour Street east side 1981. Iaci’s signage is visible at the northernmost house.

In the 1970s, this little Italian restaurant (according to one source, the first such in Vancouver) was located directly across the street from The Penthouse nightclub on Seymour (today the furnished apartment complex called “Level” stands in its place). It was open from 1939-1983.

This may well be the most unusual restaurant in Vancouver. In fact it isn’t even a restaurant in the ordinary sense. It’s the Iaci family home and has been for at least 25 years. The family are all still living in the old house, and meals are prepared individually in the family kitchen.The dining-room upstairs will hold 35 people and there’s a basement room for banquets. Mama Iaci’s kitchen is also in the basement, and there she personally supervises the preparation of food, as often as not doing things herself.

Where to Eat in Canada: 1971, p. 154

This place has been written about at length, so I won’t say anything more, here.

Jade Palace, 252 East Pender Street

VPL 85874U People walking along Pender Street in Chinatown 1972 Curt Lang. The Jade Palace is on the far side of the street about mid-way down the block

Where to Eat begins its listing for the Jade Palace as follows:

The manager of this popular Chinese restaurant is a man with a sense of humour and a taste for large and varied menus. C. C. Sun is his name. He says the C. C. stands for Canadian Club and maybe it does.

Where to Eat in Canada: 1971, p. 155.

The C. C., in fact, stood for Chia-Cheng, not Canadian Club. And, apparently, the Jade Palace became known as the first place in Vancouver that served the ever-popular dim sum.

Where to Eat isn’t a hugely humorous work, but there are occasional sentences that cause one to smile, as did this one in the Jade Palace write-up: “Crabmeat over Chinese greens is a good buy at 2.50, but one suspects the crab may have arrived fresh from the sea after a stop-over in the can” (Where to Eat in Canada: 1971, p. 155).

Schnitzel House, 1060 Robson Street

CVA 306-25 – Schnitzel House Restaurant on Robson Street B. Silk, ca1970.

The Schnitzel House on Robson Street was an institution from 1960. It closed in 1985, moving with the new owner (briefly) to 830 W. Pender.

This is as warm and intimate as an Alpine inn. As the name implies, the specialty is schnitzels and they’re first rate. There are ten varieties on the menu, priced from 2.50 for the wiener to 3.20 for the cordon bleu, which is stuffed with Swiss cheese and ham.

Where to Eat in Canada, p. 160

By 1985, Robsonstrasse was beginning its transformation to Rodeo Drive North.

Concluding Remarks

If you’re interested in viewing all of the Vancouver listings in the guide, I’ve reproduced those in a pdf document, below.

To my surprise, Where to Eat, remains a going concern. The guide continues to be published; it was first published in 1967. The principal editor is today the same person who edited the 1971 edition: Anne Hardy.

Where to Eat in Canada 1971Download

Notes

1. Okay, two, if you include the Sylvia Hotel.
2. It is difficult to be certain based on the photo by Crystal Schick (Calgary Herald) at this link, but it appears that the Calgary version of Hy’s may still have the pasted books!
3. Many thanks to Maurice Guibord for his assistance with figuring out when La Cote went out of business.

“On With the Show, This is It!” – The McCance Theatre Men

When I began researching this post, I intended to focus exclusively on Gail McCance, set designer for Theatre Under the Stars, the Vancouver Opera Association and other organizations. However, one of the first sources I encountered was a 1919 newspaper review of a Vancouver production of The Geisha that referred to the scenery being “specially designed by Mr. J. McCance”. I didn’t know a lot about Gail at that stage, but I knew what year he was born – 1924 – and so either the similarity of name and occupation was a remarkable coincidence, or there was more to Gail’s story than I had thought!

John A. McCance

John Askew photo for Vancouver Sun. 1959.

John Alexander (Jack Sr.) was father to Gail and his siblings. He was born in St. Thomas, Ontario to John and Sarah McCance. He married Mary Teresa McHugh in 1910 after moving to Vancouver in 1900. The McCances had four sons and a daughter together: John Bernarr (Jack Jr.) (1911-1974), Larry Hugh (1918-1970), Edgar Joseph (1920-2005), Frederick Gail (1924-2009), and Theresa S. (Archie) MacLagan.

Jack Sr. was a carpenter by trade and, after coming to Vancouver, began to work as a stage carpenter in city theatres. He joined the Lyric Theatre group in 1908 and over the years constructed sets for the Vancouver Opera House, Pantages, Avenue, Capitol, Empress Theatre, and others. There is evidence that Jack’s “day job” – in the late ‘30s at least – was as an employee of Greater Vancouver Water Board, probably also as a carpenter (Sun 28 Nov 1936).

The first press mention I found of Jack was the review of The Geisha at the Avenue Theatre in 1919, mentioned in the first paragraph of this post (Province, 16 May 1919). Interestingly, Jack would be responsible again for set design in a revival of The Geisha in the city 21 years later (Province 8 Aug 1940).

Jack was stage manager for the pre-TUTS productions of A Midsummer’s Night Dream (Sun 1 Aug 1936) and Hiawatha (Province 8 Aug 1936) at Brockton Point in 1936. [1]

Jack was invited to teach in UBC’s extension department in (at least) 1941, 1945 and 1946 where he provided practical instruction in scene construction and lighting. Other note-worthy people who were on faculty there at that time were Beatrice Lennie (theatrical masks), Ross Lort (scene design), and Vivien Ramsay (make-up) (Sun, 31 May 1941; Province 3 May 1945; Sun 14 May 1946).

Jack packed his hammer away for the last time after building sets in 1959 for the Vancouver Opera Association’s production of Carmen (Sun, 1 Feb 1962). He passed away in 1962.

Larry was Jack’s second son. His first son and namesake, Jack Jr., became a coppersmith who also farmed a bit. Another of Jack Sr.‘s sons, Edgar J. became an executive with the Ocean Cement Group.

Larry H. McCance

Province photo.

Larry had the acting bug. The first mention of him in the local press pertained to him acting in 1937 with the Masquers Guild in Silas the Chore-Boy (Sun 21 May 1937). He later performed with the Masquers in The Golden Lady and Our Town. He also acted with the Vancouver Little Theatre Association in Waiting for Lefty, Of Mice and Men, and Full House.

The earliest TUTS performances were held at Brockton Point Oval, not the Malkin Bowl. Because the acoustics at Brockton Point Oval were poor, the director of TUTS at the time, E. V. Young, chose to rehearse two casts — one that would provide dramatic voices that could be amplified by hidden microphone and another cast that would mutely act out the parts. [2] Larry would play voice role of Quince in the TUTS precursor, A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

In the early 1940s, Larry was working as a broadcaster with CJOR.

By 1947, in addition to acting and broadcasting, Larry had also taken up scenery design (like Dad and youngest brother, Gail) for the [Bowen] Island Theatre Summer Stock Company: “Larry McCance designs and builds all sets for the company”. Plays presented by the company included: George and Margaret, East Lynn, Accent on Youth, Late Christopher Bean, Petticoat Fever, Death Takes a Holiday, and Meet the Wife (Sun 16 July 1947). I suspect that part of the reason for taking on set design for this company was that Larry was under-employed as an actor and possibly as a local broadcaster, hence his decision later that year to move away from Vancouver.

In Autumn of 1947, Larry and his family moved to Toronto. He remained there for the rest of his life with the exception of 1956-1958 when he returned to B.C. to become the Executive Secretary in charge of the B.C. Centennial celebrations (Sun, 6 Jan 1970). In the 1960s, he appeared on early trans-national CBC television broadcasts out of Toronto.

At his death in 1970, Larry was the Canadian Executive Secretary of the Actor’s Equity Association, the union representing theatre actors in Canada.

F. Gail McCance

Gail McCance posing with a model of one of the sets for Madame Butterfly at the Vancouver International Festival at QE Theatre. George Diack Sun photo, 1960.

Gail was born, raised and schooled in North Vancouver (like his siblings). He ‘played theatre’ as a kid and, encouraged by his Dad, kind of fell into set design (Province 28 Jan 1961). Gail’s first job in the theatre was helping his Dad with set construction for A Midsummer Night’s Dream as a 12-year-old in 1936 (Sun 1 March 1963). When he was older, he spent a year in New York working in most of the scenic design shops there. He plainly wasn’t a typical kid.

Gail began his lengthy association with Theatre Under the Stars at Stanley Park’s Malkin Memorial Bowl in 1945 at the tender age of 20. Gordon Hilker, the producer of TUTS from 1940 until 1949, had a tendency, apparently, to hire staff who were known to him. [3] That may go some ways to explaining why it is that Hilker took a chance on such a young man to take on set design for TUTS. He may have approached Jack Sr., and Jack stood aside in favour of his youngest son, or it could be that Hilker wanted a young man in whom he could invest over several years, and Gail was known to him through his Dad, and so seemed a logical choice.

When Gail began with TUTS in 1945, he wasn’t hired on as the set designer. His task, together with Frank Vyvyan, was to construct and paint sets designed by Adrian Awan of Hollywood, CA. Awan had designed sets for the Hollywood Bowl, on which the Malkin Bowl’s design had been based (although Malkin was substantially smaller) (Sun 9 June 1945). For this first season of Gail’s involvement with TUTS, he and Vyvyan would build sets based on designs by Awan for Vagabond King, Maytime, Red Mill, Rio Rita, and Chocolate Soldier.

In 1946, Gail was sent by TUTS to New York City where he spent 6 weeks studying the construction and painting of Broadway shows in their scenery studios (Sun 25 Feb 1946). This was to become an annual venture for a number of years.

The British Columbia Institute of Music and Drama (BCIMD) was a creation of Gordon Hilker and was a creature of TUTS that had as its purpose “to provide free training to promising young talent throughout British Columbia in all branches of the theatrical arts.” [4] The BCIMD provided Gail with a teaching outlet very early in his time with TUTS (1945-46). He was in charge of courses pertaining to scenery construction, painting, and the resolution of electrical challenges presented by different productions.

In November 1946, the Parks Board, concluded an agreement with the federal Department of Naval Affairs to acquire the ‘Old HMCS Discovery’ building on Deadman’s Island. This two-storey building would become the TUTS scenery shop and Gail McCance’s work-a-day home for many years.

Crop of CVA 59-16 – Aerial photo. Pacific Survey Corp. 1959. I believe “Old Discovery” is the first building encountered upon crossing over to Deadman’s Island (left) from Stanley Park.

The first TUTS season in which Gail seems to have earned his set designer ‘wings’ was in 1947: for that season, the local press mentioned that there were “settings by Gail McCance” (Province 26 Aug 1947).

In 1947, Gail began to work for organizations besides TUTS; specifically the Vancouver Little Theatre group, for which he developed scenery for their production of George Washington Slept Here. However, Gail’s fireplace in the play proved to be a little too realistic:

It was the third act and the cue was given . . . acrid dusky coloured real fumes poured from the artificial fireplace. The cast coughed, according to script, but the first-nighters [the audience] coughed too and the keynote was realism.

Province 18 Nov 1947

Charlie Baker. “Coastal Currents” BC’s T. Eaton Co. employee magazine. ca1954. Gordon Poppy Collection. (Baker worked at Eaton’s Construction Dept., too, at this time.)

Gail’s job title was changed in 1948, to “Technical Superintendent”, probably reflecting a promotion. Charlie Baker, who had from 1946 been credited as the set painter is shown in the 1948 season as “Designer”. I take it from these changes in title that Gail was in charge of overall TUTS set design.

Gail married Patricia Mary Gale in 1948.

Gordon Hilker left the TUTS company in 1949 and was replaced in 1950 as producer by William Buckingham. Gail continued as Technical Superintendent until TUTS folded in 1963.

Gail produced the sets for the Steinbeck standard, Of Mice and Men in 1953 at the Avon Theatre (the original Pantages). In 1956, he took on the challenge of set design in the mammoth space that was the Georgia Auditoruim for the Opera Society of B.C.’s. Gilbert & Sullivan’s Iolanthe. And in 1958, he was working in a much smaller space, the auditorium of John Oliver high school for a performance of the Vancouver Ballet Society.

In Autumn 1962, Gail created scenery for the Vancouver Opera’s production of Tosca. It cannot often happen that the scenery upstages the actors in an opera, but that seemed to be the case with this opera:

Although there were many beautiful gowns in the first night audience it was Gail McCance’s set in the third act of “Tosca” that stole the show.

For this creation of his was one of the finest displays of the art that I have seen at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Here was the fortress Castel Sant’Angelo set against a morning sky.

In the distance were silhouetted some buildings of Rome and obviously there were more spread out beyond the hill if only we could see over, such was the illusion of distance created by lighting and a large heroic statue set on the battlements.

For me this illusion lasted for minutes, this feeling that we were looking not at a theatre stage but through an archway with the world spread out on the other side.

But the illusion was destroyed by some of the sloppiest acting in the opera.

Province 19 Oct 1962

In 1963, TUTS went bankrupt. The previous year, the Theatre organization as a whole lost $14,000. The only department in TUTS to show a profit was Gail McCance’s scenery department which made $2,960 off an income of $95,814, operating out of rent-free premises (the Old Discovery) (Sun 23 Nov 1962).

Starting in 1964, Gail relied on the Vancouver Opera Association more than before for steady set design work. He had no difficulty filling his days. He designed that year for VOA’s Barber of Seville, La Boheme, The Consul, and The Marriage of Figaro. The following year was likewise busy.

He collapsed from what was diagnosed as sheer exhaustion in 1966 (Sun 9 July 1966). He eased up considerably on his workload after that, producing about one set per year for the VOA ‘til 1973. Beginning in the early 1970s and continuing until his death, Gail painted and exhibited watercolours. He continued to design sets for productions at Marpole’s Metro Theatre through the late 1970s. He seems to have retired by 1980.

In 1997, the B.C. Entertainment Hall of Fame set Gail McCance’s name in a star along Granville Street near the Orpheum Theatre for his contributions to set design (Sun 24 Nov 1997).

Gail described the job of the set designer as “like the ham in the sandwich — necessary for the art of the theatre and the tastes of the public yet hidden from view” (Province 25 May 1963). Gail McCance died on June 16, 2009.

Notes

1. These weren’t advertised as being TUTS productions, but it is generally acknowledged that they were precursors to the Theatre Under the Stars; TUTS officially became known by that name in 1940 and began holding performances at the Malkin Memorial Bowl in that year.
2. Richard Sutherland. Theatre Under the Stars: The Hilker Years. A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Arts. UBC. 1993, p.6
3. Sutherland, p. 29.
4. Sutherland, p. 40.

Happy Dominion (er. . . Canada) Day!

Originally posted July 1, 2014.

CVA 2010-006.007 View from 1220 Homer July 1967 – E H Reksten photo.

This is a view from 1220 Homer (Yaletown) made by Ernie Reksten on a ‘holiday Monday’, July 3, 1967. The holiday was Dominion Day (known as Canada Day since 1982), and most Canadians should be able to deduce from the year this image was taken (and also from the “100” atop the BC Hydro headquarters) that it was the 100th anniversary year of Canada’s confederation.

Yaletown and the area west of the then warehouse district has certainly changed over the intervening 47 years, but some landmarks are still present. The then-Hydro (now Electra) building still stands (background, right side of image), dwarfing the towers of its two neighbouring churches  – St Andrews-Wesley United (1933) and First Baptist (1910). The Ramada Inn is on the site of what is today the Holiday Inn Downtown (1110 Howe). The dark structure apparently on Granville near Davie is the Blackstone Hotel (1176 Granville). The Canadian Linen Supply structure has, fortunately, been retained in all of its industrial art deco glory; the anchor of the building, now, is a grocer. The garage in foreground (of a design sympathetic to Canadian Linen) is the Uptown Service Garage, part of the British American Petroleum family of service stations. The street running in front of Canadian Linen and the garage is Davie and the cross street mid-way up the image is Richards. The lovely street lamps are long gone from Davie, sadly, as are the home and the brick building adjacent to it. I haven’t established, yet, what business(es) made the brick building home in 1967.

Whether you grew up (and remain more comfortable with) the Dominion Day designation or if you are a bit younger and have no recollection of July 1st being anything other than Canada Day, may one and all have a good day today celebrating the privileges we enjoy of sharing life in this nation. Care to join me in a rousing rendition of “Canada” (1967)?

The Stock Theatre Companies of George B. Howard

George B. Howard with Ray B. Collins and Charles E. Royal, actors and co-managers of the Empress Theatre Stock Co. (1917-1921). Courtesy: Tom Carter Collection.

George B. Howard (1868-1921) was a well-known figure in Vancouver in the 19-teens and twenties. He got his start in Vancouver at the Lyric Theatre (Pender at Hamilton), moved on to the Avenue Theatre (Main at Georgia) and finished at the Empress (Hastings at Gore). He produced many, many live dramas here and he and his colleagues deserve to be better known in Vancouver today and in the wider world for their work.

Early Years

Howard was born George Howard Bacchus in Norfolk, Virginia in 1867, the eldest of three boys, to James and Virginia [1]. He married Florence Smith in 1890. Howard and Smith both had a desire to be in theatre work, so they teamed up to become the Howard-Dorset Stock Company [1]; Smith took the stage name “Flora Dorset”. Starting in 1898, Howard-Dorset stayed pretty close to home, in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. Beginning ca1901, they established a circuit of cities and towns in the Midwest states consisting of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Iowa and Wisconsin. This continued until 1907, when the company moved out to California and Nevada and then did some performances in Edmonton and Calgary. Interestingly, Howard-Dorset didn’t play Vancouver.

Sometime between 1907 and 1910, I’m assuming, Howard and Dorset divorced. Howard married a Vancouver woman, Theodora Schroer, in 1910 and had a daughter with her in ca1912 whom they named Virginia Betty Bacchus. Dorset/Smith married Lewis Park Kelly of Peoria, Illinois in 1915 (Fort Wayne, Indiana 15 Feb 1915). Bacchus’s marriage to Theodora lasted less than a decade; she divorced him in 1918. Theodora, like Florence, was an actress; her stage name was Betty Jonson.

Lyric Theatre (1908-1910)

CVA 99-4107 – Original site of Lyric Theatre (1906-present) at Pender and Hamilton (known as the Odd Fellow’s Hall – although, I don’t think it hosts the IOOF today). 1931. Stuart Thomson photo.

Howard began his dramatic work in Vancouver at the ‘cosy’ theatre known as the Lyric [2]. The capacity of this space would have been very limited; perhaps 250-300 people. As is visible in the image below, there was no ‘theatre seating’; the audience was seated on chairs at a single level.

From the.1908 Vancouver Elite Directory (Thanks to Tom Carter for directing me to this terrific interior image of the Lyric).

Howard’s company began performing at the Lyric on November 18th, 1907 with the four-act society comedy, “Christopher, Jr.”, with Howard in the title role. This was followed in rapid succession on November 28th by the 3-hour comedy, “Hello Bill!”. Other productions followed with similar frequency. This was typical of the Howard company; they would run a new play every couple weeks. It is staggering to me how the cast was able to memorize lines for a new production so often!

Most of Howard’s productions at the Lyric tended towards the comedic/farce end of the dramatic spectrum [3]. But his company was capable of taking on heavier subjects, too (e.g., “The Young Mrs. Winthrop” and “An Innocent Sinner”). These weightier-themed productions might fairly be called melodramas.

Members of Howard Stock Company at Lyric Theatre [4]

• Stella Adams
• Oliver Bailey
• Huron L. Blyden
• Virginia Brissac
• Dorothy Davis
• Marion Dunn
• Arthur Elton
• Frank Fanning
• Hilda Graham
• Betty Jonson (Betty Jonson was her stage name; her actual name was Theodora Schrorer — George Howard’s second wife) [5]
• Guy Kitner
• Thomas H. Kruger
• Harry Lewin
• Godfrey Mathews
• Dorcas Matthews
• Charles Marion
• Charles E. Murphy
• Ernest Murphy
• Charles Norton
• James Barrie Norton
• Adelaide Power
• Abel Preston
• Stella Razeto
• Maybelle Thompson
• Noel Travers
• Norma Yeager

The Howard company finished their time at the Lyric in 1910 not with a single play, but by putting on four of their all-time audience favourites: The Man From Mexico, Father and the Boys, Other Peoples’ Money, and the very popular, Charley’s Aunt. The last of these was perhaps the most popular of all the Howard productions and could be counted on regularly to pack in sell-out crowds.

Avenue Theatre (1911-1913)

CVA 99-121 – The Avenue Theatre (1910-1935) at Georgia and Main. It was replaced by a Standard Service Station in 1925, and today is the site of BC Hydro’s Murrin Substation). 1918. Stuart Thomson photo.

Howard took a break from Vancouver after finishing at the Lyric. He took his company to Alaska (where they had a limited run) and Honolulu (where they spent 3 months). They came back to Vancouver after doing Hawaii where they put on a few old favourites at the Lyric. Then, not to be an idler, Howard took his company to Southern Alberta for a limited run at theatres in Calgary and Lethbridge.

In May 1911, when his new theatre, The Avenue, opened at the SW corner of Main and the first Georgia Viaduct, he started a “new” stock company there, opening with Father and the Boys. Like the Lyric, this theatre was also described in press clippings as being ‘cosy’, but the audience capacity was much greater (World April 11, 1911). The Avenue was estimated to hold upwards of 1200. Unfortunately, construction wasn’t quite finished before the curtain went up:

To the tune of hammering and pounding from the back of the curtain, George Howard came to the front and made a really excellent little speech asking his patrons to be patient with him and all would be well. He also expressed his intention of living and dying right in the theatre if the people of Vancouver would only give him their support.

World. April 11, 1911

Members of the Howard Company at The Avenue

• Oliver D. Bailey
• C. B. Baker (also serving as scenic art director at The Avenue starting in 1911)
• Huron Blyden
• Virginia Brissac
• Frederick Clarke
• William C. Dowlan (one of Howard’s leading men at the Avenue)
• Marion Dunn
• Frank Ellsworth (this was his stage name; his real name was Frank Ibbotson, the business manager of the Lyric Theatre during Howard’s time there). [5]
• Arthur Elton
• Laura Heimlich
• Guy Hitner
• Betty Johnson
• Leo Lindhard
• Dorcas Matthews
• Robert McKim
• Charlotte Mundorff
• James B. Norton
• Edna Purvis
• Inez Ragan
• Erba Robeson
• Clara Beyers
• V. T. Henderson
• Roscoe Karnz
• Edward Dale Lynch
• William Lloyd
• Rhea Mitchell
• Elizabeth Ross
• Florence Spencer
• John R. Sumner

In 1911-1912, Howard served as lessee and manager of The Avenue. From 1913-July 1917, however, he didn’t have his own stock company in Vancouver and he gave up his position as manager of The Avenue. However, he remained an Avenue stockholder for the rest of his days.

Empress Theatre (1917-1921)

Item – Bu N134 – Empress Theatre (1908-1940), just before its demolition in 1940 to make way for retail space (and, much more recently, for a housing development). W. J. Moore photo.

The Empress Theatre was dedicated in June 1908. It had a stock theatre company for a few years that was led by Lawrence and Sandusky.

By 1917, the Empress Stock Company was co-led by “the big three” shown in the first photo in this post: Ray B. Collins, Charles E. Royal, and George B. Howard. The company and its leadership would be among the most successful ever to operate in Vancouver. Indeed, it was believed by some to be the best stock company on the Pacific Coast.

The sheer volume of plays produced at the Empress [6] and how many of the stock company went on to have film careers (which you can get some sense of by clicking on the links in the lists of members), I find remarkable. Vancouver and the Empress Theatre Stock Company, in particular, was an un-acknowledged nursery for Hollywood in those early years.

In many of the ads for Empress Theatre plays, added to the text can be found “Not a moving picture”, to make it abundantly clear that what were being advertised were live productions.

Members of the Empress Stock Company

• Byron Aldenn
• Robert Athon
• Sherman Bainbridge
• Marie Baker
• Janet Cathro
• Ray B. Collins (Collins most famous role was as homicide detective Lieutenant Arthur Tragg in the CBS Perry Mason series in the 1960s)
• Daisy D’Avara (Alf T. Layne’s wife)
• Etta Delmas
• Eddie Edward
• Edythe Elliott (Charles Royal’s wife until their divorce – in 1925?)
• Charlotte Fletcher
• Mary Fletcher
• Thomas Foster
• G. Richard Frazier
• Eva Goodrich
• Evelyn Hambly
• Rodney Hildebrand
• George B. Howard
• Val Howland
• James Kirkwood
• Charlotte Lawrence
• Eddie Lawrence
• Robert Lawrence
• Alf. T. Layne
• Joe Lawless (also a scenery artist)
• Junius Leonard
• Margaret Marriott (Ray Collins’ wife until their divorce in 1924)
• Dorothy Mitchell
• J. Barrie Norton
• Freda Padmore
• O.S. Penny
• Alice Round
• Charles E. Royal
• “Little” Edith Royal (Edythe’s & Charles’ daughter)
• Howard Russell
• Jerome Sheldon
• Walter Seigfried
• Jim Smith
• Jessie Ward
• Peggy Webster
• Louis Weithoff

Deaths

George B. Howard died from a stroke two hours after playing “Cappy Ricks” on March 17, 1921. It was a sudden and quick end for the 53-year-old actor/manager.

An appropriately theatrical funeral was held on March 22:

Vancouver paused awhile this afternoon while the curtain was being slowly and reverently lowered on the last scene of the last act in the drama of the career of George B. Howard. As the mournful strains of “The Dead March in Saul” floated through the air, and the muffled drum of the B.P.O.E. band heralded the approach of the cortege shortly after 2.30 o’clock from Christ Church, thousands of citizens in the busy downtown section of the city left their places of business, made their way to the streets and stood with bared heads while all that was mortal of the stage favorite passed on to its last resting place in Ocean View burial park.

World. 22 March 1921

But even in death, George Howard took a curtain call.

It seems that he had been on good terms for awhile prior to his passing with Charlotte Sophia (“Dot”) Williams, Percy Williams’ Mom (Percy was the “world’s fastest human” in the 1928 Amsterdam Olympic Games). Whether Howard and “Dot” were romantically involved or not, isn’t clear. “Dot” worked in the Empress Theatre box office, and Howard wrote a codicil to his will, leaving his residence at 196 West 12th Avenue to her. When the existence of the codicil became known, his second wife, Theodora Stoddard (nee Schroer) sued his estate on behalf of their daughter, to whom he’d initially left his Vancouver home. The judge ultimately squashed the suit, as Howard had left Virginia Betty Bacchus very well provided for.

Williams was allowed to keep the home on 12th Avenue and when she died in 1980, her final resting place in Ocean View Burial Park was adjacent to that of George B. Howard (Sun 7 Dec 1922, p.11). [7]

The Empress Stock Company carried on for several years after Howard’s death. But by 1940, live theatre had been eclipsed by motion pictures and in May of that year, the Empress was dead; demolished, just 32 years after it had been built. [8]

Notes

1. Howard’s companies of stage players were “stock companies”. By the 20th century, I think “stock” had come to mean “house” players in a particular theatre. In other words, the opposite of a “traveling” company.
2. This Lyric Theatre shouldn’t be confused with another, later, theatre on Granville Street at the site of the earlier Vancouver Opera House.
3. Indeed, the tag line on Lyric ads during the time of Howard’s company was “If you want to laugh, go to the Lyric”.
4. Not all company members served at the same time. This list (and others like it) shows all company members over the period treated.
5. My thanks to Robert Moen for digging up this info.
6. For the lists of company members, I have leaned heavily on The Vancouver Daily World, The Province, and the Vancouver Sun.
7. Thanks to Neil Whaley for drawing to my attention “Dot” Williams’ role in this drama.
8. This demolition seems utterly pointless, as the lot was not developed until 1987.

Christian Church (Disciples): 30 Years at Cambie and 13th

Ch N42 – Shelton Memorial Christian Church. 1927. NW Corner Cambie at 13th Ave. W. J. Moore photo.

The church shown above began its life as Shelton Memorial Christian Church at 505 W 13th Ave (at Cambie Street) in 1927. It was on the site of what today is the former Plaza 500 hotel complex (the lower, four-storey, retail wing).

Unraveling Denominational Identity

Explaining the denomination of the church that worshiped here is a challenge. They identified themselves as a “Christian” church, but acknowledged in early ads that their denomination was known elsewhere in Canada as “Disciples of Christ” or “Church of Christ”. Unfortunately, that doesn’t help much in identifying where the congregation was on the ideological spectrum.

What can be said of this church denominationally is that they were part of the US-based Stone-Campbell Restoration movement. If you think you can stand any more detail about this bunch, see the links.

For our purposes, it is enough to know that the movement was very non-denominational. At its core, the Restoration movement was about restoring the earliest Christian church with a highly congregational polity (meaning no dictates from a denominational group above it), an absence of creeds during worship, and a desire for ecumenism (unity among denominations). The churches that were part of this movement celebrated the Lord’s Supper (aka communion; aka the eucharist) on a weekly basis (in contrast, Canadian Baptists celebrate communion once a month).

There were three major denominational groups to emerge from the Restoration Movement: Churches of Christ (which don’t use musical instruments during worship; they sing a cappella), the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the independent (and very confusingly named) Christian Church/Church of Christ churches. (I was a member of the last named denomination while growing up in Alberta).

There was tension between ecumenism and the restoration elements of the doctrine advocated by these groups and the different denominations resolved it differently: the Churches of Christ and the Christian Church/Church of Christ groups resolved it by emphasizing the restoration (or 1st-century church) aspects of the doctrine, and the Christian Church (Disciples) by stressing ecumenism. Shelton Memorial belonged to the last group.

In short (and to greatly oversimplify), I’d say that the Christian Church (Disciples) had more in common with the United Church than they did, say, with the Baptists.

The Early Years (1906-1927)

The First Christian Church (Disciples) in 1906, initially worshiped downtown at Pender Hall (Howe at Pender). There was, apparently, no designated pastor of the church in this very early period. In 1910, they moved to another rental space: Lester Hall (Davie and Granville) and hired a pastor, Rev. N. A. Davis. By 1911, they had moved to 1168 Seymour.

By 1923, they had moved to the East End (Woodland Drive and E. 14th) and hired a new pastor, Rev. Claude V. Stainsby. But Woodland Drive didn’t seem to suit the congregation; it was too far off the beaten path to attract new members. So they built Shelton Memorial. Stainsby submitted his resignation to the church board several months before Shelton was ready to be occupied on the understanding that when the new building was dedicated he would step down.

Shelton was dedicated in March, 1927 and was called “Shelton” in memory of Dr. A. L. Shelton, a pioneer missionary of the Disciples in Tibet, 1903-1922. He was murdered in Tibet by bandits.

After leaving Shelton, Stainsby moved to Fernie where he directed the Sunday School of the United Church there. His day job was as “shop” instructor at Fernie High School. He later moved to Mission, where he worked in a similar job and finally took a teaching job at Ladner High School. He died in 1948 at the age of 59.

Rev. Frank T. Carter was Stainsby’s replacement at Shelton. He didn’t last for more than a year.

Rev. William G. Kitchen (1928-1938)

Province. 31 March 1928. Rev. W. G. Kitchen.

Carter’s replacement was Rev. William G. Kitchen, who came in 1928. He came to Vancouver from Saskatoon, where he had been the pastor at a Disciples congregation from ca1917.

In 1938, Shelton began broadcasting its services over radio CKMO (1410khz).

After a decade at Shelton, Kitchen accepted a call to go to a Disciples church in Guelph, ON.

Rev. G. Hayden Stewart (1939-1943)

Province. 21 Oct 1939. Rev. G. Hayden Stewart.

Hayden Stewart came from Calgary where he’d been directing youth work for Disciples churches. He introduced a new evening service plan. It would be called the School for Christian Living and would frequently have guest speakers — not all of whom would be considered by other protestant churches in the city to be strictly appropriate. One such was Arnold Webster in 1941, then a failed CCF federal candidate and later a successful BC MLA for the same party. In 1943, Grace MacInnis, another CCF member, was also asked to speak at the School. Another speaker was Edna MacCullie, a co-founder of Narcotics Anonymous.

It is clear that, under Stewart, Shelton Memorial was putting a significantly greater emphasis on the Social Gospel. On the other hand, the ecumenism of Shelton was also evident, as they brought in pastoral speakers for morning services from such places as First Baptist Church and their near neighbor, Chown Memorial United Church.

In 1943, G. Hayden Stewart decided to pack it in at Shelton. In the same year, Shelton had a name change. For some reason (unadvertised as far as I can tell), the church became Central Christian Church.

Kenneth S. Wills (1945-1951)

Province. 13 Jan 1945. Kenneth S. Wills.

In 1945, Central Christian (formerly Shelton Memorial) hired Kenneth Wills to take over the pastoral reigns. Wills came to Vancouver from Windsor, ON, where he’d been the director of athletics at a local high school and the managing director of Windsor city playgrounds (Province, 13 Jan 1945). In 1951, Wills returned to Ontario where he took a job as Secretary of Christian Education with the Canadian Council of Churches in Toronto.

G. Hayden Stewart (1952-1957)

Stewart made a return to the pulpit of Central in 1952 and remained there until the church wrapped up its time at Cambie and 13th. It closed its doors in 1957.

Postscript: Community Christian (1957-1960)

But by September, Stewart had started a new church at the same site. It would have another name change: this time to Community Christian Church. The congregation was founded by Stewart on the belief that “people are fundamentally religious.” Said Stewart: “‘We want to give the non-church going people of Vancouver the kind of church that will help them find straight-forward answers to their problems'” (Province 14 Sept 1957).

In March 1958, Stewart created a Community Christian Foundation. The Foundation’s purpose was to secure financial support for ecumenical work to be done through his church.

But neither the foundation nor the church lasted long. By 1960 both seem to have been wrapped up. Stewart went on to start his own Christian counseling organization with a focus on teenage group counseling (Sun 5 Oct 1963). He died in Vancouver in 1998 at the age of 91.

1927 Beauty Contest a Schmozzle

CVA 99-3613 – Canadian Legion – Some of the Contestants in “Popularity Contest” in front of Canadian Legion ‘Celebration’ Offices at 856 Seymour. 1927. Stuart Thomson photo.

Popularity Contest? Beauty Contest?

Shown in the photo above are some of the contestants in the Canadian Legion Celebration Popularity Contest, gathered around the Auburn vehicle that was promised to the winner of the competition.

Although the Legion referred to the contest as being a “popularity” and a “beauty” contest, it was in fact neither. It was principally about how skilled the various women were at distributing tickets in large numbers and in a strategic fashion.

Early Standings: Sun May 9, 1927

In 1927, the Legion sponsored a carnival at the Cambie Street Grounds and the Drill Hall from May 24 (Victoria Day) to May 30th. What was being celebrated was Confederation’s Diamond Jubilee; its 60-year anniversary. In order to gain admission to the carnival, folks needed a (free) admission ticket. The ladies who were in the “popularity contest” would distribute tickets to friends, acquaintances, anyone really who they could persuade to accept a ticket (or more than one) to the carnival. Presumably, the name of the “popularity girl” would be written somewhere on the ticket, and that part of the ticket would be submitted to the Legion. That way, the Legion could track who was leading in ticket distribution and, ultimately, determine who gave away the greatest number of tickets and thereby won the contest.

Sun May 19, 1927

Enrollment criteria were pretty straightforward: Females between the ages of 16 and 21; unmarried; of “unimpeachable” character; residents of Greater Vancouver; and sponsored by a reputable businessman, the chief executive of a fraternal group, a social service, or ex-service organization (Sun 1 April 1927).

Ticket distribution began in early May and continued until midnight on May 30th (the final day of the carnival).

What would “Miss Vancouver” win, exactly? It was widely reported in the local press that she would be given an Auburn coupe automobile (provided by Duplex Sales Ltd.) and she would earn the right to represent Vancouver through a “free trip” to the Inter-City Beauty Contest to be held in September in Atlantic City, N. J. (this was the Miss America pageant).

Sun May 26, 1927

The number of contestants, initially, was 22, but the number enrolled had dropped (for reasons unknown) to 20 by May 9th and to 18 by May 19th.

The woman who would ultimately win the contest and become “Miss Vancouver” was Velma Rogers. Watch how her name bounces around the standings. She begins in 6th place (May 9); then she dives to 15th (May 19); then she made a dramatic move into first place (May 26) and by the day before the final count she was in third place (May 30). The final standings were 1st: Velma Rogers; 2nd: Kitty Salmon; and 3rd: Gertie Preston. It took the counters until 5am to finish the tallying (Sun May 31, 1927).

The contest proved to be about not only having a large number of folks to whom you could go and beg to accept tickets. It was also about knowing when to pull out the stops. You didn’t want to ‘peak’ too early. So it was partly about strategizing.

The Real Contest

Sun May 30, 1927

But ticket distribution, in the whole scheme of things, seems to have been a side-show. The real contest began after the counting was done; the forum was the law courts of British Columbia.

Scarcely had the votes been counted when Mrs. Letitia Salmon, mother of 2nd-place winner, Kitty Salmon, filed an injunction in BC Supreme Court on her daughter’s behalf, claiming that Kitty had been declared the winner, but that after the closing hour, votes and money had been exchanged and that Velma Rogers was then declared the winner. How it was that Mrs. Salmon obtained this information, let alone how she hoped to prove it in a court of law, wasn’t reported. The judge granted her an interim injunction, however, restraining Rogers and the Legion from “handling or dealing with the awards”, at least until June 30th (Edmonton Journal 23 June 1927).

Sun. June 1, 1927

By mid-July, Salmon’s injunction was dissolved and it looked like Rogers would be free to claim the Auburn and her forthcoming Atlantic City expenses. But her legal struggle wasn’t finished, yet.

At the end of July, a new character entered the legal fray: Joseph J. Diamond. He applied for an order that would prevent Rogers from removing the Auburn from Greater Vancouver. Diamond had a written agreement with Rogers, which his lawyer produced in court, which stated that he would be given the car in exchange for his financial aid to Rogers during the contest, in the event that she should win. (Sun 28 July 1927). By early August, the court ordered that the car be sold so that her lawyer could be paid and so that the balance would be available to the court for Diamond’s suit. (Sun 4 August 1927).

A couple of weeks later, and “Queen Velma” (as she was coming to be known in the local press) was on the legal offensive. She had been deprived of her car; there was no way she was going to be denied her right to go to Atlantic City — expenses-free — for the pageant in September!

She threatened to file suit against some 70 individuals who were “patrons” of the Legion celebration, including Mayor L. D. Taylor and Vancouver city aldermen to get enough cash so that she could travel to Atlantic City, unburdened by expenses. Apparently this was the only avenue open to her, since the Legion Celebration Committee was an unincorporated group (Province 19 August 1927).

The 70 didn’t capitulate to Rogers’ threat of bringing suit, however, so she had to actually do so. She sued the 70 for $1500 (including the costs of five evening gowns, sport and afternoon dresses, bathing suits and other apparel) (Province 21 August 1927).

Rogers won the battle, but she lost the war.

It was February 1928 before the suit wended its way though the system — and so, five months after the Atlantic City event, the Legion paid her $1000 for the Atlantic City expenses.

Conclusions

Velma Rogers was married a few months after claiming her $1000. She married Gordon W. Dalgleish, a theatre manager in Nelson. A few years later, Velma was back in Vancouver. She had been made the head of a new hosiery department at Rae’s Clever Shoe Store on Granville Street (Sun 4 April 1934). Not long after that, Velma and Gordon were divorced. Velma married Christopher Beute and moved to California where she worked as an accountant. According to her death notice, during WWII she was employed by Hughes Aircraft and later worked for Samuel Goldwyn Productions. She died in 1996 at the age of 90. (Desert Sun 15 October 1996).

When I was initially piecing this story together, I just assumed that the Legion would have charged for the tickets to the carnival. But they didn’t. And I think that was a mistake. To charge would have meant that the women would have had the opportunity to show off their sales savvy (or lack thereof). And there would have been some money in the ‘kitty’ for prizes. As it turned out, Velma Rogers didn’t seem to win much that she really wanted (her dream of a new car and an expense-paid trip to the New Jersey beauty contest were a total loss). The Legion was damaged by negative publicity. Perhaps the only real winners were the lawyers who represented the parties to the disputes!

Frank Stuart-Whyte: Impressario Extraordinaire

When Frank Stuart-Whyte wrote to the Vancouver Parks Board in 1911 asking for a meeting to discuss whether his “Versatile” players from England could have a license to perform at English Bay in the summer, he almost certainly had no clue that he was starting an enterprise that would continue — in one form or other — for a decade and become an institution in many cities and towns in Canada.

First Season: 1911

Stuart-Whyte arrived in Vancouver from England in early 1911 when he was 34. In England and Scotland, he had been involved with the production of “1643”, a historical drama that had played those nations to positive reviews.

The first page of Stuart-Whyte’s initial correspondence with the Parks Board, February, 1911. Note: His photo appears on this letterhead. It is apparently letterhead used with his earlier production in England and Scotland, a historical drama called “1643”. CVA RG. 7 Series B-2, Volume 3, #2.

When he got to Vancouver, Stuart-Whyte didn’t let grass grow under his feet; he soon got in touch with the Vancouver Parks Board with a proposal that he and his company of players perform at English Bay in the summer months of that year. He referred to the company as the “Versatiles”. In 1911, they consisted principally of Stuart-Whyte’s wife, whose stage name was “Miss Zara Clinton” and who was known for her impressions of English male impersonator, Vesta Tilley, and Clinton’s brother, comedian Harry Hoyland. “Harry Hoyland” was also a stage name, evidently; his marriage certificate shows his name as Harry Hoyland Young.[1]

The form of entertainment that would be offered by the troupe was English “Pierrot”. Pierrot seems to have been, in this context, a form of vaudeville: musical numbers, comedy sketches, and brief theatrical performances offered over the course of a couple of hours. A difference between Stuart-Whyte’s Versatiles and vaudeville elsewhere in Vancouver, is that it would be performed al fresco on the beach of English Bay in the summer.

The Versatiles at their English Bay al fresco location. n.d. Bullen & Lamb photo.
Courtesy: Neil Whaley Collection

The Parks Board granted Stuart-Whyte a license for the Versatiles to perform in the summer of 1911 for the sum of $150; he would assume the costs of erecting the stage on the beach. The Versatiles had consistently good turnouts at English Bay in 1911.

In June, Stuart-Whyte asked the Board if the Versatiles’ lease at English Bay could be extended for another three years. The Board initially denied this request, preferring to deal with the Versatiles’ lease on a year-by-year basis, but they ultimately agreed (Province 26 September 1912). This proved to be a good move, as the Versatiles through 1916 had strong turnouts at the beach.

Drawing appended to Stuart-Whyte’s initial correspondence with Parks Board, February 1911. Shows initial site of the Versatiles’ stage, SE of the bathing pavilion. (Note: the compass on this drawing is in error. W should be where E is). CVA RG. 7 Series B-2, Volume 3, #2.

A snapshot showing what I think was the Versatiles’ stage on English Bay beach. The orientation of the stage to the beach is different from that in Stuart-Whyte’s drawing, above. It is facing the promenade in this photo. This would put the date of this image between 1912 and 1916. In a letter from Stuart-Whyte to the Parks Board in April 1912, he requested that the stage be built “to face the promenade.” His company had apparently been plagued with colds in 1911 due to “the cold night wind which blew across the stage when it was at right angles to the prom.” (Letter from Stuart-Whyte to Parks Board, April 9, 1912 – CVA). Photo Courtesy: Neil Whaley Collection.

By Autumn, the Versatiles had finished their summer schedule of performances at English Bay. The troupe (Zara Clinton, her brother Harry Hoyland, and manager-husband, Stuart-Whyte) boarded the CPR steamer, Zealandia, bound for the Hawaiian Islands, where they would perform (World, 1 November 1911). They were also scheduled to perform that Winter in California, New Zealand, and Australia.

Second Season – Market Experiment: 1912

In late May 1912, the Versatiles were back at English Bay with an expanded cast that included Emylin Berryman, Will Conley, Lora Churchill, Frank Healey, Will Lochrane, George Bret, Walter Charles and, of course, Zara Clinton and Harry Hoyland (World, 23 May 1912). The English Bay enterprise had another great summer in 1912.

Stuart-Whyte’s Versatiles’ letterhead ca1912+. CVA RG. 7 Series B-2, Volume 3, #2. Stuart-Whyte is in the sharp sign (to the right of the treble clef). I suspect that the person shown within the treble clef is Harry Hoyland and that the woman’s face in the first note at the left is Zara Clinton.

Chilliwack Progress. 2 October 1912.

Beginning in the off-season of 1912, the Versatiles dipped a metaphorical “toe” into a new market; Stuart-Whyte booked the Versatiles into bricks-and-mortar theatres across Western Canada (including the Opera House in Chilliwack, the Sherman Grand Theatre in Calgary, the Empire Theatre in Edmonton, the Empire in Saskatoon, and the Orpheum in Regina). This experiment proved to be a great success and fueled later work by Stuart-Whyte and his company. The main vehicle for the Autumn/Winter tour was a playlet written by Stuart-Whyte called “In the Camp-Fire’s Glow”, a “cowboy musical comedy” set along the Fraser River in B.C.

Third Season – Stadacona Park (Victoria): 1913

By Summer 1913, the Versatiles had established themselves in Victoria in an al fresco setting not unlike Vancouver’s English Bay. They were granted a lease by the City of Victoria to the recently established Stadacona Park. The blue-bloods in the area weren’t impressed with the Versatiles performing in ‘their’ park, but plans went ahead and the general public of the city seemed to soak it up. They would remain at Stadacona Park in Victoria for the summer months of 1913 and 1914.

Regina Leader-Post 2 December 1913/

How did the Versatiles manage to perform in Vancouver and Victoria at the same time? I think the answer is found in a few classified ads that Stuart-Whyte put in Victoria and Vancouver newspapers. He announced that he was looking to “augment his well known companies of London Entertainers . . . .Comedians, tenors, baritones, sopranos, contraltos, pianist” (Victoria Daily Times 12 February 1912). It seems likely from this that a small contingent of Versatiles veterans would seed both the Vancouver and Victoria companies and be augmented by some of the locals hired as a result of ads like the one quoted.

In 1913, Stuart-Whyte added popular Scot, Billy Oswald, and sisters Edith and Harriet Fawn to the Versatiles gang. In the off-season tour, the Versatiles premiered “The Canadian Express”, a playlet depicting the woes of tenderfeet on their first train journey in the Canadian West (Saskatoon Star-Phoenix 22 November 1913). The 1913 tour saw a modest expansion on the tour of 1912. They hit all of the spots of the previous year, in addition to some smaller towns in B.C. (including Revelstoke) and at least as far east as Ottawa.

Fourth and Fifth Seasons: 1914-1915

The Pioneer (Bemedji Minnesota) 25 November 1914.

By 1914, the Versatiles had added to their headliners with Wilfrid Brandon, Fred Reynolds, KItty Clifford, Ida Hart, Thiel Jordan (Victoria Daily Times 1 May 1914). The Autumn/Winter tour featured a ‘re-run’ from 1913, “The Canadian Express” and the premiere of “Scottie in Japan”, a musical comedy “depicting a stranded vaudeville company in the flowery kingdom” (Saskatoon Daily Star 29 October 1914). There was a noteworthy difference to the touring locations in 1914, however: the troupe moved south of the 49th Parallel for at least one stop in Minnesota, in the city of Bemedji. There, “The Canadian Express” became “The Honeymoon Express”, presumably with a few other Americanizing edits to the script to make the train journey more recognizable to a U.S. audience.

In September 1915, Vancouver was the opening city for a new Stuart-Whyte musical comedy, set in a department store, called “The Girl from Nowhere”. “The Girl” was staged again at the Vancouver Avenue Theatre in January 1916 and then in late February, a new production, “Floradora,” was at the Avenue “with a brilliant cast of twenty-five”. Each of these productions opened in Vancouver and then later was taken on the road to the usual Canadian locations. There seem not to have been any American locations on the 1915 tour.

Sixth Season – End of English Bay Versatiles: 1916

Summer 1916 was the final season of English Bay performances in Vancouver.[2] It was an abbreviated season at English Bay, said Stuart-Whyte, due to conscription being imposed in England, causing several of those he would have included in his outdoor cast to be recruited for WWI service (Sun 10 August 1916).

Crop of CVA 99-1223. Shows the Versatiles’ English Bay stage and seats on the beach. ca1916. Stuart Thomson photo.

Autumn/Winter 1916 was notable for a couple of reasons. It marked the start of a string of hit pantomimes written/produced by Stuart-Whyte. And it marked his first production opening in a city other than Vancouver. In September 1916, “Alladin and His Wonderful Lamp” opened in Winnipeg at the Walker Theatre. This production was touted by Stuart-Whyte – accurately or not – as being “Canada’s first ‘old country’ pantomime” (Edmonton Journal 7 October 1916). Zara Clinton, in true English panto fashion, played the principal boy, Alladin; Harry Hoyland played the Widow Twankey.

Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Seasons: 1917-1919

A scene from Robinson Crusoe. Regina Leader-Post. 26 November 1917.

Autumn/Winter 1917 saw the premiere of Stuart-Whyte’s “Robinson Crusoe”. Zara Clinton played the title role, supported by a cast of 40. Stuart-Whyte “followed the original text in large measure and then added a series of incidents that Daniel Dafoe probably never dreamed of” (Edmonton Journal 3 October 1917). For composition of the music for “Crusoe”, Stuart-Whyte called upon no fewer than three composers: Pierre Bayard, Clive Hamilton, and Sydney Blythe, all of England.

1918 saw the most ambitious touring schedule of Stuart-Whyte’s troupe, to date. In addition to the usual Canadian locations, the 1918 tour included a great many U.S. sites, including: Buffalo, Rochester, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Louisville, Cincinnatti, Streator (Illinois), Davenport (Iowa), Madison, Des Moines, and Sioux City (Iowa). Why did Stuart-Whyte choose this year for such an expanded U.S. tour? There are a couple of reasons, I think. First, the production that they were showing in U.S. cities – “Robinson Crusoe” – was one that was familiar to American audiences. Second, it appears that Stuart-Whyte had a deal with the American theatrical syndicate, Klaw and Erlanger, that year and so had access to a large number of theatres in many cities, probably at reduced cost (Streator Times 27 March 1918). The summer months of 1918 saw the Versatiles at their al fresco location in Winnipeg at Portage and Vaughn. But, although it was advertised as having “the famous Versatiles”, it was, in fact just a single Versatile performing: longtime member, Billy Oswald.

The Autumn/Winter of 1918 saw the Versatiles touring Canadian cities again, this time with the musical “Cinderella”. Zara Clinton played Prince Charming and Sue Parker was in the title role. Other principals included John Barrett-Lennard, Harry Hoyland, Herbert Sydney, T. Clifden Corless, Kitty Arthur, and Blanche Young. This played in 1918 and through to March 1919.

Tenth Season – Final Successful Panto: 1920

Starting in January 1920, Stuart-Whyte produced yet another panto: “Red Riding Hood.” Dorothy Mackay played the title role. Other principal parts were played by Zara Clinton (“Boy Blue”), Johnny Osborne (“Mother Hubbard”), Will Hallet (animal impersonator), and John Barrett-Lennard (“King Cole”) (Saskatoon Daily Star 13 January 1920).

In October 1920, Stuart-Whyte launched “Babes in the Wood”, with Dorothy Mackay again in the title role. Other cast included George H. Summers (“Capt. Kidd”), R. N. Hincks (“semi-wicked baron”), Victor Dyer (“very wicked baroness”), Tom Ellis (“Dick Turpin”), and Mona Warren (“Robin Hood”).

The Versatiles at their English Bay al fresco location. n.d. Bullen & Lamb photo.
Courtesy: Neil Whaley Collection

Running concurrently with “Babes” was a revival by Stuart-Whyte of “San Toy: A Chinese Musical” which also toured a number of urban centres. San Toy was a departure from Stuart-Whyte’s spate of panto hits. It was musical comedy, but not a pantomime.

In December 1920, he spun out another theatrical revival, this one Sydney Jones’ “The Geisha”, “a love story of old Japan with an adorable musical setting.” These two revivals seemed to be, in part, vehicles for a number of Stuart-Whyte’s adult actors who had been strong performers in his earlier successes but who didn’t really fit in his juvenile pantos such as “Red Riding Hood” and “Babes in the Woods”. In “The Geisha” there would be 50 actors, including Zara Clinton (“Molly”), Kitty Arthur (“the little Jap Geisha girl”), and Fred Walton.

Eleventh Season – Prince Charming (Not): 1922

September 1922 saw a new musical from the pen of Stuart-Whyte: “Prince Charming, Jr.” (sub-headed in the ads “Girls, Gowns, and Gorgeousness”). It was based loosely on a recent tour by the Prince of Wales. Some of the music in the play was by B. C. Hilliam (Ottawa Citizen 26 September 1922).

The Citizen reviewer was quite critical of this production: ” . . . the composition has no intelligible story which, of course, is not necessary for its success. It has color and girls, one or two good songs, and some novelties in the way of gags and scenic tableaux . . . It has at least five good wheezes [jokes] and a number of others not so good.” (Ottawa Citizen 26 September 1922). And the reviewer at the Montreal Gazette damned “Jr.” with faint praise: “[I]t has sufficient good points to make it, on the whole, good entertainment . . . . On the other hand, the production scarcely has the freshness and vigor of some of its predecessors, particularly insofar as the plot and the musical setting are concerned” (Montreal Gazette 21 November 1922).

Never with any of Stuart-Whyte’s previous productions did I see a “discouraging word” in any review. But it isn’t really surprising, is it, that after 10 seasons of successes, he might lay an egg?

Movie Producer

Nothing appeared about Stuart-Whyte in Canadian press reports for four years after the flop that was “Jr.”

What had become of him?

Evidently, he had transformed himself from a producer of theatrical productions into a producer of movies. In Australia, according to one press source, he produced four films, all of which were financial successes (Sakatoon Daily Star 19 November 1927). There seem today to be records of only two Stuart-Whyte films made in Australia: Painted Daughters (1925) and Sunrise (1926). Zara Clinton starred in “Painted Daughters”. Sunrise is considered a lost film.

Stuart-Whyte spun colourful tales to the writer of a Canadian newspaper piece that was syndicated in various Canadian papers about how he was involved in producing movies in Hollywood, South Africa, the West Indies and India (Saskatoon Daily Star 19 November 1927). But, oddly only one movie title was mentioned; it was claimed by the writer that his name appeared among the “directorial staff” of Douglas Fairbanks’ “Thief of Bagdad“. Today, no movie credits for Stuart-Whyte remain except for the two Australian films.

The Cat Came Back (Briefly)

Edmonton Journal 3 March 1928.

By 1928, Stuart-Whyte had returned to Canada to produce another panto; this one was “Dick Whittington and His Cat”. “Dick” had pretty positive reviews, but I’m guessing that in terms of success that matters – bums in seats – it was found wanting:

(TORONTO) Stranded, though in their home town, four or five members of the defunct F. Stuart-Whyte pantomime, “Dick Whittington and His Cat,” which closed unceremoniously in Brockville [Ontario] several weeks ago, watched disconsolately while the entire outfit, slightly shopworn, was purchased by P. G. Gadsby of Toronto for $400 at the sheriff’s sale.

All one corner of a huge garage was occupied with a miscellaneous collection of theatrical goods and equipment. Seven changes of costume for 17 girls, two changes for four comedians, and large and valuable backdrops, as yet untouched with the painter’s brush, formed part of the collection. The equipment was said by the auctioneer to be worth $5000.

Regina Leader 1 May 1928

Just what became of Stuart-Whyte following the demise of “Dick” isn’t clear to me. I could find no newspaper accounts of later ventures (or even reports as to whether he’d retired), nor could I find an obituary for either him or his wife, “Zara”(Sarah, off-stage).

He died in England in 1947.

I’m very appreciative of Vancouver collector, Neil Whaley, for his treasure trove of ‘real photograph post cards’ and snapshots he has collected
and permitted me to show here.

Notes

1. Late-breaking news: “F. Stuart-Whyte” was also a stage name! He appears in a couple of ship manifests as Frank Hardwick White (1877-1947); and “Zara” as Sarah Nellie White (nee Young) (1882-1950). Frank and Sarah were married in England in 1903. They had a son born 1904 called Geoffrey Hoyland White and another born 1906 by the name of Dennis William White.
2. In 1936 the Versatiles made a return to English Bay for Vancouver’s jubilee year. The 1936 group was entirely Canadian, as far as I can tell. The cast included Sidney Dean, Frank Dowie, Linda Dale, Frank Vyvyan, Gladys Symmonds, Ruby Chamberlain, Agnes Harrison, Allan Roughton, Hazel McDonald, Lorna McDonald, Gus Dawson, Charles Courtier, and Bertha Strang.

Clement Welch: A Passion for Choral Music – Updated

James Clement Welch (1871-1962) emigrated from England to Canada in 1886, the year of Vancouver’s incorporation as a city — and the year of Clement’s 15th birthday. By the time he was in his mid-30s, he would lead what would become, arguably, his greatest legacy: the Vancouver (Amateur) Operatic Society. But that period was still 20 years in his future and nearly a continent apart from where he initially settled with his parents: in the still-tiny, recently-christened Canadian national capital.

Ottawa

Clement arrived on our shores with his parents, Thomas (ca1836-1920) and Mary (ca1843-1925); the family settled in Ottawa. Thomas took on the organist’s job (and for a few years, that of the Choirmaster) at St. Alban’s the Martyr Church (Anglican; today the church is known simply as St. Alban’s).

Daily World. 11 Oct 1924.

It isn’t clear what exactly Clement did for the first few years after his family moved to Canada. Chances are, he did what most teens do: got some sort of training (judging from what came later, I’m guessing that included some accountancy training; I know for certain only that he graduated from Ottawa Normal School in 1894), and likely went through typical teenage rites of passage.

In 1896 (when he turned 25), however, Clement started his first full-time, professional job as a teacher in Ottawa’s public schools. His teaching career spanned 1896-1906 and from what I could find in Ottawa press reports, it appears that he spent most of his teaching career working at the same school.

1895-96 was a red-letter year for Clement, as he would begin a second career (simultaneous with that as teacher) — one that would feed his great passion for choral music. By that year, St. Alban’s Church had scaled back the responsibilities of Clement’s father, Thomas, from Organist/Choirmaster to just that of Organist. The new Choirmaster chosen by St. Alban’s was Thomas’ son, Clement! Two years later, the powers-that-were at St. Alban’s must have been pretty pleased with themselves for this personnel decision. The Ottawa Journal gushed: “[Clement Welch] is a great worker, and the boys esteem him highly — no small thing, mark you, for choir boys are difficult cattle to handle and to get such results as does Mr. Welch needs much tact and a peculiarly endowed temperament” (Ottawa Journal 30 Sept 1899).

Clement married Mabel Burtch (1875-1901) also in 1895. Their eldest child, Velma Ann Maud (1896-1925) and a boy was born to the pair, named Clement Bentley (1899-1974). (1)

Clement’s and Mabel’s marriage was destined to be very brief. Mid-way down a long, bleak column headlined the “Death Roll of 1901”, the local newspaper noted that “On Oct. 5th, Mrs. J. Clement Welch died at her residence…” (Ottawa Citizen, 2 Jan 1902). It seems that Mabel died of septicemia — although the circumstances under which she contracted it are unknown to me.

Taste of the West Coast

In July, 1903, Clement took himself on vacation from a probably uncomfortably hot and humid Ottawa for the mild west coast air of North America, specifically (according to local press clippings) San Francisco and Victoria. No mention was made of him stopping at Vancouver, but it’s possible that he spent some time there, too.

In 1904, Clement married his second wife, Minnie Ernestine Budd (1879-1970). Welch brought the two kids from his first marriage (Velma and Bentley); Minnie and Clement also had a son together, Thomas Kenneth (1905-1988).

Minnie Welch and Florence McLean (a Holy Trinity member) on Bowyer Island, n.d. Cecil Jeffares photo. Courtesy: Neil Whaley Collection.

Clement received a teaching promotion in July 1906 — which took effect in September. He was appointed to the position of musical director of all Ottawa public schools. The starting salary was $900 per year (Ottawa Journal, 6 July 1906). Furthermore, when September rolled around, he received a further promotion to become “relieving principal” and that as of one year later, he would become a full principal of a four-room school. His teaching career seemed to be taking off in an administrative direction. (Ottawa Citizen, 7 Sept 1906).

Interestingly, the September 1906 press report would prove to be the final such pertaining to Clement in Ottawa. Probably during the Ottawa winter of 1906-07 (not the best of seasons in the nation’s capital). Clement decided to pack it in with school teaching there and head for the west coast with his family. They arrived in Vancouver sometime in 1907.

Vancouver

After the Welchs rolled into Vancouver, one of Clement’s priorities was to become connected with a local Anglican church. One of the nearest congregations to where they were living at the time (842 West 7th Avenue) was Holy Trinity Anglican (at 10th Ave. and

Welch and his choir boys at Holy Trinity (Vancouver), presumably, n.d. Cecil Jeffares photo.
Courtesy: Neil Whaley Collection.

Pine Street; no longer at that location). Apparently, the Welchs became members there and it wasn’t long before he was invited to become the Choirmaster. As had been the case at St. Alban’s in Ottawa, Clement quickly developed a very positive reputation as leader of the choir at Holy Trinity.

For his first 10 years in Vancouver, Clement was kept busy with music at Holy Trinity and with his non-musical vocation. He maintained a non-musical career (like his teaching career in Ottawa) simultaneous with a musical one. When he left the teaching profession and came to Vancouver, he left it for good, never (to my knowledge) to return to it. When he arrived in Lotusland, he immediately took up an accountancy career. Initially, he operated as a “book-keeper”, presumably freelance, working out of his home. In the 1910s, he served as accountant to BC Market Co.; in the 1920s and ’30s he was accountant to the Vancouver Medical Association Credit Bureau; and in the 1940s and ’50s, before retiring, he was a “collections specialist”.

Vancouver Operatic Society

By the start of the Great War, Clement was inspired to start the group that became the Vancouver Operatic Society (it was known for the first year or two of its existence as the Patriotic Operatic Society) (2). Their first production, in May 1915, was George F. Root’s The Haymakers.

Welch and the Vancouver Operatic Society: The Haymakers, May 1915.
Courtesy: Neil Whaley Collection.

Later that same year, they followed up with the first in a string of Gilbert & Sullivan comic operas: Patience (1915, 1921). This was followed by The Pirates of Penzance (1916), and The Yeomen of the Guard (1917). The G&S series was broken by producing Jones & Hall’s The Geisha (1918) and The Country Girl (1920). After that, the Society produced Tanner & Nicholls’ The Toreador (1921) and The Mikado (1922).

For the first several years (1915-22), Society performances were almost invariably held at The Avenue Theatre (at Main and Georgia). However, The Cingalee (1923), The Rebel Maid (1924), and The Arcadians (1925) were performed in the “old” Orpheum Theatre on the west side of Granville Street. Proceeds from the performances of wartime productions went to support soldiers fighting in Europe. Proceeds from post-war productions supported local charities.

CVA 8-07 – “The Geisha”. Vancouver Operatic Society, Avenue Theatre, May 1919.

1926 marked the end of Vancouver Operatic Society productions, although it died with more of a whimper than a bang. There were no announcements of its demise in the press. But, J. C. Welch continued to put up comic operas and light musicals with various other groups.

North Van Operatic Society and Kiwanis and Kiwassa Glee Clubs

A North Vancouver Operatic Society was formed in 1926, with Clement conducting. That year, they performed Florodora. In 1927, Welch teamed up with the Maple Ridge Glee Club in March to produce Iolanthe at Hammond Theatre in Maple Ridge and at the end of the year, partnered with a musical bunch at the YMCA to produce the musical, Tulip Time, for five nights at the Avenue Theatre. In February 1929, Welch again led the North Vancouver Operatic Society in producing Planquette’s musical, Rip Van Winkle at the Lonsdale Theatre. He led the North Shore Operatic Society in 1930 in a production of a pre-Christmas Gilbert & Sullivan offering of The Gondoliers.

Clement had been a chartered member of the Vancouver Kiwanis since 1919. He quickly became involved with the Club’s music side. He organized a Kiwanis minstrel show in 1921, ’22 and ’23. That was followed by a series of annual musical comedies: Pung Chow of Po (1925), Pickles (1926), The Prince of Pilsen (1927), The Attached Attache (1928), The Firefly (1929), The Chocolate Soldier (1930), A Country Girl (1931), Florodora (1932), The Geisha (1933), The Chimes of Normandy (1934), The Red Mill (1935), The Wizard of the Nile (1936), The Toreador (1937), The Arcadians (1938), and A Runaway Girl (1939) (Vancouver Sun 24 June 1939).

In 1941, Welch retired form leadership of the Kiwanis Glee Club (The Province 3 Oct 1941). He turned 70 that year. He spent some of the time during his post-Kiwanis Glee Club years auditing the books of the women’s division of the Kiwanis, the Kiwassa’s and leading their Glee Club (The Province, 7 May 1948). Most of the Kiwassa productions were presented for a limited audience, typically just for Kiwassa Club members.

In 1945, Welch retired from the Choirmaster’s role at Holy Trinity after 35+ years. He led the Kiwassa’s Glee Club from about 1948 until at least 1954. There is no press report of him retiring from the position.

Clement Welch died on January 26, 1962 at the age of 90.

NOTES

(1) Velma was born Velma Ann Maud Welch. She trained for a nursing career for a period starting in 1916, but ultimately left that course uncompleted due to ill health. Later, she spent some time with the Vancouver News-Advertiser and as society editor of the Vancouver Sun. She married Harold Robert Milner Potter in 1919 in Calgary. She spent a couple of years in Banff as a corespondent for a number of western Canadian newspapers. She died in Calgary in 1925 “after an extended illness”. She seems to have taken a new middle name at some point after marrying Potter and became Velma Albirdie Welch Potter. Following a funeral service in Calgary, her remains were interred in Vancouver’s Mountain View Cemetery as Velma Potter. (My thanks are due to Robert of WestEndVancouver for his help tracking Velma).

(2) There was at least one previous Vancouver Operatic Society in the city before J.C. Welch’s group was founded in 1915. A Vancouver Operatic Society seems to have been started in 1895 with the production of Dorothy. That group seemed to peter out within a couple of years, however, finishing with The Chimes of Normandy in 1897. Nothing more of the Society was evident in press reports until 1910, with the production of H. M. S. Pinafore at the Vancouver Opera House. This society seems to have fizzled by 1911, however, after the staging of The Mikado.

There was at least one amateur group that followed on from J.C. Welch’s Society after it died ca 1926. This next Society had service club origins similar to that of the Kiwanis Glee Club. It started life in 1950 as an arm of the Lions Club and was known as the Central Lions Operatic Society. However, before long, the name was changed to the Greater Vancouver Operatic Society. This group seems to have been the longest-lived of all, lasting, according to one authority, from 1948-1992 (although there is evidence in press clippings that this organization endured until as late as 2001).

A Brief Revealing Tale

I’m reliably informed that this story has been told before, more than once. But it was new to me, and so, working on the assumption that others likewise may be unaware of the tale, I’m sharing it below.

CVA 677-591 – Cropped image of Joe Fortes diving into water at English Bay. The bathhouse in question appears behind Fortes. ca1906. P T Timms.

The story has its beginning in July 1905. The wood frame bathhouse shown above had recently been erected at First Beach on English Bay. A letter was written by “The Odd Man Out” to the editor of the Vancouver Daily World informing citizens that

the glass in the windows of the bathhouses (sic) is so transparent that all the “beauty” (?) of the male bathers and the entire angelic form of the female can be seen to perfection by all outsiders on the beach . . . .

World, 11 July 1905

Apparently in the mornings, when the sun hit the changing room windows just right, those inside the bathhouse who were changing were visible to those outside.

More than a fortnight passed, and nothing had been done about the non-opaque windows, so “Modesty” picked up his pen and wrote a letter to the World notifying Vancouverites of the inaction of civic authorities. This writer speculated, very presciently, upon possible future legal ramifications:

. . . . The question arises as to what would happen if the police took action against the bathers. Would the mayor and aldermen or the members of the board of works, or all of them, be responsible? And in the event of a conviction for indecent exposure, would they be open to conviction as accessories before the fact? One can understand how easy it would be for an innocent person to get brought up before the police court; and, in such a case, would not the authorities be the most criminal of the parties? A few hours work and a few pounds of paint would be all that is necessary to put the matter right.

World 24 July 1905

Fully a year passed, and still nothing was done by the City about the bathhouse windows.

And then, a series of events very close to those speculated upon by “Modesty” came to pass:

. . . . [A] young man, apparently refined and well educated . . . was arrested by [Special] Constable Joe Fortes for indecent exposure at the Beach last Friday. The defendant claimed that if he had committed the crime it had been done unwittingly, and was due to the condition of the glass . . . . [The Magistrate] . . . . dismissed the charge. It was now up to Park Commissioners to act. If they desired the present conditions to continue, well and good, but he believed some change should be made.

Province 9 July 1906

By July 12, the Parks Board had finally acted. The exteriors of the windows were given a coat or two of opaque paint. Problem solved.

Imagine the expense (to the legal system) and embarrassment (to the young man unfairly charged with indecent exposure) that could have been avoided if the Parks Board had applied opaque paint back in 1905!

A (Forgotten) Dragon Named Sue

Cropped and edited CVA 1415-195 – The first(?) “Centennial Sue”, a smoke-spewing Chinese dragon and an accompanying Chinese junk at Lost Lagoon in Stanley Park, ca1958

Monster Mash

The 150-foot dragon (“painted in an Indian motif and floating on oil drums”) was installed in Lost Lagoon by the B.C. Centennial (1858-1958) Committee in June 1958 (Sun 19 June 1958). The Chinese junk, which was to be part of the art installation was added in July (Province 11 July 1958). The dragon was named “Centennial Sue”. The dragon was constructed of B.C. plywood and it and the junk were illuminated at night (Province, 19 June 1958).

The monster and sailing junk on Last Lagoon are causing a little embarrassment to the park board. Few people like them and most everybody wishes they would go away — but the board is stuck with them till the centennial committee takes them away. . . . Park superintendent Phllip B. Stroyan explained it this way:

“We gave the centennial committee permission to put up decorations on English Bay and in the Lost Lagoon. The only snag was that we did not know what they had in mind for the lagoon.

“These things appeared overnight. The monster, whatever it is supposed to be, is bad enough. But then this junk appears, with a ‘for sale’ sign on it. Well, we tore that sign off quickly enough, but the rest is there to stay till Frank Bernard — special events chairman for the centennial committee — takes them away.

“I guess it won’t be too long now,” Mr. Stroyan added.

Province 5 August 1958

I don’t understand why it was that the Province was convinced that the dragon was generally disliked. I quite like it. I’m guessing that the dragon/junk installation wasn’t in the Lagoon for much more than two or three months.

Province, June 21, 1958.

Cartoon Cutie

There seemed to be a lack of originality by the various Centennial committees, when it came to naming. In April 1958, it was announced by L. J. Wallace that there would be a “Centennial Sue” who would be the companion to “Century Sam“. These cartoon figures would serve to boost tourism in B.C. (Chilliwack Progress, April 2, 1958).

It isn’t clear which of the “Centennial Sues” was the first, the dragon or the cute/folksy human cartoon character. However, based on the description at the Museum of Vancouver, I’m inclined to put my money on the “monster.”

Centennial Sue. MOV. H2017.41.2. 1966.

Century Sam was a cartoon prospector created as a symbol for BC’s Centennial celebrations in 1958. In 1956 Lawrie Wallace created the idea of the character, while illustrator Bob Banks was tasked [with] actualizing the character. Banks had an extensive career in illustration, working on a range of projects including portraiture, Buzzer transit pamphlets, textbooks, magazines, and work for corporate clients including MacMillan Bloedel, BC Rail, and Air Canada. Century Sam, in his iconic hat, checkered shirt, yellow vest, and chinstrap beard, became a symbol for BC’s Centenaries and tourism in general. Banks also created a companion for Century Sam, Centennial Sue. The figures were used in 1958 and again for the 1966 celebrations of the formation of BC as a colony, as well as the 1967 centennial celebrating Canada’s confederation, and the 1971 centennial celebrating BC’s entrance into Canadian confederation.

MOV

Sam seems to have been ‘actualized’ by Banks before Sue was, but it’s difficult to say for sure, and since Mr. Banks has now gone to his reward, it’s now probably impossible to know.

But one thing is certain: the dragon of Lost Lagoon has been all but forgotten.

Misspellings of My Surname . . . Let Me Count the Ways!

Peter A Awrey Cropped from CVA LGN 484. 1889.

Aurey, Aury, Owrey, and Awray. I have found all of these mis-spellings of the surname of Peter Alpaugh Awrey (1824-1906). (Oddly, his middle name — which seems to me more challenging — was never misspelled in official documents!) The good folks at the B.C. Vital Statistics branch even managed to get one spelling for Peter (Aurey) and a different one for his wife, Rachel (Awrey)!

Awrey was, before coming to B.C., a farmer in Ontario and later (1880-1886) in Emerson, Manitoba. He and his wife, Rachel, came to Vancouver the year after civic incorporation (1886) to put up their heels after a lifetime of sowing and harvesting to enjoy their retirement. Why Vancouver? Well, it seems that they had a daughter living here: Martha (David) Evans. Perhaps that fact in addition to the more moderate climate of Vancouver served as motives.

Peter didn’t completely relax, though. He was a deacon at First Baptist Church, and later was named the first “life deacon”. He was also on the board of the Alexandra Orphanage.

LP 103.3 – Birds eye view looking down on 522 Homer Street from vantage of Holy Rosary Catholic Church. The home set back on the lot is likely 522; their yard is where the Homer Parking lot would be by 1974. Albert Langlois photo. 1900.

Crop of CVA 778-197 – The Homer Parking lot (shown in between the garage at right and the Victoria block at left) would have been 522 Homer. 1974.

The Awreys lived for most of their years in Vancouver at 522 Homer Street in the long-forgotten days when there were residences all along that street, before there was a wee parking lot on their former lot, and long before BC Hydro dominated the block.

For the last couple years of Peter’s life, the Awreys lived with daughter and son-in-law, Martha and David Evans, at their home at 724 Robson (the south side of Robson near Granville). Shortly after Christmas in 1905, Peter was out for a walk in their neighbourhood when he spotted a construction site and moved in for a closer view of it. In that period, streets did not have concrete sidewalks, but instead wooden boardwalks. The local newspaper attributed Peter’s accidental fall to his “failing eyesight”, but it could just as easily have been unsteadiness due to his age. But, in any case, he stumbled and fell into the excavated construction pit. When he was discovered some time later, he was unconscious, and was moved to the Evans’ home. He never regained consciousness and died nearly 48 hours later (Province, 2 January 1906). He was 83.

Str P229 – This is the south side of Robson between Granville and Howe. David and Martha Evans’ home (and David’s tailor business) would have been two doors to the right of the frame of this photo; just west of the barber shop shown here. Note the wooden boardwalk. Imagine how precarious it would have been to be standing on the edge of a wooden walk when trying to see a (presumably un-fenced) excavation of an undeveloped lot. ca1900.

Rachel passed in 1913 at age 85. David Evans (who formed the first Vancouver brass band) died in 1916 at age 65. Martha in 1948 at age 87.

The Awreys had one surviving grandchild from David and Martha: Joy Evans. The Awreys were predeceased by their grandson, Caradoc Evans, who died in 1887 (at age 10 months), who was the first person to be buried in the Mountain View Cemetery.

Port N173.6 – Mrs. David Evans at her son’s grave (Caradoc Evans) in Mountain View Cemetery. 1939.

Excerpt from 1st Baptist (Vancouver) Minute Book From Its Organization March 16th, 1887 to January 5th 1898. This shows the coming into membership of the Awreys at First Baptist Church on June 28, 1887. (Note: The church clerk of the time misspelled the Awreys’ name, too!), Page 5. Courtesy: First Baptist Church Archives.

The Steno Sisters

CVA 1376-653 – Catherine Pedden. 191-. J. W. Hughes photo.

In the early years of the twentieth century, it wasn’t often that a young woman started her own small business, much less made a ‘go’ of it for nearly 30 years! But that’s exactly what Catherine Pedden did. With help from her sister, Ellen, Catherine’s stenography business endured from 1913 to 1942.

Catherine and Ellen Pedden were two of the daughters of Joseph Pedden and Mary McArthur. Joseph emigrated to Canada from Scotland ca1843 with his family when he was quite young (about 7). He married Mary in 1871 and settled in Middlesex County, Ontario where they farmed. Four kids preceded Catherine and two came in between Catherine and Ellen. Catherine was born in 1885 and Ellen, the youngest child, came along in 1891.

Joseph died in 1910 at age 73 in Strathroy, ON. His passing seemed to prompt the move of Mary, Catherine, Ellen, and one of the brothers to the west coast. It isn’t clear to me exactly why they pulled up stakes in Strathroy to make such a major move, but chances are that it was related to money and the good prospects for making more of it in the relatively new urban centre of Vancouver.

Museum of Vancouver. H2004.94.8 1910s period photo of Catherine Pedden’s office (Catherine, it is claimed, is seated at the typewriter at left).

I haven’t been able to find any evidence of what education the two girls received, but I suspect they went to a secretarial college in Ontario after finishing secondary school.

CVA 1376-652 – Ellen Pedden. 190-.

Ellen seems to have been the first Pedden to make the trans-continental journey in 1912. She was employed by the Canadian Credit Men’s Trust Association and was living at the time at 607 East Cordova. The year following, however, Catherine was in town and was working for herself — also as a stenographer — in an office in the Northwest Securities Corp. building (on the site today known as The Lumbermen’s Building). Catherine and Ellen shared accommodation at 120 Cassiar. By 1914, one of their brothers and their mother Mary arrived in town. While Ellen was still working for the Credit Association, Catherine set up shop for herself as a freelance “public stenographer” [1] in a suite in the Birk’s Building. The following year, another sister, Margaret, was working in Vancouver, too; as a nurse. All of the Peddens were residing at 120 Cassiar.

By 1919, Ellen had left the Credit Association and joined forces with Catherine in working at her small business, which by this time had moved to the Pacific Buidling on West Hastings. The women made it known that they were “public stenographers” operating under the business name of “Vancouver Steno-Typists”. Catherine always appeared to be the “face” of the business.

The Pedden business must have been doing okay, as in 1918 (presumably following the end of Great War hostilities, thus making international steamship travel relatively safe), Catherine left Vancouver for a trip to Asia (HongKong, Shanghai, and Japan). She was there for about two years (Province, 19 August 1920). Much later (after WW2), Ellen took an “extended trip” to New Zealand and Australia, returning via Fiji and the Hawaiian Islands (Sun, 20 August 1952).

Both sisters were actively involved with the Crescent Rebekah Lodge (initially a women’s branch of the Masonic International Order of Odd Fellows; both women and men are now permitted to join).

By the 1930s, the business name had changed slightly to emphasize the stenography element of their services: henceforth it would be simply “Vancouver Stenographers” [2]. The name change seemed to happen about the same time as their final business move to the Stock Exchange building.

Catherine Pedden ad for Vancouver Stenographers in Vancouver Sun. 1 June 1929.

Catherine (age 55) and Ellen (49) Pedden retired in 1942.

In her retiring years, Catherine was involved with the leadership of the Vancouver branch of the Business Women’s and Professional Club (she was a past president) and of the Vancouver Women’s Curling Club. She was also a member of the Vancouver Heights Presbyterian Church (this church merged with the local Methodist congregation to become a United Church in 1925 as part of the church union movement; Vancouver Heights United disbanded in 1973).

Catherine died in 1965 at age 79 and Ellen passed in 1976 at age 84.

Notes

1. I tried in vain to determine what exactly was meant/implied by the title “Public Stenographer”. How was a Public Stenographer different from a garden-variety stenographer? Perhaps there wasn’t a difference. I even had a look at what American pop culture in the ’30s had to say about this. There was a movie titled Public Stenographer (starring Lola Lane and Buster Collier, Jr. and a small part played by Jason Robards, Sr., father of later Oscar-winner, Jason Jr.) about two young women on the make in the big city who work as stenographers. These two seem to me not at all like my impressions of Catherine and Ellen; the two starlets seem primarily concerned about maintaining their “girlish figures”. I didn’t get very far in the film before I turned it off, but from the way the job of “public stenographer” was portrayed in the early part of the film, my impression is that there may not have been any real difference between the tasks taken on by “stenographers” and “public stenographers”.
2. I should point out that, with the exception of the court stenographer (which is a very specialized job), the position of stenographer has today pretty much disappeared. My Dad used to teach stenography (or shorthand) at a Canadian college. He points out that, by the ’70s, with the growing popularity of dictaphone machines, the demand for steno and shorthand skills began to fade and that, by the ’90s, many colleges had scaled back or cancelled their steno programs. By the way, for the benefit of any millennial readers out there, I should note that the steno pad is a creature of the shorthand era.

Art Glass at First Baptist Church

First Baptist Church is going to be closed to the public for the next two years (2021-ca2023) as it undergoes substantial renovation, seismic upgrading and development. It seems to me appropriate, therefore, to offer a stained glass ‘tour’ of First Baptist here.

If you are interested in seeing all of my posts pertaining to FBC (to date), go to this link.

An excellent ‘farewell tour’ of the current church structure (at Nelson and Burrard), hosted by FBC member Kurtis Findlay, was held on April 30, 2021. If you are interested in seeing the recording of this, go here.

The (I am the Good Shepherd) Nesbit Memorial Window: Sanctuary

Nesbit memorial (I am the Good Shepherd) window. MDM photo.

This window was dedicated to the memory of John and Bessie Nesbit by their son and daughter on June 1, 1947. It was constructed in Toronto and installed by the Royal City Glass Company.

Mr. Nesbit came from Berwick-on Tweed, England, in 1888. Mrs. Nesbit came from St. Mawgan, Cornwall, England, in 1890. John died in 1936; Bessie in 1943.

The (He Restores My Soul) Joiner Memorial Window: Sanctuary,

Joiner memorial (He Restores My Soul) window in FBC’s sanctuary. Greg Burke photo.

This window was installed in memory of William Joiner and Lottie (1894-1988) & Maynard (1894-1990) Joiner, all longtime members of FBC. There is a mini-bio on Maynard and Lottie here. William (1865-1964) was Maynard’s dad. He worked as a printer in Scotland, Boston and Calgary before retiring to Vancouver. He served as FBC’s treasurer in his 80s.

The Joiner window was dedicated in the 1990s by the Joiner family. Mark Laughlin, FBC’s caretaker at the time the Joiner window was installed, had an interesting anecdote. He said that one of the donors was a dentist and when the window arrived at FBC, the dentist was offended by what looked like an overbite on the image of Jesus. So the window was returned to the manufacturer (who is unknown, today) for a re-do of Jesus’ mouth. The amusing thing, to me, is that the revised Jesus still seems to have an overbite!

It is mildly surprising to me that both of the windows on the east wall of the Sanctuary are related to the ‘good shepherd’ theme, and it’s unfortunate that no attempt was made to be consistent in the use of pronouns (“I am the Good Shepherd” and “He restores my soul”).

Cross and Crowns: Vestry

The Cross and Crowns (in the “Vestry”, aka, the “Prayer Room”). MDM photo.

This is among my favourite FBC art glass. It was designed by Sharon Wiebe, a member at First. It shows Christ’s cross as the central feature of the image and His crown of thorns appears beneath the cross and the crown of glory above it. Those three features are connected visually with an artful ribbon.

The window is located in the room at the front of the sanctuary on the west side. That room has been traditionally been referred to as the Vestry (probably inappropriately these days, because Baptist ministers do not wear anything like vestments and they probably never used the Vestry room as somewhere for donning vestments). Today it is, perhaps more accurately, referred to as the “Prayer Room”, the room where the pastor and platform people gather before worship services.

Worship Windows: Pinder Hall

Worship Windows (on the east wall of Pinder Hall). Alf Wiebe photo.

This pair of stained glass windows were dedicated in 2008 and were the result of the vision and collaboration of folks at FBC involved in the Choir and other music and worship ministries. The design for the windows was by Mae Runions. Alf Wiebe, who is an FBC member, was the stained glass artist who constructed the windows.

The project was prompted by the death of a Choir member, Stan Grenz, in 2005, who was a singer, guitar and trumpet player and whose ‘day job’ was Professor at Carey Theological College and Regent College. The windows were not intended to be a memorial or tribute to any individual, however. As the brochure published at the dedication of the windows said:

The two windows remind us that worship is a core value of our congregation. The left panel (Inspiration) suggests downward motion and mimics the ‘organ pipes’ in the sanctuary; the dove at the top is symbolic of God’s Spirit . . . . In the second panel on the right (Response), there is the reverse upward motion of believers lifting up their praises to God. The two birds down below suggest community. . . .This window mimics the brass instruments. Creating a horizontal line from left to right are the stylized square music notes proliferating [at] the bottom of both windows.

From “The Worship Windows Project” Dedication Brochure, 2008

Chapel Windows: Memorial Chapel

The First Baptist Church Memorial Chapel was dedicated as such on January 8, 1958 in a service led by FBC’s minister of the time, Rev. J. Gordon Jones. It has served as a gathering space for tiny services — most often for small weddings and memorial services. The space occupied by the Chapel has been part of the church structure at the northwest corner of Burrard and Nelson since it was built in 1911 and was used for various purposes — as a study for the senior minister, a utility room, a Sunday School classroom, and as a denominational administrative office.

Christ the Carpenter (aka “Christ in the House of His Parents”)

Retired FBC Caretaker, Mark Laughlin, standing adjacent to “Christ the Carpenter” window in the Memorial Chapel. MDM Photo.

The window shown above, “Christ the Carpenter” or “Christ in the House of His Parents”, is in memory of Wayman Kenneth Roberts (1904-1955), the Senior Minister of FBC at the time of his passing in 1955. This window, quoting from the Memorial Chapel dedication brochure symbolizes “our emphasis upon the Lordship of Christ”.

William Carey: Cobbler, Missionary and Scholar

William Carey: Cobbler, Missionary and Scholar window in the Memorial Chapel. MDM Photo.

The William Carey window is in memory of Ester Odella Duncan (1906-1957) and is meant to stress “the authority of the Word of God” for Baptists.

John Bunyan: Tinker, Writer, Preacher

John Bunyan: Tinker, Writer, Preacher window in the Memorial Chapel. MDM Photo.

The John Bunyan window is in memory of Esli Powers Miller (1872-1949) and stands for “soul liberty and spiritual freedom” in Baptist belief.

The Armour of God

The Armour of God window in the Memorial Chapel. MDM photo.

The west wall of the Memorial Chapel, when the Memorial Chapel was dedicated in 1958, was empty of any art glass. But in the 1958 dedication brochure, it was stated that:

It is hoped that, eventually, in the west wall of the Chapel, three windows will be installed portraying Roger Williams, the Statesman, Charles Haaddon Spurgeon, the Preacher, and Ann Hasseltine Judson, the Missionary.

Memorial Chapel dedication brochure.

But, as of 2021, at least, this dream for the west wall of the Chapel of some of those living in 1958 has not been realized.

There has been a single window installed on the west wall, “The Armour of God” in memory of Padre James Willox Duncan (1906-2002). The symbols are taken from Ephesians 6:10-18. The stained glass artisan of this window was Jeanette Blackwell.

Other Art Glass at First Baptist

There is other art glass at FBC that isn’t perhaps as noticeable, but is every bit as representative of the care and skill of the makers.

Burrard Street Tower Entry

Burrard Street Tower Entry. Alf Weibe photo. This work was done by Alf Wiebe in 2005 to replicate the windows at this location prior to the 1931 fire which gutted the sanctuary.

Nelson Street Balcony Windows

South-facing Nelson Street (Balcony) Windows. MDM photo. The cross was installed by Alf Wiebe in 2004.

A Window in the Balcony

A Window (with vintage light fixtures silhouetted) from the Balcony of the Sanctuary. MDM photo.

Tower Windows

Tower windows near sanctuary’s balcony. Alf Wiebe photo.

Tower window. Alf Wiebe photo.

Tower window. Alf Wiebe photo.

Tower windows and rosette window near the top of the tower. There are four rosettes in the tower — one on each side. Sharon Wiebe designed and Alf Wiebe installed the rosettes in 2004. Alf Wiebe photo.

The tower windows shown above received extensive repairs at the skillful hand of Alf Weibe. Alf had this to say in email messages regarding these windows:

In 2005 I repaired all of the windows in the tower, and replicated the windows above the door facing Burrard St to be like the windows prior to the [1931] fire. The windows in the tower were all original windows and were falling apart, so. . . I spent the entire summer rebuilding those windows. Finding matching glass was not possible in Vancouver at the time, but I found a distributor of stained glass in Seattle that worked with samples I had and found matching glass. Mark [Laughlin, FBC’s caretaker at that time] found a picture of the church prior to the fire and, based on those pictures, I also designed windows to replace some that had been replaced by plain glass sometime in the past.

[The tower windows] get smaller with each floor of the tower as you go up. Only people familiar with the tower entrance in the balcony would ever have seen these, and only those who were adventurous enough to climb the very steep set of stairs [from the FBC Archives room up past the chimes to the very top of the tower] will ever have seen them. The smallest upper ones are reproductions because all that was left [of the original windows] were fragments of lead and glass.

Alf Wiebe in email messages to the author.

Burrard Street’s “Rose of Sharon” Window

Before: The site of the 1990s-installed ‘Rose of Sharon’ window (near the roofline of FBC’s Burrard Street facing wall). Crop of CVA 790-1657. 1985?

After: The Rose of Sharon Window. Greg Burke photo.

This window is high above Pinder Hall and the Gym facing onto Burrard Street and is known by those ‘in the know’ as the “Rose of Sharon” window. It is round, like the roses in the tower, but this window was installed in the early 1990s, is much larger, and has a quite distinctive appearance. Before the 1990s, the place where the window is now was filled in with granite stonework. By the ’90s, the space was allowing moisture inside and instead of simply plugging it, the church leaders (at Mark Laughlin’s suggestion) decided to fill the round space with art glass. It isn’t known today who the artist was who created the Rose of Sharon window.

Note

*I’m grateful to each of the following for enduring with patience and good grace my questions and requests in connection with the research and writing of this post: Greg Burke, Edna Grenz, Mark Laughlin, Evelyn Loewen, and Alf & Sharon Wiebe.

Sir John and Prince Volkonsky

VPL 8916. Sir John Martin-Harvey (left) and Russian Prince Volkonsky (right) fencing at the Fencing Academy in Vancouver. 1926. Stuart Thomson.

Sir John Martin Harvey had a reputation as a Shakespearean actor on the stage and (later) as a silent film star in the U.K. and in the wider world, not least in Canada (when he was in Vancouver in 1921, he planted a tree in the Shakespeare Garden in Stanley Park. It is still there, pictured below)². The Russian Prince pictured above with Sir John was, however, at the time this photo was taken (post-Russian revolution), a relative nobody.

In an interview given for the Winnipeg Tribune in November, 1926, Prince Sergeie Alexandrovish Volkonsky claimed that he’d been on a world tour, searching for his parents, from whom he’d become separated during the Revolution.  According to the Tribune,

CVA 99-1533 – Prince Volkonsky. Passport photograph. 1926. Stuart Thomson photo.

The last trace he had of them was that they had gone to France. After a fruitless search through the country, the prince went to England and there he spent two years. Since that time he has visited every corner of the globe. He arrived in Victoria, B.C. nine months ago from New Zealand . . . . On his way to Winnipeg from the Pacific Coast, the prince stayed near Calgary for a few weeks on a ranch owned by a Russian count . . . . Speaking of Canada, the prince termed it as “not a bad place at all. I like Canada and Canadians,” he said, “and would like to stay here, as it reminds me of Russia.” His ambition is to own a sheep ranch. “I want to become a good naturalized Canadian,” he said. (Winnipeg Tribune. November 1, 1926)

It seems to me likely that while his missing parents may have motivated his travels early on, surely by the time he reached Canada nearly a decade later, his motivation would have become, at least, mixed; that the principal reason for his being in Canada was to put down roots.

This conclusion seems to be supported by remarks in Sir John Martin Harvey‘s autobiography:

Caricature of Sir John Martin-Harvey. Maurice Willson Disher. The Last Romantic. London: Hutchinson & Co., 1948.

Of course, after the Russian revolution, the whole Pacific coast was littered with desolate refugees from that unhappy country. Vancouver was full of them . . . . Prince Volkonski . . . was haunting afternoon tea parties for the bread and butter he could unnoticed consume . . . . He had been in turn insurance agent, bill poster, waiter and actor. When my wife and I met him he was trying to teach the youngsters of Vancouver the elegant accomplishment of fencing — with scant encouragement. He thought that if I would visit his salles d’armes and allow myself to be photographed for a picture-paper in the midst of a bout with him, it might help. This I was delighted to do, and found myself credited by the newspaper with the reputation of being the finest swordsman in Europe! The youth of the city, however, were unimpressed, and the school was shortly afterwards closed. (The Autobiography of Sir John Martin-Harvey. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co. 1933, pp 435-36).

There is no evidence in Vancouver directories of there being a dedicated fencing academy in the 1920s. (The only sign I’ve seen of there being any school in the city which included fencing on its curriculum was an ad for M. Lester Dancing Academy). But there was a mention of the location of Volkonsky’s fencing studio in the Sun: it was apparently located (albeit briefly, by all accounts) at Robson and Howe in “the Court House block”. (Sun, 20 Mar 1926).

It seems plain from Sir John’s report (and, reading between the lines in the Tribune article, too) that Volkonsky was tired out, hungry, and desperate to establish himself in a new, friendlier nation.

But I’ve been unable to find out what ultimately happened to Prince Volkonsky.¹ I can find no evidence that he ever became a naturalized Canadian (sheep farmer or otherwise). I have not even been able to ascertain where he died and was buried. Indeed, the later years of Sergeie Alexandrovish Volkonsky seem to be every bit as clouded in mystery to contemporary researchers as were his parents’ latter years to him!

Notes

¹In Russia’s Rulers Under the Old Regime (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989), Dominic Lieven accurately notes: “[A]ttempting to trace relationships in the huge Volkonsky family is a nightmare.”

²Martin-Harvey was in Vancouver more than just the once. He was here in 1913 in “The Only Way” at Empress Theatre (Sun, 31 May 1913); 1914 in “The Only Way,” “The Cigarette Maker’s Romance,” and “The Breed of the Treshams” at Avenue Theatre (Sun, 23 March 1914); 1921  in “Garrick,” “The Burgomaster of Stilemonde,” and “The Only Way” at Avenue Theatre (Province, 23 February 1921); 1924 in (among others) “Oedipus Rex,” and “Hamlet” at Orpheum Theatre (Province, 12 April 1924); 1926 in “The Corsican Brothers” at Orpheum Theatre; and in 1932 in “The King’s Messenger” and “The Bells” at Vancouver Theatre (Province, 21 February 1932). Sir John Martin-Harvey died in 1944 at the age of 81. 

The plaque beneath the tree planted by John Martin Harvey in Stanley Park’s Shakespeare Garden in 1921. MDM photo.

Hornett vs. Solomon

CVA 677-542 – Harry Solomon’s “New and Second Hand Store (Clothing, Furnishings, Boots & Shoes, Guns, Jewery etc., Trunks & Valises)”. 221 Abbott Street (adjacent to Blood Alley); where Gowon Cafe is located, today. 1906. P. T. Timms photo.

The Process (and Some Findings)

A number of VAIW readers have asked me how I get and develop ideas for my posts. This post presents a pretty typical example, so indulge me as I trace the process:

• I began with an image (usually a City of Vancouver Archives photo, as in this case, but sometimes an illustration or postcard from another source). Images are nearly always the initial inspiration for my posts.
• I then try to verify the location in the city where the image was made. CVA claimed that the image shown above was made at 233 Abbott. But I found evidence (see later in this bullet) that Solomon’s store was actually at 221 Abbott. Solomon’s shop was, therefore, on the site of what would become, in 1907, the Winters Hotel building (rather than the Central City Mission, as CVA had averred; Province. 30 October 1907). I narrowed the year the photo was made to 1906 (from “ca1903?” maintained by CVA) by consulting local newspapers, where I found an ad in 1906 that was nearly identical to the “fire sale” sign posted over the entry to Solomon’s shop: “Three thousand dollars worth of mixed stock, consisting of clothing, boots & shoes, etc., slightly damaged by water, will sell positively at a great sacrifice. Property of H. Solomon & Co., 221 Abbott St” (Province. 28 February 1906).
• I began to track down who “H. Solomon” was. I started by looking for some mention of him in BC vital statistics. Here I found two death notices of men named “Harry Solomon”; one had an online-accessible death certificate while the other didn’t. The Solomon with a death certificate, I concluded, couldn’t be our guy, as he been residing in Vancouver for just three days. The other Harry Solomon (our man, I concluded) had lived to age 45, dying in August, 1925. This would put Harry in his mid-20s at the time of the conflict detailed below.
• It was disappointing not to find a death certificate online for Harry Solomon, but there were other avenues to explore for information on him. I turned to newspaper listings pertaining to Harry. There weren’t many, but this search led me to the entertaining story that follows.
• I found out more about Solomon in Census Canada records, notably that the death record for him in BC Vital Stats that showed his age at death in 1925 as 45 was probably wrong. The 1891 Census shows an H. Solomon born to F. and M. Solomon in Germany in 1868. He was the eldest of three kids. The thing that convinced me that this record was more accurate than the Vital Stats record was that Harry’s Dad (F. Solomon) had the occupation of “peddler” — not greatly different from Harry’s second hand shop proprietorship.
• The story below mentions a gent named Leonard Hornett. According to the news story, Hornett was in Vancouver visiting from his home in Red Deer, AB. Other newspaper clippings established that Hornett was actually a farmer from an unincorporated community near Red Deer called Hill End.
• I had a look in VPL’s Historical Photos and UBC’s Open Collections for anything that these institutions might have pertaining to Hornett, Solomon, or 221 Abbott Street; nothing much was gleaned from these latter searches.
  

How Solomon Schvindled Himself

On Friday, 2nd February 1906, Leonard Hornett, who was a resident of the Red Deer, Alberta area (specifically, the district of Hill End, where he farmed), was in Vancouver on a visit. He was out for a stroll along the streets of Gastown when he happened across a second hand shop on Abbott Street: H. Solomon’s store. Hornett saw a leather-lined shooting coat in the window that appealed to him.

I’ll allow the person who reported on this story for the World to take up the tale:

He went in and asked the young man behind the counter what was the price of the coat. He answered $3. “Here is your money,” said Mr. Hornett, and the bargain was concluded and the coat wrapped up. . . .

Mr. Hornett did not want [anything else] and started away. He had not got far [down the street] when the fun began. The people on Water street had a view of a man in a wild state of excitement tearing along the sidewalk, shouting a mixture of Yiddish and English as he ran, in wake of a peaceable old gentleman who did not look as if he would harm even an enemy unless forced to, much less steal anything. When the flying man reached the “old un”, he made a grab at the parcel he was carrying, shouting as he did so, “Vat a shame. Vat a shame. He would ruin me. Oh! my peautiful, peautiful goat.”

The old gentleman had hold of the string of the parcel and at the first [jerk] it did not break but after a short tug of war during which the air was filled with Yiddish expostulations and objurgations the string gave way and Mr. Solomon, for it was he, fled back to his store hugging the coat to his bosom like a long lost child. In a few moments he rushed out again and pushed $3 into the old gentleman’s pocket . . . . If Mr. Solomon expected Mr. Hornett to come back and raise his bid he was mistaken. Mr. Hornett told his troubles to Detective Waddell and had a warrant for theft sworn out against [Mr. Solomon]. . . .

Mr. Solomon took his place in the box and removing his hat after being sworn he leaned over and proceeded . . . . “You see it was shoost dis vay, chudge,” said Mr. Solomon solemnly and impressively. “I had to go out for a few minutes and I ask Mr. Kattlefat, he is my frent, chudge, not my glerk, to vatch the store for me. Ven I come pack I fount he had sold the peautiful goat dat I refused seven tollar for day before yesterday for tree tollar! I vent after the goat and give the man back his moneys.”

“What do you value the coat at?” asked the court.

“Eight tollars, your honour.”

“And a man with your accent and in your business refused $7 for it?” asked the magistrate, in a tone of sarcastic surprise.

When the laugh subsided the magistrate decided that Solomon was responsible for what his agent had done. The coat was Mr. Hornett’s property. The $3 belonged to Solomon.

“Here you are, lad,” said Mr. Hornett. “It’s been in my pocket ever since; thou might have had it before if thou’d liked.”

Province. 5 February 1906.

The Hornetts and . . . Kattlefat?

Leonard Hornett Sr. and his wife, Sarah Stockbridge, emigrated to Canada from England in 1891. The couple retired from farming in Alberta in 1919 when they moved to Vancouver. Sarah died in 1931; he married a second time, to Edener Smith, in 1932. Leonard died in 1944. It was noted in local newspapers that at his death at age 93, he was BC’s oldest automobile driver (Province. 3 January 1944).

Hornett’s son, Leonard Jr. lived in Vancouver. It was likely Jr. whom Sr. was in town to see in 1906. Leonard Jr. was a job printer in partnership with. Mr. Bolam at that time. He married Beatrice Andrews in 1905 in Vancouver. Later, he worked for Keystone Press. He died in Vancouver in 1957 at the age of 79. Leonard Sr. and Sarah also had three daughters.

I wasn’t able to track down “Mr. Kattlefat” in the vital statistics records and there is no listing of “Kattlefat” in any local newspaper, except for the article quoted above. Chances are that either Harry Solomon wasn’t able to pronounce the name or the newspaper reporters didn’t hear/spell it correctly; the Province reporter had the “frent’s” name as “Candlewax”!

Some 19th-Century Lingo Related to Marriage and Singleness

This brief post is a tour of three odd Victorian words and phrases that pertain to marriage and singleness and that were employed in early Vancouver newspapers.

CVA 2018-020.3612 – A pioneer bachelor’s hall, Vancouver, 1890.

Bachelor’s Hall

The photo above shows a bachelor’s hall in Vancouver in 1890. This seems to have been, in the earliest years of the city, a type of doss house. The early bachelor’s halls were frequented by seasonal workers, of which Vancouver had its fair share (forestry workers, especially).

 CVA 371-739 – [Exterior of F.W. Hewton’s residence at 544 Burrard Street] ca1903.

I’ve found evidence of bachelor’s halls at:
– 935 Hornby St. — Province 19 Nov 1898.
– 1041 Robson (corner of Thurlow) — Province 11 Aug 1904.
– 544 Burrard (also the Hewton School of Music) — Province. 17 Dec 1906.
– East side of 5th (today’s Selkirk) Street, north of Moosomin (today’s W. 73rd) Ave (in Eburne/Marpole) — 1916 Henderson Directory.
– 2118 W. 41st Ave (updstairs) — 1920 Henderson Directory.

Most of the above locations were not, I suspect, halls in the sense of the initial photo (with two or more men to a bed). I got the impression that most of these had one bachelor per room.

”Keeping Bachelor’s Hall”

This was a phrase used in Vancouver, which could be a longer way of saying that so-and-so is a bachelor; could also be a way of saying, in today’s colloquial, “I’m batching it for awhile.” For example: “My family are away on a visit at present, and I am keeping bachelor’s hall out at the house” (Province, 24 Feb 1900).

A “Benedict”

A benedict is “a newly married man, especially one who was previously a confirmed bachelor.” An example of this: “Surely Cupid himself . . . [w]ill be present to wish every maid a matron and every bachelor a benedict . . .” (World, 8 Feb 1907).

“Goin’ to the Hymeneal Altar, and We’re . . .”

A hymeneal altar pertains to a wedding or marriage (since this is a family blog, I won’t get into other etymological sources of this phrase). A usage example from the Vancouver Daily World: “Speaking of a doctor getting married, calls to mind the fact that a certain well-known Granville Street disciple of Aesculapius [Greco-Roman god of medicine], who has dabbled considerably in provincial politics, is soon to lead his betrothed to the hymeneal altar” (World. 3 Aug 1893).

Why the author didn’t simply say “A Granville Street physician is getting married soon,” I don’t know. He/she must have been paid by the word!

Those Musical (and Tragic) Clays

The Musical Clays. Milton and Amy Clay, and between them, Reginald. Percy is on far left. Harold isn’t in this photo (nor, for that matter, is Gwendoline; she probably wasn’t born when this image was made, but in any case, she never seemed to ‘count’ as one of the “Musical Clays”. Vancouver Sun. September 13, 1952.

Prof. Milton Clay his wife, Amy and their boys, Percy, Harold, and Reginald made quite a splash during their time in Vancouver. Milton, who was an unabashed promoter of himself and his family, made sure that from their arrival in Vancouver, the Clays were widely known as “The Musical Clays”. 

The Clay family [1] emigrated to Canada from England, settling in Vancouver in 1905. It was widely reported for many years that the Clays had had a large audience in the ‘motherland’ and, specifically that eldest son, Percy (who was scarcely 7 when they arrived in Vancouver), was known in England as the ‘World’s Wonder’ for his ability to play several instruments (4 at that time; 10 by the time they began performing here). These reports seem to have been largely fictitious, encouraged by Prof. Clay’s public relations juggernaut. I was unable to track down any reports in newspapers published in England of Percy performing there, nor, for that matter, of any of the Clays doing so. 

Within a few months of their arrival, the Clays were living in their home, 850 Helmcken Street, which also served as the HQ of the English Academy of Music, of which Milton was principal. According to a later report by Reginald, his father had as many as 110 pupils per week, with the first arriving at 6am and the last leaving at 10pm (Sun, 13 September 1952). Clay’s English Academy would be one of two local institutions (the Vancouver College of Music was the other) that was certified to train students for music exams set by Trinity College, London.

In 1906, Milton launched a “musical carnival and diorama” of the Russo-Japanese War. Central to this was Clay’s 18-piece banjo, mandolin, and violin orchestra and songs with questionable titles, today, such as “Happy Jappy Soldier Man” and “Soldier Boys are Only Toys” (World. 15 Sept 1906). According to the Vancouver News-Advertiser:

“There was not a single vacant seat at the Opera House” for the first performance and that “traffic was snarled [by horses and buggies, presumably, as this was prior to there being automobiles in the city] between Robson and Georgia on Granville by the attending throng.”

Vancouver News-Advertiser 30 Sept 1906 quoted in Vancouver Sun 13 Sept. 1952.

Chilliwack Progress. 30 June 1909.

By 1909, it occurred to the ambitious Prof. Clay that the Musical Clays may find a new and appreciative audience in the northern regions. In the summer, the Clays set their faces north via steamship from Vancouver. They played such places as Whitehorse, Granville (north of Dawson City) and Port Essington (between Terrace and Prince Rupert; now a ghost town).

If Vancouverites had seemed hungry for music, the miners, loggers, and fishermen of the North were starved for it . . . . [T]he concerts put on by the Clays were jammed. After each performance the family was showered with gifts, including a fair number of gold nuggets.

Sun. 13 September 1952.

Once back in Vancouver, Amy became active in several groups noted for their “women’s work”, including the Daughters of England (of which she was president for awhile), the Red Cross Society, and the women’s auxiliary of the Great War Veterans Association. She seemed gradually to be stepping away from public appearances with the Musical Clays as the boys grew older.

Meanwhile, most of Milton’s time, seemed to be dedicated to his English Academy and the musical instruction of other people’s kids, and the presentation of regular “musicales” where his students showed off what they’d learned. When he wasn’t kept busy with the Academy, he had purchased a summer resort property sometime around 1920 that was situated 3 miles north of Horseshoe Bay. It would become known as “Clay’s Landing”.

Around the time of the Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco (1915), the earlier craze for the mandolin and banjo was starting to fade and was replaced by a new fad: a love for Hawaiian and Spanish guitars. Reginald was an early convert to the Hawaiian guitar and he and his brothers started a dance band that featured that instrument. The boys appear also to have had a short-lived Saxophone orchestra (Province 16 October 1920).

Percy and Reginald were married on the same day in 1923 — a double wedding. Percy married Bertha Tribe; he indicated on the marriage certificate that his occupation was “musician”. Reginald married Helen Nelson; he showed his occupation as “music teacher”. Harold married Muriel Epps in 1924.

On 28 October 1924, in the Province newspaper, there appeared this shocking notice:

I hereby give notice that I, Milton Clay, 1249 Davie Street, am not responsible for any debts contracted by my wife, Amy E. Clay, who has left her home without just cause. — Milton Clay

Province. 28 October 1924.

It is pretty clear from this that Mr. and Mrs. Clay were having serious marital problems and that Amy had moved out of their home. There was no other public announcement or legal action (such as divorce) taken by either of them.

The next mention of Amy in the local newspapers was on March 31, 1927.

She died on March 29, in her 50th year, at Vancouver General Hospital. Her death certificate is not available online and the cause of her death was not specified in her obituary. The obituary did show her address at the time of death as 2510 Marine Drive East. At that time, Milton was living at #5-1035 Granville Street.

Things went from bad to worse for the family. On December 24, 1927, Milton went missing after heading out on the water with a rented rowboat:

The Vancouver music teacher is believed to have been drowned Christmas Eve about 3 miles from Horseshoe Bay [Clay’s Landing, I presume], which point he left in a rowboat for Sunset Beach. The boat, with its oars and a club bag was later found adrift off St. Mark’s Summer Camp beach, a short distance from the professor’s objective, and it is presumed that while attempting a landing at the small wharf he lost his balance and was drowned.

Victoria Times Colonist. 2 January 1928.

Milton Clay’s body was never found and there was no public funeral, as far as I can tell. The only public statement was one made by someone whose initials were B.B.C. It was published in a local newspaper a year after he was presumed drowned. (Poetry wasn’t B.B.C.’s strength).

IN LOVING AND AFFECTIONATE MEMORY of Prof. Milton Clay, who passed out of my life on December 24, 1927. “There came a mist and a blinding rain and life was never the same again.” — B.B.C.

Province. 24 December 1928.

But fate wasn’t finished with the Clays yet. In 1956, Gwendoline (1907-1956), the “unmentioned Clay” who had seemed to be more interested in sports than music, passed away from breast cancer (she’d been married to Wallace Parker since 1937). And a year later, a few months after he moved to Kelowna after a career as a postal carrier, Percy (1897-1957) committed suicide — by, of all things, drowning in Okanagan Lake.

Reginald (1898-1985), of all of the family, was the only one of the kids who stuck with music as a full-time career. He was a music teacher for many years, dying at the age of 86. Harold (1900-1986) was the last of the Musical Clays. He also died at age 86 after having had a career as a sign writer in Vancouver.

Notes

1. The idea for this post came from Neil Whaley, who saw potential in the Clays for a good story. Good eye, Neil!

Vancouver’s Junkmen of the Thirties

Jewish Museum & Archives of B.C. L.25110 – Harry Halpern some time after he’d left the occupation of junkman. ca 1960.

This is an atypical VAIW post. It consists largely of an extended verbatim quotation from a long-forgotten West End Vancouver newspaper, called the West End Breeze. The subject of the quote is the junkmen of the 1930s who, with horse and wagon, went through the back lanes of the West End collecting and buying junk for the purpose of selling it to junk dealers. These junkmen were, in fact, early recyclers in the city.

The Breeze was a weekly community newspaper, edited by former Vancouver Sun reporter Myrtle Patterson Gregory (1898-1981) and published in 1932-33. Vancouver collector Neil Whaley has the only known copy of the paper, a bound edition from Gregory’s family. He has graciously made his copy of this article available for use on VAIW.

Myrtle Patterson Gregory started the Breeze as a way to work from home while raising two children. The book Women Who Made The News, by Marjorie Lang, says that Gregory was reputed to be the highest paid female reporter in Canada in the 1920s — at $25 a week. When the Sun started Edith Adams Cottage, Myrtle headed it with a staff of university-trained home economists.

”Any Joonk?” Call Europe-Born Junkmen Who Ride West End Lanes Day After Day

“Any oldt clothe’, any oldt shoe’, any oldt bottl’ — Any Joonk? –“

Vibrant foreign voices from Russia, Poland, Germany — sing-song this cry of wares-to-buy along our West End lanes to an accompaniment of scraping wagon wheels and plod-plodding of horses’ hoofs – minor notes in the rich symphony of West End life and so familiar that we lend to them only a subconscious ear, overlooking entirely the possibilities for human interest. Human interest in sordid “junk”? Human interest, even drama!

“Ja, this garten,” a German junkman said longingly one Spring day as he looked at table and chairs under a blossoming tree. “Ja, this garten, it iss like mein home in Bavaria. Meine frau and my little girl are there. I work to bring them here . . . .two years I work . . . . but now,” a despairing shrug, “hard times.”

Depression hits even the junkmen. Not so many bottles. People are not entertaining so lavishly. Not so many old shoes or old clothes — people are wearing them, not selling them. Even things which in the old days they were glad to have carried away for nothing, they are trying to sell to the junkman for as many pennies as possible.

Ben Gold refuses to be downcast. You’ve heard him in the lanes. He cries his “Any old junk?” call as do the others, but three or four times every block he breaks into a curious chant — “Doo, doo, doo-doo, doo-do-o-o!” (After four years, the words are still unintelligible to this writer).

“Gold, he like fon,” explains one of his contemporaries. “He get tired of same old call, so he put “You Hoo Hoo Hoo” after it — for fon.”

Not two or three junkmen, but ten or more, ply their trade through the West End lanes. Imagine never seeing the West End streets except where they intercept the lanes, briefly. Riding all day on a high wagon seat through lanes — eight miles of lanes a day. Four times towards the Park, and four times east towards Granville. Lunches, wrapped in brown paper, are eaten along the way. On short winter days, a red lantern beside the driver’s seat is lighted for the last couple of miles.

Every junkman, or practically so, owns his own horse and wagon. Harry Halperin [Halpern], on the West End “beat” for 2 years, drives “Baby,” who has been traveling though our lanes for 4 years. “Maggie” is another old faithful. On fine days, junkmen and horse start very early in the morning to make their daily round — for the early birds get the best junk!

Any old clothes? A junkman will buy a good suit for $5 and he will sell it for $7.50 at his special market. He pays 1c a pound for rags. Any old shoes? They are worth 50c a pair to the junkman, allowing him to make a small margin of profit. Any old bottles? Fifteen cents for a dozen is the standard price offered to private vendors in the West End and the junkman will re-sell them to the International Junk Company on Main Street, allowing himself a percentage. Earnings of the junkman average about $3 a day, although they may range from a few cents on a poor day to $10 on a lucky day when women are selling their husbands’ old suits.

Bottles are thus started on their return trip to breweries, wineries and manufacturing concerns. Rags become “wipes,” “shoddy” and material for making into fine papers, wallpaper and roofing. Iron goes back to the foundry, and other metals are gathered up for re-smeltering. Rubber can be re-used. So can farmers’ sacks. The junkman is the important link in the reclaiming of these materials.

Among the best known of the junkmen, in addition to Ben Gold and Harry Halperin [Halpern], are M. Hammer, Jerry [Joe?] Sapoznick, E. Schwartz, T. Jacobson, Ben Baltman, F. Kurtz, S. Kurtz, A. Fagan.

Heat does not deter them from the daily grind . . . . nor wet weather.

“Rain?” asked one younger man with expressive hands, “What does eet matter? We mus’ mak’ de leeving!”

West End Breeze. July 8, 1932

Most of the men listed in the article were of Jewish ancestry. There were a couple of non-Jewish gents. Jacobson was probably from a Slavic country (possibly Finland). But, judging from the death certificates I was able to find, most of the others were “Hebrews”. Benjamin Gold (1884-1949) spent 20 years as as a “junk dealer”. He came from Russia. Joe (I couldn’t find any indication of a Jerry) Sapoznick (1897-1973) was also from Russia. The other three junkmen for whom I was able to find death notices were all from Poland. Max Hammer died in 1947 at age 91. Benny Baltman (1879-1955) lived to 75. And Harry Halpern (not Halperin) (1902-1980) lived until he was 78.

This need hardly be said, perhaps, but none of these junkmen lived in the West End in 1932. They lived, principally on Powell, Union, and Jackson streets. In other words, they lived in the East End and worked in the West End.

I was thrilled to find the photo of Harry Halpern shown above at the Jewish Museum & Archives site. And also the following blurb about his early life, published in the Vancouver Sun in the year of his death:

Harry Halpern was born in Poland in 1902, worked as a butcher, then came to Canada in 1930.

” . . . . I saw an old man driving a horse and a wagon. And I said to him, “What are you doing for a living?” He said “I buy shmatas“. That means rags in Jewish, old clothes. He knew I noticed he was Jewish, and I was Jewish. I said, “Listen, can you take me in your wagon, and show me the town?” He said, “Oh I don’t want partners.” I said, “I don’t want to be a partner, just show me the town. I’ll sit with you in the wagon and you go around.” He said, “Okay. But I promise you I’m not going to give you nothing.”

I went with him to Twelfth Avenue, to the lane. And you know what he did? The first thing he said was “Junk! Rags! Bottles!”

I said, “You’ve got to do that?”

He said, “Well, if I’m not going to do that, nobody will know I’m a junkman.”

Mein Gott, I said to myself, I’ve come to Vancouver to do things like that!”

Vancouver Sun. 4 January 1980 (Halpern’s was one of the Sun’s “Voices from the East End”).
(Note: This quotation is from the first few minutes of Harry Halpern’s contribution to the Jewish Museum & Archives Oral History Project. For Halpern’s full interview, contact the Jewish Museum & Archives of BC.)

‘Knight of the Brush and Broom’ and Curator of What Would Become MOA

UBC Archives Collection. “Old Bill” Tansley (far right) talking with some of the students on UBC’s Fairview campus. 1920.

William Tansley (1859-1951) was a UBC janitor starting in September 1916, in the period when the school was located in the Fairview district (at what is today Vancouver General Hospital). When Tansley accepted his position at UBC, it was another in a succession of several jobs that he’d held. Doubtless, he didn’t suspect that he would retire from UBC as the Curator of its museum.

A Varied Resume

Bill Tansley was born in England at Stoke-on-Trent, the son of a pottery maker, William Sr., and Emma Stanway. His grandfather sent him to a branch of the School of Science and Art in Hanley, England for a couple of years. His love was art. Unfortunately, he didn’t have too much additional formal training. But I suspect he would say that he had all the training he needed to get along. Much of his later learning was self-taught.

His resume of jobs was varied (Province 14 Jan 1939), to put it mildly:

1870s: Left England for North America. Spent a couple years at Cranford, NJ working as a terracotta worker, a printer and felt maker.

ca1878: Contracted malaria and spent some time in St. Luke’s Hospital, New York. Once he recovered, he shoveled coal and loaded pig iron on the docks at Perth Amboy, NJ. When dock workers struck for higher wages, he returned to NY where he worked as a decorator of toys.

1886: Returned to England, working at Milton where his family was living, as a house painter and decorator. Married Annie Elizabeth (1866-1930). (Bill married his second wife, Bessie, a year after Annie’s passing).

1890: Worked for a greenhouse manufacturer and was later made foreman of the glazing department.

ca1891: Went to London where he worked for a bicycle manufacturer. He lived near the Hugh Myddleton School, which offered university extension classes. He attended classes in French, economics, geometry, and art.

ca1900: Opened his own bicycle shop in Yarmouth, England.

1903: Left England for Canada, settling in Dundurn, SK where he was a house decorator and taught art at night school.

1904: Left Saskatchewan for Vancouver, where he worked in the carriage works of Tupper and Son and later for Lobb & Muir, blacksmiths, on Westminster Ave. (Kingsway). He left that job after he became ill with lead poisoning.

CVA Bu P669 – Group portrait in front of Lobb and Muir Blacksmiths at 2410 Westminster Avenue (Kingsway). ca1906. This is about the time that Tansley was working for them; the gent standing just behind the little girl appears to me to look like Bill Tansley.

1910-1914: He next worked for A. M. Ross & Co. Realtors for a while. Realty was booming, so he opened his own office; his health failed again, and he was forced to withdraw from realty work.

ca1915: Worked for awhile for BC Telephone and BC Electric (doing what isn’t known, but it seems likely it consisted of painting — one of the few themes — and one of Tansley’s loves — among several of his jobs).

’Knight of the Brush and Broom’

In September 1916, Tansley took a job at the recently opened UBC. He was a night watchman and janitor in the Arts/Library Building at Fairview. He assumed this job at the age of 57 — an age at which most men would be thinking of retirement.

William Tansley pictured in UBC’s Third Annual, 1918. Tansley was sometimes referred to as a ‘Knight of the Brush and Broom’ and on other occasions as ‘Curator of the Dustpan’. UBC Archives.

In 1917, he went onto the day shift. That meant that he could have more contact with the students (and get a decent night’s rest)!

“I enjoy the association with the students here,” he said in answer to a question. “I like the conversation and the discussions which university men often promote when they get together, and I have made many valuable friendships in the course of my work.”

The Province. 4 March 1922.

It seems the sentiment was mutual. Male students referred to him, affectionately, as “Old Bill”. Female students reportedly called him “Mr. Tansley”, with equal regard. At the end of the 1920-21 session, the students took up a collection for Tansley, presenting him with a bucketful of money. He invested the cash gift in a set of books called Original Sources (The Province. 4 March 1922).

Curator of Nascent Museum of Anthropology

In 1927, Dr. Frank Burnett donated his sizable collection of materials from the South Seas to UBC and Tansley was made the curator of the collection. How did Tansley and Burnett connect?

Mr. Tansley had first met Dr. Frank Burnett when he arrived [in Vancouver] from Dundurn [SK] with a letter of introduction to the firm of Burnett, Horne & Co. [Insurance Brokers]. When the doctor left his valuable collection of native curiosities to the University in 1927 what was more logical than that his old friend “Bill” should be placed in charge of it.

The Province. 14 January 1939.

CVA Out P647 – Dr. Frank Burnett surrounded by his collection of South Seas’ artifacts. 192-.

The Burnett Collection was established on the first floor of the Main Library and was formally known as the Burnett Ethnological Museum (sometimes referred to casually as the UBC Museum) The Burnett Collection would later form the core of the Museum of Anthropology (MOA). It consisted of “curious relics, rated as the most complete representative Polynesian collection in the world . . . . Among the exhibits are figures of Polynesian gods, native implements, several skulls, and samples of native dress” (UBC Student Handbook: 1929, p. 73).

Tansley made his own contribution to the UBC Museum. He offered a scrapbook compiled during each of his years at UBC (1916-33) showing newspaper and other information pertaining to students, former students and events at the University over the years. I see that his scrapbook and one of “Old Bill’s” paintings are now part of the William Tansley fonds at the UBC Archives.

In 1941, Tansley retired from UBC after 14 years as curator and 11 years as janitor. He was 83. He died almost a decade later at 92. He was survived by his second wife, Bessie Cox (1884-1963).

Playograph Adds Zing to World Series

CVA 99-4059 – Crowd watching baseball results from the block on Pender St between Cambie and Beatty.
1931. Stuart Thomson.

The image shown above was encountered by me yesterday when I was researching a forthcoming post. When I saw the photo, I noticed that CVA’s description of the photo’s locale was wrong. It wasn’t “Hastings Street and Beatty Street” as they claimed [1]. It was actually the block on Pender between Cambie and Beatty. The buildings to the left in the image show those of the former City Hospital which, by 1931, was the site of the City’s “relief offices” (where today there is a parkade at the corner of Cambie at Pender). This is not an often-photographed block.

Playograph

Later, it occurred to me to ask myself where exactly the crowd was looking? If they were accurately described by CVA as “watching baseball results” versus simply “listening” to them over some sort of public address system, then what were they watching? And where were they looking ?

Starting with the World Series of 1925 and continuing for most years after that through World Series 1931, there was an American invention in town called the Playograph. For the first few years (1925-1930), this was the exclusive domain in Vancouver of the Province newspaper. Only in 1931 did the Sun get on the bandwagon and get a Playograph of its own.

The Playograph (shown below) appears to our modern eyes to be a pretty banal thing — basically a scoreboard.

Province 6 Oct 1929.

The playograph is one of the latest devices in baseball boards. It shows every play from the time the ball leaves the pitcher’s hands until an “out” is registered or a run scored. It pictures the progress of a runner once he reaches first base, and also gives the running box score.

The Province, 5 October 1925

The Playograph was part of a system that included a special leased telegraph wire to the field in which the game was being played; it also had an audio component. A “baseball expert” would call the game for the fans that gathered before the Playograph board. And they would watch as hitters scored runs. And this audio information would be supplied in up-to-the-minute fashion, almost as quickly as it was seen by folks who were able to attend the actual ball game!

What Held the Crowd’s Attention?

But where were Vancouver ball fans looking in the image above? Where was the Playograph located in 1931?

CVA Str N164. Crop of Lion gargoyle at 2nd story of Edgett wing, Province building, Pender Street view.

This is where my brain needed some adjusting.[2] Partly because this city block was infrequently photographed in the 1920s and ’30s, I had a skewed notion of where the Province (and Sun) offices were located. When I think about the Province office, I typically think of it as the 7-storey building at Hastings and Cambie (shown here just above the cenotaph) at the site now occupied by the Vancouver Film School (aka the Carter Cotton building). It is easy to forget that the Province also occupied printing offices in the “Edgett wing” — shown here at the 420 Cambie entrance. What I overlooked, however, is that the Edgett wing is a three-dimensional structure with facings on Pender Street, too!

The Playograph was on an upper storey of the Pender side of the Edgett wing (see photos below; note, in particular, the lion gargoyles in common in the photo of the Province Playograph and the Edgett wing. That is where most of the crowd was looking — northwest toward the Province Playograph on the Pender Street wall of the Edgett wing.

The Province Playograph mechanism mounted on the Pender Street side of the Edgett Wing of the Province Building at Pender and Cambie. (Note the lion gargoyles). The Province. 6 October 1925.

Str N164 – View of Pender Street east of Cambie Street, showing the Bekins Tower (formerly the World Tower and ultimately to become the Sun Tower). Note the Edgett Wing (Pender St side) of the Province building at left foreground. Note also the Sun building on the north side of Pender across the street from Bekins Tower. 1927. W J Moore.

What About Those Looking North?

Some people in the crowd (mainly those who appear in the 99-4060 photo below) appear to be looking, principally, to the north (versus the northwest). What was going on there?

Crop of CVA Str N164 showing the Sun building on north side of Pender (across the street from the Tower, which would become in 1937 its primary HQ). The signage locates “The Sun” — where the Pendera apts are located today,

Once again, I needed to adjust my brain to the layout of the city in the latter 1920s and early 1930s. When I saw that the Sun jumped onto the Playograph bandwagon in 1931, I assumed that the Sun was located in the Sun Tower (aka, World Tower, aka Bekins Tower). But I was mistaken. As you can see in the 1927 image above, it was the Bekins Tower in the 1920s. The Sun didn’t become the principal tenant of the Tower until 1937, substantially after the Playograph had become a memory in Vancouver.

Where was the Sun office in the late 1920s and early ’30s? Its building is just visible in Str 164 in the left, middle-ground, two buildings west of the Lotus Hotel (where the Pendera residences are today). It is clearer in the crop of that image shown at the right.

So those in the crowd who appear to be looking north were looking at the Sun Playograph which was on the Sun building, located almost directly across Pender from the Tower.

Playograph’s Passing

The Playograph had limited utility and attractiveness to Vancouver ball fans and 1931 seems to have been the final year it was featured by either the Province or the Sun. It seems that radio broadcasts of baseball games had become commonplace and, with that, the appeal began to fade of gathering with your neighbours at a central location to watch changes to a glorified scoreboard. It was the first step towards the isolationism that would eventually come with television.

But in the early years of the Depression, and a good two decades before televisions were available for purchase, the Playograph contributed to the entertainment of thousands of Vancouver ball fans.

In conclusion, I’m reminded of another American export (in addition to the Playograph device and the World Series of baseball). Radio journalist, Paul Harvey, used to wrap up his syndicated broadcasts on our local radio station when I was growing up in the ‘70s with a simple sentence that seems apt here: “And that’s . . . the rest of the story.”

CVA 99-4060 – Crowd watching baseball results. Camera facing east and south down Pender and Beatty. The Bekins Tower is the structure at corner of Pender at Beatty. 1931 Stuart Thomson.

Notes

1. Hastings and Beatty is an impossible address. Beatty dead-ends at Pender; it doesn’t intersect with Hastings.
2. I am indebted to Tom Carter for his help adjusting my thinking about the urban landscape during these years. He lives in the neighbourhood of the World/Bekins/Sun Tower and was very helpful in straightening out my understanding of where the Sun and Province offices were in 1925-31.

‘Brood’ of Seven Baptist Churches

First Baptist Church (FBC) had, as one of its early objectives, the planting of daughter churches in the neighbourhoods of the city as it gradually grew. The focus of this post is on the churches of that ‘brood’ and, specifically, the buildings they occupied over the course of their lives. I’m not including the history of First Baptist’s buildings in this post, as I have pretty thoroughly dealt with FBC’s history elsewhere in multiple posts of this blog.

The content in this post was first presented by me at a Vancouver Postcard Club meeting in June 2018. Although the format is different (a post versus a PowerPoint presentation), the information is largely the same.

First Born: Mount Pleasant Baptist

Mount Pleasant Baptist Church (MPBC) had initial, temporary church homes on 2nd Ave (1890) and in the Good Templars Hall (1891). On May 10, 1891, several members were dismissed[1] from the ‘mother’ church, FBC, so they could form the nucleus of MPBC. FBC offered Mount Pleasant Baptist $200/yr (for how long isn’t clear) and a pulpit chair and a pulpit Bible to support the new church’s first pastor, Rev. A. B. Lorimer.

Building 1 (1904-1908): 7th Avenue near Quebec Street

The first building would be on 7th Avenue, adjacent to what, by 1911, would be the Mt Stephen apartment block (today called Quebec Manor). In 1908, this building was sold to the Salvation Army.

PAN N161A – Crop of Mount Pleasant from the Lee Block, Broadway. Mount Pleasant Baptist’s Building 1 is located to the right of the Mt. Stephen apartment block. 1913. W. J. Moore.

Building 2 (1908-1910): Kingsway near Main

MPBC bought their second building from the local Presbyterians. This structure was at 2340 Westminster Road (now Kingsway near Main); this is the site, today, of Mt Pleasant Community Centre and the branch library of VPL. MPBC was at this location for just a couple of years.

Ch P62 – Boys’ Brigade and Band in front of Mount Pleasant Presbyterian Church at 2340 Westminster Road (Main Street). This was MPBC’s Building 2. ca1892 Bailey Bros.

Building 3 (1910-1990): SE Corner of 10th Avenue at Quebec Street

In 1909, MPBC approached Toronto architects, Burke, Horwood & White (the firm used by FBC to design their Burrard & Nelson building) to design a new building for them at the SE corner of 10th Avenue and Quebec Street. The building would be of the Tudor Revival style and have a seating capacity of about 650.

The building was destroyed by fire in 2004. But the Baptists had called it quits and moved out by 1990 due to diminishing numbers of attendees and donations. By 1996, a new church (a Pentecostal one) occupied the building. Today, a condo development is on the site of the former MPBC structure.

CVA 780-225 – Mount Pleasant Baptist Church (Building 3) at SE Corner 7th and Quebec. 1976.

Second Child: Jackson Avenue Baptist

The congregation that ultimately became a Baptist church in the East End, began as a Sunday School mission of FBC. It started in a carpentry shop, later moving to a space on Powell Street, and finally to Harris Street (today’s East Georgia).

Building 1 (ca1894-ca1898): On Jackson Avenue

The first building occupied by Jackson Avenue Baptist Church (JABC) seems to have been a re-purposed residence (versus a purpose-built church structure). It was somewhere on Jackson Avenue, but exactly where it was is a bit of a mystery.

JABC’s Building 1. From a lantern slide. n.d. First Baptist Church Archival Collection.

Building 2 (1899-1952): NW Corner of Jackson and East Pender

By 1898, JABC was growing beyond the capacity of their first building and so JABC bought the former building of the local Presbyterians, Zion Presbyterian (NW Corner of Jackson and Princess (East Pender). JABC, for a while, was known as Zion Baptist.

Building 2 of JABC (NW corner of Princess and Jackson). n.d.
First Baptist Church Archival Collection.

JABC, like most of the people of Strathcona – the community in which it was situated – was not rich. By the late 1940s, its membership had dropped significantly. Therefore, in 1952, JABC merged with another (also dwindling) Baptist church in the East End, East Hastings Baptist, to form a new church: Ward Memorial Baptist Church (in memory of Rev. Albert W. Ward). It continues to operate today at 465 Kamloops Street

CVA 786-48.15 – 499. Former JABC’s Building 2, converted by this time to be a Chinese Public School.
East Pender at Jackson Street. 1978.

Third Child: Fairview Baptist

Fairview Baptist Church was typical of the offspring of FBC in that it began as a Sunday School. In 1902, Mrs. E. Peck offered her home at Maple and 3rd Avenue for a Sunday School. The school met there for 2 years.

Building 1 (1904-1909): Maple and 4th Avenue

In 1904, 20 members of First Baptist ‘got their letters of dismissal’ and formed the nucleus of Fairview Baptist; they also built their first building at the corner of Maple and 4th Avenue. FBC’s historian William Carmichael claims that the first building was built for $500. But the Vancouver Heritage Building Permits site tells a little different story. The building permit indicates an estimate of $1000. The architect/ builder was R. E. Scarlett.

Building 1 of Fairview Baptist at 4th and Maple. The photo was made a few years after the church had moved on. At this time, it had become a Heating and Plumbing enterprise.
(First Baptist Church Archival Collection, ca 1910-14).

Building 2 (1909-1924): Fifth Avenue and Arbutus

In 1909, Fairview pulled up stakes. It isn’t clear why. FBC historian, William Carmichael, claims it was “because of the laying of the street car tracks on Fourth Avenue”. This doesn’t further my understanding much, however. Was there a safety concern for the kids?

Fairview built a new structure on 5th Avenue at Arbutus. It was designed/built by Samuel Buttrey Birds for about $5,500.

Fairview Baptist Church. I’m guessing that this was Building 2 (5th at Arbutus). ca1910-20.
(UL 1624 03 0259. UBC Library).

With the move to Arbutus and 5th, Fairview Baptist seems to have undergone a period of identity crisis, given subsequent name changes. In ca1913, after being near Fifth Avenue for a few years (although the address was actually 2029 Arbutus), it started calling itself “Fifth Avenue Baptist Church”. In 1918, scarcely five years later, the name was changed to “Kitsilano Baptist Church”. The church building address didn’t change with either of these name changes.

In 1922, following a tumultuous period for “Kitsilano Church” (there was at least one significant split of the Kits congregation), Kits amalgamated with Central Fairview Baptist to form, wait for it . . . “Fairview Baptist”!

Building 3 (1924-1951): 12th Avenue at Fir

In June 1924, Fairview moved into a brick building at 1605 W 12th (NW corner at Fir). In 1949, Fairview briefly and temporarily joined with Chalmers United Church (Hemlock at 12th).

Building 4 (1951-present): 16th Avenue at Pine

In 1951, Fairview opened the building which houses the church today, on W. 16th Avenue near Pine.

Fairview Baptist Church Today (Building 4): 16th Ave Near Pine.(Google Street View).

Fourth Child: Ruth Morton Memorial Baptist

Rev. J. Willard Litch, ca1910, approached the prominent (and generous) Baptist, John Morton, about endowing a new church in the Cedar Cottage district of Vancouver at 27th Avenue and Prince Edward. Morton agreed. Litch wanted to name the church after Morton, but Morton demurred. He instead suggested it be named after his second wife, Ruth Morton (nee Mount). Three weeks after Morton made his endowment to Ruth Morton Memorial Baptist Church (RMMBC), he died (April, 1912).

Ruth Morton Memorial Baptist Church. (ca 2013. mdm photo).

In 2014, RMMBC amalgamated with 19th Avenue Christian Fellowship (formerly the Metropolitan Tabernacle) to form a new congregation that meets at the former Ruth Morton building. It is known as Mountainview Christian Fellowship.

RMMBC/Mountainview has continuously met in the same building from the start.

Fifth Child: South Hill Baptist

Building 1 (1908-1909): South Vancouver Municipal Hall

As usual, this church plant had its start as a Sunday School. It began in the home of the Frank Birketts in 1908. Later, it moved to the South Vancouver Municipal Hall.

CVA – Bu P322 – Exterior of South Vancouver Municipal Hall. 1911.

Building 2 (1909-1912 ): East 50th and Frederick

In 1909, a small building was erected (to which FBC donated $200) at the corner of East 50th and Frederick Street (just a block off Fraser). There don’t seem to be any publicly-available photos still existing of this building.

Building 3 (1912-1970): East 50th and Frederick

The small building was replaced with a more substantial one that was dedicated in October 1912 (same site).

South Hill Baptist Church.This was the second South Hill Baptist bldg at E. 50th and Frederick. (Building 3).
CVA – SGN 1029. ca 1912. W. J. Moore photo).

The church still stands today (although with some modifications) as the South Vancouver Pacific Grace Mennonite Brethern Church. South Hill Baptist ceased to exist in 1970. The majority of the remaining congregants (some 35) joined Killarney Baptist.

The Sixth Child: Broadway West Baptist (Collingwood and 7th)

Due to a greater population density in western Kitsilano by 1913, a Sunday School was started in a small store at 3417 West Broadway. In March, 1915, 25 FBC members helped form the nucleus of Broadway West Baptist Church (BWBC). BWBC met in the store until their building was finished ca1923 at Collingwood and 7th Avenue.

Broadway West Baptist Church at 7th Ave. and Collingwood.
(First Baptist Church Archival Collection).

Broadway West considered changing their name since they were no longer located on Broadway. The new name they decided on was a mouthful: “Broadway West Baptist Church Seventh & Collingwood.” That remained the legal name for the balance of the church’s life (which seemed to end by the mid-1990s).

The former Baptist Church building still stands today. It is occupied by a Pentecostal congregation, Redemption Church.

The Last Kid: West Point Grey Baptist (11th Avenue near Sasamat)

In December 1926, 12 members of FBC met at the home of Dr. and Mrs. Wilbur Watson to plan the formation of a church in their neighbourhood of West Point Grey. The initial temporary home of the church was a Presbyterian building on 4th Avenue east of Sasamat. The first pastor was a former FBC assistant pastor, J. R. Turnbull.

On September 10, 1932, dedication services were held celebrating the move of West Point Grey Baptist (WPGBC) into their building located at 11th Avenue near Sasamat. The FBC choir presented the special music, and then-FBC pastor Rev. Elbert Paul gave the address.

In 2020, West Point Grey merged with Lord’s Peace Chapel (formerly located in Marpole; they met at the Scottish Cultural Centre on Hudson Street).

WPGBC has been at the same site since 1932.

11th and Sasamat (Google Street View)

Notes

1. There was nothing at all pejorative about the word ‘dismissed’ when used in this context; dismissal simply meant that members were free to request membership at another Baptist church. For more on Baptist membership transfer, see here.

The Empire Building

CVA 447-322: Empire Building [601 West Hastings Street] 1951 W E Frost, photographer

The Empire Building (C. O. Wickenden, architect) was located at the NW corner of Hastings at Seymour from 1889 until the late 1970s. It was initially known as the LeFevre Block, as the structure was built for CPR physician, Dr. James R. LeFevre.

A question which often arises in my mind with such structures is “Who were the tenants who occupied it?” It seems to me that the type of tenants (e.g., lawyers, realtors, doctors, accountants) must surely have created a certain sort of building; a certain sort of atmosphere within.

So I dug into Vancouver directories. Most of the early directories in the pre-privacy-obsessed world of the millennial age helpfully showed not only the name and first initial of the occupants of buildings, but also their occupation. If there was no gender/marital designation (e.g., Miss or Mrs), it was safe to assume that the occupant shown was male (although, whether the person was a bachelor or married was left to the reader’s imagination).

I was curious whether the dominant occupations of tenants in the building remained roughly static or varied over time.  Therefore, I divided the Empire’s past into two periods: Early (1891-1933) and later (1934-1954).¹

Early vs Later Tenants

In the early years of the LeFevre Building (as it evidently was known until about 1897) it wasn’t as easy as it became a little later to determine the occupations of those who were tenants; the Vancouver directory did not consistently show occupations in the earliest years. However, some could be deduced. For example, Dr. LeFevre and his physician partner, Dr. Octavius Weld, had offices in the building.  Likewise the architect of the block, C. O. Wickenden, the B. C. Chamber of Mines, the Vancouver Board of Trade, and the New Westminster & Burrard Inlet Telephone Co., Ltd. (which by  the mid-1890s apparently became the B.C. Telephone Co.) rented space there.

What became evident pretty quickly is that the nature of the tenants in LeFevre/Empire changed considerably between the 1890s and the 1920s and ’30s.² In short, it went from being a block that catered primarily to professions and services to one that was dominated by music-related businesses (e.g. teachers, drama schools, elocutionists, and dancing studios). If pressed, I’d say that the single most common occupation in the Empire in the 1920s and ’30s was the music teacher.

Frank Haines

Frank Haines

One of the Empire’s tenants from 1931 until the mid-’40s was Frank Haines (1879-1944).

Haines was born in England and was a musician, and saw himself as such from his teens onward. He was sent to a school of music in London by his parents at age 12; he graduated at age 18. His instrument was the piano. For the first couple of years after completing his studies, he was pianist to a tenor who spent much of that time touring Europe. Apparently, the pianist and tenor had a major disagreement over something (just what was the subject of their disagreement is long ago forgotten) so Haines quit that job and returned to England.

Shortly after, Haines fell in love with a lady called Alice Alexander. The two ultimately became engaged to marry. But Alice left Frank at the altar – quite literally. Naturally, Frank was angry and heartbroken by this and he left England for the New World, vowing never to return to England.³

It isn’t clear just what Haines was occupied doing when he first came to Canada. There is some evidence in Alberta records that he homesteaded near Medicine Hat in 1910. There are unsubstantiated family tales about him working in the U.S. and Canada.  He spent some of the war years in the Canadian forces. He was injured in an automobile accident in France and was subsequently discharged. In 1917, there is evidence that he was conducting Winnipeg’s Imperial Theatre Orchestra (which, in later years, became the Majestic and, later still, the Rialto). Whether he remained in Winnipeg during the ’20s or was elsewhere, isn’t clear. But it is plain from the Vancouver directory that in 1931, he had ‘gone west’ and was living in Vancouver at 905 Davie; and he had a studio in Room 211 of the Empire Building.

Frank married Nancy Marshall in 1932. In 1935, they welcomed their daughter, Nancy Haines, into the family.

Nancy spent several early years (approximately age 5 to 8) in the Empire Building. Part of the time during those years was spent in her father’s studioº (either for her Saturday morning piano lesson or at her Dad’s ‘music evenings’ when his students would perform and she would attend – sleeping on someone’s lap, more often than not – to save the cost of a babysitter); part was spent in elocution training with a ‘Mrs. Thompson’.

Nancy describes the Haines studio: He had an “upright piano shoved against the far wall. The studio would hold four or five people in a pinch. No desk. And he had a key to the common bathroom on that floor. There was a radiant electric heater on the floor of my Father’s studio in the winter; I remember the bright red filament glowing and reflecting on the curved metal case on the back. I also remember a single large pull-up window that looked out on the ‘well’ between the Empire’s wings. Dad didn’t have a street view from his studio.”

She also has described some of the sights, sounds, and odours of the building, in general:

From the Hastings entrance, there were stairs up from the street to the 2nd floor — the hallway at the top went straight north to the other end of the building AND to the west – with  studios along both hallways on both sides. The ceilings were high (I recall pipes running along the tops of them), causing sounds to be sort of lost up there. There was a glass panel in the upper part of each of the studio doors. The panels were not transparent; you could see light and movement through the glass,  but no clear image of anything or anybody. There was lettering on the glass. The floor in the building creaked a lot — so much so that I can still ‘hear’ it in my memory. There was a ‘walking’ runner down the middle of the wooden floors in the hallways. The Empire elevator was at the north end of the building. The stairs wound around the black iron cage that housed the clanking elevator and cables.

The smell of the building was ‘old’; it was similar to the smell of a building I would later spend time in — that of Lord Roberts School (I believe the janitors oiled the wooden floors in the hallways to prevent them drying out).

You could hear ‘hollow’ sounds emanating from the studios – a cough, a piano playing, a singing voice – as you walked past them. I can’t imagine – with all the sounds I heard every Saturday for 3+ years – that there was anything resembling sound-proofing in the Empire. The Empire was a busy ‘people’ building, with long-remembered sights, smells and sounds that are dear to this old lady.

Frank Haines died at age 64 in 1944 of a heart attack.

After Empire

The Empire was demolished in 1980. In about 1985, it was replaced with a glassed-in, circular public structure as part of the Grant Thornton complex (adjacent and to the north), which was located where the St. Francis Hotel once was. The structure isn’t long for this world, however. The corner is due for redevelopment along the same lines as the NE corner of Georgia and Howe: more retail space will be the result.

NW Corner of Seymour and Hastings where the Empire Block once stood. 2017. mdm photo. In the Summer of 2018, this public meeting place in turn was destroyed, sadly, to make way for additional commercial space.

Notes

¹I didn’t take the research beyond the mid-1950s as I didn’t have access to Vancouver directories beyond that period. At the time this research was underway, the Special Collections department of VPL (where post-1950s directories are held) was closed for construction.

²In 1942, John Goss had space at the Empire, apparently prior to establishing himself and his studio on Granville Street. And for the better part of the 1920s-1940s, Miss M. P. and Miss B. Cave-Brown-Cave hung their music teaching shingle at the Empire.

³ As is often the case with things we vow never to do, he did return to England on at least two occasions: in 1915 when he was hospitalized due to a wartime injury; and for a visit in 1922.

ºI’m delighted to report that a photo of an interior of a music studio in the Empire is available in SFU’s Digitized Collection here. It shows the studio of Dr. Albert Gittins, whose studio was on the same floor as — and looked quite similar to that of — Frank Haines’ studio, according to Haines’ daughter, Nancy.

Lending Libraries: Private Sector Fills Public Gap

Before there was a network of branch public libraries in Vancouver, the demand for inexpensive reading material was met in large part by the private sector. Not principally by new or used booksellers, but by an entirely different category of for-profit book provider — book lending libraries. We in the 21st century are so accustomed to equating “libraries” with “public libraries” that it takes a while to conceive that a library can be a for-profit venture!

In 1929, there was only one VPL branch in addition to the central library at Hastings and Main: the Kits branch at 2375 W 4th Avenue (today, the site is part of a Safeway parking lot). That was it. If you lived in Marpole or the West End or most any other Vancouver neighbourhood, there was no public library within relatively easy walking distance.

1929 was also the year of the stock market crash that started the Great Depression. For the better part of a decade, most Vancouverites had precious little disposable income for books and other non-essentials. Thus, there was a market niche to be filled by the private library.

The details of how private libraries did business are very sketchy. I suspect many would have had a 1-year membership card (see the Eaton’s card below) which a client would purchase and then have a ‘license to borrow’. Other libraries, like the Spencer’s Lending Library (left), had daily and monthly fees.

It seems that independent private libraries obtained their stock principally from wholesale book distributors and sources of deaccessioned public library books (Province, 26 Oct 1930).

One thing seems certain: the proprietors of these private libraries didn’t become wealthy!

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that many of the libraries listed below got started around 1929. And I don’t think it a coincidence that private libraries faded to black, for the most part, by 1955, just when the VPL system had bolstered its network of public libraries to seven branches.

Today, private lending libraries in Vancouver are a thing of the past and alien to most of us.

CVA 303-1 Vancouver Public Library – Kitsilano Branch, ca 1929. At the time, this was the only branch public library in the VPL system. Kits branch was opened in 1928.

A List of Private Libraries

I have attempted to identify as many private libraries as I can, including the rough period during which they were in business, where the library was located (and when) and the names of the proprietors.

Abbott Library (1928-33) – 916 Robson. Proprietor: Mrs. May Abbott (1928-1930). In 1928, the address in the directory was 914 Robson. In 1931, the library became Abbott Book Store.

Blenheim Lending Library (1929-37) – 3353 W. 4th Ave. (1929-34); 3639 W 4th (1934); 2252 W 4th Ave. (1935); Proprietors: Miss D. Millar; R. H. Hague [1896-1958] (1931); H. Martin (1932); Miss M. Richardson (1933-35); Mrs. B. C. Scott and Mrs. M. H. Mason (1936-37).

CVA 1376-521 – The Stanley Library, 2820 Granville. 1933.

Cosy Corner Library (1932-46) – 1307 Commercial Drive; 1830 Commercial Drive (1940-41); 1303 Commercial Drive (1941-42); 1022 Commercial Drive (1943-46). Proprietors: Mrs. M. M. Shoebotham [1888-1958] (1932-39); Mrs. M. J. Henderson (1940); M. W. Corbett (1941-45); F. Carothers (1946).

Dunbar Heights Library (1931-38) – 4311 Dunbar Street. Proprietors: T. Smith (1931-35); Miss E. M. Watson (1936-38 ). Name change to Dunbar Heights Book and Stationery Lending Library (1935-36). Name change: Dunbar Lending Library (1937-38).

Good Companion Library (1933-41) – 1405 Robson. Proprietors: Mrs. Charlotte M. Cole.

Harlequin Lending Library (1929-1940) – 1194 Davie Street. Proprietors: Miss M. Harvey (1929-31); Miss A. Van Kleeck (1932- 33); Miss L. J. Taylor (1934-38); Mrs. F. M. Riddell (1939-40).

15 June 1933 West End Breeze. Courtesy: Neil Whaley*. According to this clip, the VPL system shut down during July and August in the 1930s!

Hudson’s Bay Company Books and Lending Library (1915-ca1949 ) – Granville and Georgia. Part of HBC department store.

Kerrisdale Book Nook (1928-1955+) – 2166 W. 41st Avenue. (1928-40); 2176 W 41st Avenue (1941-51); 2135 .W. 41st Ave. (1952-55+). Proprietors: W. S. Bosworth (1928-31); Mrs. H. Blair (1932-34); J. A. Henderson (1935-39); H. M. Jewell (1940-47); Mrs. C. T. Crossing (1948-55+).

The Lending Library (1933) – 2425 E Hastings Street. Proprietor: C. C. Backhus.

“Western House [Private] Library” stamped over “Collingwood Public Library Association”.* Image made from the fly leaf of a book at The Paper Hound Bookshop with permission of the proprietors.

The Library (1925-51) – 2820 Granville Street (1925-1933); 2830 Granville (1934-35). Proprietors: Mrs. J. R. Davidson (1925-36); Mrs. D. M. Kirby (1937-51). This library was named “The Library” perhaps with the vain hope of exclusivity!

E. D. Macfarlane’s Circulating Library (1933-47) – 2606 Granville. Proprietor: Erle D. Macfarlane.

Mayfair Library (1932-35) – 1540 W. 41st Avenue; 2166 W 41st Avenue (1935). Proprietor: J. A. Henderson (1932-35).

West End Breeze, 16 Sept 1932. Courtesy: Neil Whaley*

Modern Lending Library (1932-42) – 1009 W. King Edward. Miss Proprietors: Miss P Blake, R. Sidaway (1932-34); Mrs. E. Denton (1937-38); Miss M. A. Baum (1939-42). Name change to Modern Book Shop in 1943. Proprietor remained Baum. Address still 1009 King Edward. No mention of there being a lending library associated with the shop, so assuming the library became a bookstore.

Oak Street Lending Library (1930-41) – 3129 Oak Street (1930-35 ); 3216 Oak Street (1936-41). Proprietors: Mrs. M. McTavish (1930-37); Mrs. M. I. Scott (1938-40); Mrs. E. Cool [1884-1958] (1941).

Oxford Book Shop and Lending Library (1929-54) – 2164 W 4th Avenue (1929-1934); 1039 Granville (1935-37); 1540 W 41st Avenue (1938-52); 5737 Granville (1953-54). Proprietors: Miss D. Dashwood [1881-1950] (1929-31); Mrs. M. I. C. Key [1898-1985] (1932-34); S. B. Farmer (1935-37; Miss G. Carfrae (1938); S. B. Farmer (1939-40); Miss G. Carfrae (1941); G. R. Ellingham (1942-54).

Point Grey Lending Library (1929-55) – 5510 Dunbar Street (1929); 5525 Dunbar St (1931-34; 5691 Dunbar Street (1935-38); 5557 Dunbar (1939-55). Proprietor: F. S. Robinson (1930-55).

Popular Lending Library (1929-42) – 4479 W 10th Avenue (1929-34); 4489 W 10th Avenue (1935-37); 4451 W 10th Avenue. Proprietors: Mrs. M. F. Vulliamy [1886-1963] (1929-36); Miss D. Howden (1937); Mrs. D. Arnott (1938-39); Mrs. N. C. Clarke (1940-42).

Eaton’s Book subscription membership card 1935. I suspect a card similar to this was necessary to borrow books from other private libraries in Vancouver. However, it could not have been a membership card for Vancouver, as Eaton’s didn’t have a Vancouver store in 1935. The department store came to Vancouver in 1948 after buying out David Spencer, Ltd. MDM Collection.

Ridgewell Lending Library (1929-54) – 3494 Dunbar. Proprietors: Mrs. Alice G. Ridgewell [1876-1960] (1929-31); H. Gatenby [1895-1969] (1932-54).

Spencer’s Leading Library (1934-48) – Hastings and Richards. Part of the Daivd Spencer, Ltd. department store. Spencer’s was purchased by Eaton’s in 1948. Presumbably, Eaton’s established their own local library then, although I can’t confirm that.

Stanley Library (1934-44) – 2820 Granville Street. Proprietors: Miss L. J. Leslie (1934-42); Mrs. H. Raymer (1943-44).

Western House Library (1933-51) – 957 Denman Street. Proprietor: Miss Louise Grant (1933-51).

Windsor Lending Library (1932-33) – 916 Robson (1932); 1056 Robson (1933). Proprietors: Gwendolyn P. Jones (1932); Percy James (1933). Windsor library was sold to Percy James of Kensington Arts in 1933. The library seems not to have been retained with a distinctive identity following the merger, however.

Ye Booke Nooke (1929-55+) – 1063 Denman Street (1929-32); 1187 Denman St. (1933-57) Proprietor: Mrs. Elsie W. Beach [1888-1969] (1929-55+). Claim made in 1932 ad that non-members could borrow books for 3c/day, with a minimum charge of 5c. “The monthly [membership?] charge for adults is 65 cents,and for children, from 6 to 14 years, 25 cents.” (West End Breeze, Sept 16 1932)*. “….Mrs. Beach has 5000 new and proven books upon her shelves.” (West End Breeze 6 Oct 1933)*.

Yew Lending Library (1931-55+) – 1508 Yew. Proprietor: Miss O. A Wilde (1931-55+).

---

Notes

*Neil Whaley has very kindly granted me permission to reproduce clippings and information from the West End Breeze , a four-page community newspaper published between 1932 and 1933. Neil has a bound edition of the Breeze — quite possibly the only such copy extant — which was the editor/publisher’s copy. “The format was that there was one real story of a reasonable length (perhaps 500 words) and then everything else was one-paragraph blurbs which talked about businesses in the West End — who not so coincidentally advertised in the WEB.” (Email message from Neil Whaley to MDM).

John Jenkinson: Photographer

CVA 242-02: Portrait of John Jenkinson, ca1902.

John Jenkinson (1871-1936) described himself on his marriage certificate as an electrician. His occupation in the early years of the 20th century was as a lineman for the CPR and later for the BCER (BC Electric Railway). He worked his way up to a meter reader, and then as a meter inspector for the BCER. By the time he died in 1936, he had been promoted to superintendent of the metering department. He was a player of lawn bowls, and he loved to sing with the choir at Christ Church and with the Western Triple Men’s Choir. But I believe Jenkinson’s legacy lies in none of these occupations and activities. It was as an amateur photographer that Jenkinson shone and, in my opinion, continues to shine.

CVA 242-04: Portrait of Ellen Jenkinson, ca1910, wearing one of the voluminous hats which she seemed to favor.

John Jenkinson was born in Lancashire, England to William and Priscilla Jenkinson. I presume he trained as an electrician in the Motherland. He came to Canada in 1898, settling in Vancouver and here he married Ellen Johanne Anderson, who was a native of Copenhagen, Denmark (1875-1951), in 1902. The couple had one child together, Olga (1904-1980).

For a couple of years before he was married, John boarded at a home on Eveleigh Street. But soon after he and Ellen were wed, they moved to 992 Howe (Howe and Nelson). This seems to have been a house with a couple or more suites within it (by the time the photo below was taken by Yates in 1959, the main floor was a retail space and the space above it was residential).

Bu P508.6 – [Exterior of building at the North East corner of Nelson and Howe Street] 1959, A. L. Yates photo. Oddly, there are no Jenkinson images online at CVA of this home when they were living there.

From what I can tell, John and Ellen were never wealthy. It seems likely that they enjoyed a middle-income lifestyle, but nothing extravagant. A meter reader’s job was to check the amount of electricity used by a household as recorded on the meter attached to each home. It was the job of the meter inspector to certify electricity meters were functioning accurately.

I’m assuming (pretty safely, I think) that the photographer in the family was John. Olga was too young to have made most of these images, and I doubt that Ellen would have been the photographer, given the relatively sexist attitude to the hobby in its early days.

Many of Jenkinson’s photos were exteriors and interiors of homes that he didn’t own. I am very impressed, in particular, with how he was able to get ample light in his interior shots. That would have been among the biggest challenges of his day.

CVA 242-11 – Exterior of 1260 Barclay Street, ca 1901.

The residence shown above and below was 1260 Barclay Street, at the time, the home of F. F. Burns, son of John Burns, Sr., who also seems to have lived there. F. F. Burns was a metal merchant in the city.

CVA 242-13 – Interior and exterior views of 1260 Barclay Street, ca 1901. The decor in this room screams Victorian! Complete with the stag above the fireplace.

The home shown below was a near neighbour of the Burns place. This home belonged to Adolphus Williams at 1139 Barclay.

CVA 242-10.15 – Mr. Williams house at 1139 Barclay Street, ca 1901.

CVA 242-10.16 – Williams’ drawing room, ca1901.

The image below is one of my favourites among those made by Jenkinson. It is an unusual photo of English Bay that clearly shows the slide into the Bay (and the kids climbing back up to the platform)!

CVA 242-14.2 – View of English Bay, ca1901.

And here is another of my favourites, showing the Elders, Stanley Park superintendents, sitting very stiffly in front of their Park cottage.

CVA 242-05 – Stanley Park [with Mr. Elder, Park Superintendent and his wife, in front of their cottage at entrance to Stanley Park.], ca1900.

To conclude, I’ll show an exterior and interior of the Jenkinson home that John owned when he died. It was certainly a few of steps up from 992 Howe, but it didn’t have the pizzazz of the Burns place. This home was on the corner of 15th Avenue and Burrard.

CVA 242-19 – North and west facades of John Jenkinson’s home at 1796 West 15th Avenue, ca1927.

CVA 242-22 – Interior of 1796 West 15th Avenue, far end of living room with piano, ca 1927.

I suspect that Jenkinson’s connection to these home-owners who allowed him access to the interior of their homes was his (and their?) church: Christ Church. I have confirmed that Adolphus Williams was affiliated with Christ Church. But haven’t been able to confirm that either Burns or Elder were.

Of course, it could be that the explanation is simpler. He might have gotten to know these families during his time as a meter reader — reading their electricity meters!

Lest We Impress: Georgia Medical-Dental Building

Update

CVA 99-3749 – Georgia Medical Dental Building at Northwest Corner Georgia at Hornby. 1929. Stuart Thomson photo. (Note: The angle from which this image was taken makes the  ground level on the right side of the wooden construction zone fence appear to be lower than the street on the left side. But it isn’t. Photographer Thomson was probably inside the construction barrier of the 3rd Hotel Vancouver shooting from near the top of the fence line; Thomson was the official photographer of the hotel’s construction.)

It is all too easy to impress the present onto the past. Especially in cases where there has been an attempt made by contemporary architects to ‘nod’ to a prior building that once occupied a lot (which I consider praise-worthy). A good example of this is the Georgia Medical-Dental Building (MDB, hereafter; 1929; McCarter & Nairne, architects), which was demolished by implosion in 1989, and the Shaw Tower at Cathedral Place (SCP, hereafter; 1991; Merrick, architect), which stands on the lot today.

When I recently happened upon the image above, I was initially disturbed by the apparent narrowness of the old MDB. It appeared to me to be only half as wide as it ought to be.

At first, I thought that perhaps when work started on the structure, the economic downturn of the Great Depression forced the builder to focus on building just the southern slice; that the northern half would be built later to create the square footprint that I assumed was ‘natural’ for the structure.

But that was not the case.

The next image revealed my error: MDB had an ‘L’ footprint, not the square one that I’d assumed it had. My assumption was due, in part at least, to my expectation that the older building would have had the same sort of footprint as today’s SCP has.

VPL 12176 View looking east at the Georgia Medical-Dental Building from Burrard Street; this reveals that the structure had an “L” footprint, not a square one. 1930. Frank Leonard photo.

Features in Common and Differences

There was an attempt made by the architect of SCP (Paul Merrick, 1991) to replicate some features of the Medical-Dental building. Common features include:

• ‘Nursing sisters’ on the corners of the buildings;
• ‘Step-backs’ at higher floors;
• Use of materials having contrasting colours (on MDB, use of differently coloured brick; on SCP, use of glass and concrete);

There are many more differences between the past and present occupants of the northwest corner of Georgia at Hornby than there are commonalities:

• MDB had an ‘L’ footprint, SCP has a square one;
  
  

  CVA 99-3749 – Georgia Medical Dental Building at Northwest Corner Georgia at Hornby. 1929. Stuart Thomson photo.

• MDB had an appended, above-ground, 4-storey garage attached to the Hornby arm. SCP has an underground parking garage;
• There was a single step-back at the 10th floor of the MDB. There are several step-backs on SCP;
• MDB had 17 floors. SCP has 23;
• On MDB, there were just the ‘nursing sisters’ as exterior ornaments and they appeared only at the 10th floor step-back and were of terra cotta. The nurses on SCP appear on the northeast corner just a couple of stories up and also higher on the building at the step-backs; there are other exterior ornaments on SCP, including griffins. The nurses and other ornaments on SCP are made of fibre glass;
• MDB had a blunt roofline with lighter bricks near the roof to contrast with darker brickwork below. SCP has a chateaux-style roof (which, together with the griffins, is probably a nod to the architecture of its near neighbour, the Hotel Vancouver).

A griffin and other ornaments (including a rain diverter) on Shaw Tower at Cathedral Place (taken from Hotel Vancouver). c2013. Author’s photo.

 

The Golden Decade of Dance Bands (1920s)

In this post, I plan to list all of the ’20s ‘dance bands’ (referred to at the time, typically, as ‘orchestras’) I can identify. These will include Vancouver-based musical groups as well as those that had their base elsewhere. Each listing will include the name of the group (having a minimum of three players), the leader and all the personnel I can identify who played with each group.

The list will not include any of the large orchestras that played in Vancouver (e.g., the VSO, Home Gas Orchestra, Scottish Orchestra) nor will it include any of the theatre orchestras that played in the city (e.g., the Capitolians, Embassy Theatre orchestra).

In short, the post will be a research piece about those smallish groups of musically gifted men and women who entertained their contemporaries while they were enjoying a meal (and, I daresay, tapping their toes to the beat) or dancing up a storm to their melodies.*

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The Aitch-Bee Trio (ca1919-28) – E. G. Warne (violin); W. B. McQueen (cello); W. A. Storey (piano). “Playing daily at the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Restaurant.” 1925: By this year, was called “The Hudson’s Bay Trio”. Storey was out; Frank Nichols (piano) was in.

Ambassador Cafe Orchestra (ca1925-26) – Leader: Frank Maracci (violin, sax, trombone); L. Martin (trumpet); Len Wilson (banjo); Martin H. Beliger (sax, clarinet); H. Zweifel (sax, clarinet); F. E. McComb (drums); William Sodeburg (piano). 1925: By this year, Martin, Len Wilson, McComb and Sodeburg were out; Tug Wilson (trumpet); Frank Hamilton (piano), and Harry Hamilton (drums) were in. AKA “Ambassador Cafe Bluebird Orchestra”.

Ambassador Cafe Orchestra – Maracci’s Bluebirds – CVA 99-3500 1942, Stuart Thomson photo.

Tom E. Andrews Orchestra (sometimes known as the Master Dance Players) (1922-1925) – Leader: Andrews; Jack H. Wilson (Coronet); Fernie Quinn; Art Thomas; Thomas Crawford (violin); Reese Campbell (sax and clarinet). Played Cotillion Dance Hall (Davie and Granville).

Arcadians (1920s-1930s) – Leader: Frank Nichols; Bob Levie (sax, voilin); Toby Kent (banjo); Betty Warne (violin); Archie Peebles (trombone, accordion); Johnnie McNair (drums). The band seems to have folded by ca1935.

Belcarra Orchestra (1926) – Leader: Billy Millichip (drums); Jean Goodheart (piano); Don Raino (banjo); Bill McLean (sax).

Frederick Brown and his Orchestra – Leader: Brown; A. W. Delamont (trumpet); Harry Stocker (clarinet); R. S. Ralph (trombone); G. H. H. Keeling (string bass); G. M. Jolley (percussionist); A. Osbaldeston (piano). Played at the “Pan”.

Calvert Trio (ca1925-35) – Joy Calvert (violin); Minnie Beveridge — later Freda Setter — (cello); Una Calvert (piano).

Canadian Pacific Jazz Symphonists (ca1925-29) – Leader: Olive E. Beaton (piano); Ethel Planta (violin); Will Edmunds (cello); Gaston Somny (banjo); Robert Griffiths (contra-bass); Alex Donaghy (sax, clarinet); Paul LaMoureaux (sax, clarinet); Carl Tossell (trumpet); Art Clarke (percussion). Played at the Indian Grill and Ballroom, Hotel Vancouver. AKA: “Ollie Beaton and Her Orchestra,” “Canadian Pacific Symphonists”.

Lawrence Crawford’s “Princess Kathleen” Orchestra – here aboard the “Alice”. Crawford doesn’t appear here (he was the one behind the camera, I think). UBC Open Collections. 1929.

Canadiens – Leader: Les Crane. Lloyd Mansfield, Jean Pomeroy, Bus Totten; La-Vern Walton. Played the Belmont Cabaret. In one of their ads they make the claim that they are “Just five boys trying to get along.” This group seems to have been from somewhere other than Vancouver.

Canary Cottage Orchestra – Leader: Wes Mortimer (trumpet); Jerome V. R. Clifford (piano); Allan H. Rice (sax); Art Strachan (sax, clarinet); Ewart Riedinger Jr. (drums); Fred Ross (banjo); Harry Hills (sax, bass). Played the (Indian) Grill, Hotel Vancouver. AKA: “Erdodys Canary Cottage Orchestra”. Wes Mortimer was a one-armed trumpet player. When Canary Cottage broke up, Mortimer was the concert master for Calvin Winters’ Capitolians for a number of years.

Cassidy and his Orchestra – Leader: Lafe Cassidy (trumpet); Marion Stafford (piano); Forrest Moneingo (sax, clarinet, trumpet, piano); Vernon Dale (sax, piano, violin); Karl Cassidy (sax); Hal Underwood (sax, clarinet, trumpet, banjo); Frank Roach (percussion). Played the Cabaret at Belmont Hotel. 1925: By this year, Stafford, Moneingo, Dale, and Karl Cassidy were out; Buck Dale (piano), Ken Evans (trombone), and Bert McGee (banjo) were in. By 1927, only Lafe Cassidy and Frank Roach remained of the original group. Others were: Harry Spees (trombone, violin); Walter Romerra (sax, clarinet); Harold Gard (piano); Chic Inge (banjo, sax).

The Cavaliers – H. Edwards (banjo); Stanley Robertson (sax), E. A. Griffiths (drums); W. Kenning (piano). By 1925, Edwarads was out; H. Swaboda (banjo) was in.

Criterion Orchestra. Courtesy of Tom Carter’s collection, n.d.The band member at far right might be banjoist Wally Pullman.

The Charleston Four (1925) – Leader: Frank Nichols (piano); Eddie Austin (sax, clarinet, violin); Toby Kent (banjo); Art Newman (drums).

Columbia Concert Orchestra – Leader: Walter De Lowe; Mrs. Francis Knight (violin); Marie Armstrong (violin); Ernestine Walters (flute); Enid Kimball (trumpet);Faye Leonard (clarinet); Virginia Barnard (cello); Was Kimball (trombone); Harrie Grether (bass); Lois Carpentier (percussion); Edith Dupree (piano); Gladys L. Collins (vocal soloist).

Columbians – Leader: Harry Hamilton (percussion, sax); West Gilland (sax, clarinet); Harry Karr (sax, clarinet); “Tug” Wilson (trumpet); Charles Pawlett (violin, banjo); Frank Hamilton (piano). Played the Alexandra Dancing Pavillion.

Harry E. Hamilton who (together with his brother, Frank) appears regularly in this list. Photo courtesy of Tom Carter’s collection, n.d.

Court Orchestra – Leader: W. Garden (piano); S. Kyall (banjo); George Northey (sax); A. Kingcombe (cornet); Len Holland (xylophone, piano, accordion); A. Peebles (trombone); N. Northrup (drums).

Lawrence Crawford’s “Princess Kathleen” Orchestra (ca1928-35) – Leader: Lawrence Crawford (violin); Harry Pryce (cello); George Cratch (piano); Arthur W. Clarke (trumpet). 1925: By this year, Pryce and Cratch were out; J. Kellaway, and W. A. Storey were in.

Criterion Orchestra (ca1923-29) – Dick Gardner (percussion); Harry Tarlton (piano); George Bush (banjo); Don McMillan (sax). Played the Hippodrome at English Bay. This group appears to have been one of the most stable bands of the 1920s, in terms of membership.

New Criterion Orchestra (ca1929-?) – Leader: Dick Gardner.

Don Flynn and his Orchestra – Leader: Flynn (piano); Fernie Quinn (sax); Boyd Lewis (banjo); Leslie Hulme (drums); Tug Wilson (trumpet). Played Cotillion Dance Hall.

Frank and his Orchestra – Leader: Frank Nichols (piano, violin); Betty Warne (violin); Toby Kent (banjo, violin): Ernie Anderson (sax, clarinet, banjo); Archie Peebles (trombone, piano, accordion); Eddie Anderson (percussion); Eddie Austin (sax, clarient, banjo).

Charlie Galloway – Leader: Galloway (violin).

Billy Garden and his Orchestra – Leader: Garden.

Vancouver Sun. 1928.

Get Acquainted Club Dance Orchestra – Leader: Frank Nichols (piano); Carl Tossell (trumpet); E. S. Austin (sax, clarinet); Toby Kent (banjo); Archie Peebles (trombone); Romeo Perry (percussion). Played at Dominion Dance Hall (339 W. Pender).

Earl Gray & his Orchestra – Leader: Gray; Earl Gibson (piano); George Eichhorn (percussion); Kenneth Cramer (bass); Brayton Frankhorner (banjo, violin); Ted Huffin (trumpet, mellaphone); Gale Claggett (trombone, trumpet, euphonium, sax); Paul McCrea (sax, clarinet, guitar); Henry Belland (sax, clarinet). Played the Hotel Vancouver Grill Room.

John Harper’s Hotel Georgia Concert Trio – Leader: Harper (piano); Helene Ainsworth (viola); Freda V. (cello). Freda’s surname wasn’t legible in my source.

Hastings Park Pavillion Orchestra – E. Couling (violin); J. H. Younghusband (cornet); C. Gaunt (trombone); A. G. McLeod (drums); F. Parsons (piano).

Earle C. Hill Orchestra (ca1920-?) – Leader: Hill (violin); George Bush; others unknown. Played Barron Hotel Restaurant and Cafe DeLuxe (147 1/2 West Hastings) 1920. Judging from the photo below, Earle Hill also played the Spanish Grill at Hotel Vancouver.

Earle C. Hill Orchestra. This photo was made at the Spanish Grill, Hotel Vancouver. Courtesy of Tom Carter’s collection, n.d.

Hotel Georgia Orchestra – Leader: Harry Pryce (piano, cello); Harry Karr (sax, clarinet); Fernie Quinn (Sax, clarinet); Wes Mortimer (trumpet, sax); Bill Arstad (trombone); George Anderson (sax); Charlie Pawlette (banjo, viola); Harry Hamilton (drums, sax, piano).

Harry Pryce

Hotel Vancouver Quartette – Leader: Olive Beaton (piano); Ethel Planta (violin); Will Edmunds (cello); Robert Griffiths (bass). Played the Oval Room, Hotel Vancouver.

Howard’s Orchestra – Leader: Arnold Howard (piano); William McLean (sax); Harvey Nixon (drums).

Tex Howard and his Orchestra – Leader: Howard (drums); Emerald Krantz (piano); John Bowmer (sax, banjo); William Stewart (trumpet, banjo, slide cornet); West Gilland (sax, clarinet); Hollis Rich (sax, clarinet, guitar); Gale Claggett (trombone, sax, trumpet, mellophone, euphonium, banjo); Lucian Gerhardt (sax, trumpet, mellophone). This group was from Seattle.

Hughie’s Colonials– Hughie (piano); Freddy (banjo); Charlie (sax); Jack (drums). Note: Surnames of players are unknown to me.

The Revellers (l-r?): Teddy Duncan, Eddie Camel, George Gossen, Vincent Cashmore, Homer Woodworth. April 1928 at Kent Piano House on Granville Street. MDM Collection.

Dwight Johnson and his Orchestra – Leader: Johnson; Arthur Most (trombone); Claude Burch (trumpet); James Whippo (trumpet); Bob Dickson (sax); Ray Johnson (piano); Alfred Taylor (clarinet, sax); T. W. Porter (sax); Wally Marks (drums); Prentice Gross (banjo); Ralph Dougherty (string bass, tuba). This was an American band, advertising itself as “the Southland’s finest” and “direct from Hotel St. Francis, San Francisco” (he was also reputed to come from Portland).

Bert Kool and his Orchestra ( ) – Leader: Herbert Augustus Kool (piano);

Ted Lander’s Orchestra (ca1928-29) – Leader: Lander (sax, trombone); Vic Ross (piano); George Hackett (trumpet); Don Raino (banjo); Henry Anderson (sax); Bev White (percussion).

Percy Lee’s Country Club Orchestra – Leader: Lee (piano); Art Griffith (trumpet); Bert White (drums); Harry Hill (Sax); Herb Roach (Banjo); Claude Hill (bass, clarinet, trumpet); Alf. Olson (bass, clarinet); Alex. Pitts (banjo); Billy Duncan (drums).(Note: Not all of these people played together at the same time). Played the Pavilion at Bowen Island and on Union Steamships’ “Lady Alexander”.

This may be the Criterions or perhaps Earle C. Hill’s orchestra. George Bush appears in this as the banjo player. This is probably the Elk’s Hall. Courtesy of Tom Carter’s collection, n.d.

Slides from a light box similar to the one that appears in the photo above beneath the elk’s head. Tom Carter’s Collection, n.d.

Frank Maracci & his Peppy Orchestra – Leader: Maracci (violin, sax, trombone); Roland Tibb (trumpet); Harry Hamilton (drums, sax); Don Flynn (piano); Charlie Pawlette (banjo); Fernie Quinn (sax, clarinet). AKA “Maracci’s Mean Melody Men”.

Frank Maracci’s Bluebirds – Leader: Maracci (violin, sax, trombone); William Sodeburg (piano); F. E. McComb (percussion); H. Zweifel (sax, clarinet); M.Seliger (sax, clarinet); M. Howell (trumpet). Played at Ambassador Cafe.

Melody Boys – Leader: Art Thomas (banjo); Billy Reeves (piano); Fernie Quinn (sax, clarinet); Ronald Tibb (cornet); Romeo Perry (percussion). Played Cotillion Dance Hall.

Alfredo Meunier and the New Capitolians – Members (aside from Meunier) unknown. Played the Capitol Theatre starting in 1929 (with Meunier first as “guest” conductor; later as the steady one) and into thee 1930s. Meunier was first described as “Italian” and later as “Portuguese”. Meunier took over from Calvin Winters with the Capitolians.

Morgan’s DeLuxe Players– Leader: Reg Morgan (drums); Carl Nelson (banjo); Ed Sasserville (sax); Bob Koehler (piano). The DeLuxe players probably played the Cafe DeLuxe (at 147 1/2 W. Hastings).

CVA 99-1233.1 – Moroan’s DeLuxe Orchestra ca1925. I assume that the players identified above are the same ones who appear in this photo, although it’s not possible for me to confirm whether pianist Koehler appears here, due to the outdoor location; he may have been one of the two sax players pictured).

Mark Morgan’s Orchestra (1922-24) – Leader: Morgan. Typically played at the Moose Hall (535 Homer) for dances.

Olympians – Leader: Victor Ross (piano); Leslie Hulme (drums); Jack McLean (sax); Frank Bolney (violin, banjo). 1925: Wally Griffiths (trumpet) and Bill McLean (sax) are then in; Jack McLean seems to be out.

The Originals (ca1929-?) – Leader: George Bush (banjo); Don McMillan (sax); Gil Mullen (piano); Len Inglesdy (violin); Jean Baker (drums); Jack Barlow (trumpet); Newton Keith (sousaphone). Played Lester Court in 1929.

The Originals. hand-painted sign ad. Courtesy of Tom Carter’s collection, n.d.

Ozburn Steel Quartette – George H. Ozburn (leader); Charles Martin; Dominic Raine; Harold McPherson.

Parker’s Orchestra – Leader: W. E. Parker (trombone); Francis Collins (sax, trumpet, clarinet, banjo); George Jones (sax, clarinet); Sherlie Denhof (trumpet, sax); Polly Butler (piano); Spencer Adams (percussion). Played at the Breaker’s Cafe (556 Seymour).

Patricia Cabaret Orchestra – Leader: E. B. Austin (violin); F. M. Arstad (sax); E. M. Anderson (drums, xylophone); F. Nichols (piano).

George D. Peter and his Orchestra – Leader: Peter (piano); Charles See (sax, clarinet); Wally Griffiths (trumpet); Ernie Whiteside (drums). 1925: By this year, Whiteside was out; Art Clarke (drums) and W. W. Perks (banjo) were in. By later in 1925, Clarke and Perks were out; Billy Millachip (drums) was in.

Fernie Quinn and his Orchestra (1926) – Leader: Quinn (sax, clarinet); Jerry Hughes (piano); Bill Arstad (trombone, sax); Jack Prowse (drums); J. H. Wilson (trumpet, banjo). Played the Cotillion Dance Hall.

The Ramblers – Leader: Al Spencer (piano); Jack Towell (sax); H. Kenney (sax, clarinet); K. Roach (banjo); Les Aves (drums). The studio orchestra of Radio CJOR (which broadcast from their studio in the St. Julien Apartments (which would ultimately become the Ritz Hotel).

The Revellers (1928) – Teddy Duncan; Eddie Camel; George Gossen; Vincent Cashmore; Homer Woodworth.

Society Hoboes (ca1925) – Alf Hall (piano); Harry Coombs (sax); Leroy S. Harvey (percussion); D. Raino (banjo).

The Tickletoes – Leader: Eddie Bressler (piano); Charlie See (sax); Wally Perks (banjo); George Hackett (trumpet); George (Andy) Anderson (bass); Bev. White (drums); Len Chamberlain (sax). 1925; By this year, Hackett and Anderson were out. AKA “The Tickletoe Orchestra.”

Time Kyllers (1926) – Bun Cooper (banjo); Art Wasey (bass); Newt Keith (piano); Nix Nixon (drums).

Frank Hamilton, 1922. Courtesy of Tom Carter’s collection.

Bill Tweedie’s Orchestra (ca1927) – Leader: Tweedie (piano); Eddie Morris (sax, clarinet); Nels Griffin (sax, clarinet); Bob Smith (drums); Ralph Johnson (trombone); Bert Prima (banjo); Dick Croft (tuba); Harry Mayfield (trumpet).

Tug Wilson and his Live Bunch of Boys – Leader: H. J. “Tug” Wilson (trumpet, banjo); Bill Arstad (trombone); Jerry Hughes (piano); Jack Prowse (drums); Claude Hill (sax, clarinet). Played the Cotillion Dance Hall.

Calvin Winter’s Orchestra (1921-22) – Leader: Winter. Played gigs at Cotillion Dance Hall (Davie and Granville). This group pre-dates Winter’s time leading the Capitol Theatre Symphony Orchestra (not included in this list).

Notes

*Principal source: BC Musician, a serial of the BC Musicians’ Mutual Protective Union, Local 145 of the American Federation of Musicians. These are available for reading on microfilm in the Special Collections room of VPL (Central Branch). Also consulted: Vancouver Daily World, Vancouver Sun, and The Province, History of Music in British Columbia. Dale McIntosh. Victoria: Sono-Nis Press, 1989. Tom Carter’s images, provided for this post, have been hugely helpful. Additional details provided by Robert Moan and Neil Whaley are gratefully acknowledged.

Dominic Charlie

CVA 480-572 – Dominic Charlie. Nov 27, 1912.

I didn’t know who Dominic Charlie was when I came across these photos of him in the “incarcerated persons” section of CVA’s files. Here, he was a man in his mid-20s who had been nabbed by the local constabulary.

He had a couple of booze-related charges in the early years of the 20th century. The first charge was in 1905, when he was fined $25 for possessing whisky (a much higher fine than that for actually drinking the stuff) (World, March 7, 1905). [1] He was charged again in 1910, when he was arrested for drunkenness, but he turned this to his advantage by pointing the finger of blame toward a Chinese gent by the name of Wing Sing who he said supplied him with Scotch. Sing earned three months hard labor on the charge of “supplying liquor to an aborigine.” Charlie got his freedom on a suspended sentence for pointing out Mr. Sing to police (Province, January 17 1910).

It isn’t clear on what charge Charlie was arrested in 1912. But after his 1912 arrest, it seems that Charlie was no longer subjected to liquor-related charges. By the 1920s, he was charged again. But this time, the charge became a test case of the Indian Act. Charlie was charged with spearing salmon in the Capilano River which passed through the land of the Squamish nation, of which Charlie was a member. It was Charlie’s position that the Indian Act superseded the authority of the Fisheries Department in North Vancouver, which claimed that native peoples didn’t have the right to spear salmon out of local waters, whether or not those waters ran through reserves. Charlie was ultimately found guilty of the charge on appeal, but the penalty was just $1.

Dominic Charlie in his native “Santa” outfit. Sun. 8 December 1948.

By December 1948, Charlie had transformed himself into the “first Indian Santa”, impersonating the elderly elf not by putting on a red suit and beard, but instead by donning a traditional headdress and jacket for the St. Paul’s Indian Christmas party (Sun. 8 December 1948).

By ca1952, Charlie was in his 60s and had become a chief of the Squamish people. Legal challenges were in his past, and he seemed content to be involved in native ceremonial events and to do the occasional (and, reportedly, pretty accurate) weather forecast using traditional methods. He worked at sawmills in the area until he turned 73.

There is a “Legend of the Sea Serpent of Burrard Inlet” as told by Charlie (along with other legends by others) here. Charlie was also a gifted artist who sculpted a 7-foot serpent that stood in West Vancouver on Marine Drive for many years.

When he was well into his 80s, Charlie began going to night school to gain some English reading and writing ability.

Charlie was born on Jericho Beach sometime in the 1880s. He died in 1972.

Notes

1. This seems to be an instance of treating native people as though all are susceptible to the charms of alcohol (which is, of course, absurd). A related policy seems to have been the Indian List, which is described in Barry Mayhew’s article “Are You On the Indian List?”, British Columbia History, Vol 41, No.2 (1988). p.9+

Jean Campbell Haynes (nee Archibald)

I came across Jean Archibald yesterday when I was at The Paper Hound Bookshop. Not in person, mind you. She died in 1974. But I encountered her through her bookplate on a book that I purchased. Kim Koch, one of the owners of The Paper Hound pointed out the bookplate to me and remarked that Jean might be a worthy subject for VAIW. I headed home and did a bit of research to see if there was enough information about Jean’s life to make it post-worthy; and, to my surprise, there was! There are relatively few biographical notes pertaining to women on this blog, so it is my great pleasure to present this one.

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Jean Archibald’s (home-made?) bookplate. It was pasted in a collection of short fiction entitled A Century of Detective Stories, with an introduction by G.K. Chesterton. Her book collection seems to have consisted largely of true crime, sci-fi, cats and Egyptology.

Jean Campbell Archibald was born in 1911 in Vancouver, following the marriage of her parents, Arthur George Archibald and Muriel Mae Smith a year earlier. She was the eldest of six kids. While in Vancouver, A. G. Archibald was a shipper with F. R. Stewart & Co., a grocery supplier, and later a partner with Parkinson & Archibald Wholesale Fruit Merchants. Arthur died very young (age 49) in 1929.

There was a period between about 1915 and 1927 when the Archibalds were in Calgary (where her Dad was working with a dairy firm — possibly Foremost Dairy). Jean took most of her schooling there and in 1927, she was awarded a “gold medal” for achieving the highest marks among high school students in Alberta.

Following Arthur’s death shortly after the family moved back to the Lower Mainland from Alberta, Jean was tasked with raising her younger sibs and so had to abandon her plans of going to university. Her mother went to work raising chickens and selling the eggs.* Later, both women went to work for Bowman Storage. Oscar Bowman, the owner, was Muriel’s brother-in-law. Jean did secretarial and book-keeping work for Bowman; Muriel was a dispatcher. The women shared accommodation at the (still standing) Quebec Manor in Mount Pleasant.

CVA 99-5380 – Bowman Storage moving truck and driver in front of house at the corner of Hudson and Laurier Avenues. ca1918. Stuart Thomson. Bowman Storage was headquartered at 829 Powell Street at this time.

Vancouver News-Herald Jan 12 1952, Colin Haynes is in front row leftmost. He is with 9 other blind men who swam regularly at the YMCA pool.

It isn’t clear for certain how Jean met the man that she would marry. But I like to think that they met while serving together on the board of the Co-operative Society for the Visually Handicapped (a precursor to the CNIB?). In 1953, Colin Haynes was vice-president and Jean Archibald was secretary. Colin was blind (brought on by MS, apparently). They were married in Blaine, WA on November 23, 1955.

Jean died relatively young at age 62 in January 1974. Colin lived until 1980. Less than a year before her death, Jean had a letter printed in The Province in response to a query by a reader as to whether there was a local Sherlock Holmes club. I reproduce her letter below. I think it represents a clue as to her true range of literary interests beyond what is available today to an amateur biographer:

Courtesy: Shawna Archibald, Jean’s niece, n.d.

I wonder if your reader is thinking of the Baker Street Irregulars, a group formed in the 1920s and, as far as I know, continuing today. The group published the Baker Street Journal from New York. To become a member one had to write a thesis dealing with some aspect of Holmes’ career and these stories were printed in the journal. I don’t believe there is a Vancouver branch but it would be fun to have one.

— Jean C. Haynes, Vancouver

Province, 10 March 1973

Notes

*My thanks to Shawna Archibald, niece of Jean for her help in filling in some details pertaining to Jean’s life and for supplying the photographic portrait of Jean shown above.

Earliest Public Rooftop Gardens in Greater Vancouver

CVA 1399-390 – Photo of Leonard’s Cafe on West Hastings near Granville St. 192- A1 Commercial photo. Leonard’s Coffee Palace had by this time (the 1920s) become Leonard’s Cafe and the roof garden apparently had been filled in.

Until I began to research this subject, I’d assumed that the first and only public rooftop garden was the one atop the Hotel Vancouver #2 at the SW corner of Georgia and Granville.

But I was quite mistaken.

Leonard’s Cafe

The business which has the distinction of having the first rooftop garden in the city wasn’t a hotel — it was a cafe; or to describe the establishment as the proprietor did in the City Directory, it was Leonard’s Coffee Palace near the SW corner of West Hastings and Granville. They had another outlet at the Hastings Arcade (at the NW corner of Hastings and Cambie; the Dominion building stands there today). The Leonard’s outlet with the rooftop garden was established in 1906.

The Province blew the city’s ‘horn’, along with Leonard’s, with a ‘call and response’ introduction to their article on the opening of the roof garden:

“Come, let’s go to the roof garden.”

“Roof garden? Where? Didn’t know Vancouver had one.”

“Oh, yes, Vancouver is a city of progress; has everything that any of your cities in the East have, and the latest of these is the roof garden.”

Province, 12 May 1906

Indeed, the newspaper made so bold as to borrow from Babylon in describing the cafe as having the “hanging gardens of Vancouver.”

For all of this presumed hyperbole, however, very little was said about the decor on the roof. Nothing was said of the types of plants in the garden. In fact, the only thing that was said of the roof garden pertained to the view. It evidently had a northern outlook, as the “excellent view of the inlet” was extolled (World, 11 May 1906).

Most of the description was given over to detailing the various beverages which were available on the roof: everything, apparently, from punches, frappes, egg drinks, and “fancy beverages” (which included such exotic-sounding delights as “Cupid’s Idea” and a “Maringo Flip”). Most of these were 10-15 cents a serving.

Leonard’s cafe rooftop garden seems not to have lasted long. I suspect this was due to questions of efficiency. Patrons were likely to sit and order drinks from the uncovered roof only on warm, sunny days. The number of such days in Vancouver are relatively few.

David Spencer’s

CVA 7-4 – Mrs. Catherine Quiney, her family and friends on David Spencer’s roof garden. ca 1910 James Luke Quiney photo.

Next to jump on the roof garden band wagon, in 1908, was Spencer’s Vancouver department store, just a couple blocks up Hastings from Leonard’s. From what is visible in the photo of Spencer’s roof above, their garden appears to have been rather underwhelming. All that is visible are a few planters filled with somewhat ragged-looking plants.

The World said of the new roof garden:

There are two passenger elevators and one freight lift. The Elevators will travel to the roof where, according to present arrangements, a roof garden will be installed where ladies can leave the children in safety while shopping.

World, 2 May 1908

Vancouver’s Edwardians had different notion than today’s post-millennial parents as to what was “safe” for kiddies, I think. Sticking your bairn on the roof, with little in the way of fencing to keep them safe from taking a tumble probably wouldn’t be embraced today!

Spencer’s roof garden seems to have been mothballed by sometime in the 1930s. The final ad mentioning the garden was in 1929 (Province, 10 June 1929).

Interestingly, a rooftop garden was never set up at the downtown Vancouver Hudson’s Bay Co. department store. And it seems to have been the 1940s before Woodward’s established a “sun deck” on their Vancouver store’s roof (see below).

CVA 586-4026 – Woodward Stores Limited sun deck on roof of store on the corner of Hastings Street and Abbot Street. 1945. Don Coltman photo.

The Palace Hotel (North Vancouver)

CVA 371-778 – Exterior of the Palace Hotel (2nd Street, 1 block from Lonsdale Ave.), North Vancouver. ca1911. Roof Garden appears to be located on the back side of the Hotel, where the wooden superstructure appears.

Province, 23 May 1910. Grand Opening of the Roof Garden. In this photo, folks appear to be seated on the front edge of the roof. Whether the garden extended this far is unknown.

The Palace Hotel in North Vancouver was the next in line [1]. The North Vancouver structure was under construction by ca1906. But it wasn’t until 1910 that the roof garden was finished and ready for opening (Province, 23 May 1910). The roof feature was described in ads as being a “very special added attraction and “brilliantly lighted” at night.

In June 1909, a reception was held to formally celebrate the opening of the Palace. Most of the celebration seemed to be focussed on the roof garden. There was a live orchestra on the roof: Harpur’s Orhcestra, a band described in an earlier post (Province, 22 June 1909).

The Palace (after 1949, the Olympic) Hotel was demolished in 1989. [2]

Hotel Vancouver #2

PAN N120A – [View of the second Hotel Vancouver’s roof garden] July 1916. W. J. Moore photo.

VPL 21578 – Hotel Vancouver roof garden. 1923. Dominion Photo Co.

The 1916-established Hotel Vancouver roof garden was by no means the first roof garden in Greater Vancouver, but there was no debate that as far as bling per square foot was concerned, it was unrivaled. This was a real garden. There were impressive trellises on which were vines and there were also (in season) roses. In its ads, the hotel wasn’t satisfied describing the roof garden as being the best in B.C. nor even the best in Canada. No, it was touted as nothing less than the “finest Roof Garden on the Continent”. And who could challenge such an undefined claim?

The Hotel Vancouver, briefly evidently, even had rooftop golf links! It was announced in June 1916 that

Outside of New York city, there is probably no other town in America that has a roof-garden golf links. Winnipeg had an indoor golf links and so has Vancouver. The local indoor golf links are located in the basement of the Hotel Vancouver, but the management is now considering installing an apparatus similar to the one used for indoor golf on the roof of the Hotel Vancouver. The added advantage[s] of having the links on the roof are many, but the chief one is that the players will be out in the open air.

Sun, 3 June 1916

I am not aware of any photographs (nor press articles) pertaining to either the HV’s basement nor its rooftop links (if ever management decided in favour of establishing roof-based golf). I have to wonder about insurance issues should players on the roof have balls go over the edge and land on pedestrians and automobiles below!

The rooftop garden of Hotel Vancouver was demolished with the rest of the structure in 1948.

Notes

1. There was a Palace Hotel in Vancouver at one time, too. It was located where the Merchant Bank later was — at the NW corner of Carrall and Hastings. The Vancouver Palace later moved down Hastings a bit, just a couple doors west of the Rex Theatre.
2. The claim was made in the North Shore News in 2020 that the Palace had B.C.’s “first rooftop garden”. We’ve established above that that claim was mistaken. However, it may have been the province’s first hotel roof garden.

A Few Photos Showing Changes to Our Urban Landscape Over the Past Decade

Happy New Year!

I’m not going to devote much text to this post; it is a slideshow, for the most part. The photos are my own made in Greater Vancouver over the past ten years. The photos have a story to tell; the story is about rapid redevelopment in the Metro area.

Some for better, some not so much.

• 

  The Security guy shown here is guarding the gate to the parking garage that formerly was at the SE corner of Cordova at Granville. This structure was demolished in 2019. It will be replaced by the Bosa Waterfront residential condo (currently under construction). August 2015. MDM photo.

• 

  This is a view from inside the Commerce Bank at the SW corner of Hastings at Hamilton as it was being demolished. Dressew is visible (yellow awning) across the street. The bank has been replaced by an SFU campus: Charles Chang Innnovation Centre. This is the site where the plaque commemorating the location of the first city survey stake was placed in 1952 (and lost when the building was demolished.) It has not been replaced. February 2015. MDM photo.

• 

  The Vancouver Antique Mall is no longer at 422 Richards, but happily, the building that it occupied is. This building housed the Bank of B.C., Pitman College, and assorted other businesses over the years. August 2015. MDM photo.

• 

  It may surprise you to know that this classic directional sign is no longer near the corner of Georgia at Howe (across the street from the Hotel Georgia). The sign was quietly removed during a recent re-do to Art Gallery landscaping. March 2015. MDM photo.

• 

  This media booth (which was intended to be a temporary structure) was erected at the Vancouver Convention Centre for the 2015 FIFA Soccer match. It was demolished after FIFA was over. June 2015. MDM photo.

• 

  This ‘ghost sign’ was uncovered in 2012 at the SW corner of Robson at Granville. It showed a 1922 ad for the Harold Lloyd film “Grandma’s Boy” which was playing across Granville at the Capitol Theatre. The ad was painted on an exterior wall of the Power Building and was hidden the next year (1923) when the Farmer Building went up at the corner of Robson/Granville. The wall, together with the ad, were lost when the wall was demolished by Ledcor — the modern developer of the site — just two weeks after the sign was discovered. March 2012. MDM photo.

• 

  This New Westminster Gas Works (231 12th Street, NW) was demolished in 2018 by order of the City of New Westminster. It was in very poor shape and probably it was time for it to be demolished. But I still look for it whenever my Skytrain goes past the site. December 2015. MDM 2015.

• 

  This shows the footings of previous buildings nearby the NE corner of West Hastings near Granville. The building just visible at the top of the image is today’s Birk’s building. One of the businesses that stood on this block was Trorey’s jewellers (a predecessor of Birk’s Brothers). Oct 2015. MDM photo.

The Shack

CVA Bu P315 – Exterior of the Ferguson Building – S.W. corner of Hastings and Richards Streets. ca1889. C S Bailey photo.

There was a time, evidently, in Vancouver’s distant past, when office space wasn’t at a premium in the downtown core. The building shown above was developed by and named in honour of A. G. Ferguson in late 1888. When I first saw this photo, I assumed that both of the upper stories of the block were always for office space. But I had reason to change my mind — slowly — over the course of several days of research.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

What caused me to look into the Ferguson Building were three words that I noticed while browsing the 1889 city directory: “res, The Shack”.

Except from Henderson Directory, 1889.

Reference to a “shack” in early city directories was typically derogatory and was often accompanied by the word “Chinese”. Also typically, buildings so described were of wood frame construction and weren’t meant to endure for long.

But The Shack seemed to be a residence that was quite different — mainly because of the residents. My search for listings of residents of The Shack revealed that they seemed typically to be of “occidental” heritage (versus oriental) and that they were all gainfully employed in good jobs, in several instances by the CPR. Here is a list of the residents of The Shack with their occupations:

• G. McL. Brown, Ticket Agent, CPR
• A. H. Buchanan, Accountant, Bank of Montreal
• Allan Cameron, Clerk, General Freight and Passenger Department, CPR
• H. E. Connor, Local Freight Agent, CPR
• Albert John Dana, Purchasing Agent, CPR
• A. O. Leask, Leask & Johnston
• S. O. Richards, Barrister, Innes & Richards
• H. B. Walkem, Assistant Engineer, CPR
• Samuel McLean, Steward of The Shack (the manager of the residence?)
• Ote’ Ki, Assistant, The Shack (an Asian person — judging from the name — who was assistant to the manager?)

Where was 419 Richards? I needed a photo of the place, preferably ca 1889 for this “Photo-Historical Journey”! This proved difficult. The odd-numbered side of the 400 block of Richards was evidently close to the SW corner of Richards and Hastings. But the only structure at that corner in 1889, as far as I could tell from City of Vancouver Archives photographs, was the A. G. Ferguson building. That couldn’t be the site of The Shack, could it? After all, it appeared to be constructed of brick? Weren’t shacks in Vancouver typically wood frame and of impermanent appearance?

It turned out that The Shack had to be part of the Ferguson block. There were no other logical contenders. I believe the entry to The Shack at 419 Richards was a few steps up Richards from Hastings (see annotation to the photo above).

But some sort of proof that The Shack was located at the Ferguson would be nice. I finally found the nearest thing to proof that I could get from the World:

On the corner of Richards Street, is the elegant A. G. Ferguson Block, approaching completion . . . . The building has a frontage of 78 feet on Hastings and runs back 73 feet on Richard[s]. It consists of three stories, with a fine entrance in the centre, the entrance to the offices and rooms upstairs being on Richard[s] Street. The height from the floor level to the ceiling on the ground floor is 16 feet. The first floor offices have a height of 14 feet from the floor level to the ceiling, the next flight above being so arranged as to be used for sleeping apartments.

Daily World, 31 December 1888 (emphasis mine)

So, if I’m reading the newspaper account accurately, I take it that The Shack was located on the top floor of Ferguson.

The Shack seems to have lasted for just a single year (1889). By 1890, I assume, the demand for office space had ramped up and the floor which had housed The Shack was renovated to be suitable for the working lives of office dwellers.

The Ferguson building was demolished sometime between 1904 and 1910. It was sold by A. G. Ferguson’s estate the year after his passing in California in 1903. The Weart Building (which still stands) was constructed in its place in 1910-11.

Vancouver’s David Spencer Department Store

This post is about David Spencer, Ltd.  This was a now-long-gone but once much-loved B.C. department store chain with a store located in downtown Vancouver, which most residents of the city today know as the locations of Harbour Centre tower and Simon Fraser University’s first downtown Vancouver campus.

I make no pretence to present anything approaching a complete history of the store. I’m just ‘noodling around the edges’ of the Spencer’s story in an effort to present a few details that were unknown by me until recently; some of which, perhaps, were unknown to you, too.¹

What’s in a Name?

Spencer’s, as it was typically called, was formally known as “David Spencer, Ltd.” David (1837-1920) was president of the firm when it was established in Vancouver; it had existed in Victoria for several years prior to its 1907 debut in Vancouver. Spencer’s would continue in business until it was bought by T. Eaton Co. in 1948.

Spencer’s was known by a couple of other handles during the years it was in Vancouver. In the 1907 city directory, it called itself “David Spencer’s Dry Goods Merchants and Manufacturers, Home and Hotel Furnishers”. So originally, it didn’t describe itself as a “department store”.

By 1910, it was referring to itself a bit differently. In the city directory of that year it described itself as: “General Merchants, Home and Hotel Furnishers” and also referred to the shop as being a “Departmental Store”. By that year, their property had also grown to include a good deal of the south side of 500-block Cordova St. in addition to the healthy chunk of the north side of Hastings which it had originally bought. They then also owned 516-536 Cordova.

There is a reproduction of this block from Van Map below which shows, overlaid, the 1912 Goad’s Fire Insurance Map. It isn’t completely clear to me whether the Cordova and Hastings properties were connected at that time through some sort of of upper-story bridge, as has been the case over the years with other downtown properties (e.g., the Orpheum Theatre), or whether it was necessary for customers to exit one property and re-enter another (as with the Army & Navy store on East Hastings).

By the time the 1920 city directory was published, the way that Spencer’s referred to itself had changed to simply “Departmental Store”. But as their name became shorter, their appetite for real estate increased. By that year, they had grown to include much of the city block: 507-541 Hastings and 520-530 Cordova.

(CVA 789-76. Hastings and Richards. 1916.) 500-block of West Hastings.

There was another name associated with Spencer’s of which I was unaware until informed by my friend, Gordon Poppy²: it was also known as the “Diamond S”. I’m unsure of the origin of this name or how/when exactly it came to be applied in reference to the store. But it is clear that it was in use in external communication with customers as early as 1926 (see the first image in the next section of this post). It seems to have been a public relations tool employed by the store to speak of the “diamond” quality standard customers could expect of their wares and service. The cover of the Fall/Winter catalogue, 1928-29, shown immediately below speaks to this.

Spencer’s 1928-29 Fall/Winter Catalogue. (Courtey: Gordon Poppy).

Re-Development ‘Eyes’ Exceed Capacity?

By 1926, Spencer’s had acquired all of the property it needed to redevelop their several buildings into a single, mammoth ‘new’ building. An artist’s conception of what management had in mind for this new structure appears below on the front cover of the 1926 Spring/Summer catalogue.

Spencer’s 1926 Spring/Summer Catalogue, front cover. (Courtesy: Gordon Poppy). Showing an artistic rendering of the anticipated “new Vancouver store now under construction.” Spencer’s never actually looked as it appears above.

By the time construction of the new building was finished at the end of 1926, the artistic conception of the structure and reality clearly were different. Compare the image above with the one below (a photograph made in the 1930s).

(CVA 1495-32. 193- ). The actual ‘new’ building on the corner of Hastings and Richards.

Why did the managers of Spencer’s choose to scale down their 1926 ambitions for a full-block Spencer’s emporium? That isn’t clear to me. Gordon Poppy has suggested (and this was my original thought, as well) that it was due to the stock market crash and the consequent Great Depression that followed. The problem with that hypothesis, however, is that the timing doesn’t work. Construction on the new building began in early 1926; it was finished (with a smaller structure than originally planned) by the end of 1926 or (at latest) early 1927. The stock market crash, however, happened in October, 1929; that puts the crash a good two years into the future from when Spencer’s managers had to have decided to go with a smaller building. So it seems safe to rule out the stock market crash as the stimulus for downsizing Spencer’s ambitious 1926 plan.

My best guess is that management decided that the cost of linking all of their properties under a single roof was simply too expensive.

(CVA 99-2271. ca 1926. Stuart Thomson photo). This is the only image I could find that shows the new Spencer’s building under construction (on north side of Hastings at Richards).

Native Figure ‘Standing’ on Hastings Canopy

The native ‘welcome’ figure shown below was fastened atop the canopy at the Hastings entry to the new building in 1936 (beneath the vertical Spencer’s sign), during Vancouver’s Diamond Jubilee. Today, the figure is part of the collection of the Royal BC Museum (Victoria). At the feet of the figure there is a note that an “Indian Exhibit” was located on the 5th floor of the store in that year.

(Courtesy: Gordon Poppy. Photographer unknown). [1936]. Note the “S” enclosed in a diamond at the bottom of the vertical Spencer’s sign above the arcade canopy on Hastings St. The first “S” in the name (not visible above) was likewise enclosed in a diamond shape. (Note: VPL has a photo that seems to be identical to this one. That photo identifies the photographer as Leonard Frank).

Neo-Roman Speculations

The view shown below is looking at the NE corner of Spencer’s, at Seymour and Hastings. There is a building just beyond the Molson’s/Seymour block which has a neo-Roman appearance.

(CVA 586-4015. Sept 1945. Don Coltman photo). This is a view of the NE corner of Seymour at Hastings (of the Molson’s block of Spencer’s, in the foreground), taken in the days immediately following the end of WW2.

According to the city directory for 1945, there are only two candidates that could then have occupied this building: an ice cream shop or the Spencer’s flower shop. The building looks like too serious a structure to have housed an ice cream shop; so I’m concluding, tentatively, that it was home to Spencer’s floristry department, in this period.

I’ve noticed that this building is just visible in shots made as early as 1906 on VPL’s historical photo site. There are no hints in city directories of that time as to what the building was; this caused me to speculate whether, early in the history of the Molson block, this may have been a Seymour St. entry to Molsons (sort of a back door?)

If anyone can add any facts regarding what the neo-Roman structure was, I’d appreciate hearing from you via a comment to this post.

(VPL 5196. Molson’s Bank at NE Seymour & Hastings. 1906. P T Timms photo).

(CVA 180-0401. Spencer’s Flower Shop floral display at the Pacific National Exhibition (PNE). 1932).

Window Displays

Displays produced by Spencer’s for their windows were, in my opinion, the best around, bar none. (Compare with a window produced by one of their competitors, Hudson’s Bay Co., here, for example). In terms of creativity, material, and time invested, it is difficult, even today, for me to look at Spencer’s windows with anything but awe.

(CVA 1495-12. 1926. Harry Bullen photo). The “arcade” below the vertical “Spencer’s” signage on Hastings St. (at the ‘new’ building.

For natural displays, like the Easter scene shown below, “we used real landscaping: grass, flowers, etc.,” said Gordon Poppy. He also noted that their mannequins were wax, eyes were made of glass, and eyebrows were composed of human hair.

(CVA 1495-36. 193-. Dominion Photo). A view into the short side of the island window.

Easter Scene at Spencer’s. Dominion Photo (Colour). n.d. A view through a long side of the island window. Courtesy: Gordon Poppy.

 

Notes

¹For a little more info pertaining (indirectly) to Spencer’s on VAIW, see here and here. For more about Spencer’s from other sources, consider viewing Vancouver Heritage Foundation’s page on the store, this Dunsmuir Street segment of a movie of the 1927(?) Spencer’s Toy Parade, and this concluding segment of the same parade following Santa up Hastings to Spencer’s Hastings Street canopy and entry (in which Santa enters the store by unconventional means that would definitely NOT be applauded by the Worker’s Compensation Board, today).

²Gordon began his working life as a Spencer’s employee. I’ll allow him to tell the story of his early working years: “I started working for David Spencer, Ltd. on July 3rd, 1945 as a summer job. I had been taking a course on display and sign-writing from Frank Vase at the Vancouver School of Display at nights, while I was at high school attending Vancouver Technical School. As Spencer’s had always had the reputation for the best displays in the city, I was glad to get this opportunity to work there. VE Day had just passed, and one of the first windows that I was involved with was the VJ Day displays. I was asked if I would consider staying on in the fall. As I needed two more years of high school, I stayed on at Spencer’s and completed my schooling by attending King Edward School (at Oak and 12th) at night, while working in the daytime. . . .  I continued with David Spencer’s until the chain was bought by the T. Eaton Co. in late 1948. Most of the employees continued on with the new owners. I stayed on until 1991 with Eaton’s.”

Yaletown’s Grocery Hall of Fame

207-43 – “Grocery Hall of Fame” 1241 Homer Street. Nov 1982. Elizabeth Walker photo.

In 1979, a Grocery Hall of Fame was established in Yaletown at 1241 Homer Street. The founder was Bill Spaner. He was then (and, evidently, still is) a food broker with a business called Tempo Sales. The Curator of the Hall was Cal McLeod. Tempo Sales and the Hall shared the site, with the Hall being open at no charge only on Sundays, initially, and Tempo being Spaner’s for-profit concern on other days of the week.

The Hall of Fame was a museum of grocery-related artifacts. These included (to name just a few) labels, tins, advertisements, posters, magazines, wartime ration books and coupons, kitchen utensils, and soft drink dispensers.

The Homer Street site opened in May 1979 after Spaner convinced the City not to demolish the 70-year-old rooming house on the property, called the Glenholme. The Hall of Fame had earlier been located at a decidedly poor location: Annacis Island! (Province, 10 July 1983). He bought the Homer Street building and land for what today seems like a phenomenal bargain: $175,000! It cost him twice that to remodel the building (Sun, 24 September 1979).

CVA 207-44 – Elek Imredy (sculptor of the iconic “Girl in a Wetsuit” at Stanley Park) and old time clock during Vancouver Historical Society tour of Grocery Hall of Fame. Nov 1982. Elizabeth Walker.

Spaner grew up in Winnipeg and came to Vancouver when he was 16. He worked as a displayman for Canada Packers and later became promotions manager for Puritan Foods. He and a partner began Tempo Sales in 1967 and he bought out his partner’s share of the business in 1972 (Sun, 15 May 1981).

CVA 207-46 – Frank Williams and Jill Rowland during Vancouver Historical Society tour of Grocery Hall of Fame. Nov 1982. Elizabeth Walker.

There are a number of images in the City of Vancouver Archives of members of the Vancouver Historical Society visiting the Grocery Hall of Fame in November 1982 (three of which are reproduced here). The photos were made by Elizabeth Walker, former President of the Vancouver Historical Society (1962-63), former head of the local history division at Vancouver Public Library, and author of the invaluable Street Names of Vancouver (1999).

It isn’t completely clear what it was that motivated Spaner to move the Hall of Fame out of Yaletown, but move it he did by 1990. I suspect that he was offered a lot of money by the condominium development that is today on the site of the former museum.

The Grocery Hall of Fame moved initially (in 1990) to 9500 Van Horne Way in Richmond and later to the rear of Spaner’s residential property at 6620 No. 6 Road. As of 2014, Tempo Sales was still in business at No. 6 Road. There is some evidence that the Hall of Fame continues to operate today at the same location, but it is hard to be sure whether it has survived COVID-19.

If any VAIW reader can confirm the current status of the Grocery Hall of Fame, I’d appreciate it if you would comment below.

The First VAIW Post (February 2014): 1885 Brockton View

This photograph (CVA Wat P38) was the work of Lauchlan A. Hamilton. In my judgement, it is one of the most attractive early images available from the digital collection of the City of Vancouver Archives (CVA).

Mr Hamilton lived in Vancouver for fewer than five years, but those years were important, as was his contribution. He was Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) land commissioner during a period in which the CPR had a lot of authority and he became one of the first aldermen of Vancouver’s Council. As land commissioner, he surveyed and named Vancouver streets in the central business district and the West End (including, immodestly, Hamilton Street).

Where was Mr Hamilton standing when he made this image, vis-a-vis today’s Vancouver? If you walk behind the Vancouver Convention Centre to the seaplane terminal at the far western end of the pedestrian walkway and look toward Brockton Point at Stanley Park, you are probably as close as you can get today (without getting wet).

There were some surprises for me in this image of Brockton Point. The first was that it is attributed to Mr Hamilton. This is one of only two digital photos in the CVA collection (other than a couple of family snapshots) that are attributed to him. I believe he made several drawings and watercolours that are in the CVA’s non-digital collection. So he was an amateur artist, evidently, but not a recognized amateur photographer. There are a good many un-attributed photographs in CVA’s digital collection from the period that Mr Hamilton lived in Vancouver, however. So who knows how many of those ought rightly to be attributed to him?

Another surprise was that there were so few mature trees in what would become Stanley Park (in 1888). I shouldn’t have been surprised by this, however, as it is well known that in the pre-Park years (1860s-1880s), it was logged aggressively.

There also appears to be evidence of settlement of some sort in what would become the Park. It is pretty far in the background and so is quite fuzzy, but there appear to be temporary (tent-like?) structures along the shore. I believe a military reserve was established there during the 1860s, and there was likely still some native settlement there in the 1880s.

Hamilton managed to convey with his camera a scene that might very well have been painted. And the age of the image (nearly 130 years, now) has done the image a favour; with the passing of time, the emulsion near the surface of the photo has begun to break down a bit, thereby creating what would be referred to in complimentary terms, in antique painting circles, as a “crackle finish”.

What Do CNR Depot and Dr. Sun Yat Sen Garden Have in Common?

The Chinese Tennis Club was at both locations!

2008-010.2265 – Chinese Tennis Club group portrait at their first location just south of the CNR Railway Depot (now known as Pacific Central Depot). The gent seated in front row, center, wearing a clerical collar is presumably Rev. Ivan Wong, Club secretary in 1940 (and pastor to the United Church Chinese Mission at East Pender and Dunlevy). Photo made 1939.

A brief chronology of the Chinese Tennis Club:

• 1936: Chinese Tennis Club was established. The Club was affiliated with the B.C. Lawn and Tennis Association. The Club played other clubs in that association (including Jericho and Stanley Park clubs) and also played other pacific coast clubs (including cities in the so-called tri-cities (Vancouver, Seattle, and Portland). Original membership of Club was about 20-25.
• 1937: Club had 63 members.
• 1938: Club had four clay courts just south of the CNR Depot; the court site was presumably leased from Canadian National Railway. The courts seem to have been located roughly where long-distance buses park today at Pacific Central Depot. The Vancouver Chinese Tennis Club was the only Chinese tennis club to have its own courts among Pacific coast cities.
• 1939: Membership: 80
• 1941: New courts and clubhouse at 550 Carrall Streeet were ready in July. According to the Charles Louie interview cited below, all of the funds for materials were raised by the Club and the labour on the courts and clubhouse was done by Club members.
• 1946 (Vancouver’s Diamond Jubilee Year): Pacific Coast Chinese Tennis Championships were held in June at the Club courts on Carrall Street. Players from San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle participated. The tournament was officially opened by Chinese Consul-General to Vancouver, Hon. Li Chao and Vancouver Mayor Jack Cornett (Sun, 29 June 1946).
• 1949: Late in the year, the Club was disbanded. This was due to City of Vancouver expropriation of the land on which the clubhouse and courts were situated in order to extend Keefer Street through to Carrall Street. (I suspect, but cannot prove, that a contributing reason was the development of part of the site by the new Marshall-Wells wholesale hardware). The Dr. Sun Yat Sen Garden was situated approximately at the same location as the Chinese Tennis Club when it was opened in 1986.

One of the great constants among those on the executive of the Chinese Tennis Club was Charles E. Louie (1908-1977). He was President of the Club from its inception until it disbanded. Jack Chan was another regular member of the executive. He was for several years the Club’s tennis instructor.

The Club would each year hold a season opening and closing dinner/dance, often at the White Rose Ballroom, and occasionally at the Peter Pan Ballroom (both on West Broadway).

2008-010.2271 – Second (and final) Chinese Tennis Club site at 550 Carrall Street. Near the site of the future Dr. Sun Yat Sen Garden (578 Carrall Street, 1986-present). ca1941.

Sources:

• Audio interview with Charles E. Louie, November 1976 on the Pender Guy radio program (No. 98A). Beginning at the 17.15 point in the program.
• 1939 Annual: Chinese Tennis Club. UBC Open Collections.
• [1946] Jubilee Annual: Chinese Tennis Club. Museum of Vancouver.
• Vancouver Province
• Vancouver Sun

Ernest Augustus Muling, French Chef

Update November 2, 2022

Ad in Tourists’ Guide of Vancouver, BC. 1905.

Ernest Augustus Muling (1861-1949) was a Frenchman by birth (in Blumenau), an Englishman by nationality, and a chef by profession.

He came to Vancouver from Brisbane, Australia where he seems to have spent his twenties and early thirties and where his first two children were born (May and Madeleine, also known as Madge); Ernest’s wife, Annie (1868-1942) was born in England.

His career in Vancouver was on-again-off-again. He would work for a year or more at a hotel or hotel restaurant, and then he would be described for a year or two subsequently (in the Vancouver directory) as a “caterer” — restaurant lingo, I presume, for “self-employed”.

His first experience of the restaurant business in Vancouver was at the Strand Hotel‘s King Edward Silver Grill (ca1905-06). The Strand was mid-way down the south side of the 600 block of West Hastings. He was catering (and traveling in Europe for a few months in 1907) during the 1907-11 period. (A June 1912 clipping noted that Ernest Muling had recently “assumed charge of the Wigwam Inn” (World, 17 June 1912); however, this seems to be the only claim in the local press of this and so I’m assuming it was either a very short-lived appointment or was a press error).

In 1912, Ernest was the proprietor of the Trocadero Grill. The Trocadero was on the south side of the 100 block of West Hastings (at 156 W. Hastings). He catered in 1913.

He was the proprietor of the Langham Hotel at 1115 Nelson Street in 1914. The Langham was what we’d call today a “boutique” hotel. Located just west of Thurlow on Nelson, the charming little hotel building (and its single family dwelling neighbours) is no longer there; in its place today is a concrete multi-residential behemoth.

Starting in 1915, Ernest had moved on to the Grosvenor Hotel Cafe. The Grosvenor was at the SE corner of Howe at Robson. He remained there until 1917/18.While he was working at the Grosvenor, the Mulings lived there. In 1919, he catered again.

CVA 780-415 – Buildings along Nelson Street at Thurlow Street, including the Langham Hotel (the three-storey brick building in foreground). 1966.

In 1920, Ernest was a chef with the Canadian Pacific Railway. What precisely this meant is opaque to me. Whether it meant he was cooking for the staff of the CPR, working in one of the CPR’s public eating establishments, or cooking on a train, isn’t clear.

The CPR job seems to have been his final one in Vancouver. There is no further record in the city of Ernest, Annie, May (or the two boys who came later: Edward, who apprenticed with BC Electric Railway for a couple of years and who seems to have gone to California, dying in San Francisco; and Richard, who took up work as an electrician while in Vancouver).

Mrs. Muling, for at least a couple of their early years in Vancouver (1908-09), seems to have been the first manager of the Gresham rooming house at SW corner of Granville and Smithe. The rooming house was built in 1907-08 and began operation in late 1908 (Province, 12 December 1908). The Gresham is still known by that name and is at that location, today.

While living here, the Mulings participated in dog shows with their dachshund, “Tackle”, on at least one occasion winning best in show for that breed (Sun, 11 Oct 1912).

By 1921, the Muling family seems to have pulled up stakes.* They ended up in Australia again. Whether they went there directly or took a more circuitous route, isn’t clear to me. But most of the family, including Ernest, appear to have died in Camberwell (a suburb of Melbourne, today).

VPL 7601 – Grosvenor Hotel at Howe & Robson Streets. 1915. P. T. Timms photo.

Notes

*Madeleine (aka Madge) married Charles Simpson Scott in Vancouver. She seems to have been the one Muling to have “stuck” here. She died at the ripe age of 93 in 1989 in North Vancouver.

Kolster’s Radio Musicians

Publicity Postcard: Kolster Musicians – CKWX Radio, Vancouver. n.d. (1929?) K. G. McKenzie (619 Granville) photo. The announcer standing at the microphone is CKWX manager/announcer, Harold W. Paulson. MDM Collection.

Publicity Postcard: Kolster’s Musicians (rear of postcard shown above with notes).

The eight-person musical group shown above is Kolster’s Musicians. They were a group of Vancouver people who were assembled to play music on CKWX Radio (Vancouver) for their principal sponsor, Kolster Radios. Kolster was a U.S. brand radio, distributed in B.C. by the Canadian Fairbanks-Morse Company, Ltd.

The program always includes a bright march, an overture, a late popular release as well as a group of popular numbers of a few years ago . . . . [T]he listener is therefore treated to a splendid variety of music . . .

Sun, 14 Sept 1929

An identifiable member of Kolster’s Musicians seems to be pianist and band leader (later the musical director of CKWX’s Concert Orchestra), Harold A. Copley (ca1893-1941) (Province, 6 July 1930). Copley was was formerly the organist at St. Saviour’s Church (Sun, 14 Sept 1929).

The host pictured at the CKWX microphone was Harold W. Paulson (1899-1983), “director and chief announcer” at the radio station (Sun, 25 Aug 1928).

The others shown in the photo are not identifiable by me. If readers of VAIW recognize someone pictured, please let me know by commenting below.

CVA 99-3810 – Fairbanks Morse – Kolster Radio Window ca1930 Stuart Thomson.

Ancient Mariners of Carrall Street

CVA 586-1578 – Captain J. H. Palmer, the founder of The Ancient Mariner Rope and Canvas, engaged in making what appears to be a scramble-net or cargo-net. 1943? Don Coltman photo.

It is an ancient Mariner,
And he stoppeth one of three
‘By thy long grey beard and glittering eye,
Now wherefore stopp’st thou me?

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. First stanza. Text of 1834.

As far as I know, none of the proprietors of the Ancient Mariner Rope and Canvas shop had long grey beards, but I’m not so sure that they didn’t all have glittering eyes, especially when the time seemed apt to spin a seafaring tale.

Captain J. H. Palmer, the founder of the Ancient Mariner shop at 225 Carrall Street (near ‘Blood Alley’ and Maple Tree Square in Gastown) established the business ca1941. He lived in the back of the shop. He was a “master craftsman” at rope splicing and in his shop he made ship’s bumpers, rigging, ladders, lifebuoys, and nets.

James Harvey Palmer was born in Amherst, Nova Scotia [1] ca1870 to Jacob Nelson and Naomi Allan Palmer. His father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, according to Palmer, were also sea captains. Palmer first went to sea at age 15 (ca1885) and by age 19, “he became the youngest second mate in sail on the east coast” He got his master’s ticket (his first captaincy) in Seattle in 1906 (Province, 8 June 1949).

2009-005.462 – Ancient Mariner Rope Works, located in Gastown during World War II 1939-45. W. M. Seivewright (right) and Captain James Palmer (left).

When Palmer established Ancient Mariner Rope and Canvas during WWII, he had at least one assistant. Captain D. J. McDonald was among the earliest. Another was William M. Seivewright, who became a local journalist.

Captain Dan McDonald. The Province, 26 November 1962. Gordon Sedawie, photo.

Palmer had an injury to one of his hands in 1955 and no doubt found that cramped his style as a rope-maker (Sun, 31 December 1955). He sold the business ca1956 to William H. S. Wilson and Captain R. G. Lawson [2]. Lawson died in 1958. By 1962, the Ancient Mariner had adapted to the changing market and was then producing nylon helicopter nets which could handle 2-ton loads of supplies dropped at remote forestry camps. Captain Dan McDonald was still helping out at the Ancient Mariner in 1962 (and, of course, sharing his shipping yarns with whoever would listen; there are a few examples of McDonald’s seafaring tales below).

Captain Dan J. McDonald’s Saefaring Stories, Province 26 November 1962, p.25. Download

The business seems to have faded to black by the mid-1960s. Bill Wilson died in 1969.

Steve Roper, Publishers Syndicate. Province, 12 April 1958. Here is a Rime of the Ancient Mariner allusion in comic form. By the way, for those of you who think that the ‘bad guy’, Twitch, is handing Steve a mini-TV, that is actually a camera (a little larger than an iPhone)! (As for the hint as to how the camera could be used as a weapon, I suspect that had to do with the flashbulb that was part of it; to temporarily ‘blind’ Twitch.)

Notes

1. Palmer’s early years are a bit mysterious. In the 1909 U.S. Census he claimed that he had dual citizenship and shows both his parents as being born in Maine. In a 1918 US Passport application, Palmer claims that he was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. in 1870. He was at the time, according to this application, a “Constructing Engineer” in Lima, Peru with “Conchos Temstine Co.”
2. Lawson was formerly with the Malahat Shipping Co., Ltd. Lawson, in his capacity with Malahat, made an offer in 1954 to the Canadian federal government to blast Ripple Rock (Province, 23 September 1954). Their offer was not accepted. Ripple Rock was exploded by another firm in 1958.

Flying Saucer Clubs

CVA 180-5942.12 – Flying saucer contactees need french fries, too! Flying Saucer concession stand on P.N.E. grounds. 1964, Franz Lindner.

The 1950s and ’60s were prime time for flying saucer enthusiasts. There were at least two UFO-related Vancouver clubs at that time — one called the Vancouver Area Flying Saucer Club (1956-ca1979) and another at UBC known as the Varsity Flying Saucer Club (1957-ca1963).

MOV H2001.25.23. Vancouver Area club patch.

The first president of the Vancouver Area Club was Margaret Fewster (1917-1986), a gifted contralto and respected music teacher in the city. She described the club as being “not political, subversive or religious, but composed of good, honest and loyal subjects” (Province, 4 July 1956).

Fewster seems to have been the legitimate face of the club. It was founded by Herbert D. Clark (1901-1986), a retired electrical contractor, who sounded a wee bit kookier than Fewster. Clark remarked that the next ‘night watch’ (for spotting locally appearing flying saucers) would be held in September, “unless the solar system brothers advise against it” (Province, 4 July 1956).

In another press report, Clark claimed that the occupants of flying saucers would be in contact with earthlings soon:

They will speak English perfectly, look and dress like any local young businessman and may offer free rides to interested believers in their fantastic planetary vehicles.

Province, 21 June 1956

Clark had a public fit when The Invaders television series was first aired. Instead of accepting that the series was fiction (which was plain; like the later Cannon and Barnaby Jones, it was a Quinn/Martin production), he chose to take it as a (false) commentary on the flying saucer folks:

“It’s absolutely deplorable that they depict (the flying saucer men) as ray gun murderers . . . . They’ve been around our universe for as long as we’ve had recorded history.” Clark said he was so incensed about the series . . . when it was first shown last fall that he wrote a nasty letter to the show’s producers in the U.S.

Sun, 2 May 1968

MOV H2001.25.25. Membership card for UBC club.

The UBC Club was founded by Stuart Piddocke and Gareth Shearman (d. 2013). Piddocke said that the purpose of the club was to investigate and “to find the facts”. Shearman was the president of the club for awhile. “Humor will . . . be included on the agenda.” he said (Ubyssey 4 October 1957). A. T. Babcock (1937-1993), who ultimately became a B.C. teacher, was the club’s Intelligence Officer.

It seems to me that the members of the UBC club were less doctrinaire and, on the whole, took themselves less seriously than did the Vancouver Area club members.

Crop of photo of students signing up for UBC Varsity Flying Saucer Club Totem yearbook, 1958, p 269.

The clubs had a couple of interesting speakers. Daniel W. Fry (1908-1992) was one of the earliest. The Sun reported on Fry’s talk to the Vancouver club:

The stocky associate of men of outer space told [his] tale with a straight face . . . . Not one person in the crowd that jammed two rooms in the Art Gallery laughed. They didn’t even smirk. . . . A room was reserved for 150, but half an hour before his lecture began the crowd overflowed into a second room and into the halls. People shared chairs, sat on the floor, jammed into every inch of standing space, to hear and see ‘the man who touched a flying saucer.

Sun, 29 June 1956

VPL 64238 American flying saucer contactee and metaphysical author, George Hunt Williamson (on right), Feb 1958. Province, Gordon F Sedawie.

Another big-name speaker was George H. Williamson, who spoke to the Vancouver group in 1959. His topic was “The City That Existed Before the Moon.” Williamson’s talk was advertised as being presented by the Chairman of Anthropology at a completely fictitious university: Great West University.

The kind of public enthusiasm for flying saucers that would fill two rooms at the Vancouver Art Gallery in 1956 had dissipated substantially by the late 1970s. The Vancouver Area club seemed to fold around 1979. Notwithstanding this, a recent CTV News item claims that Vancouver today is the UFO capital of Canada. Apparently the city has more sightings of flying saucers than any other part of the country.

Civil Defence Training HQ on Granville Street

Crop of CVA 228-545 – N 13, N 14. May 1953. Lew Parry Film Productions. Shows the current Granville Bridge under construction in 1953 and Vancouver Civil Defence Training HQ in its temporary location (1396 Granville) adjacent to and south of the Continental Hotel at the foot of the Bridge.

The property identified in the image above as Vancouver’s Civil Defence Training HQ was originally occupied by NeoLite — a neon sign company. [1] The space was only a temporary site for the civil defence HQ from 1951-1953 mainly because the real estate was needed by the new Granville Bridge (some of the concrete of which is visible in the foreground of the photo).

What was its Function?

The civil defence training group was committed to keeping Vancouverites and British Columbians as safe as possible in the event of an act of a war or national emergency. [2] A major component of CD was the training of an auxiliary police force. The force was made up of of volunteers who were trained by regular police officers. The auxiliary police had a slogan: “If we never need what we learn in civil defence we lose nothing, but if we never learn what we need, we may lose everything” (Sun, 6 Oct 1951). The civil defence HQ also trained volunteer fire personnel.

By 1961, the range of CD training available had broadened beyond training auxiliary police and fire personnel to include training in first aid, home nursing, and rescue survival (among other courses) (Sun 18 Sept 1961).

In the early years (1951-55, say), civil defence was able to draw a healthy number of volunteers, and was seen as a very important task. This was mainly because WW2 was such a recent memory. Not only were there many former ARP (Air Raid Precautions) volunteers in the city from that conflict, but there were many WW2 veterans living in Vancouver then who had seen with their own eyes what destruction was wrought in European cities in the recent war. These people did not need to be persuaded of the importance of preventing a similar outcome in Vancouver.

Civil Defence Takes a Dive

By 1966, however, civil defence had declined significantly in the city’s priorities. Typically, precious few volunteers could be found in the HQ (by then it had moved to Howe). The civil defence head in Vancouver, Group Captain Alexander Lewis, had this to say:

The public shows no interest during periods of peace. They are like an ostrich — they like to keep their heads in the sand; they prefer to forget war….At the time of Cuba [missile crisis] we were inundated with calls about radio activity and fall-out shelters….I sometimes wonder if the amount of money that is spent and the amount of work we put in is not out of all proportion to the number of people we train.

Sun, 2 Aug 1966

CVA 1184-2733 – Exterior view of the Neolite Co. building with a Perfex bleach neon sign on the roof (prior to it becoming Vancouver Civil Defence Training HQ). 1943. Jack Lindsay.

Group Capt. Lewis wasn’t the only one thinking such thoughts. Such questions had occurred to city aldermen, too. By 1966, the city’s civil defence outlay seems to have been principally for the rental of the HQ at Howe: $600 a month. But even that modest sum was considered by City Council to be too much to pay for civil defence and within a year, the headquarters had been vacated and became the new Vancouver City Police Academy (which had moved from, apparently, an unsatisfactory site on the PNE grounds).

‘Civil Defence’ to ‘EMO’ to ‘Search & Rescue’

In the mid-’60s, the civil defence function performed by the Training HQ and other related groups in the province had changed its name, collectively, to the Emergency Measures Organization (EMO) — a group that seems to have been a creature of the federal government. The EMO seemed not to have much continuing relevance in the City of Vancouver after the late 1960s. But it was relevant in the mountainous area of North Vancouver. In 1972, for example, the following EMO action was reported in the press:

A North Vancouver Emergency Measures Organization rescue crew led three people to safety Sunday night after three were stranded on a ledge on Grouse Mountain.

Sun, 22 Nov 1972

You could be forgiven if you concluded that the reported rescue by EMO volunteers sounded a lot like the sort of thing you hear reported today of North Vancouver search and rescue teams. Indeed, the function of the EMO in North Vancouver seemed gradually to morph into the search and rescue organization that exists today in North Vancouver.

The Continental Hotel being demolished ca 2015. MDM Photo

Notes

1. NeoLite moved to a location at the corner of Burrard and 2nd Avenue after leaving the Granville site. NeoLite was one of several neon sign companies operating in Vancouver at this time. The most famous (and extant) of these firms was Neon Products, which was located on Terminal Avenue.
2. While the CD Training group was focussed on educating volunteers, another major organization, the Ground Observer Corps, with direct ties to the RCAF, was a more hands-on bunch. The observer corps – a BC-wide, indeed a nation-wide, group of volunteers – were to watch the skies and report in to HQ descriptions of any planes they spotted. The corps headquarters would then check the ground-observed flight info against the flight manifests submitted by each legitimate pilot prior to them taking off. If the airplane reported by the corps didn’t have a manifest and/or it seemed to be suspicious, the RCAF would be ordered, potentially, to ‘scramble’ its fighter planes (Sun, 6 Nov 1954). The headquarters of the corps was at 1363 Howe Street, the same address as the CD Training HQ was moved to after leaving its Granville location — so the two arms of civil defence in Vancouver were at the same site. The Ground Observer Corps folded by 1960, when the same functions it had performed with human observers could be more efficiently carried out electronically. The CD Training arm was mothballed a few years later, in 1967 (Province, 3 May 1960).

Rev. Arthur J. Hadley: “Let’s Go!”

Update

My very good friend, Art Hadley, died on Christmas Day, 2016. He had a special connection with Vancouver, although he and his wife, Edna, spent relatively little time in the Greater Vancouver area, recently. In their retirement, they settled in Mississauga and later in Gravenhurst, ON.

Art was a Baptist pastor who seemed to me born for that career with a preacher’s voice that boomed out of his relatively small body¹. He became a member of First Baptist Church (Vancouver) with his parents (Frank and Nellie) in 1946, after serving in the Canadian Navy in World War II. He spent time at divinity school in the U.S. and then became a full-time minister. He served pastorates in Regina, Fredericton, and West Virginia. He also served long and significant terms in New Westminster (Olivet Baptist) and Vancouver (West Point Grey Baptist). 

Rev. Art Hadley and Rev. Dr. Bruce Milne while ministering together at First Baptist Church (Vancouver). Archives, First Baptist Church (Vancouver). n.d.

Later in life, following his retirement from full-time ministry, he served as an interim pastor in Charlottetown, P.E.I. and served two terms at First Baptist Church (Vancouver) as Interim Director of Ministries in 1994-95 and also in 1999-2000. Even in the ’90s, there were still longtime FBC members who remembered Art and his parents with great warmth and he was welcomed at FBC in his largely administrative role, with Rev. Dr. Bruce Milne as the Senior Minister.

It was when Art was at FBC that I first got to know him. I was working in the office at First during his stints there as interim DOM. A memory I have is of knocking on Art’s office door around lunch time. I recall seeing him sitting at his desk with a can of Classic Coca-Cola within easy reach. I can hear his reply to my question as to whether he was free for lunch, as though it were yesterday: “Let’s go!” he’d most often say, and he’d be on his feet in a flash and ready to accompany me.

That will be my enduring memory of Art Hadley.

For a more complete obituary, see below:

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If you are interested in hearing an example of Art’s preaching, there is a sample on Regent College’s audio site (as part of First Baptist Church’s audio archive there). It is his sermon delivered on February 28, 1999 at FBC and is entitled Begrudging Generosity. It’s a free download.

November 2020 Update

Here is an excerpt from a 1951 First Baptist Vancouver minute which I recently unearthed from a number of images I made at the FBC Archives a couple of years ago. It is a copy of a letter written by FBC’s Clerk to the Ordination Council at Cameron Memorial Baptist (Regina) – Art’s first post-seminary charge. The original letter was to have been hand-delivered to Regina by his dad, Frank Hadley.

1951 FBC Minutes. First Baptist Church (Vancouver) Archives.

1951 FBC Minutes. First Baptist Church (Vancouver) Archives.

Change and the UBC War Memorial Gym

The War Memorial Gym is one of the few buildings on UBC’s campus that has withstood the plans of developers and administrators to demolish and replace structures that show the least age.

As you will see in the photos below, however, there were changes to the plans for a Memorial Gym in the years following WWII. And changes otherwise touched the Gym.

How much longer can the Memorial Gym continue to stand?

A very early artist’s impression of the exterior of UBC War Memorial Gym. From UBC Visitors’ Day brochure. March 2nd 1946. MDM Collection.

A very different artist’s impression of the War Memorial Gym, this time showing an attached enclosure where an envisioned pool, office space, bowling alley etc. were envisioned. The enclosure would not be built when the auditorium was constructed in 1951. The Empire Pool would occupy that space starting in 1954. From UBC’s The Alumni Chronicle, Dec 1948. UBC Open Collections,

Floor plan, War Memorial Gym. Sept 1950. UBC Open Collection.

VPL 43668 British Empire Games outdoor swimming pool (to be known simply as Empire Pool) and War Memorial Gym at UBC. 1954. Province Newspaper.

Aerial View of War Memorial Gym. 1962. Peter Holborne photo. Memorial Hall is clear above. It is the slightly lower attachment to the auditorium adjacent to Empire Pool.

View of War Memorial Gym and General Services Admin Building. 1973. GSAB was built in 1969 and stood until ca2017. GSAB was demolished to make way for new residences for students.

Remembrance Day at War Memorial Gym. 1977. Jim Barnham photo. This shows part of Memorial Hall. There are plaques in this space which show the names of students who fought and fell in WWI and WWII.

Laying a new floor in War Memorial Gym auditorium. 1980.

Student Registration in War Memorial Gym. 1980. Jim Barnham photo.

View of Audience in War Memorial Gym during Billy Graham’s Crusade at UBC. 1984.

Convocation ceremony: Congregation procession leaving War Memorial Gym. Between 1980-1989.

Eastern perimeter of War Memorial Gym (with storage rooms beneath auditorium seats for gym equipment etc.). Jan 2016. MDM photo.

Empire Pool (viewed from Memorial Gym) emptied and ready for demolition. 2016. MDM Photo.

Demolition of the General Services Admin Building with War Memorial Gym in background. ca 2017. MDM Photo. A final concrete vertical pillar had temporarily been converted into a public announcement display and a bench. Later, the land would be re-developed into new student residences.

Barron/Belmont Hotel

There is a hotel on the SE corner of Granville and Nelson that has stood there for nearly 110 years. It has been known for most of that time as the Hotel Belmont. During its early years, however, it was called the Hotel Barron.

Hotel Barron (1912-1925)

The 6-storey hotel block (with, initially, retail space occupying much of the ground floor) opened in February, 1912. It was a hotel with 120 rooms and was of brick construction.

It was co-owned by Colonel Oscar G. Barron, an American millionaire hotelier, his wife, Jennie Barron (nee Lane), Mr. T. S. Brophy and his wife, Mrs. Brophy (who was Mrs. Barron’s sister). The Brophys were active partners in the Barron Hotel venture, managing the business and living in Vancouver, while the Barrons took a less active role in the Vancouver hotel business and lived in New England (World 6 Jan 1913).

Hotel Barron postcard (n.d.). Courtesy Neil Whaley’s Collection. Note: The person who created the image on this postcard, added a couple of extra stories to the structure. Here, the 6-storey building is shown as having 8 stories.

Oscar Barron died in 1913 from blood poisoning which cost him part of a foot and then a leg due to amputation and, ultimately, his life. “He had served in the New Hampshire House of Representatives and on the staff of the New Hampshire governors, hence his title of colonel.” (Rutland Daily Herald (Vermont), 8 Jan 1913). Brophy (who also had the — presumably honorary — title of colonel) and Barron had a hotel partnership near Vancouver dating prior to the establishment of the Barron Hotel. It was the Hotel Fairfield in Seattle at 6th and Madison (currently, the site of the Renaissance Seattle Hotel complex).

There was a second building under Barron/Brophy ownership, a block south (1161 Granville) of the main hotel property (1002-1006 Granville) called — unimaginatively — the Barron Annex. The 5-storey Annex was sold in 1917 and became known as the St. Helen’s Hotel. Today, St. Helen’s is a single room occupancy rooming house.

Barron Hotel Restaurant ad. UBC Totem. 1920. UBC Open Collections.

The Barron Hotel was originally named in honour of two of the owners — Oscar and Jennie Barron. But the Barron Restaurant (a component of the hotel), as part of an early marketing campaign, hinted broadly in its ads that its name had European roots and that it was named for the famous “Le Baron” restaurant in Paris, France. As with many ad claims, this just wasn’t so.

Hotel Belmont (1925-ca1971)

Hotel Belmont Brochure. Inside pages. n.d. (1920s?) MDM Collection.

In 1913, following Col. Barron’s death, Col. Brophy left the Barron. William D. Wood became the manager. In 1916, the Barron/Brophy interests were sold, and by May 1925, the hotel was bought by the Belmont Hotel Company, of which Wood was part. At that time, the name of the hotel was changed to the Belmont.

CVA 99-1507 – Barron Hotel Radio Station ca 1924. Stuart Thomson photo.

By 1922, William Downie Wood, confusingly the 19-year-old son of Belmont manager, W. D. Wood, had made a name for himself as an amateur radio operator at the hotel. Wood Jr., a native of Santa Cruz, CA, was granted a special experimental amateur radio operator’s license by the Canadian federal government (Santa Cruz Evening News [California] 8 March 1922).

The presence of an existing radio station at the Barron/Belmont was likely central to the eventual broadcast on CNRV radio (which would ultimately become part of CBC’s radio network) of the Belmont Orchestra from the Rose Room. By the 1930s, the orchestra would be broadcast from the Belmont over local commercial station CJOR (Sun, 30 April 1930).

A Guest Goes Missing

Shortly after the hotel opened as the Belmont, it became the fulcrum of a missing person case that made headlines in local papers for 7 months. Clarence Peppard was a 45-year-old businessman from Minneapolis. He came to Vancouver in December, 1925 to visit his brother who lived in Chilliwack. On December 10, he left the Belmont, where he was a guest, ostensibly on a BCER interurban train bound for Chilliwack. He never arrived at his destination (Sun 16 Dec 1925). The last he was seen was leaving the Belmont and later at a Vancouver telegraph office where he sent a wire to his brother asking that he meet his train upon its arrival in Chilliwack. Someone matching Peppard’s description was seen near Marpole, which borders on the north arm of the Fraser River, on the day he went missing (Sun 23 Dec 1925).

For months, police searched for Peppard or his body, without success. Then, in June, 1926, a body was found just off Kirkland Island on the North Arm of the Fraser. The build of the dead man seemed to match that of Peppard, but decomposition was so advanced that it was nearly impossible to be certain of identification (Province, 28 June 1926). In the end, however, the body was confirmed as Peppard’s (as closely as police technique would permit identification in 1926) (Chilliwack Progress, 8 Sept 1926).

Other Identities and Return of the Belmont

The Belmont Hotel became Nelson Place Hotel in the early 1970s and remained so until it was re-named the Dakota in 1997. It became a Comfort Inn in the 2000s and, in 2017, it was again branded the Belmont Hotel as part of a $12 million renovation by new owners. The new Belmont seems to be aiming to attract, primarily, a millennial demographic, judging from the gallery at their website.

Exterior and Interior images of Nelson Place Hotel (aka Belmont). Postcard. n.d.

’10 Commandments’ for Church Ushers

First Baptist Church Archives Collection. n.d.

I ran across this wee item in the archival collection of First Baptist Church when I was in the Archives a year or two ago researching another subject. I took a quick photo of this page and then forgot about it until I stumbled across it today.

There is no date associated with the ’10 Commandments’. I suspect that it was regularly reprinted, perhaps with updates, over several years, possibly as early as the 1930s and perhaps as late as the 1980s. I doubt that these commandments were distributed to ushers beyond the ’80s, however. Why? Mainly because of antiquated vocabulary. The periodic references to ‘strangers’, in particular. This was language that was understood (by longtime church members) to refer to non-members of the church. By the time we joined First Vancouver in 1991, strangers were referred to (arguably, less offensively) as ’adherents’. ’Strangers’ had probably been out of vogue in church language for some years before that.

I have never been a church usher, but these ‘commandments’ seem to me to speak of older ushers I have known who took their responsibilities very seriously. One who comes to mind is the late Mr. Lenfesty.

It would be nigh-unto impossible to enforce these rules in the loosie-goosie, do-what-you-like environment that has been present in church services in recent years.

70 Years of FBC Organists

Update

First Baptist Church Choir, 1915. With the BC Music Festival cups in front of T. Bonne Millar, Choirmaster and Organist of the Church (1911-1921). Courtesy, First Baptist Church Archives.

The early organists at First Baptist Church (1905-1975) are an intriguing collection. One was willful and arguably bad-tempered; another had an unusual name which the press messed up; one was on staff when the Sanctuary and organ burned to a crisp; another was a talented young person whose term was cut short by tragedy; and one formed a folk choir and coaxed a tuneful voice out of the last of the church’s pipe organs.

Not dull at all!

Earliest Days

There was no organ in the tiny chapel building, which was FBC’s first permanent home (just off Main at East Pender). So, the earliest congregational accompanists at First Baptist Church Vancouver weren’t organists, but volunteer pianists. One of the earliest of these was Laura Carlisle (wife of J. H. Carlisle).

The congregation’s first organ — a pump pipe organ, evidently — was donated by a Mr. Jesse Williams when the church moved into its first proper worship building (SE corner of Hamilton and Dunsmuir).¹ I couldn’t find in press reports nor in the church archives much of a description of this first organ. Early FBC organists were paid $15 per month for their services. But this first organ wasn’t, strictly speaking, a solo instrument; the boy who pumped air into the organ — the pumper — was a critical member of the team, although organists and their listeners tended not to remember that, much less pay him anything for his services (W. M. Carmichael. These Sixty Years: 1887-1947, p. 18).

John Alexander (1905)

The first organist/choirmaster identified in FBC’s records was John Alexander, a Scot. He was born to John Alexander Sr. and Isabella McCulloch in Edinburgh in 1865.² He married Geraldine Boyd in 1891.

Alexander had been the organist for Candlish Presbyterian Church in Edinburgh. He and Geraldine arrived in Vancouver in 1893. He began by offering his services in the city as a vocal trainer and piano instructor (Province, 18 Aug 1903).

Alexander began working at FBC sometime in 1905. The story of his ultimate departure from First is told here. He made his exit by September 1905. After leaving FBC, he took over organ-playing and choir-leading responsibilities for the Congregational Church. He resigned from there in September 1907 to take up a post with a North Vancouver church (Province, 21 Sept 1907).

Alexander had a working life outside the church. He was a North Vancouver municipal councillor and later was an assessor of the municipality (Province, 10 Jan 1918). He died in January 1918.

Georgina M. Malkin (nee Grundy) (1906-07)

Georgina Maude Grundy was appointed to replace Alexander in June 1906 (Province, 2 June 1906). She was born in 1884 in Winnipeg. She married John Philip Davy Malkin shortly after accepting the organist’s job at FBC.

The quality of Mrs. Malkin’s playing, is described in a 1907 feature about the church, as nice, though unambitious — faint praise, to be sure (Province, 6 Apr 1907). She resigned as FBC organist three months later. She died in April, 1967.

Frank R. Austen (1907-08?)

Mrs. Malkin was replaced as FBC organist, briefly, by Frank R. Austen. He apparently had “wide experience” as an organist “in both the United States and Canada” (Province, 5 July 1907). Austen married Miss Burritt in 1909 (Province, 10 April 1909). Mr. Austen seems not to have lasted long at FBC, seemingly leaving within a few months of accepting the post.

T. Bonne Millar (1910-1919; 1920-1921)

T(homas) Bonne (pronounced Bonnie) Millar, began as FBC’s organist/choir director in November 1910. (He must have been frustrated with the local press who couldn’t seem to cope with his middle name; in one press account, a caption under his photograph identified “T. Bone Millar”).

He was born and raised in Glasgow, Scotland and, according to a Province article, his uncle, George Taggart, was “the leading musical citizen of Glasgow” (Province, 4 November 1910). Millar was organist of John Street Presbyterian Church, Glasgow, for eight years and served as organist/choirmaster of Mt. Pleasant Methodist, in Vancouver for about three years prior to hiring on at First.

Millar must have been pleased to be employed at FBC when he was, as he took the job just before the congregation moved into their new structure at Nelson and Burrard — with a new (although relatively modest, I suspect) pipe organ. Unhappily, there is very little detail that I could find about the specifics of the instrument, save that it was expected to cost about $7,200.

Millar remained at FBC until 1919, when he accepted a job at the organ for Central Methodist Church in Calgary. The Daily World, in a retrospective piece published on the occasion of his departure from Vancouver, claimed that his place in Vancouver’s music scene “will not be readily filled”:

During his regime at the First Baptist Church the choir has been brought to a high state of efficiency, for two years in succession carrying away the highest honors, in the shape of the Fromme and Steuart [sic; Stewart, actually, I think] challenge cups from the B. C. [Music] Festival, held at Lynn Valley 1915-16…

Daily World. 4 January, 1919, p. 9.

Alas, his time in Calgary which seemed so promising in January, was abandoned in June of the same year, probably due to poor health. He returned to Vancouver where he resumed playing for Mt Pleasant Methodist Church (where he had been organist for a few years prior to taking on the job at FBC in 1910).

It wasn’t long before he was back in the Baptist saddle, though. First Baptist re-hired Millar as its organist and choirmaster sometime in 1920. But his health soon took a negative turn and he was forced to take a 6-month leave of absence from First, which he spent in California. Millar ultimately decided that his health was too fragile for him to continue as organist at First and he resigned again in 1921.

By 1923, to help keep body and soul attached, presumably, he took on the organist’s job at (the less demanding?) Fairview Baptist Church. He also led the Men’s Musical Club (1919-20).

T. Bonne Millar died in 1942 at age 60.

Wilbur G. Grant (1921-1928)

During Millar’s health-related ‘to-ing and fro-ing’, Wilbur G. Grant was acting FBC organist/choirmaster. He was confirmed in the job in 1921 upon Millar’s departure for Calgary. Grant was from Toronto, where he trained under organist/conductor, Augustus Vogt. He served as organist at Broadway Tabernacle, Toronto, for a few years. Grant headed west ca1913 and settled in Edmonton where he worked as organist/choirmaster of First Presbyterian Church and later as musical director at Alberta College (later known as the University of Alberta).

Sometime in 1921, he left Edmonton. It may have been for health reasons, as an early Edmonton press report indicated that Grant suffered from asthma. He opened a piano studio in the Fairview district of the City of Vancouver while he and his family resided in the West Vancouver community of Ambleside. Presumably, the Baptists came calling on Grant to serve as acting organist/choirmaster in the wake of Millar’s departure for Calgary (and later, during Millar’s leave of absence). Upon Millar’s final resignation, Grant took over.

Grant played for FBC until 1928.

After leaving First, Grant became organist for St. George’s Anglican Church. He also led the UBC Musical Society (1921-23+), the North Vancouver Choral Society (1925-27), the Point Grey Choral Society (1926-27), and the David Spencer Choir (ca1934).

He died a very young man in 1935 at age 54, after a “lingering illness”.

Evan Walters (1928-1956)

Evan Walters filled the organ/choir director’s position upon the resignation of Grant. Walters was a Welshman who had recently arrived in the city. He had earned a degree from the Royal Academy of Music, London and led a choir of over 200 voices in one of the largest churches in Swansea, Wales (Sun, 28 Sept 1928).

Walters’ period at FBC saw him play many organ recitals and lead the choir from strength to strength. But after he’d been on the job for about three years the church entered a period of loss and transition. Much-loved pastor, J. J. Ross, resigned the pastorate at the end of 1929 to accept a call to Trinity Baptist, Winnipeg. That sparked an unsettled two-year search for a new senior minister.  But perhaps the greater loss, from Walters’ point of view, occurred on Tuesday, February 10, 1931, when FBC’s sanctuary burned to the ground; the organ went with it.

FBC was determined to build a new and even better sanctuary, quickly. And included in the plans was a new pipe organ. So there was hope amid loss. The organ would be a big-ticket item: $15,000. The sanctuary was completed and the “Mother’s Memorial Organ” was installed in time for the re-dedication service in November of the same year — just 9 months after the fire. Why the “Mother’s Memorial” organ? It was a clever means of fund-raising to name the new organ in honour of congregants’ mothers who had ‘passed on’.

When rooting around FBC’s archive for information on the organ, I discovered (in an unmarked banker’s box beneath a bookshelf) a special book that was prepared during the fund-raising period, showing the name of each donor (on the left page of each two-page spread) and that person’s mother (on the right). A PDF of the book has been created.

The Mother’s Memorial Organ is described in the following blurb in the Dedication bulletin:

It is a three-manual, thirty-six stop instrument, thoroughly modern in construction. It is a model of mechanical skill, quick and reliable, instantaneous response. . . . There are nearly 2,200 speaking pipes in the instrument of wood and metal of various shapes and sizes, and make a rare combination of tone. The organ reflects great credit on the skill and efficiency of the builders and is another tribute to the high reputation of the Woodstock Pipe Organ Builders [which local pipe organ aficionado, Tom Carter, has pointed out was once part of the older firm of Karn-Warren Organ Co., which closed in 1895] (Emphasis mine).

Walters called it quits at First in 1956, having served there for 27 years.

In addition to his work for First, Walters was the conductor of the Burrard Male Choir (1931-44), the Hudson’s Bay Company Choir (1933-40), the Brahms Choir (1935-38), the CPR Male Choir (1934-37), and the Welsh Choral Society (1947-51).³ He also led a mass choir of 1,500 voices, accompanied by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra on the occasion of the 1939 Royal Visit to Vancouver. He was on retainer at Mount Pleasant Chapel undertakers for 34 years (1928-62).

He died in 1965 at age 74, apparently of Leukemia.

Sherwood Robson (1956-1966)

Sherwood Robson took over the organist’s post at FBC in September 1956. He was well-known around the city as a successful leader of school choirs and of the Vancouver Teachers’ Choir. He also led the Bach Choir (1948-50), the Night School Ladies’ Chorus (ca 1947), and the South Vancouver Olympic Girls’ Choir (ca1937).

Robson finished a 10-year term at FBC in June 1966.

A decade later, Robson conducted a special combined Easter choir of FBC, St. Andrew’s United (North Vancouver), and West Vancouver Baptist churches, singing selections from Handel’s Messiah (Province, 10 Apr 1976). On this occasion, past and present music staff were brought together on a project: Former FBC organist Robson led the mass choir, and past and future FBC organist Carol Barker (formerly Williams) was their organist/accompanist.

Sherwood Robson died in December 1995.

Carol Williams (1967-1968)

Garth Williams, Violin, Curtis Williams, Cello and Miss Carol Richardson (later, Williams), Piano. (Province. 30 April 1955).

FBC’s Music Committee’s Annual Report in 1967 stated that after interviewing many applicants for the organist/choir director’s position, “we engaged on November 1 [1967], the services of Mr. Curtis Williams and his wife, Carol. We are confident these two competent young people will rapidly develop a progressive approach to our music ministry tradition in a happy and capable manner.” This was a departure for FBC, as the two tasks, which had for so long been taken on by a single person, would now be split: Curtis would assume the job of choir direction while Carol would be the organist.

The Williams were evidently keen in their new posts at First and the church was likewise delighted with their work. Then, tragedy. A boating accident in the summer of 1968 claimed the lives of Ed Richardson (Carol’s father) and Curtis Williams. Carol Williams stepped down from the organist’s position.

But Carol was not finished at First — not by a long ways. She would return following her marriage to Larry Barker, as Carol Barker, for numerous appearances on the organ and harp starting in the late-1970s and continuing through the ’80s, and ’90s.

She died in April, 2018.

Darryl Downton (1969-75)

Darryl Downton was selected as the new FBC organist/choir director in May 1969. He came to First from the Canadian Memorial United Church, where he had been the organist. He was offered a one-year contract and began playing at FBC in September, 1969. His contract would be enthusiastically renewed and Downton would remain at FBC for six years.

In 1970, the Sun reported on a noon-hour concert which included Downton playing the Mother’s Memorial Organ. He received a very good review; the organ did not. The MMO was showing her age, some 40 years after being installed.

The concerts are the brainchild of First Baptist’s organist, Darryl Downton, who was one of two soloists on the program. A musician of talent and, as became apparent, considerable courage, Downton wheedled the church’s decrepit 36-rank organ — which he compared to a 1934 Chevrolet — into a fair-sounding performance.

Sun, 9 Dec 1970

An innovation of Downton’s at First was the creation of a folk choir known as the Sunday Singers. Imagine what earlier organist/choir leaders at FBC would have had to say about ‘folk music’ at a Baptist church! According to Mr. Downton, a number of the Sunday Singers remain today in friendly contact with each other.

In 1975, Downton resigned his post at FBC. He picked up the organist’s position, again, at the Canadian Memorial church for a number of years, until retiring.

Darryl Downton died in February 2020 in Vancouver.

Pipe Organ Fades to Black

In 1971, an Organ Committee was established at FBC to evaluate the Mother’s Memorial Organ and whether it had a future at the church; and if so, at what cost. When the committee reported a year later, they concluded that the expense of maintaining the old organ was nigh-unto prohibitive. But, as they hadn’t been charged to make recommendations on buying a new organ, their report took a conservative tack, suggesting that the church spend the dollars necessary to do the most necessary work on the organ (the sort that couldn’t wait any longer) and that church leaders bear in mind that within about 5 years they would need either to do a major overhaul of MMO or buy a new instrument, preferably an electronic organ without pipes.

View of FBC Sanctuary taken from behind the ‘Pipe’ screen where pipes were housed at one time, but not at the time the photo was taken. ca2012. MDM Photo.

By the late ’70s, FBC decision-makers had accepted the Organ Committee’s view that the MMO was too expensive to continue with and an electronic Baldwin organ was purchased to replace it. This decision wasn’t exactly embraced by long-term members at First. But it was ultimately understood to be financially necessary.

The Baldwin organ which was bought by First Baptist in the late 1970s, in its turn, was replaced in the early 1990s with the current electronic organ.

The pipe organ had had its day at First; there was no turning back.

Notes

¹Jesse Williams had moved to North Vancouver by the time the organ was installed; his membership was transferred to a Baptist congregation in that municipality (which congregation he moved to wasn’t specified in First’s membership book).

²I’m grateful to Robert Moen for his research assistance in tracking down details on the careers of Alexander, Malkin, and Austen.

³Dale McIntosh, History of Music in British Columbia. Victoria: Sono Nis Press, 1989, pp. 88-90.

My thanks to Mary Cramond, Linda Zlotnik, Erika Voth, Darryl Downton, Anita Bowes, Tom Carter, and Edna Grenz for responding with generosity to my questions related to this subject.

This post is dedicated to the memory of Ay-Laung Wang,
Organist at First Baptist Church for more than 20 years.

CONSECRATION Day?!

VPL 17587: Consecration Day procession. Aug 4 1915. Stuart Thomson photo.

August 4, 1915 was declared by Vancouver’s civic authorities to be Consecration Day. It would commemorate the one-year anniversary of Canada declaring war against Germany and thereby entering the Great War. In the words of those who were contemporary to the event, the purpose of Consecration Day was “to invoke divine blessing upon our efforts.” (World 29 July 1915).

Local church denominations were asked to hold religious services from 2 until 3 p.m. After that, there was a parade which began at Main and Hastings and ended at the Cambie Street Grounds. There was a long list of gents invited to speak at the Cambie Grounds (from Charles Hibbert Tupper to the Japanese Consul Abe). Each speaker was asked to speak for no more than 10 minutes. I counted about 27 in the list of invited speakers. If each of them spoke for an average of 10 minutes, the audience would be sitting for about 2.5 hours (World 29 July 1915). That is considerably longer than most sermons — even in 1915!

Proclaiming a day as “Consecration Day” doesn’t seem to me something that would be done today in the event that (God forbid) there were a major war involving Canada as a combatant. The largely Christian demographic of the city has changed, probably permanently, to one that is not.

There is a strong element of blessing associated with consecration [1]. Since blessing is, ultimately, something that comes from God, it seems clear that at least one purpose of Consecration Day was to claim (dubiously?) God’s blessing on our side in the war.

Note

1. I am appreciative of Nancy Nelson for her help in interpreting the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) and the use of the English word consecrate. And also of Rev. Tim Kuepfer for his help with New Testament use of the word. I should point out that I pulled out a very small part of their responses to me. Thank you both for your help!

Murray and His Book Store

A Murray’s Book Store printed bag. MDM Collection.

I was delighted when my friend, Jason, presented me with the bag shown above, a year or two ago. Murray’s Book Store wasn’t then known to me. It had gone out of business a few years before I’d started to visit or live in Vancouver.

Murray Gordon Hughson (1908-1971) was born in Harrow, ON to Gordon Hughson and Ethel Duncan. His first career was as a school teacher in the Windsor area. He later was appointed as inspector of schools in Kitchener (Windsor Star, 2 July 1942).

This bookmark was a generous gift from my friends at The Paper Hound Bookshop, Kim Koch and Rod Clarke.

Hughson’s marital history is a little hazy. He married Mary Letitia Isabel Bradish, another school teacher, in London, ON in 1935. Together, Mary and Murray had a daughter in 1943, Nora Kathleen. She died just two years later. Murray and Mary were divorced in January 1970. Assuming his divorce was according to Hoyle, he must have married his second wife, Edith Annie (1914-2009), sometime in the 1970-71 period (I cannot find any documents pertaining to his second marriage; I’m relying on the grave marker for Edith Hughson which is next to Murray’s in Mountain View Cemetery, and on Murray’s death year, 1971).

Hughson’s first appearance in Vancouver was in 1952 (in the City Directory). That same year, he bought the Scenery Shop, a book and souvenir shop at 856 Granville. The Scenery Shop had been in business since the 1920s under different ownership. He owned/managed the Scenery Shop in 1952-53. In 1954, Hughson changed the name and nature of the Scenery Shop to Murray’s Book Store, a ‘new book’ shop.

The following year, Hughson bought Pender Stationery and Bookstore (728 W Pender for most of its life, but at the time Hughson bought it, it was at 810 W Pender), a shop that had been in business since 1915 (Province 26 July 1955). The Pender shop wouldn’t last long. By 1960, the stock in that shop was moved to Hughson’s Granville store and Pender was closed (Sun 23 Jan 1960).

Murray’s advertised itself from the outset as catering to “unusual reading tastes.” In fact, it claimed to have “a tremendous stock of non best sellers” (Province. 30 Jan 1954). Murray’s Book Store became notable for having a strong section of books on technical subjects.

Hughson and Bill Duthie (of Duthie Books) were named directors of the national Canadian Booksellers Association in 1961 (Sun 17 May 1961). 

Murray Hughson died in 1971 in London, England. What he was doing in England isn’t clear, nor is it clear how/why he died at such a relatively early age — he was about 62. It is possible that he was there to marry Edith, as he had received the divorce from Mary the year prior. In any case, his early death in England made for a very brief marriage to Edith.

Murray’s Book Store continued in business for about a decade after his death. In 1972, Peter C. Lawrence became the new owner of Murray’s.

In 1973, there was a fire at the Commodore Cabaret (a business nearby Murray’s) and the books in the shop had some smoke damage. In 1974, Lawrence announced that the shop would be moving from 800 block Granville south to 942 due to rent increases. Murray’s rent at 856 Granville had nearly doubled — from $6/square foot to $14 (Sun 11 Feb 1974).

The shop closed its doors for the last time during the final quarter of 1980. Pity. I feel sure that I would have enjoyed browsing Murray’s.

Vancouver’s Hippodrome Pipe Dream

Exterior drawing of the proposed Hippodrome for SE Corner, Granville & Pacific.
Province. 25 May 1912.

The drawing above is of the planned Vancouver Hippodrome. [1] It was to have been located on the SE corner of Granville and Pacific at the north end of the Granville Bridge #2 (see image near the end of this post for an attempt to show the Hippodrome in geographical context). [2]

London Hippodrome exterior (as it appeared ca 1900).

The Vancouver Hippodrome was to have been one of several similar theatres across Canada (including — depending on which press account you believe — St. John, Halifax, Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, Hamilton, Port Arthur, Moose Jaw (huh?!), Regina, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, Victoria and Vancouver). But the Hippodrome was never built in Vancouver, nor in any of the other cities in which construction was planned. [3]

The Canadian hippodromes were together to form a circuit for the exclusive use of English production companies to get Canadian eyes on English-produced plays. The plays would originally have been on English stages, so there were no additional set-up costs for the plays. Once the theatres were built in Canada, there remained the costs associated with travel and shipping. Captain Montague Yates was the Canadian representative of Canadian Hippodromes Ltd. (or, as it was later known, British-Canadian Amusement Co.).

The financing of the scheme was to be borne primarily by un-named English ‘capitalists’. Three-quarters of the capital necessary would be provided by them. (Ottawa Citizen 23 Nov 1911). The balance would come from the city in which the theatre was to be built.

Hippodrome decision-makers would also be English. William Holles, a big name on the English stage, would be the stage manager of the Vancouver theatre. Although Montague Yates was the Canadian connection in establishing theatre sites, he doesn’t appear to have had much of a role in the operation of theatres, once they were constructed.

Motives

The primary motive of the Hippodrome project was, of course, profit. But profit for whom? The way that the scheme was set up, the bulk of the risk was on the shoulders of the English capitalists. Thus, so was any profit (or loss).

But there were a couple of other motives, apparently.

Yates claimed in an early press report in 1911 that:

[M]any of the best people in Canada do not attend the theatre. . . because they can never be sure whether or not they will have to submit to smut on the stage. We shall give the people the clean English play.

Ottawa Journal. 23 Nov 1911 (Emphasis mine).

I question whether there was anything inherently clean about plays that originated in the Old Country (or, for that matter, anything inherently smutty about Canadian productions)!

According to a later newspaper report, another motive of the Canadian Hippodromes was to prevent the domination of Canadian theatres with American productions (Province 25 May 1912). I find this claim more believable. The number of American plays coming across the 49th parallel was increasing steadily by this time. I doubt that the Hippodrome project was intended to do Canadians any favours, however. I suspect this was more a case of the English capitalists identifying a market niche and attempting to fill it.

Begins to Unravel

Initial signs of the unravelling of the Hippodromes project first became evident in central Canada. An Ottawa paper reported that negotiations by Yates for a theatre site in that city had fallen through:

In Ottawa, as in Montreal and other cities Captain Yates visited, [the plan] called for the investment of Canadian as well as British capital he was supposed to have behind him and this is understood not to have been forthcoming readily. Negotiations for a site therefore have been discontinued . . .

Ottawa Citizen. 28 June 1912 (Emphasis mine).

Endures in Vancouver

In Vancouver, however, the hippodrome plan still had life after the wheels had come off in the major centre of Montreal and in Ottawa (and “other cities”). More than a month after the Ottawa report, the Vancouver Sun was crowing with considerable hyperbole, that the city would soon have, in our hippodrome, “the handsomest playhouse in America”. Details about the theatre that were included in the Sun included (Sun 30 July 1912):

• Construction: to begin in early August 1912 (it didn’t begin then; indeed, it didn’t get underway at all);
• Completion: 9 months after work begins;
• Exterior: Terra cotta;
• Capacity: 3000 people;
• Features: 1 royal box; 16 private boxes; promenades; lounging rooms for patrons; ladies’ retiring rooms and sitting rooms; gentlemen’s smoking room;
• Stage: Dimensions 42 feet wide, 72 feet deep;
• Estimated cost: $500,000;
• Architect: Monsieur de H. Duval (London);
• Managing director: William Holles (London); Holles was a big name in London theatrical circles; he produced and directed many plays there in 1880s-1930s;
• Productions: Only English theatre companies.
• Actors anticipated: Sir Herbert Tree (chairman, Theatrical Managers Association, England in 1912; owner of His Majesty’s Theatre, London) was expected to open the Vancouver Hippodrome. Others included: Martin Harvey; Cyril Maude; Fred Terry; Sir George Alexander; Laurence Irving; Mary Forbes; and others.

Crop of CVA 99-2245 – The older (1909) Granville Bridge (north end), ca1926. Stuart Thomson photo. Image adjusted by author with pasting-in of drawing of exterior of Vancouver Hippodrome roughly where it was planned to be built: at SE corner of Granville & Pacific.

‘With a Whimper . . .’

Yates had secured an “option” on the SE corner of Granville and Pacific and was negotiating for the purchase of the property soon thereafter (Province 25 May 1912). It isn’t clear to me whether money ever changed hands for the Granville/Pacific property.

It seems doubtful that any headway was ever made on the construction of the Hippodrome in our city, however. In Spring of 1913, Yates finally admitted that the circuit plan in Vancouver (and thus elsewhere in the nation) was dead. Inscrutably, Yates blamed “Montreal interests” for the failure of the Vancouver theatre. Montreal seems to me to have been a convenient scapegoat. As we have seen, the bulk of the financing came from England; and the balance of capital was to be provided by fundraising in the city in which the theatre was to be located. I can’t see what Montreal funds (or lack thereof) would have to do with the failure of the Vancouver Hippodrome (World 25 March 1913).

My suspicion is that the English investors had developed a severe case of cold feet. Frankly, I doubt that the Canadian Hippodromes scheme would have worked even with several of the major Canadian cities still onboard. The capital outlay for the theatres, plus the shipping and travel and other costs across this very large country would have been staggering. I suspect that this aspect was underestimated by the capitalists.

When all was said and done, the whole scheme seems to have been a pipe dream.

Notes

1. What is a hippodrome? 19th century references were primarily to circuses or to equestrian events or places where such events were held. By the early years of the 20th century, however, the meaning had shifted to refer to a live theatrical location — a playhouse. This was the meaning attached to the Vancouver Hippodrome (and other planned Canadian hippodromes). There was, in addition to the London Hippodrome, a Bristol Hippodrome and a New York Hippodrome (and these are just two examples).
2. Since the construction of the new (current) Granville Bridge in 1954, Pacific has run beneath Granville (the two streets no longer cross one another on the same level as they did when the older, lower, bridge was still standing).
3. The drawing of the Vancouver Hippodrome shown at the beginning of this post is the only one of which I’m aware. None of the other Canadian cities seem to have got to the drawing stage.

Professor Garnett Sedgewick: To the Fourth Power

Update

UBC Archives. “College Library” renamed “Sedgewick Library”, 1965: G. Philip V. Akrigg (left); Blythe Alfred Eagles; William Robbins; Roy Daniells. These gents (all of whom were professors of English except for Blythe Eagles who was Dean of Agriculture for several years) are standing beneath a portrait of Prof. Sedgewick.

In these times when the dollar is king, the norm in development circles is that he/she/they who donates the largest wad of cash to the construction of a building gets it named after him/her/them.

This appears not to have been the case at UBC in the relatively recent past, with two libraries, a reading room, and a lecture series named in honour of Professor Garnett Sedgewick (1882-1949). Prof. Sedgewick was the first head of the English department and he lectured on Chaucer and Shakespeare. There is no evidence available online that he left a substantial sum to the university upon his passing.

The first image (above) is of “College Library” at its renaming as “Sedgewick Library“. This original Sedgewick Library was located in the north wing (exterior shown below) of the Main Library.  This space was occupied by the Special Collections Division of the library when I was at UBC in the early 1990s. (And, if memory serves, was where graduate students deposited completed theses). 

UBC Archives. Sedgewick Library entrance. 1965.

The next two images show the Sedgewick Undergraduate Library (exterior and interior) as I knew it when I was a student at UBC. The night shot shows a library skylight — one of the few photographable exterior elements of the library, since one of the principal defining features of ‘Sedge’ was that it was an underground library.

There was a 1960s feel at Sedge. This isn’t surprising, given that it was built in the early 1970s and opened in 1973.

Today, the Koerner Library stands where “Sedge” once was.

UBC Archives. Sedgewick Undergraduate Library skylight in foreground. 1977.

UBC Archives. Student in Sedgewick Undergraduate Library. 1978.

This next image shows the Sedgewick Memorial Reading Room in the Main Library. (Note: Main Libary was at the site which today is known as the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre.)

UBC Archives. Sedgewick Memorial Reading Room (in Main Library). ca1953. The portrait of Prof. Sedgewick that appeared later in the first image in this post in the former College Library was in the Memorial Room first, just above the hearth.

There was also a Sedgewick Memorial Lecture series. The first lecturer was Professor A.S.P. Woodhouse of the University of Toronto who spoke on the subject: “Milton: Man and Poet” in 1954. 

The first Sedgewick Memorial Lecture was delivered by A. S. P. Woodhouse in 1954. Source: U of Toronto Archives, 2005-62-2MS.

There were several Sedgewick lectures over the years, spanning at least from 1954 until 2005. The lectures were not always annual, however. This must be one of the most, if not the most, enduring memorial lecture series at UBC.

Garnett G. Sedgewick in his prime. UBC Archives Photograph CollectionUBC 25.1/70. ca1930.

J. W. Freeston, Photographer

Update

CVA 1504-10 – Emil Olcovich Shoe Company’s Labour Day picnic in Santa Monica canyon, California. 1919. J.W. Freeston, photo.

The panorama image shown above was made by B.C. professional photographer, John W. Freeston (1887-1923) in 1919.

He married Florence Mary Hall (ca1874-1944) ca1904 in England. He and Florence had two daughters (Elsie May and Kathleen Mary) and one son (Eric Walter). U.S. Census records put John and Florence in California during 1920-21. Indeed, Robert Moen has learned that the shoe company of which the subjects of the panorama were employees was the Emil Olcovich Shoe Company of Santa Monica. The photo appears to have been made in the Santa Monica Canyon on Labour Day, 1919, when the company was there for a staff picnic. 

Early in May, 1923, Freeston was admitted to the New Westminster Hospital for the Insane (known by locals today by the shorthand, “Woodlands”).  He was diagnosed soon thereafter with General Paresis. He slept poorly throughout his stay at Woodlands; rest was possible primarily through medication. Although his physical condition was considered good when he was admitted, scarcely two months later, it had deteriorated significantly. By the afternoon of July 30th, 1923, he was dead. He was 39 years old. Cause of death was recorded as “Exhaustion of General Paresis”.

Image of JWF cropped from above panorama photo, 1919.

JWF upon admission to the Hospital for the Insane, 1923.

---

Note that Freeston appears at both extremities of the panorama. The images are both of him, but his pose is quite different. In the leftmost portrait, he is holding the umbrella with both hands; however, in the rightmost one, his right arm is raised (in greeting?) while his left arm seems to be supporting the umbrella. I have been asked by a couple of people how Freeston was able to pull this off. I believe the answer is in this link. I think this still applied in 1919, when Freeston made this image. 

Here is another panorama by J. W. Freeston and made, in my opinion, from First Baptist Church tower, looking north. 

Note

¹I’m indebted to David Mattison of Camera Workers, Robert Moen of WestEndVancouver and Peter Findlay for their generous assistance with this post.

Crèches (1912-1932)

VPL7153. 752 Thurlow St. The first site of the crèche. 190-? P. T. Timms

Crèche is an old-fashioned term that referred — in the early years of the 20th century — to a day nursery for the kids of working moms. [1]

Typical husbands were assumed to be in the workforce and women to be working out of the home, caring for kids and keeping ‘the home fires burning’. But by the early years of the 20th century, it was dawning on some people that although this model was typical, it wasn’t universally true. Some husbands were unable to work for physical or other reasons; and some moms no longer had husbands — due to being widowed or to husbands’ drunkenness, abandonment, or other reasons.

Thus, it became expedient, in the period before there was a universal social safety net in Canada, for moms to seek employment. And yet, to do that meant that their kids either must be left at home alone or with a friend or relation who would care for them. Finding a child caregiver who was a friend or relative in a big city was problematic. Many moms came from other places and had few contacts here.

And so some wise and thoughtful people saw the importance of providing a form of institutional help for such moms and their kids. Notably, the Crèche was not initiated by the civic government. It was a creature of groups of people — mainly women’s groups, such as the IODE and the YWCA. The City was an early funder of the Crèche, however, although it didn’t take over the entire project until just before the Crèche moved out of the Thurlow house.

For three years (1912-15), the Crèche was based out of the Vancouver Women’s Building at 752 Thurlow Street. Moms would drop off their kids at the Crèche in the morning and pick them up again on their way home at the end of the work day. The kids would receive two square meals each day at the Crèche — lunch and supper. The Crèche charged 10 cents per day per child or 25 cents for three children — not to cover the real costs for the services provided, but as a way of reducing the sense among the moms that they were accepting charity. The rate of 10 cents/child was maintained at least until 1927. A body known as the Associated Charities (a Vancouver civic body) was at the head of the Crèche.

After the Crèche had been operating for 10 months, a report on its progress was submitted. A total of 4772 children had attended and of that number, there were 114 families and 143 individual kids. Children of working mothers from birth up to school age were admitted. In addition to the day care facility, there was also an Employment Bureau at the Crèche which was available to moms.

At the time of the 10-month report, it was noted that the Crèche had outgrown the Women’s Building. In 1915, the Crèche moved from 752 Thurlow to 1154 Haro. It remained there for scarcely two years. Early in 1917, it was shifted to the former City Hospital building at 530 Cambie (at Pender), putting it nearby other City Relief offices.

CVA 99-225: 1154 Haro Street, 1919 Stuart Thomson. This was the second site of the City Crèche from ca1914-ca1916. In December 1916, this became the Foundling’s Hospital (a sick kids hospital for those under 2 years of age) and the Creche was moved to SE corner of Cambie and Pender.

CVA Re N1.2 – Former City Hospital (530 Cambie at Pender) being used as a relief office, including the third site of City Crèche. July 1932.

CVA Bu P48 – Group portrait of children and supervisors at the third site of the City Crèche – S.E. corner of Pender and Cambie Streets, the site of the former City Hospital. ca1916. W J Moore.

The City Crèche was a press darling, especially as the Christmas season approached. Articles that were dripping in pathos would then begin to appear.

But not everyone was a fan of the Crèche. Various aldermen regularly publicly questioned why Vancouver was supporting it. Typically, city councillors were vexed at the cost of the Crèche.

The Crèche’s cost was the principal reason for its abandonment in 1932. That year saw the establishment of the Vancouver Foster Day Care Association. This put pre-school kids of moms who were working (or looking for work) in Foster homes. This proved to be much less expensive than the Crèche model. In recent years in Canada, day care of various sorts has become the purview of other (non-civic), levels of government.

Notes

1. A crèche could mean, depending on context, a nativity scene (which is the more commonly used definition today) or a foundling’s hospital (a hospital for orphans, but by the period covered in this post, essentially a sick kids hospital).
2. The Women’s Building fades to black for the rest of this post. However I should point out that the original wood frame building shown at the beginning of this post was replaced in 1926 with a concrete building which would house the women’s groups until 1940 (the original home wasn’t demolished, it was moved to the rear of the lot). In 1941, the 752 Thurlow Street property was sold to the Salvation Army and later to Oil Can Harry’s cabaret. In fact, the new 1926 Women’s Building stood until it was demolished to make way for the Carlyle condominium building in 1988 (Changing Vancouver).

The Beers

VPL 1012 Interior of Easthope Brothers (Ernest & Percy) Gasoline Engines Launch and Boat Builders. 1908. PT Timms photo. Easthope Bros seems to have occupied the 1705 W Georgia space just prior to Western Machine Works, so I’m guessing the interior of WMW appeared similar to this.

William James Beer and Fannie Philips lived at 623 Richards Street — across Richards from the Holy Rosary (Roman Catholic) Church (as it then was), roughly on the land occupied later by the Dunsmuir Hotel. The neighbourhood was a ‘churchy’ one. In addition to Holy Rosary at the northern end of the 600 block Richards, there was St. Andrew’s Presbyterian anchoring the southern end of the block. The Congregational Church was a couple of blocks southwest of there. And First Baptist Church was then nearby at Hamilton and Dunsmuir.

William was a machinist by trade, and co-founded, with A. H. Thatcher, Western Machine Works at 1705 West Georgia Street. Fannie worked ‘at home’. The couple had come to Vancouver from Ontario; they were married there in 1890 [1]. They had two children in Vancouver, boys: Lyle (born 1893) and Leland Harold (born 1895).

On January 14, 1902, Fannie died at home of causes unknown to me [2]. She was 33 at the time. Her funeral was taken by Rev. L. Norman Tucker, Rector of Christ Church Cathedral. (Fanny was Anglican; William, Methodist).

A little over 13 years later, on July 13, 1915, William was struck by a “jitney” (an unlicensed taxi automobile) and died “almost instantly”. While nothing was said in the press about how Fannie died, William’s death was covered in detail.

Stepping from the curb to catch a Fraser avenue street car at the corner of Pacific and Granville street near the north end of Granville Bridge yesterday morning, William Beer . . . was killed almost instantly by a jitney driven by R. W. McClellan . . .

According to eye-witnesses the victim stepped from the curb on the west side of the bridge approach [this was the Granville bridge that preceded the current structure] to board a [street] car that was going north and was about to turn east along Pacific. A jitney had drawn up near the sidewalk and stopped. Mr. Beer stepped out from in front of this towards the standing street car, but just as he reached the open roadway between the standing jitney and the street car the motor car driven by McLellan came through. Mr. Beer endeavoured to go back but the car struck him fracturing his skull, and according to one witness carried him some distance before it was stopped. Dr. R. C. Boyle passing at the time ordered the man to the hospital and although G. Vaner in another automobile raced to that institution [VGH, presumably], the unfortunate man passed away before reaching the south end of Granville Bridge.

Sun. 14 July 1915

Crop of CVA 99-2234 – North end of the Granville Bridge. The site of William Beer’s demise in 1915. ca1925, Stuart Thomson photo.

If the description above strikes you as confusing, don’t feel badly. It was unclear to the jury, too. They had to go to the site where the death occurred and be shown exactly what had happened and where. However, it seems to me that Beer had been trying to catch a waiting street car and, when stepping into the street to do so, was struck by a jitney that was dodging the street car.

Mr. McClellan, the jitney driver, was found “not guilty” by the jury of the manslaughter charge brought by the Crown.

William was 40 at the time of his death. Leland was “living in the city” at the time of his father’s passing; Lyle was in the Army Medical Corps in Esquimalt. So, mercifully, the boys were not youngsters at the time of their Dad’s death; although when they lost their Mom, they were just 9 and 11.

Lyle and Leland both enlisted in the Great War. Leland, however was spelling his surname with an ‘s’ at the end. Leland succeeded his Dad in running Western Machine Works on Coal Harbour. Lyle was shown in he 1945 Vancouver directory as being “retired” (age 52), but from what, isn’t stated.

Leland died in 1937 (age 43). Lyle outlived Leland, dying at home (723 Hamilton, a rooming house) in 1950 (age 57) of a heart attack. There was no obituary in the local papers at Lyle’s death. Indeed, the “informant” for Lyle’s death certificate was an anonymous bureaucrat at the vital records office. Evidently, there were no next-of-kin to fill in the blanks as to Lyle’s life. Lyle never married.

Leland married Constance Graham in 1923 and together they had a daughter: Louise Elizabeth Beers, born in 1926. She became a nursing student at the University of Oregon. In December 1951, she married Neville Clegg Jones in Seattle (he was a medical student at U of O whose parents lived in Kelowna). Louise died in September 2004 in West Vancouver (Sun, 21 Sept 2004). Neville died in November 2017. Louise and Neville had two sons: Owen and Ian, both of whom married.

Notes

1. My thanks are due to Robert of westendvancouver.wordpress.com for his help tracking down the marriage certificate for W. J. and Fannie and for help with other details in this post.
2. Fannie’s death certificate is not available online and, as the microfilm section of VPL is currently closed (due to COVID restrictions), I’m unable to view it.

The Wild West: Early Shooting Galleries

CVA Sp P74 – The interior of a shooting gallery on Cordova Street ca 1901.

A shooting gallery in late 19th and early 20th century Vancouver was a quite different place than is conjured by that term 100 years later. A shooting gallery in early Vancouver had nothing to do with illicit drugs. It was a commercial establishment where men could fire guns at targets.

Shooting galleries were sometimes incorporated into penny arcades. Penny arcades typically had penny- or nickel-operated machines for viewing “moving pictures” (which were called mutoscopes), strength testers, and automated musical instruments like player pianos or automatic banjos. If a shooting gallery wasn’t, strictly speaking, a penny arcade, many of them also had at least a player piano to create a bit of background music to the din of gunfire.

I did a rough survey of where most shooting galleries were located over the years between 1890 and 1930 and found that they were principally in the 100 blocks of East Hastings and East Cordova and the unit blocks of West Cordova and Water Streets. To help put this in context, allow me to cite some of the other businesses in a couple of these blocks in 1912.

On the 100 block of East Hastings there were three theatres (Rose, Crystal, and Pantages), at least three good hotels (including the Irving), the public library, several restaurants, a shoemaker and a couple of billiards halls. And on the unit block of West Cordova there was a theatre (the Grand), two booksellers (Cordova and Peoples), several shoe and clothing shops, and various restaurants. I share this to make it clearer that these were not down-at-the-heels blocks (as is true today, to a degree); this was a neighbourhood in which people of the time would regularly stroll without giving a second thought to their safety. [1]

Shooting galleries were lumped into the same category as bowling alleys, as far as civic licensing authorities were concerned. License fees were $10 annually. These were the fees in 1892, and it’s possible they rose in subsequent years. But even in the context of 1892, they seem to me to be low.

Licenses issued by City of Vancouver. 1892 Williams Illustrated Official BC Directory, p. 573.

It isn’t clear to me what criteria were used by the City in determining how much to charge a business for its license. But it is plain that the criteria did not include threat of injury or possible loss of life. You’d look a long time in local press accounts to find a case of a bowler who was hurt or killed inside an alley ($10) or at a junk dealer’s establishment ($100), to say nothing of a theatre ($100) or a pawnbroker’s shop ($300).

But the risk of loss of life or limb at or nearby a shooting gallery was very real, as I hope to show below.

Danger to Neighbours

Fraser’s Missiles

Percy Fraser, in 1910, had a business that occupied part of the ground floor space that was shared with a shooting gallery on Cordova, not far from Abbott. Fraser filed an injunction against shooting gallery owner, Valentine Straube.

[I]t was stated that a stenographer in [Fraser’s] employ had been nearly shot by bullets coming through the wall and when Mr. Fraser was sitting at his desk on Thursday the plaster from the wall fell upon it as the result of a missile coming through.

World, 15 Jan 1910

The injunction was granted by Mr. Justice Gregory; it restrained Straube from carrying on a shooting gallery at his premises on Cordova Street. (This wasn’t Straube’s first scrape with the law; he’d been convicted on at least three previous occasions for running a gaming house having slot machines).

Lee Sing’s Close Call

In March 1918, Lee Sing, a Chinese resident, was sleeping in his residence at the rear of 113 East Pender. He was woken by a bullet which went past his bed and into the wall. The police were informed of this.

Investigations were made by a representative of the law and the hole made by the bullet was found, but on its probable course being traced, it was found that it had come from a shooting gallery which is operated near the home of the Chinaman. A few words with the proprietor of the gallery resulted in steps being taken to eliminate the possibility of stray bullets in the future, and Lee again retired in safety to his couch.

World, 5 March 1918

The casualness with which this incident was treated by police of the time is remarkable. This may have been partly due to the race of the victim (not that that is any excuse).

Danger to Employees

The Troubling Case of Millicent McGregor

I imagine that 99% of the clientele at shooting galleries was male. Thus, it isn’t surprising that these establishments typically wanted to hire girls as a way of attracting punters.

Province. 21 August 1915.

An ad similar to the one above probably attracted the attention of a young girl who had been raised in Victoria and was looking to make some “good wages” in the big city of Vancouver. Millicent (Milly) McGregor got herself hired at the Wellington Arcade at 106 East Hastings Street. On August 26, 1923, the following episode happened:

A Russian named Andrew Karpensko and several companions were said to have entered the place with the intention of engaging in target practice. In some manner one of the target rifles was discharged, and the bullet lodged in the neck of Miss McGregor, who was the attendant in charge of the place. Karpensko was arrested and was held by the police for several days, but was released later. It was expected at first that Miss McGregor would recover.

Province, 9 April 1924

But Milly didn’t recover. She succumbed to her injury, caused by a .22-calibre bullet, eight months later while at Vancouver General Hospital. She was 19 when she died.

1930s and Later

By the mid-1930s, it seems, shooting galleries in the downtown core were falling out of fashion and falling afoul of civic decision-makers, probably partly due to the McGregor mess.

From the 1930s through the 1970s, shooting galleries seemed to be restricted to midways at exhibitions such as the PNE (the Straube family had a corner on Hastings Park’s shooting galleries for a number of years). Live rounds were still in use, mind you, and it wasn’t unheard of for someone to be hurt in shooting gallery incidents. By the 1980s, with the advent of more sophisticated video technologies, it became less important to have guns that fired real (versus electronic) bullets.

Reflections

During the 19-teens, there were some merchants who were vocally opposed to having shooting galleries in their neighbourhoods. But their rationale had nothing to do with public safety. The reason given by those who were opposed was that the galleries often included player pianos in them and this “hurdy-gurdy” racket was an offence to their ears.

In the late 1920s, presumably partly in response to the McGregor incident, there was some talk of banning women from working in shooting galleries. But, even if this idea had “legs” (and it didn’t), it wouldn’t have been a solution to the real problem. The gender of the attendants wasn’t the issue. The real problem was the fact that live ammo was being fired in a pretty densely populated area — and that the civic authorities didn’t have the guts to do anything about it.

Notes

1. There was also a shooting gallery (and a bowling alley) included in the basement of the Beatty Street Drill Hall when it was under construction ca1900. There was also a shooting gallery at the Vancouver squad HQ of the B.C. Provincial Police.

Gordon Poppy

I regret to report, for those of you who are not already aware of it, that Vancouver’s gentleman-artist-historian, Gordon Poppy, has passed away. Gordon has had several mentions in VanAsItWas over the years, including this one which featured Gordon’s window displays in 1954 in which the B.C. Lions were featured.

As a final tribute to my friend, this post will share some other images which he was generous enough to allow me to produce while I was visiting him at his home about a year ago. These are of other Eaton’s window displays with which he was involved over the years.

This display was evidently intended to encourage onlookers to “Look Your Best This Easter”. n.d. Gordon Poppy Collection.

I’m not sure whether or not this was part of the same year’s display above. But it certainly emphasizes bunnies! n.d. Gordon Poppy Collection.

As does this one! n.d. Gordon Poppy Collection.

The handwritten caption says it all. n.d. Gordon Poppy Collection.

I’m not sure whether this one was also part of the Eaton’s “British Promotion” or if this was a Christmas display. n.d. Gordon Poppy Collection.

This is the first in a series of four photos showing the results of vandalism at Eaton’s windows. n.d. Gordon Poppy Collection.

Tidying up the mess left by vandals. n.d. Gordon Poppy Collection.

Sweeping up. n.d. Gordon Poppy Collection.

“Come on, me dearie, this is no place for you to hang about.” n.d. Gordon Poppy Collection.

This toadstool display (with mice and the ubiquitous bunny) was another Easter window. n.d. Gordon Poppy Collection.

This window was probably meant to celebrate the onset of spring (and spring fashions). n.d. Gordon Poppy Collection.

I’m assuming this one was a Christmas window. n.d. Gordon Poppy Collection.

Probably not celebrating any special season. Likely just to advertise the clothes on these hip chicks. n.d. Gordon Poppy Collection.

A window featuring some of the technology which Canada brought to the war theatre? n.d. Gordon Poppy Collection.

I think this was one of Gordon’s favourite displays. The characters in the window were composed principally of handkerchiefs. n.d. Gordon Poppy Collection.

Wilson’s 1907 Cadillac

CVA 180-1546: Old automobiles in 1949 P.N.E. Opening Day Parade passing in front of partly demolished Hotel Vancouver #2 at Georgia near Granville. Note: The middle vehicle shows the McAdam family driving the 1907 Cadillac. 1949, Artray photo.

Dr. Thomas Haddow Wilson was the first owner of the 1907 Cadillac which I was privileged to view, recently.

Wilson was born in Kitchener, ON in 1869. He graduated from medical school at the University of Manitoba in 1897 and the next year went to Vancouver where he practiced medicine. Thomas was a Presbyterian and his bride, Clara May Mitchell (an American) was a Baptist. They were married in First Baptist Church at Hamilton and Dunsmuir in August 1898 by the first real minister there, Rev. W. T. Stackhouse. Wilson died in 1927 at the early age of 58. His funeral service was taken by Rev. J. J. Ross (First Baptist) and Rev. J. S. Henderson (St. Andrew’s Presbyterian). Clara May died in 1962 at Trail, BC, where she lived from 1937. (Both Thomas and Clara May were buried in Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver).

During some of his early Vancouver years, Wilson lived at the NE corner of Hastings and Dunlevy until the Patricia Hotel was built by him on that site. He moved to 1142 Chilco Street (aka ”Chula Vista”) in 1913 (which he also built), where he lived out his days. Clara May and Thomas had two kids: Anna Marjorie and Frank Lloyd. Frank became a physician living in Trail. Frank died in Trail in 1982. Marjorie died in Vancouver in 1983.

Wilson first registered his 1907 Cadillac in September 1908. He then renewed its registration in 1909, 1910, and in 1911. Where Wilson bought the car isn’t clear, but presumably it came from a local dealer. There were a limited number of Cadillac dealers in Vancouver in 1907-08. Terminal City Garage was one, located at 300 Howe, across the street from Orpheum II. Another was W. M. Stark’s Vancouver Auto and Cycle (108 E. Hastings).

Wilson seems to have sold the Cadillac sometime between 1910-14. The second owner, David McAdam, registered the Cadillac in 1914. McAdam lived in Murrayville, which vintage car expert, Peter Findlay, describes as “a very long drive for this car.” It has remained in the family since that date, being passed down from David to his son, Quinton, who worked hard to get the Cadillac up and running in time for the 1949 PNE (it is Quinton, his wife and daughter who appear in the middle vintage car shown above).

The Cadillac runs on a single cylinder, so it sounds unlike any other automobile I’ve ever heard. There is a clip of the Cadillac running here.

A recent photo of the Cadillac appears below.

1907 Cadillac in Greater Vancouver, 2020. MDM Photo.

Orpheum Quartet

Orpheum I (55 West Cordova): 1904-05

Opening of first Orpheum at the former Crystal Theatre. Province. 28 Sept 1904.

The first Orpheum Theatre in Vancouver opened on October 3, 1904. [1] It had formerly been the Crystal Theatre (1903-04) at 55 West Cordova (there is a parking garage there, today). The proprietors of Orpheum I were Evenson & Russell.

At the opening of the first Orpheum, vaudeville acts included the Anderson sisters (child comedians), The Rustics with a sketch titled “Fun on the Farm” which included “lifelike mechanical animals”, and vocalist Joe Bonner singing “Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder” (Province 3 Oct 1904).

Little else is known of the Orpheum’s first location and as far as I can tell, no photos still exist. It ceased to operate as the Orpheum by the summer of 1905.

Orpheum II (805 West Pender): 1905-13

Crop of CVA 73-2-Vancouver, B.C., 1911, H. O. Dodge photo. Aerial image of Orpheum II at NW corner Pender & Howe. (Formerly People’s Theatre and Alhambra Theatre). This is where the Stock Exchange Building is located today.

In late 1905, there was a deal worked out between (Timothy D.) Sullivan & (John W.) Considine Vaudeville Syndicate and a rival syndicate, the Western Vaudeville Managers Association, whereby the former People’s Theatre (earlier, the Alhambra Theatre) at NW corner of Pender and Howe would become the ‘new’ Orpheum Theatre.

The name of the former People’s Theatre was not settled at that time, however. It was initially announced by Sullivan and Considine that the former People’s would be named the Grand Theatre. However, they ultimately changed their minds about that since another of their properties (on Cordova) was already so-named and they didn’t want to create confusion among the public as to which theatre was being referred. So, it was decided to name the Pender property the Orpheum Theatre (Province 11 Aug 1906). [2]

In March 1906, S&C announced plans to rip down the former People’s Theatre and to build a brand new theatre building for an estimated $100,000 (Province 16 March 1906). Considine announced that it would be constructed of steel, brick and concrete (as opposed to the wood frame construction of People’s) and that it would have a seating capacity of about 2000 (Province 16 March 1906). Considine optimistically claimed that with the new house “There should be no quibbling with the building inspector or the civic authorities…for it will be made just as thoroughly fireproof and as safe as modern ingenuity and [C&S architect] Mr. [J. J.] Donnellan’s long experience in designing buildings of this kind can suggest” (Province 15 March 1906). [3]

But sometime between March and August, S&C changed course. A decision was made not to demolish the former theatre and build a completely new one. A “bunch of contracts in connection with the remodelling of the Orpheum were awarded today by Architect Donnellan” (Province 11 Aug 1906; emphasis mine). Plans for the remodelling included no fewer than 15 exits from the theatre (not including fire exits), and seating capacity of over 1000 (Province 11 Aug 1906).

City of Vancouver Building Inspector, George McSpadden said at the time that he was “well pleased” with safety features planned for the theatre (Province 11 Aug 1906). But a month later, McSpadden had changed his tune. He complained the theatre was 5 inches out of plumb and that there was a significant bulge at the centre due to the removal of an iron tie rod (20 Sept 1906).

There seemed to be a growing personal rift between Donnellan and McSpadden, as it was reported days later that Donnellan was “impatient at the delay in opening the theatre, and says rather sarcastic things about Building Inspector McSpadden” (Province 25 Sept 1906).

These ‘shots’ from McSpadden and Donnellan were the first of many from S&C and the City for about 3 months. While there was much talk about fire escapes and the bulge in the Howe Street wall, the basic issue in my judgement seems to have been that the principals — McSpadden and Donnellan — rubbed one another the wrong way, thereby turning what should have been a ‘mole-hill’ into a ‘mountain’.

By early December 1906, the City decided it would allow the Orpheum to open conditionally upon the following (none of which, as far as I can tell was ever disputed by S&C):

• installation of 2 iron posts; and a tie-rod;
• substitution of an iron fire-escape for a wooden one;
• a promise that the wall facing Howe Street would be made as plumb as possible;
• and an illustration (”for a few doubting aldermen”) of the rapidity with which the theatre could be vacated (Province 11 Dec 1906).

Finally, 12 months after S&C took over the Orpheum on Pender, it was allowed to open to the public on December 17, 1906.

Interestingly, the Pender building operated as the Orpheum for seven years without a public safety incident. George McSpadden eventually left his job as City Building Inspector to become a city alderman. The Pender building was demolished in 1913 or 1914. In its stead, there was an auto supply house for some years, followed by the Stock Exchange Building in 1929.

Orpheum III (761 Granville Street): 1913-1927

CVA 99-5150 – Interior of Orpheum III. Flashlight of audience, Feb 1918. Stuart Thomson photo.

On St. Patrick’s Day, 1913, S&C put on their first vaudeville performance in the space that had once housed the Vancouver Opera House. Presumably, Sullivan & Considine were hoping that a little Irish luck would rub off and that the City building inspector wouldn’t create a big stink akin to that at their previous theatre. (The city inspector — who by this time was not George McSpadden — gave S&C thumbs up!)

Before I began the research for this post, I had thought when the Orpheum moved over to the Opera House, that very little was changed. But I was mistaken. Said the World upon the Orpheum’s opening, “Very little of the old structure now remains, with the exception of portions of the two side walls…” (World 8 March 1913).

Cross-section of the S&C re-building of the old Vancouver Opera House into Orpheum III. Courtesy: Tom Carter Collection.

Orpheum III was the first Orpheum (and perhaps the first of any theatre in Vancouver) which was built to house services in addition to the theatre. The Orpheum ‘office building’ (751 Granville) was “a modern five-storey steel, concrete, terra cotta and brick office and store building known as a class “A” fireproof structure” (World 8 March 1913). This served as a mortgage helper since the lease payments from other businesses in the Orpheum Building would help pay down what must have been substantial debt incurred by S&C in building the theatre.

The architect of Orpheum III was J. J. Donnellan (who, reportedly, also designed local theatres such as the Lonsdale, Panama, National and Columbia (and, of course, did the rebuild on the Pender Orpheum). The sum spent by S&C on Orpheum III varied widely depending on which newspaper you read. One claimed they spent upwards of $250,000; another said $400,000; and yet another claimed $750,000!

For a couple of years, starting in 1914, there was considerable to-ing-and-fro-ing in the ownership of the Orpheum. A little over a year after Orpheum III opened, it was bought from S&C by Marcus Loew (Sun 17 June 1914). During the period that Loew owned the building, it would be known as “Loew’s Theatre (Formerly Orpheum)”; while it was Loew’s Theatre, it remained a vaudeville theatre. A year later and the Orpheum had been bought back from Loew by Sullivan & Considine (Province 17 May 1915).

No sooner had the local press reported that S&C was owner once again of the Orpheum, however, than there was another report (a month later) that the Orpheum Theatre & Realty Co. of San Francisco had bought out S&C’s interest in the Theatre (Province 29 July 1915). [4]

The Orpheum III adopted a mixed format with a few months of each year dedicated to vaudeville and the balance of the year to concerts, speakers, and motion pictures. This policy was adopted for awhile in Orpheum IV, as well.

The theatre underwent several name changes over subsequent years: Vancouver Theatre (1928); Lyric (1935); International Cinema (1947); and again Lyric Theatre (1960). Sometime after 1960, the former lobby even opened as a branch of the Royal Bank (leaving the auditorium/stage marooned behind) (Province 8 March 1969). The building was demolished in 1969 to make way for a series of department stores: T. Eaton’s, then Sears, and most recently, Nordstrom’s.

Orpheum IV (884 Granville Street): 1927 –

CVA 791-1148 – The fourth (and current) Orpheum Theatre on the east side of Granville Street (884 Granville). January, 1986.

On April 3, 1926, local entrepreneur Joseph F. Langer and the Orpheum Theatrical Co. announced their agreement to build the fourth Orpheum for an estimated cost of about $1 million and would have a seating capacity of about 3000 (Province 3 April 1926).[5] Langer would build it and the Orpheum Circuit was to lease it for 20 years but, as is explained in my related post about Langer’s life — linked above — he received some poor advice and sold the Orpheum in 1929. Marcus Priteca was architect on the project.

The fourth Orpheum opened to the public on Monday, November 7, 1927. There was a mixture of vaudeville acts (including juggling, comedy, and dancing) and a feature film (The Wise Wife). During many of the fourth Orpheum’s years, it was a Famous Players movie cinema.

For details of the history of Orpheum IV, I’d recommend consulting Ivan Ackery’s Fifty Years on Theatre Row, his memoirs of managing that theatre (1935-69).

There are many jaw-dropping features of the theatre, even today. My personal favourite is the dome above the auditorium. But there was no painted mural on the dome in 1927. It wasn’t there until 1976, when Anthony Heinsbergen was commissioned to paint his “valentine to the romance of music” (Province 24 June 1976). Province writer, Roy Shields, was apparently part of a vocal minority who, by the 1970s, believed the Orpheum was in “bad taste”, “high camp”, and a “monument to kitsch”.

But I disagree. I join the majority (I suspect) of those of Vancouver as it was in 1927 and beyond who have beheld with admiration and great affection the Fourth Orph!

The dome in Orpheum IV’s auditorium (as viewed from the stage).

Notes

1. Long-time Orpheum IV manager, Ivan Ackery, in his memoirs Fifty Years on Theatre Row, claimed that “Vancouver’s first Orpheum was in the 900 block Main Street [Westminster Avenue at the time, presumably] in what later became a secondhand store and where, for many years, the original proscenium continued to exist in the back of the store. The first vaudeville act to ever appear there was “Power’s Elephants”” (Ackery, p. 128). I regret to say that I was unable to find any evidence to support Mr. Ackery’s claim as to the location of the first Orpheum. I could find no newspaper clippings to support the Westminster Ave. address for any theatre. And I couldn’t find any Orpheum advertised or noted in any way earlier than the inheritor of the Crystal Theatre locale. Ackery was born in 1899 and arrived in Vancouver from the U.K. after WWI, so he couldn’t have been a witness of the first Orpheum. Chances are that he was shown the “proscenium” in what was considered by the owner (and perhaps others) to have once been the Orpheum and was thereby led down one of history’s many ‘garden paths’.
2. “Orpheum” was not exactly a novel name. It had been applied to theatres in many other cities (Seattle and San Francisco, for instance, both of which were part of the Orpheum Circuit for a time). Within the City of Vancouver, there were several non-theatrical businesses which tied their fortunes to the Orpheum name: There were Orpheum Cafes across the street from both Orpheums II and III; there was an Orpheum Hotel for a time on West Hastings (prior to that, the hotel was called Hamilton House; later it was called the Invermay Hotel); there was an Orpheum Poolroom on Pender, an Orpheum Cigar Store, and an Orpheum Barber Shop.
3. James J. Donnellan (architect) was a native of Chicago, Illinois.
4. Local theatre expert, Tom Carter, succinctly describes the fall of S&C: “Mr. Sullivan apparently had been borrowing money to build theatres against other theatres he didn’t actually own (had mortgages on) so it had become a bit of a pyramid scheme. He was also losing his mind – in fact was declared insane in 1913 –  and wandered into a railroad yard and, some say, committed suicide by walking in front of a train. After that, S&C kept their Empress vaudeville circuit but divested themselves of their theatres – the two vultures who picked them up at fire sale prices were Marcus Loew and Alex Pantages. Pantages was already intent on building the new Pantages Theatre at 20 West Hastings so passed on the Orpheum, but Loew swept in.” (Email: Tom Carter to mdm, July 26, 2020, 10.01 a.m.)
5. Ladies who have taken in a performance at the Orpheum IV will be bemused by the claim that restrooms would be “spacious” (Province 3 April 1926).

Mistaken Assumption . . .

CVA 447-334: Tip Top Tailors at 314 West Hastings Street (near Hamilton). Adjacent to (west of) the former Commerce Bank (now SFU’s Charles Chang Innovation Centre). 1955. W E Frost.

There’s a building on West Hastings near Hamilton about which I’ve had a long-standing misconception. It’s sweeping facade reminded me so much of a 1940s-style movie theatre that I’ve always assumed that that was the original occupant. [1]

But I was wrong. This building was constructed for Tip Top Tailors in 1948, in the days when Tip Top provided not only clothing for men (as it does today), but also catered to women who wanted to have a “mannish” appearance.

CVA 371-1150: The corner of the Canadian Bank of Commerce at 300 West Hastings; and showing scaffolding for future site of Tip Top Tailors at 314 W, Hastings. 1948, G. Clarke.

Province. 10 Feb 1949.

Province. 26 Jan 1949.

Tip Top Tailors was established in 1909 in Toronto. The first Vancouver shop was at 137 West Hastings (north side of Hastings between Cambie and Abbot) in 1920. The shop moved to the Flack Block (at Hastings and Cambie) and later to 301 West Hastings before building its shop at 314 W Hastings in 1948.

CVA 586-7781: Tip Top Tailors interior. Style (fashion) Show. 1949. Don Coltman.

CVA 586-7779: Tip Top Tailors interior. Style (fashion) Show. 1949 Don Coltman.

CVA 586-8837: This is apparently the mezzanine floor of Tip Top at 314 West Hastings. 1949. Don Coltman.

The first two of the three photos above show a 1949 “Style Show” of some of the women’s wear options available from Tip Top at that time. All three photos show off the truly unusual and exceptional interiors that were at 314 West Hastings.

More than 5000 square feet of aluminum was used on the facade and interior of Tip Top. Anodizing (to prevent rust and corrosion) was done by Western Bridge and Steel Fabricators (Province, 18 Dec 1948).

By 1955, Tip Top had moved out of 314 Hastings. (Tip Top continued at a Granville Street location and, today, continues to exist in several lower mainland locales). By 1960, 314 W. Hastings was home (briefly) to “Drug King Self Serve Supermarket”. From ca1961, after Drug King faded to black, the space has been subdivided for use by various offices. Today, little has changed: 312 is currently an empty office rental, and 314 is a cafe. [2]

It is a shame, in my judgement, that the amazing interior space that once was home to Tip Top Tailors should be, effectively, lost.

Sun. 7 Sept 1960.

Notes

1. It resembles the Vogue Theatre (on Granville Street) with its grand exterior and the sweeping curves of the interior design. I was stumped as to how to refer to the architectural style of Tip Top. However, “Streamline Deco” seems to me to cover off the transitional aspects of the style. For more on this, see here. Thanks to Wes for this link.
2. Following Tip Top’s exit from this location and the subsequent subdivision, the street address was also subdivided to 312 and 314.

Fowler’s Rose

The ‘Tudor Rose’ wood carving (together with provenance presumably provided by C. B. Fowler on the plaque below) is encased in a very heavy box made of oak and glass. This was generously given to the author a few years ago by his friend, Gordon Poppy, who acquired it sometime following the closure and demolition of the York Hotel (1929-1969), previously the Hotel Vancouver Annex (1911-1929). Author’s photo.

This carving of a Tudor Rose was taken from the tomb of the Duke of York, Tewkesbury Abbey, England, in the year of 1881 when repairs were being made to the tomb. The same year it was given to Major C. B. Fowler, FRIBA., now of this city, but at that time an architect of renown in Cardiff, Wales, by William Clark of Llandaff, Wales, one of the best known wood carvers in England and Wales in that period. The carving is now the valued property of The York Hotel, Ltd.

Text on plaque beneath carving.

Provenance Questions

The provenance offered for the wood carving shown above is provided by the accompanying plaque beneath it. I am assuming that the text for the plaque came, largely, from then-Vancouver architect and giver of the Rose to the York Hotel, Major C. B. Fowler.

Tudor Rose?

The carving appears to me to my Canadian eyes to resemble a Tudor Rose (see link for criteria), although there is no crown denoting the rose as being of the House of Tudor.

William Clark, Welshman?

There was a Welshman by the name of William Clark who lived in Llandaff in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and who, by the time of the 1911 census identified his occupation as a Sculptor Builder.

Duke of York’s Tomb at Tewkesbury Abbey?

It appears very doubtful that the rose came from the tomb of a Duke of York, although it’s possible that it came from Tewkesbury Abbey. I say this because I cannot find any online evidence that any of the (several) Dukes of York were buried in Tewkesbury Abbey. There is evidence that Tewkesbury Abbey underwent renovations in 1881, however. So it’s possible that the carving came from the Abbey at that time.

Major Charles Busteed Fowler

VPL 21042: Portrait of Major Charles Busteed Fowler. 1920. Dominion Photo.

Drawing of Grandview Drill Hall (not built). Province, 7 Aug 1915.

C. B. Fowler (1849-1941), FRIBA (Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects) was born in Cork, Ireland. He trained at the School of Art in Cork. Much of his early architectural career was spent in Wales. He was apparently having a hard time finding commissions by about 1900 and left Wales (and his first wife, Mary Elizabeth Martin) in 1904 to move to London to search (not very successfully) for work.

In 1904 and again in 1907, Fowler was charged in Wales on a warrant for neglecting to monetarily support his wife (who was living – apart from Fowler – in Wales) (Cardiff Evening Express 4 Nov 1904; Cardiff Weekly Mail, 7 Dec 1907).

It isn’t entirely clear if Fowler ever completely disentangled himself from his money and spousal issues, but in 1908 he sailed for New York on the Adriatic. Fowler spent five years in America, getting the occasional commission. Finally, in 1913, he filed a petition to become a naturalized U.S. citizen. His petition was denied for “lack of prosecution.”* Fowler married his second wife, Lillian S. sometime around 1909 (she was mentioned in his 1910 US Census record). It isn’t clear whether she came to the U.S. with Charles; according to the Census, she was born in Wales. She was 25 — half his age.

The Fowlers came to Vancouver in 1913. Here, he entered into partnership with R.T. Perry, a local architect who had articled with Fowler in Wales.

Fowler designed the Oddfellow’s Hall at 1433 West 8th Avenue (it is still there) (Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada). He and Perry also submitted a drawing for the Harding Memorial competition in 1924, but his submission wasn’t chosen (local sculptor, Charles Marega, won the competition) (Province, 9 Dec 1924). Fowler and Perry also submitted drawings for the Grandview Drill Hall in 1914. But, although this submission was accepted, the Federal Government ultimately decided not to build the Hall and the land was turned over to the City of Vancouver which developed it into (extant) Grandview Park on Commercial Drive.

It isn’t clear in what year Fowler made his gift of the Tudor Rose to the York Hotel. There is no record of that in local press accounts that I could find. However, it would have been sometime between 1929 (when the former Hotel Vancouver Annex became the “York Hotel”) and 1941 (the year of Fowler’s death). Probably shortly after the Annex became the York, so that would be in the early 1930s. It is pretty clear that the rationale for the gift of the Tudor Rose to the Hotel was the Duke of York connection, which in the light of what I was able to find, today, seens pretty doubtful.

Major Fowler lived to be 91 and he was a press darling, especially in his later years. He had the vanity that sometimes accompanies very old age. But there is no question that the man was fit. A few days before his 80th birthday, he hiked the Grouse Grind (although it wasn’t then called that). And he was known for competing in Vancouver Sun walking marathons. In his 80s, he came in fifth in one of those races.

Lillian married William H. Martin in 1960; she died in 1964.

The Rose

It seems to me as though C. B. Fowler had a somewhat muddled understanding of some of the history of the carving which he gave to the York Hotel. It is possible that the rose was removed from Tewkesbury Abbey in 1881 and acquired by William Clark either in Wales or in Tewkesbury. Clark may well have passed the carving onto Fowler in Wales, when Fowler was working there in the mid-1880s or later. The only aspect of Fowler’s story that certainly seems to be wrong is that the rose came from the tomb of a Duke of York at the Abbey.

Note

*Robert, of WestEndVancouver.wordpress.com, looked into Fowler’s money and spousal troubles and his life in America.

Robert has said that “want of prosecution generally means a failure to take legal steps within a certain period of time…The term may have different meanings based on the specific geographic jurisdiction, area of law, or the context in which it is being used.”

Nabob’s ‘Harmony House’ on CBC

CVA 1184-2104: An audience at the Orpheum Theatre watching Nabob’s Harmony House broadcast over CBC. 1940-48 Jack Lindsay.

The “Harmony House” radio variety show was the first commercial radio program originating in the West to be put on CBC’s network. It was broadcast live from the Orpheum Theatre, starting in September 1943 [1]. The corporate sponsor of Harmony House was Nabob. Nabob Tea and other products were manufactured and distributed locally by the Kelly Douglas Company (the head office of which was located just east of the CPR deport in the building known today as The Landing and where Steamworks is located) [2]. Harmony House ran on radio from 1943-55 and then on CBC Television for the 1955-56 season.

CVA 586-5270 – Richmond (“Ricky”) Hyslop and his Harmony House Orchestra. 1944. Don Coltman photo.

Richmond (“Ricky”) Hyslop led the Harmony House Orchestra throughout the radio years and the television season. Hyslop, it seems to me, is one of the unsung and, today, pretty much forgotten, music men of Vancouver’s past. He began as a violinist, was a writer and arranger and, of course, a band leader. The Sun gave some idea of his working life on Harmony House:

For 39 weeks through the winter, Hyslop leads 17 musicians, two soloists, Pat Morgan and Suzanne [Sysak], and a vocal group of five through their paces on Harmony House. The program goes on the air Tuesday evenings and gets as far east as Fort William [Ontario] on the Dominion [CBC] Network.

But before the show hits the air he has to arrange the music, handle rehearsals, soothe the temperamental characters, calm down the excitable ones, ginger up the guys who are half a beat behind and generally set the tone for the operation.

A band leader these days is businessman, musician, trainer, father confessor and idea man all rolled into one.

Vancouver Sun 23 Aug 1952

Hyslop had other responsibilities concurrent with those on Harmony House. Not least, he worked on the production of “Here’s Juliette”, also on the CBC Network, which featured Suzanne’s sister, ‘our pet’, Juliette (Sysak). (Both women preferred to use only their first names, professionally).

The Master of Ceremonies and principal male soloist of the show was tenor, Pat (“Buster”) Morgan. He had a long career, and was known when Harmony House moved to TV, as “the best vocalist in Canada.”

CVA 586-3040 – Pat (‘Buster’) Morgan, M.C. and Soloist for Nabob’s Harmony House. 1944. Don Coltman photo.

CVA 586-3044: “Suzanne” Sysak, soloist of Nabob’s Harmony House (sister of another CBC singer, ‘Our Pet’ Juliette). 1944. Don Coltman photo.

CVA 586-8895: An incarnation of the Nabobettes Trio: Margaret (“Bunty”) Wishart, Marion (“Mamie”) Wishart (sister of Bunty), and Vera Zimmerman. 1945. Don Coltman. [3]

The Nabobettes was a girl group composed of different people at different times. They included Mamie Wishart, Bunty Wishart, Vera Zimmerman, and Thora Anders. Thora Anders had a long music career in Vancouver and sung with many groups, including several productions for Theatre Under the Stars (TUTS). She was also closely associated with Barney Potts and his orchestra, ultimately marrying him.

Note

1. One of the broadcasts, however, on June 5, 1944, was made from the Vogue Theatre.
2. A reader of this blog has remarked that she can recall the words to the advertising jingle adopted by Nabob. Apparently, they were (in part): “N-A-B-O-B : The very best coffee and tea.” I tried to find an online source of this with the tune, but had no luck. Nabob Tea was sluggging it out in the 1980s with some serious competition (principally, although not exclusively, from Red Rose). As you will see from the links, this slug-fest was carried out by gently mocking the Mother Country. “Pity.” The Nabob brand was ultimately purchased by Kraft. The Nabob character – which isn’t particularly politically correct – has been abandoned in favour of simply including part of a Nabob’s imagined head gear).
3. Thanks are due to Robert of WestEndVancouver.wordpress.com for his help in identifying the Nabobettes portrayed here.

Smoking Prohibited at this Smoker!

CVA 586-1588: 201st Battery Smoker, 1943, Don Coltman.

This is a very brief post to point out a couple of interesting aspects of this WWII-era “Smoker” (a social gathering that typically included tobacco smoking and alcohol drinking) of the 201st Battery, held in downtown Vancouver.

First, I should point out that I am not a smoker, but I am inclined to salute these fellows who are smoking in a hall in which it is clearly marked above them “Fire Regulations Do Not Permit Smoking in This Room”. I count at least five in this bunch who are holding cigarettes. I’m feeling a little rebellious these days, so I wanted to point that out!

Second, the room in which these gents were having a cigarette and a beer is no longer in existence. It was known during WWII as “Victory Hall” (The Province, 24 Sept 1943) and was on the property where Salvation Army’s Belkin House is today: 535 Homer (half a block north of Dunsmuir on the west side of the street). How the building appeared in the mid-1970s is shown below. According to Changing Vancouver, the building was demolished in 2001.

CVA 780-39: 535 Homer Street, 1975.

An interesting feature of the room in which the smoker was held (which seems to be the top floor, judging from the Italianate-style windows) is apparent in another photo of this smoker at CVA’s online photo holdings, shown below.

CVA 586-1587: 201st Battery Smoker, 1943, Don Coltman.

No, I’m not referring to the hula dancers.

The items that caught my eye were the paintings on the wall. This was something not uncommon in the 1930s and ’40s. There are examples of wall paintings of this sort of fantasy coastal scenery in other Vancouver buildings of this period. The only remaining such paintings that I can think of, however, are at Commodore Lanes on Granville Street.

These paintings at 535 Homer probably didn’t last into the 1970s, I’m guessing. They don’t appear to have been very high quality even in 1943.

And all of that illicit smoke must have taken its toll!

The Mysterious Joseph Langer

Update (June 2020)

Information on [J. F.] Langer is . . . difficult to find. There’s nothing on him in the City of Vancouver Archives, nothing in the Special Collections Division of the Vancouver Public Library, precious little elsewhere.
— Chuck Davis, “A Palace of Entertainment: Vancouver’s Orpheum Turns Seventy-Five”.  British Columbia Historical News. Vol. 36, No. 2 (Spring 2003), p. 17.

Photo from Doug McCallum’s Vancouver’s Orpheum: The Life of a Theatre. Here, Langer appears to be upon his stallion, Salvador.

I was re-reading Ivan Ackery’s memoirs, recently, when I came across mention of one J.F. Langer. He was the man who built the present Orpheum Theatre (B. M. Priteca, architect) and several Vancouver suburban movie theatres (none extant, except the Orpheum).

Why hadn’t I heard of this guy before, I wondered? Surely there must be more to his story. So I began to dig. And dig. And I discovered what Chuck Davis had learned earlier: that the smallest detail about Langer is hard won (1).

I make no claim to have written the ‘last word’ on Mr. Langer, but I think I’ve filled in a couple of public blanks about his life and career.

South Africa

Joseph Francis Langer was born in Langendorf, Silesia, Prussia (now a village known as Bozonov, located in southern Poland near the Czech border) in March, 1872 to Eduard and Caroline Langer. Joseph was born into a Church of England family (although the family was registered in a Catholic parish). The Langer family didn’t stay in Prussia long after Joseph was born, however. By the time he reached 6 years of age, the family was settled in South Africa in the territory of Transvaal. Eduard owned Langlagate Royal Gold Mining Co. in Johannesburg.

Joseph Langer. Photo courtesy of Susan Oddy. Date unknown.

During his time in South Africa, Joseph apprenticed as a bricklayer and began to take construction jobs. In 1891, Joseph (age 19) went to London where he established his own construction company. By 1893, he returned to Johannesburg where he continued in the construction business. Many of his jobs consisted of home-building. But there were other projects that supported the South African mining industry, including construction of a cyanide plant. I wasn’t able to find any details about this job, but then (as now) gold cyanidation was an important means of extracting gold in mining operations.

Henrietta Van Coller Langer. Photo courtesy of Susan Oddy. Date unknown.

Langer married Henrietta Maria (Hattie) Van Coller in 1893 (1869-1932) in South Africa. She bore 9 kids. They were: May Helena, who was known as “Daisy” (1894-1995); Cecil Edward (1896-1962); Ivy Elaine (1897-1899); Dorothy Ivy (1901-1986); Clarence Basil (1902-1979); Elaine Bertha (1904-1937, who died from lymphnoma; an unnamed child who died at birth; Ivan Clifford (1906-1950s?); Dora Caroline (1912-2002). Dora was the last of the children born to Hattie and Joseph; she was the only child born in Vancouver.

San Francisco/Vancouver/England

In 1908 (when Langer was 36), he left South Africa for the San Francisco/Oakland area. There, he continued to build homes for a living. Sometime in 1909, he moved to Vancouver.  He worked as a general contractor, principally on residential builds.

Shortly after the Great War began, Langer left Canada for England. He said of his financial status upon leaving for England in 1914: “I had no money when I went back” (3). Langer seems to have been telling a ‘porkie’ here. It’s true that Langer left several creditors in the Vancouver area. (4) But, according to his grand-daughter, Susan Oddy, “My mother [Dora Langer] said that the family lived in wealth until the stock market crash [1929]. Joseph may have had some financial ups and downs before that, but nothing serious. Certainly, he retained some of his wealth in his London investments.”

Langer claimed that he was ‘robbed’ by certain Vancouver interests while working here the first time (5). Precisely which firms Langer was pointing at with this claim is unclear, with one exception: he made it pretty plain that he held the architectural firm of Townsend & Townsend to blame for at least some of his financial woes (6). He doesn’t get into any detail about precisely how these architects ‘robbed’ him. It could well be that his antipathy regarding the firm was an extreme case of the not unusual ‘oil and water’ situation between architects and builders. It strikes me as odd that he lashed out at the Townsends, however, as there is no record in the online list of early Vancouver building permits of any projects on which Langer was builder on the same jobs as the Townsends were architects. Possibly, the online record is incomplete. It just isn’t clear.

Langer’s next nine years were spent in England earning, by all accounts, a lot of money in the construction business; his net worth, by his own admission, was in the vicinity of $2 million toward the end of his time in England (7). According to Douglas McCallum, he was a “pioneer in developing planned suburbs, which included sidewalks, gutters, sewers and street lighting.” (8). Presumably that was what he was what he was up to in England.

Vancouver Again

Setting Up House

Joseph Langer. Photo courtesy of Susan Oddy. Date unknown.

By August 1923, Langer turned 51 and that year he took his millions and re-settled in Vancouver. It seems that his plan upon returning to the Canadian west coast was “not to do anything at all” (9). He was ready to put down tools and enjoy an ‘early retirement’ in the land of the Lotus.

Upon returning to Vancouver, Joseph and Hattie took up residence at 1715 Woodland Drive (near East 1st Ave. in the Grandview district); Woodland Drive was one of Langer’s planned communities.

A 5-minute walk from Woodland Dr., at Commercial Dr., lived a couple named Jennie and Harold Farley. Jennie and Hattie Langer became friends. Joseph and Jennie became something more than friends.

Shortly after arriving in Vancouver for the second time, Joseph married Jennie Louise Farley (nee Inns). Jennie had just divorced her husband, Harold Farley, with whom she’d had four kids: Jack (1904); Barbara (1906), Harold Jr. (1908), and Frank (1920). Hattie and Joseph were separated in 1924. Jennie and Joseph were married by a Justice of the Peace in Washington State in December 1925, and he divorced Henrietta on July 2, 1926.

Henrietta died from cancer January 15, 1932 and is buried in Acton Cemetary.

In 1924, Langer bought a new home for himself and his bride-to-be at 3290 Granville Street (in the tony Shaughnessy Heights district). This was a single family dwelling at the time (in recent years, it has been converted into condominium units). Langer bought the house from  Mr. and Mrs. West, fully furnished. And judging from the value placed on the furniture by West and paid by Langer ($10,000), it wasn’t furnished cheaply (10).

Building Theatres

CVA Bu N332 – Windsor Theatre at 25th Avenue and Main Street ca1927. W J Moore

According to McCallum, during Langer’s second time in Vancouver, he retained his very fruitful business in England. Apparently, among his assets (not necessarily located in the Vancouver area) were “a gravel pit, a cement plant, real estate and mining interests,” his home at 3290 Granville, a black stallion named Salvador that was so impressive that he’d lend it to the City Police for use in parades, and two cars: a Rolls Royce and a maroon Daimler complete with a matching maroon-liveried chauffeur (11).

By 1925-26, despite his later claim that he had intended to “do nothing” in Vancouver, he had built several (cookie-cutter) suburban theatres: the Kerrisdale, the Alma, the Victoria, the Fraser, the Grandview, and the Windsor. These theatres together, briefly, comprised the Langer Circuit. (12) He built the Orpheum in 1927 and leased it to the Orpheum Circuit.

In 1929, on bad advice, Joseph sold his theatre interests to Famous Players Canadian Corporation and invested in a gold mine. Susan Oddy says: “At the time, gold was the standard currency, so when the stock market crashed, the price of gold dropped way down, too.” He returned to England shortly thereafter in financial ruin.

CVA Bu N331 – Kerrisdale Theatre building at 2136 West 41st Avenue] ca1927. W J Moore

Final Years

In 1932, there was a report in the Oakland Tribune that Jennie Langer was filing suit against J. F. Langer for “separate maintenance” of $400/month against him. She said that they had been separated since November, 1931.

In describing her husband’s ability to pay for her support, Mrs. Langer states that Langer owns a $50,000 home in Vancouver, B.C., a $20,000 interest in the Bonanza mine in Amador county, $60,000 worth of stocks and bonds bought during the last year, mining machinery in Canada worth $12,000 and the annual income from England of $100,000. (15)

Langer died in 1948 at age 76 in circumstances that hint at suicide (as far as I know, there was no autopsy). Langer’s body was found beneath the bedroom window which he’d apparently leapt from; it was in the home of his son Basil in England.

Jennie lived until 1954. During her final years alone, her accommodation in Vancouver changed every couple years, evidently slowly declining in quality — from 4911 Blenheim St. (1938) to 1400 W. 8th (1940) to 1465 W 14th (1942) to 1006 W 16th (1943) to apartment living on the east side at #7 – 111 E 26th Ave. (1947) and then back to the west side at 1336 W 13th (1951) and to 4151 Rumble in Burnaby (1954) then to 7042 Bellcara Dr (with her son, Frank) in 1954 and, finally, to the Home for the Aged in Coquitlam, where she died later that same year.

Notes

1. I am indebted to Robert of westendvancouver for contributing to research for this post, and I’m very appreciative for her many memories and family records to Susan Oddy, one of Joseph Langer’s grandaughters (born to Dora Caroline Langer and Gerald Oddy in 1948). I’m also appreciative of the notes and records kept by Ken Royston, great-grandson of Joseph, and those kept by Barbara, grand-daughter of J. F. Langer.

2. There is an odd twist to Langer’s life during this period in B.C. which I haven’t been able to fit into the narrative. The source is a single paragraph in the Omineca Miner (a Hazelton, BC publication) of January 10, 1914. It reads as follows: “J. F. Langer of the B.C. Contracting Co. has returned from a business visit to Vancouver accompanied by Mrs. Langer. They have taken possession of their new residence opposite the Anglican Church. ” There are at least a couple of interesting features in this brief blurb: First, it seems from this that Langer had a home in Hazelton which he shared with “Mrs. Langer” — presumably not Jennie Farley at this very early stage. Second, it strikes me as odd that  Langer would be buying a property in Hazleton presumably while owning his Vancouver lot at 1715 Woodland, given his story some years later of being stone broke by the time he left Vancouver in December 1914! (In a follow-up note from Susan Oddy, she notes that Joseph and Henrietta did live in Hazelton for a time. No details were provided, however).

3. Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) Joseph Francis Langer v. McTavish Bros. 1931, Record of Proceedings, p.121. This appeal by Langer to the JCPC of a BC court decision in favour of the McTavish Bros. is a treasure trove of testimony in Langer’s own words. The details of the case aren’t particularly germane to this post, but if interested, they can be found in the early pages of the Record of Proceedings.

4. They included: Everett Sash & Door; Cullen builders’ Supplies & Equipment, Clarke Bros. Hardware; Kydd Bros, Hardware; Wright-Cameron (don’t see this firm in the 1913 city directory); Williams & Co. (this might have been the A. R. Williams Machinery Co.; and Northern Electric.

5. JCPC Langer v. McTavish Bros. 1931, Record of Proceedings, p.122. Note:  Upon returning to Vancouver in 1923, he made a deal to pay his creditors; this wasn’t for the full amount owed, but for some fraction of that amount.

6. JCPC Langer v. McTavish Bros. 1931, Record of Proceedings, p.123.

7. JCPC Langer v. McTavish Bros. 1931, Record of Proceedings, p.123.

8. Douglas McCallum. Vancouver’s Orpheum: The Life of a Theatre. City of Vancouver, 1984, 9.

9. JCPC Langer v. McTavish Bros. 1931, Record of Proceedings, p.123.

10. BC Reports Langer v. McTavish Bros. 1932, p. 494.

11. McCallum, p9. Ivan Ackery, Fifty Years on Theatre Row, Hancock House, 1980, p. 84.

12. McCallum, p9.

13. Ackery, p.90.

14. McCallum, p.9.

15. “Wife Sues for $400 a month,” Oakland Tribune 4 Non 1932, p.12.

16. Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 2007.

---

Analog Craig’s List, 1967

Screen Capture from the video: Ron Morrier, hosting “The Trading Post”. CVA – LEG188.7 – The trading post, 1967.

Given that Ron Morrier is best remembered today as the host of All-Star Wrestling, it may be a bit surprising to watch him hosting this 15-minute program. He comes across as a calm, well-spoken, and good-humoured gent.

Joseph Roland DeLorme (“Ron”) Morrier was born in Prince Albert, SK in 1914 to Joseph Eldege Morrier and Marie-Josephine-Emma Gravel. In his youth, he was a soprano singer and a Golden Gloves boxer. At age 14, he went to St. Boniface, MB where he studied at a Jesuit college. Upon finishing there, he re-joined his parents, who had since moved to Montreal. His folks later moved to Edmonton, where Morrier worked in his Dad’s printing shop.

Morrier married Jean Hobson in Edmonton on April 15, 1942 (Edmonton Journal, 16 Apr 1942). *

He got his first radio job in Edmonton. He worked at various radio broadcasting jobs for 26 years. In ca1944, he was a producer with CBC Radio in Winnipeg. From ca1946-1952, he was with new radio station CJAD (800) in Montreal. He did primarily sportscasting there: Blow-by-blow commentary for boxing, play-by-play for football and hockey matches, and Golfing with Ron Morrier. Other radio jobs were in Waltrous, SK and Kingston, Jamaica.

In ca1952-53, Morrier took a brief break from broadcasting, establishing Ron Morrier Radio-Television, a retail sales business.

In 1956, he moved to Vancouver, where he signed on with new radio station CKLG (730), Vancouver’s ‘Good Music’ station. Here, for the first time in his broadcasting career, Morrier wasn’t principally in the role of sportscaster (that job was filled by Al Pollard). He was the morning show man from 8-10a.m. and his show was called — prepare to groan — The Morrier the Merrier.

He worked in Vancouver radio until 1960, when CHAN-TV got its licence and he joined them. With CHAN and later BCTV, Morrier did bingo, travel, and hobby shows, as well as TV auctions and kids’ shows. And, of course, he was the host of All-Star Wrestling.

Oddly, however, his time hosting The Trading Post didn’t receive any local press that I could find. That leads me to conclude that the program wasn’t long-lasting.

There were three things which could not be offered on The Trading Post: clothing, automobiles, and housing. Otherwise, the products on offer seemed to be the same as you’d see advertised in the classified ads in local newspapers. That might explain why The Trading Post didn’t seem to endure: It was duplicating a service offered more efficiently by print media.

Ron Morrier died at 67 in August 1981. He was survived by his wife, Jean, a son, Kit, and a daughter, Michelle.

Notes

• Thanks to Robert of westendvancouver.wordpress.com for spotting an error in the original version of this post. I was showing “Jean White” as being Morrier’s wife. This error was one I carried forward from Morrier’s death certificate.

Bingarra/Sun Doo Rooms

CVA 203-9 – 800 – 804 Main Street (and 208 Union Street) aka the SE corner of Main at Union. 1968.jpg

The commercial and residential building (shown immediately above and below) has been absent from the Vancouver landscape for about 50 years. It (and most of Hogan’s Alley to the south and east of this corner) were demolished to make way for the new (1972) Georgia Viaduct which would come barrelling through at this point on two gigantic concrete slabs. (In case you aren’t aware of what Hogan’s Alley was, see here for a little of history on the neighbourhood.)

When the apartment first was established in 1910, it was known as Bingarra Rooms [1]. The first proprietors were James and Mary Quinn who had come to Canada from Ireland in 1894. It remained the Bingarra until the mid-1940s, at which time it took a more Chinese name: Sun Doo Rooms.

CVA 203-11: View of the Sun Doo Rooms (the latest name of the apartment) from the rear (on Union Street). 1968.

CVA 216-1.23 – Georgia and Dunsmuir Viaduct concrete ramps running over Main St. (near Union St) looking NE, 1971.

CVA 203-18: 800 block Main Street, 1969. The view from the end of the 800 block Main up to the Sun Doo Rooms/London Drugs shop.

CVA 586-6105 – The view from Union Street rooms in the Sun Doo. You would have looked out at Luck Man Rooms (I think “Black Cat” was an ad for tobacco), on the NE corner of Union and Main Streets and the BC Electric Substation (as it then was) on the NW corner. 1945. Don Coltman.

J. W. Bailey, who bought the Bingarra after James Quinn died in 1922 (or perhaps just prior to his death), relied heavily on print advertisements to get the message out that the apartment was an economical, safe and clean place to live.

Vancouver Sun. 5 July 1921.

In March 1969, the City announced that it would expropriate the land that was home to many blacks and Chinese (and others of various ethnicities), including the land under Sun Doo Rooms. The residents had 4 months to find alternative accommodation.

Notes

1. The source of the name “Bingarra” could be Irish, Australian, or American. It is the name of a townland in Galway; it is the name of a town in NSW in Australia; and it is the name of a well-known stallion in the early 1900s (owned by William Russell Allen of Massachusetts). Given that the first proprietors, James and Mary Quinn, were from Ireland, I’m betting on the Irish connection. (Many thanks to Robert of WestEndVancouver.wordpress.com for digging up this info.)

Dr. Ray Starr Goodwin

Ray Starr Goodwin with a group of First Baptist Church Young People (predominantly women), 1904-05. First Baptist Church (Vancouver) Archives.

According to handwritten information on the back of this photo, it is an image of First Baptist Church young people on an outing to Deep Cove ca1904-05. The only person named is “Ray Starr Goodwin”, but he isn’t identified except with an “x” on the back of the image and the additional description of being a “16-yr-old boy”. Judging from the apparent ages of people in the photo and the location of the “x”, I conclude that Ray is probably the boy reclining at far left.

Ray Goodwin was born in Port Elgin, New Brunswick to Charles Hadenbroeke Goodwin and Sarah Amelia Lusby on April 12, 1888. In 1891, the family moved west to Kaslo, B.C. in the West Kootenays. Charles was one of the earliest settlers in Kaslo and continued to live there with Sarah until her death in 1934 and his in 1935. Mr. and Mrs. Goodwin hailed from the Maritimes. Ray had two elder sisters: Flora and May.

M-1-66 – A Vancouver, Westminster and Yukon Railway Company train crosses New Westminster bridge. July 1904.

In 1905, Ray Goodwin was living and working in Vancouver (thus, explaining his appearance with the FBC folks on their Deep Cove trip). He is shown in the ‘05 city directory as being a stenographer for the V. W. & Y. R. (Vancouver, Westminster and Yukon Railway). He was only with the Railway for that single year, as far as I can tell. It may have been just a summer job. In any case, I assume that he returned to Kaslo to finish high school after that.

Ray trained for a career in dentistry at the North Pacific College of Pharmacy and Dentistry (a private college in Portland, OR). He moved to Vancouver, BC soon after graduating in 1914. Following his examination and a “full pass” by the Royal College of Dental Surgeons of British Columbia, he began to practice in Vancouver in 1915 at 2190 West 4th Ave (near Yew), and resided at 1922 Venables (near Victoria).

In November 1916, Ray married Emma Augusta Brune, an American. They were married at First Baptist Church in Emma’s hometown of Vancouver, WA. They settled in Vancouver, BC. In ca1918, the Goodwins moved into their new residence at 4485 West 7th Avenue (near Sasamat), where they lived for the rest of their lives.

At about the same time as they moved house, Ray gave up membership at FBC Vancouver and became a member at Fairview Baptist (located at 5th Avenue and Arbutus, at the time). Although their home was situated deep in the West Point Grey district, Fairview Baptist was probably the nearest Baptist church to their home at the time; in any case, it was certainly closer than downtown First Baptist.

When I was looking at photos made by Ray in Kaslo, I noticed that there was a “Howard Green” who was identified in a few of them. I concluded, provisionally, that Green was a boyhood friend of Goodwin’s. But as I was looking for more info on exactly who Green was, it dawned on me that the two were more than friends — they were related.

Ray Goodwin was an uncle (by marriage) to Howard Green. Green’s parents were Samuel Green and Flora Goodwin (Ray’s sister). There was only a 7-year difference in their ages, however. Their fathers had similar careers. Both started life in Kaslo as contractors/builders — Charles Goodwin’s as a general contractor, while Samuel Green was attached to the CPR and so designed their depots, and other structures for them; he later became the proprietor of the the Kaslo general store and postmaster for the area).

Samuel Green family of Kaslo, children are Howard (left), Rowland and Edith Ray. RBCA ca1904. Ray Goodwin photo.

Howard Charles Green was a Conservative Member of Parliament from 1935-63, and for some of that time, he was a minister (of External Affairs and of Public Works) in John Diefenbaker’s government.

Howard Green with Lockly McLean (I’m assuming McLean was a friend of Green and/or Goodwin) at Revenue mine near Kaslo. RBCA, ca1920 (I question the date; it seems likely to me to have been made much earlier, around the 1904 period). Ray Goodwin photo.

Ray Goodwin was on the executive of the West Point Grey Conservative Association. In fact, in 1939, he was the 1st Vice-President. Green’s riding at the time – Vancouver South – included WPG. From 1949-63, Green’s riding was Vancouver Quadra which also included Point Grey, where Ray Goodwin lived.

Green did not mention his “Uncle Ray” Goodwin in CVA’s audio interview of Green made in 1985 regarding his early life in Kaslo. He did mention his “Uncle Bob”, Robert F. Green, his Dad’s brother, who had been very active politically (he was the first mayor of Kaslo, went on to serve in Sir Richard McBride’s provincial cabinet, and later served in the federal House of Commons and the Senate).

Emma Goodwin died relatively young at age 59 in 1947. Dr. Ray Goodwin died in 1984 at the ripe old age of 96.

Ray‘s and Emma’s kids were: William Charles (who died in infancy in 1918), Walter H., and Martin B.

Charles Green died in 1989.

Granville Street on the Verge

CVA 228-633 – “Retaining wall north of 22.” Taken from a retaining wall on what would become the current Granville Bridge, ca 1954. Lee Parry Film Productions. (Image edited somewhat by author.)

I was trolling through CVA’s online photographic holdings this morning when I came across this image. It wasn’t the first time. Once again, I was struck by how much it appeals to me.

The appeal of this northward shot of downtown Granville Street is that it’s an image of the street at the end of an era.

Although neon is in evidence, it would, within very few years, be considered “ugly” and would gradually disappear from the street that was once known as “the great white way”. (If you’re interested in seeing a video of Vancouver neon, there is a pretty good one here (if I do say so myself).

The new bridge would permanently alter traffic (and retail) patterns with Howe and Seymour each becoming one-way streets. And the bridge would invite more automobiles than ever before into the downtown district. That, in turn, would result in the construction of the many parkades still dotting downtown today, as well as a great many service stations (I count 50-some on the 1960 map below).

In short, Granville Street and downtown generally were on the verge of major change at the time the 1954 photo was taken.

PD 2086 – Existing service stations, retail shopping centres and commercial zoning – a basis for regulating location of service stations, ca1960.

A Variant of Vancouver’s SECOND Coat of Arms?

Crop of CVA 789-16 – Labour Day Parade. 1914.

This brief post is just to notify my readers that I have stumbled across what may be a hitherto unknown variant of Vancouver’s second coat of arms (1903-1969). For a history of the city’s three coats, see here and here.

Jason at Illustrated Vancouver points out that the second coat of arms was designed by James Jervis Blomfield and that the design was “first made in 1901, adapted in 1903, and presented to the city in 1945 in the form of a memorial plaque.” An image of the 1945 plaque is reproduced below:

Memorial drawing (1945) on white. From Illustrated Vancouver.

Note some of the differences between the Labour Day, 1914 image of the coat and the 1945 drawing:

• 1914 logger appears to be clean-shaven (versus moustache), is wearing a hat (versus hatless), and the branch is (for the most part) behind him (versus in the crook of his arm and beside him);
• 1914 fisherman is also clean-shaven (versus moustache), has his coat hood up (versus hat), has a warmer jacket on (versus a rain slicker), and his oar is behind him (versus being beside him and in the crook of his arm). His footwear appears to be more appropriate for a fisherman in the 1945 drawing (rubber boots).
• The nets and hatchets also appear to be different.
• I can’t read the motto on the scroll beneath the 1914 drawing. However, I don’t imagine it’s different from the 1945 “By Sea and Land We Prosper”. (The motto was changed when the entire coat of arms was overhauled in 1969 to “By Sea, Land, and Air We Prosper”).

CVA 789-16 – Labour Day Parade. 1914.

The 1914 version of Vancouver’s coat of arms was probably unofficial. It may have been painted from memory onto the fabric attached to the float. However, there is another coat of arms that is less legible, but very similar (if not exactly the same) in this other 1914 Labour Day image.

Ladybug Tours

By Maurice Guibord, Guest Blogger

Postcard (face). Maurice Guibord Collection.

Postcard (verso). Maurice Guibord Collection.

Years ago, I came across this postcard (above) and then a pamphlet (below) touting “Ladybug Tours” offered in Stanley Park.

I got the two pieces years apart, so it was nice to put them together. I showed the postcard at a display of Stanley Park items held at Vancouver Public Library several years ago. Nobody had heard of these tours nor seen the postcard before.

The image from the postcard tells most of the story: a tour wagon was pulled by a vehicle (a tractor?) disguised to resemble a large ladybug and described on the pamphlet as “something different”. Cute! We weren’t always afraid of monster insect infestations in this town.

Ladybug Pamphlet (front cover). Neil Whaley Collection.

Ladybug Pamphlet (back cover). Neil Whaley Collection.

Ladybug Pamphlet (page 3). Neil Whaley Collection.

Ladybug Pamphlet (page 2). Neil Whaley Collection.

Albert Edward “Ab” Portman (1913 Calgary – 2002 Surrey) owned Tally Ho Tours and founded (and presumably owned) Ladybug Tours starting in 1949. Portman ran Ladybug Tours until sometime in 1951 [1].

Verne Christian was the original driver/commentator on Ladybug Tours. Christian (who lived in the Clover Block at 2237 Commercial Dr., just north of Broadway) was a professional driver [2].

The second Ladybug operator was Fred Rexstrew (1952-53). Fred and his wife, Anna, were involved with the Stanley Park Saddle Club in the early 1950s.

There was a slightly mysterious pair with the surnames Crowe and Salisbury who were listed in the 1954-55 city directories as being associated with Ladybug Tours [3].

I love how the pamphlet suggests “Why not enjoy refreshments at the Hamberque while you wait for the return of the Lady Bug.” The Hamberque! What was that? Perhaps the concession at Prospect Point? (I couldn’t find mention in local newspapers for hamberque, hamburque, hambercue, or hamburcue) [4].

The original initial boarding place for the Ladybug was beside the Georgia Auditorium on Georgia Street; the boarding point was later moved to the main entry of the Park. The Ladybug seems to have operated on the ‘Hop On, Hop Off’ principal, which is a selling point on some of today’s city tours.

You paid at the end of the tour “if satisfied”, “so you can’t lose”.

Before and After Bug-Driven Tours in Stanley

The coleopterological mode wasn’t the first way humans were transported around the park. The tally-ho, a horse-drawn carriage, was the main mode of tourist transport from late 1800s until recently.

The Hotel Vancouver ran a tally-ho tour around Stanley Park in the 1890s, at one time driven by dog breeder, Norman D. McConnell (Sun, 28 June 1950), and at another time by Joe Reynolds (Sun, 11 Aug 1845). The Vancouver Transfer Company also ran a large Tally-Ho in the 1890s which included a tour of the Park (Sun, 6 June 1965).

St Pk P326 – A sightseeing horse-drawn vehicle operated by Vancouver Transfer Company in front of the Hollow Tree in Stanley Park. ca1900. (Note: CVA identifies this vehicle as a “car” but there are plainly reins at the front of the carriage.)

In 1905, Steve White, a Victoria liveryman, launched a Vancouver-based tally-ho. His vehicles seated between 25 and 30 people (Sun, 30 Aug 1945). According to the Vancouver Sun, there was a horse-drawn tally-ho company touring visitors around the City and the Park, which was discontinued in the 1930s.

Given the popularity of the Victoria tally-ho, however, the tour company was started anew in July 1947 by Len P. Mason, an ex-Royal Canadian Artillery sergeant who bought the Stanley Park Riding Academy after returning to the city from 3.5 years of service overseas [5]. I am fairly certain that the ‘wagon’ used with Ladybug Tours is the same one originally used with this 1940s incarnation of tally-ho tours.

Ladybug Tours was on the scene from 1949 to 1955.

In 1969, the tally-ho returned to Stanley Park. It was driven by Art Shannon. The tour had been shrunk to 20 minutes with a set fee. It was based at Prospect Point. It tooted in its ad copy: “Just horse and trees. No cars or concrete” (Sun, 23 May 1969).

It isn’t clear what happened to the ’69 tally-ho tours. But since Victoria was eliminating their tally-hos, a Sun correspondent suggested in 1974 that Stanley Park acquire them (Sun, 14 May 1974). This sentiment was repeated in another letter fours years later (Sun, 17 April 1978) and again four years after that.

AAA Horse and Carriage transported visitors around the Park from 1985. Many of AAA’s horses were Shire horses imported from England. It isn’t clear to me whether AAA was the final horse-drawn tour company in the Park, but it seems so.

Horse-drawn tours in Stanley were discontinued in 2019, I believe, due to concerns over the welfare of the horses.

Notes

1. Ab Portman had his moment of fame when he was buried alive for three hours in December 1955 under tons of gypsum while working as superintendent of Columbia Gypsum Mines in Invermere. Having sunk into the quicksand-like pile of ore, he was able to attract the attention that saved his life by moving the one foot that was free of the ore (Sun, 1 Dec 1955).
2. Verne Christian had been at the wheel of a Pacific Stages bus at Broadway and Cambie in November 1945 when he ran into a fire engine; he hadn’t heard the siren. His bus was empty, so no passengers were hurt and neither was he, but three firemen were injured in the accident (Sun, 26 Nov 1945). Someone with Christian’s name was selling boats and yachts at Vancouver Marina Centre in West Vancouver in the 1960s.
3. It is difficult to be certain when Ladybug Tours ceased operating. Online city directories are available only through 1955.
4. Please comment if you have evidence as to what was the Hamberque!
5. However, a Province article states that RCAF Sergeant M. Brown applied for permission to establish a tally-ho for park tours. Competition or misprint?

From [Vancouver] Tourist and Shopping Guide: 1951-1952. Angus McIntyre Collection.

Ladybug Tours Float at P.N.E. Parade (early 1960s). CVA movie by Harry Lin Chin at 9’28”.

John A. Radford: ‘Artistic Dean’ . . . Who?

Vancouver Sun 25 May 1940

When John Radford died, the Vancouver Sun hailed him as “dean of Vancouver artists and famous throughout Canada as an architect, water-colorist and art critic”. Today, you would be hard-pressed to find anyone in Vancouver (even in art or local history circles) who would twig at the mention of his name.

John Alfred Radford (1860-1940) was the third child born to Isaiah and Jane Radford in Devonport, England. He was a life-long bachelor.

Radford came to Canada in 1882 on the Polynesian, settling in Port Arthur and later in Toronto and Montreal. In 1888, he collaborated with J.W. and E.C. Hopkins on the design of the Montreal Ice Palace. He freelanced on various other building projects in central Canada. He studied at the Ontario College of Art while he was in Toronto; presumably, he trained as an architect in England.

According to one source, he left Toronto for Vancouver in 1902 (Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada: 1800-1950), other sources put this move a bit later: 1911. 

VPL 21079. Statue of Pauline Johnson by artist (not accepted). John A Radford (1860-1940). Dominion Photo. 1921.

Radford was invited by the Women’s Canadian Club to submit a memorial for the grave of poetess Pauline Johnson (ignoring Johnson’s explicit wish that her grave not be marked). Although sculpture wasn’t his forte, Radford complied with the invitation. His submission was turned down, however, as his memorial was considered too expensive [1]. Instead, the selection committee chose the James A. Benzie design that is in Stanley Park today.

There are a couple of records of Radford working as an architect on local projects (for example, this one in Chinatown). There is also a report that Radford designed a number of early gas stations in the city (Province, May 17 1960). But most of Radford’s time in Vancouver seems to have been spent painting, sketching, and writing.

During the pre-war years, Radford kept body and soul together by painting cover art for periodicals such as British Columbia Magazine. He was also an illustrator and art critic for Saturday Sunset.

Cover art: John A. Radford.

There is a very brief press report which suggests that during the Great War, he worked in Seattle with a shipbuilding company (Vancouver Sun 17 March 1918). The 1918 Seattle directory shows John A.Radford as “draughtsman”.

One of Radford’s enduring legacies was the promotion of and establishment of the British Columbia Art League. The League was incorporated in 1920 and had as twin principal objectives the founding of an art school in Vancouver and the establishment of an art gallery. The Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts opened in 1925 and the Vancouver Art Gallery opened in 1931. Radford was a founding member of the League.

From about 1927 until the week before his passing in 1940, Radford had a column in the Vancouver Sun. He had considerable scope in his column, covering “art notes” from around the world, to art critiques nearer to home. A favourite target of Radford’s were members of the Group of Seven. About A. Y. Jackson, for example, Radford had this to say: “[Jackson] is one of the notable coterie of artists in the Group of Seven who seem to be painting little better than when they started years ago” (Sun, 10 December 1932).

One Sun columnist described Radford as having the appearance of “an irascible old Moses of art”. His temperament seems to have been aptly captured in that description, too. Following his death, the Province had this to say about him:

River Landscape in Winter (9.5″x14.5″) 1928. J. A. Radford. From a 2020 auction record online.

He was an artist and proud to be one, and his paintings of coast scenery and his frank and often breezy criticism helped give Vancouver folk an appreciation of art.

John Radford’s strength lay in his independence of spirit, his capacity as a draughtsman and his talent for colour. He had been trained as an architect and had a keen eye for balance and proportion. He had an eye for beauty too, and was contemptuous of pictures that were ugly or faulty in composition or draughtsmanship. The members of the Group of Seven came frequently under his lash because of their henpecked trees and dreary landscapes.

John Radford’s independence was his weakness too. It made it difficult for him to work with others. So some of his best efforts came to naught. It made him more of a lone wolf, and so restricted his resources and his range.

He did much for Vancouver, but Vancouver never fully appreciated him either as a critic or as an artist. For that, he never blamed it, though he was wistful about it sometimes. On the whole, he got more satisfaction out of being John Radford, out of his lonely holidays on the Coast fjords and out of his one-man salons [exhibits] and his quiet generosities than he could ever have got out of being lionized.

Province 28 May 1940

Notes

1. I am pretty sure of my facts, here. However, I have been unable to find the document where I read this information.

Rocky Ridge and Snowdrifts J. A. Radford. Reproduction in Vancouver Sun, 25 May 1937.

Vancouver’s Monarchs of the Bronze

CVA 99-4244 – Walter Leek, President of Exhibition Association is shaking the hand of Sun Tan Queen, Iris Palethorpe. Next to Leek is Dr. E. H. Funk, one of the ‘finals’ judges. Next to Palethorpe is Sun Tan King, Henry Lund, shaking the hand of J. K. Matheson, Exhibition manager. Standing to Matheson’s right is Jack Devaney, the other ‘finals’ judge. And at the far right of the photo is Calvin Winter, conductor of the Home Gas Orchestra, some members of which are in the background. Shot at Vancouver Exhibition. Sept. 1 1932. Stuart Thomson photo.

Van. Sun July 7, 1932

In 1932 the Vancouver Sun newspaper teamed up with a number of suburban Famous Players theatres, as well as a few ‘country’ theatres across the interior of B.C. to have a “Sun Tan Contest”. [1]

The ‘contest’ would actually consist of regional events held at the various theatres (in several ‘classes’: Boys and Girls, ages 6 to 10; Boys, 10 to 17; Girls, 10 to 17; Men 17 and up, and Ladies, 17 and up) and also two nights of finals held at the Vancouver Exhibition (now known as the Pacific National Exhibition).

Although there were 5 age classes, greatest attention was given to the two adult classes, from which would be crowned Sun Tan King, Henry Lund (Vancouver), and Sun Tan Queen, Iris Palethorpe (Burnaby).

The sole criterion, initially, for successful contestants was that they had a ‘good’ tan. However the contestant chose to define that was up to him/her.

Crop of CVA 99-4246 – Sun Tan Queen, Iris Palelthorpe, wearing seal fur coat at Vancouver Exhibition. Sept 1 1932. Stuart Thomson photo.

But just as the application deadline was nearing, another criterion was added: “Because of the unusual lack of sunshine this month, it has been decided to include personality as a factor in the contests…” (Sun, 29 July 1932). If the terms for judging suntans were vague, try to imagine those for judging personality!

There were $1000 worth of prizes. It was impossible to be a complete loser, as even those who were not among the bronzed chosen received an unspecified ‘consolation prize’.

The majority of the $1000 was for the Queen. Besides the trophies that the King and Queen received, there were gifts from various corporate sponsors (such as Associated Dairies, Swift Canadian, and Piggly Wiggly). But the most valuable prize was a seal fur coat supplied by New York Fur Company for Queen Iris, valued at $350. Presumably, the fur was intended for wearing when the sun was more often hidden!

Suntanning: A ‘Sea Change’ Begins

Suntanning began in Vancouver in the 1930s as a fad. Until then, there was only the smallest possibility of the sun’s rays getting past the torso-covering swimwear.

The 19-teens. CVA 99-5112 – V.A.S.C. – Vancouver Athletic Swim Club. May 1917, Stuart Thomson.

Late 1930s. CVA 371-836 – The Polar Bear Club about to go for a swim on New Years Day. Jan 1 1939.

But by the 1930s, the notion of swimsuits had changed some. Local swimwear manufacturer, Jantzen for example, was advertising a new feature of women’s swimsuits: deeply cut ‘sun-tan’ backs! We certainly aren’t talking about the skimpy two-piece bikinis of the 1960s, here, but this one-piece novelty let at least some sun reach the human body, thereby making suntanning above the waist a possibility.

To the best of my knowledge, after 1932, there was never another Vancouver Sun Sun-Tan Contest. The reason for the contest being a ‘one-of’ isn’t entirely clear. There was considerable enthusing by Sun writers about how well the event had gone and how probable that it would become an annual affair. To the extent that there can be any single explanation for the contest not being repeated, it may have been due, at least in part, to civic censorship.

Just one year after the tanning contest was held, the Sun published this report:

Policeman on Horse Visits Beaches

Vancouver police have taken literally and seriously the onerous duty thrust upon them by the Parks Board as censors of sun-tan[ning]…on Vancouver’s beaches.

So seriously, in fact, that in their first foray in the bright sunshine at English Bay and Second Beach this morning, they took no chances on foot in the shifting sand but let a horse do the floundering while a couple of dozen young men reclined with rolled-down bathing suits, under the beneficent rays.

There were no arrests, but there may be if the warning is not heeded, the officer told the sun gods as they reluctantly pulled shoulder straps over torsos that were just beginning to show signs that after all the sun can shine in Vancouver if it does not get discouraged.

Vancouver Sun 1 June 1933

Notes

1. The local theatres where regional contests were held were: Alma, Broadway, Fraser, Grandview, Regent, Kerrisdale, Kitsilano, Victoria, and Windsor (none of these cinemas are still standing and in service for their ’30s purpose). The B.C. interior theatres that participated were: In Kamloops, Capitol; in Vernon, Empress; in Kelowna, Empress; in Penticton, Empress; and in Nelson, Capitol. For a look at a number of the great interior theatres, I highly recommend viewing the film produced by friends, Curtis and Silmara Emde called Out of the Interior.

UBC Open Collections.

Maison Henri: Vancouver’s Forgotten Parisian Hairdresser

Maison Henri interior. This looks to me like Maison Henri’s 550 Granville St location. ca 1930s. Importex (Postcard) Co. Leonard Frank photo. Author’s collection.

The Province. 7 November, 1936.

Henri Gautschi’s Vancouver hairdressing business, Maison Henri, lasted for over 35 years. But today the business and its proprietor are generally unknown.

Henri Edward Gautshci (whose surname sounded Italian) was born in 1875 in Paris, France. His father came from Switzerland.

Henri married May Phoebe Philips (born in 1882 in England). Together, they had two kids: Nancy May (1908-2008) and Edward Henri (1913-1999). May died in 1931.

Henri arrived in Vancouver ca1907. In 1908, he opened the first location of Maison Henri hairdressing and perfumery in the 300 block of West Hastings Street. 

By the 19-teens, Maison Henri was located on the 600 block of Granville, and they had a hairdressing school across the street (the Henri Maison School of Beauty Culture at 619 Granville would remain there through ca1943; at that time, the hairdressing school was sold, apparently, to Maxine’s “University of Beauty Culture”.) By the late ‘20s, Maison Henri had moved to its final location at 550 Granville.

VPL 15916 Shops on Granville Street – Maison Henri at 550 Granville, ca1940 (flanked by Polar Furs and Betty’s Hats and Gowns). Frank Leonard.

Gautschi was a bit peculiar when it came to his identity. He advertised his business as being run by “Mr. Henri” instead of by “Mr. Gautschi”. Why he chose to be known by his first name instead of his surname isn’t entirely clear.

It could be that he had little confidence in the sophistication of early Vancouverites; that he didn’t think the average resident would be able to cope with the pronunciation of “Gautshci”.

Or perhaps ‘Gautshci’ didn’t sound ‘French’ enough to him. The Maison Henri, after all, advertised itself as “the only Parisian House in Western Canada.”

Province. Apr 8 1909.

Or it could have been that the reason for the first/surname ‘switcheroo’ was related to his banking practices. In 1916, there were a pair of creditors to whom Gautschi owed just over $600. The pair tried to garnishee Gautschi’s Royal Bank account, but the bank would not process the garnishee, as the Royal had nobody with that name with an account. It seems Henri had his account at RBC in the name of ‘Gautschi Henri’ and he signed his cheques by the same name. The court (oddly) upheld Gautschi’s right to have an account in another name and for his assets in that account to be protected! He continued with the name switch in ads at least until 1933.

A Maison Henri ad showing Henri Gautschi’s name switch. Vancouver Sun. 20 May 1933.

Gautschi wound up in the law courts on other occasions. These pertained to him allegedly paying one of his hairdressers less than the provincially-mandated minimum wage. After the case bounced around in appellate courts, he was found, ultimately, to be in the wrong and had to pay the hairdresser the sum of wages she had owing her.

In 1940, Maison Henri opened a branch shop (in addition to the main shop at 550 Granville), in south Granville (2543 Granville; at Broadway). The plan was that the South Granville shop, in addition to offering hairdressing services, would also carry a full line of costume jewelry.

Maison Henri closed its doors in 1944, when Gautschi was 71. He planned to spend much of his time on his Bowen Island property. Henri died in 1951 at the age of 76.

The principal building in which Maison Henri was located for most of its life, 550 Granville, has had some distinguished tenants: In the 1950s and ’60s it was Foncie Pulice’s street photo headquarters; and in the ’80s, it was home to the much-missed Marks and Spencer department store. Today, it is Grand & Toy stationers.

CVA 677-377 – Storefront window of Maison Henri perfumery and hairdresser, 630 Granville Street. 1919.

Barry Glass, Star Photographer

Barry Glass. Vancouver Sun, 7 January 1966.

Barry William Glass was born in North Vancouver in 1933 to William Glass and Winnifred Marr. He went to Britannia High School, where he was a member of the MacMillan Club of Fine Arts. During his years at Britannia, the school staged Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance; he played the sargeant of police. His post-secondary education was at the Vancouver School of Art, from which he graduated in 1958. 

He married Audrey Jean Reimer in 1960 and together they had two children: Wendy Lynn and Brenda Janet. (Wendy, sadly, died in 1979 at the age of 19 in an automobile accident). Audrey took a bachelor’s degree from UBC and was a member of the Vancouver Bach Choir and also of her church choir for a number of years.

Glass’s job was Assistant City Planner with the City of Vancouver. His choice of career was a bit peculiar, given his interest in the arts in high school and at VSA. His career choice was probably motivated by a desire to eat regularly.

But his hobby, as a photographer, became a sort of second job. He got his start with his hobby in 1957 during a recital by Jan Peerce held at the Georgia Auditorium. Glass practiced on this occasion what would become his trademark when shooting opera singers; he would use just available light; no flash. He took the photo of Peerce on the sly — without the subject’s permission or awareness.

Glass sent the best of his prints to Peerce in New York City. He responded to Glass with a letter in which the singer invited Glass to look him up next time he was in NYC. Glass did just that and Peerce connected him with Lily Pons, who wanted him to do her photographic portrait in character for what would be her last time playing Lucia in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor.

Marlene Dietrich, 1960s. Barry Glass.

The first Vancouver International Festival was on at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in 1958. Glass was at the Vancouver School of Art just across the street from QET. He would skip afternoon classes to take in rehearsals at the theatre. This is Glass speaking for a profile in the Sun:

’Since the Festival was new then and there were all kinds of new faces, one more didn’t seem to matter so I wasn’t thrown out. When I showed people what I had taken at the rehearsals, they all seemed impressed so I decided to show Festival director Nicholas Goldschmidt too. From then on I had no trouble. I got a pass and permission to do what I wanted, provided I wasn’t on the stage when the curtain went up.’

Vancouver Sun 7 January 1966

Joan Sutherland in orange cloak for Norma, 1963. Barry Glass.

Glass’s involvement with the Opera Association (with which he became the official photographer) consumed a great deal of his time. So much so that his wife joined the association in order to see Glass more often. She had a good singing voice and began to get prominent parts in VOA productions. “‘I would like to do this photography full-time . . . but Vancouver isn’t big enough,’” said Glass. (Vancouver Sun, 7 January 1966). (Audrey, who died in 2006, would have a very full career as an opera singer, performing in most opera houses in Canada).

When he saw Joan Sutherland at QET in 1963 in Norma, wearing an orange cloak, Glass knew that a photo of her in the cloak would make a great image for the cover of her forthcoming album. That image by Glass of Sutherland has been re-used many times since it appeared on that album.

Marlene Dietrich was more of a challenge, as she had a strict “no photographs” policy. But he snuck a few shots of her during encores while she was singing in Vancouver, and hoped for the best. She threatened to sue Glass when she learned of his sneaky photos; but she changed her tune when she saw them. Not only did she drop the lawsuit — she personally interceded with Columbia Records to ensure that the photo appeared on the cover of her next album, Dietrich in London (Vancouver Sun, 23 December 1965).

Barry Glass’ life was cut short by a perforated ulcer in 1968 when he was just 34. There is no telling to what heights his photographic portraiture hobby might have taken him had he lived longer.

“Carmen” by VOA. ca 1960. UBC’s School of Library, Archival and Information Studies scan of Gail McCance’s set design photos and drawings. Tom Carter’s Collection. Barry Glass photo.

Fun Facts: The Signal Station Atop Lions Gate Bridge

Crop of CVA 265-70 – Looking NE at the Lions Gate Bridge Signal Station located midspan above the bridge. 1938. David Loughnan

• The signal station that serviced Burrard Inlet before the bridge was built was the Prospect Point station (1893-1939); the old signal station was located atop the cliff above the Prospect Point lighthouse.

• Lions Gate bridge station (formally known as “First Narrows Signal Station”) was in operation, 1939-1974. Beginning in ’74, Burrard Inlet was served from Park Royal in West Vancouver. It was then referred to as “Vancouver Vessel Management Centre” or “Vancouver Centre”, for short. The Park Royal station had equipment piled “ceiling-high” (Vancouver Sun, 9 Jan 1974).

CVA 260-974 – View from the Lions Gate Bridge of Prospect Point signal station, above the lighthouse and boathouse. 1938 James Crookall.

• The purpose of the signal station, was to monitor shipping traffic in and out of the harbour. Signallers were also to keep watch on weather (e.g., wind speed, visibility due to fog) and advise vessels of same. Other tasks (not included in the signaller’s job description, I assume), included assisting rescues of people attempting suicide from the bridge (this was in the period before anti-suicide netting had been installed).

• Signallers at the LGB station included: W. J. Mooney, Wilfred “Tug” Wilson, and Danny Parkins.

• The 9 o’clock (p.m.) gun located at Brockton Point (Stanley Park) was, for a while, fired by the signaller on duty at LGB station pressing a button; the gun would then fire by remote control.

• The Lions Gate Bridge was a provincial responsibility. But the signal station was a federal one (it was run by the National Harbours Commission until the LGB station was closed. The Park Royal station was run by the federal Ministry of Transport).

• There was a flush toilet in the LGB signal perch:

The bridge biffy was pointed out by Dr. J. E. Balmer, president of the B.C. Yachting Association and vice-president of the Canadian Yachting Association. “Men in the signal station receive orders when and when not to flush,” said Balmer. He told the Sun he had never visited the signal station, but he believes that flushing directions are determined by wind strength and frequency of shipping traffic under the bridge.

Vancouver Sun, 28 September 1968

• The chief signaller had a residence provided by the National Harbours Commission at the south end of the bridge, and just west of it). It was built in 1938 (at which time the former Prospect Point signal station — west of the new residence — was destroyed). I don’t know when the residence was demolished, but I imagine it happened in the mid-70s.

The residence for the LGB Chief Signaler. It was located about 200 feet west of the south end of the bridge. Vancouver Sun. 14 Oct 1938.

• How did signallers get to work? This isn’t a fact; more of an educated guess. I figure they walked across the bridge deck, using the ped-way the way any other pedestrian would cross the bridge. When they were beneath the signal station, I’m guessing that they climbed the ladder visible in the first image in this post.

Lion’s Gate Bridge, 1938. Fund-Raiser for Theatre Under the Stars, 1994.

The Age of the Searchlight

The late 1920s and 1930s was the age of the searchlight in Vancouver.

Port P1153.2 – Mr. E.C. Dawe, Point Atkinson Lighthouse Keeper, with his light. 1951.

Searchlights were not a new thing. They had been in use in 19th century Europe. Indeed, they were not new to Vancouver, either. Searchlight technology was in use in B.C. coastal applications from before Vancouver’s incorporation — as lighthouses.

The popularity of the searchlight during this time was probably due to a number of factors. Improved light technology and the ‘reach’ of searchlights was certainly one.

But it seems to me that the single most important factor behind the popularity of the searchlight at this time was the currency of Art Deco (aka Style Moderne) design.

One of the first things to enter my mind at the mention of searchlights is the very deco-ish visual (and soundtrack) that accompanies movies made by 20th Century Studios. If you need a reminder of what I’m talking about, click on this link.

Woodward’s

Van Sc P114 – The Woodward’s Department Store searchlight atop the tower. ca 1938.

One of the first institutions in Vancouver to make use of a searchlight was a department store — Woodward’s. In 1927, the store installed a searchlight atop its building at Abbott and Hastings.

Puggy [P. A. Woodward] . . . had a giant tower built on the roof of the Store. It stood seventy-five feet high, held a searchlight forty-eight inches in diameter and threw out a two-million candlepower beam which revolved six times each minute and spread its rays far over the Lower Mainland across to Vancouver Island. For many years, the Beacon Tower was a landmark to the people of Vancouver.

The Woodwards: A family story of ventures and traditions.
Douglas E. Harker. 1976: Mitchell Press.

The purpose of this light was advertising. Woodward’s searchlight seemed to proclaim, boldly: “Look at Woodward’s searchlight! Isn’t it time you returned here to shop?”

In 1938, in response to an order from the federal Department of Transport, the Woodward’s light was extinguished. It was believed that pilots who were unfamiliar with Vancouver might confuse the Woodward’s searchlight with the airport landing strip. The searchlight was replaced with a giant “W” (Vancouver Sun, 2 June 1938).

The giant W removed from its perch above Woodward’s for condo development. .Arlen Redekop / PNG.

Canadian Diamond Jubilee

Pete Triance, Superintendant, Grouse Resort, with his light. Vancouver Sun. 4 July 1927.

As part of the 1927 Canadian Diamond Jubilee celebration (marking 60 years since Confederation), a searchlight was installed atop Grouse Mountain. The light shone on various parts of the city, including City Hall, from July 1 for a number of days that year. According to the caption beneath the accompanying photo from the Sun, the light was co-owned by the City of Vancouver and other municipalities in the Greater Vancouver area (Sun, 4 July 1927).

This searchlight served a function similar to that of Woodward’s. It was a form of advertising, celebrating a civic occasion.

There was another event associated with the Diamond Jubilee at which a searchlight was involved. On the day of the Jubilee (Dominion Day), there was a fireworks display over English Bay. As part of that, the H.M.C.S. Patrician “added to the entertainment by playing its searchlight over the water.” (Sun, 4 July 1927)

Hudson’s Bay Co. / Vancouver Airport

CVA 99-2493 – Hudson’s Bay Co. / Airport searchlight. 1930. Stuart Thomson.

A searchlight was installed by a major competitor of Woodward’s, Hudson’s Bay Co. on the roof of its store at Georgia and Granville in 1930. In this case, the searchlight was to serve the brand new city airport by shining a light from downtown, over Shaughnessy Heights, and onto the landing strip at the airport on Sea Island. The searchlight on HBC apparently had the same strength as the one on Woodward’s and the one that had been atop Grouse Mountain in 1927 — a two-million candlepower beam. Indeed, it is likely that the light on HBC was the same light as had been on Grouse (Sun, 4 July 1927).

According to local press reports, the searchlight was to be situated 60-feet above the roofline of the department store. But looking at the photo above, I don’t see how that is possible (unless the photo was taken early in the installation and that it was raised significantly higher, later — perhaps after aldermanic and HBC bigwigs had skedaddled).

I don’t know how long the HBC/Airport searchlight was in use. It seems doubtful to me, however, that it would have continued to operate far into the WW2 period, due to wartime blackout precautions in the City.

Searchlights as Metaphors

VPL 80816A Colliers Motors opening of new showroom, 450 West Georgia Street, night photograph with searchlights, 1949. Art Jones.

Searchlights were popular in this period not only as devices, but also as metaphors. A search through the local press from the later ’20s and ’30s reveals that the term was regularly used in church sermon titles and product ads.

Baptist preachers seemed regularly to reach for “searchlights” when crafting sermon titles. Mount Pleasant Baptist, for example, in 1928 had a sermon series on “Russellism [Jehovah’s Witnesses] Under the Searchlight”, and Rev. Elbert Paul of First Baptist, in 1936, delivered a sermon titled — opaquely, in my opinion — “A Searchlight of Selfishness”.

The Province newspaper in 1929 advertised its ‘lost and found’ service in their classified ads section with the headline: “Like High Powered Searchlights”.

CVA 1184-1615 – View of the P.N.E. at night showing the exhibition buildings, rides and a large searchlight, 1960. Jack Lindsay.

A term often used in this period as a synonym for searchlight was “beacon”. The Beacon Theatre (formerly the second Pantages at 20 West Hastings) was so named in 1930. There was also a local publication in the 1930s called “The Beacon”; I gather that this was a religious pub of some sort, since the editor’s name was Rev. Duncan McDougall (it seems he was as a Presbyterian minister).

A South Richards Street Survivor

CVA 99-729 – American Laundry, 1339 Richards Street. ca1918. Stuart Thomson.

The very solid brick structure shown above was at 1339 Richards Street and seems to have been built circa 1914. To my surprise, given Vancouver’s record of demo-ing most buildings that stand for more than 50 years, this structure endured for nearly 100 years and many businesses called it home. [1]

Before the building went up, there was a residence at the address, I’m guessing similar in type and size to the building to the right (north) of the brick building. For some reason (a residential fire?), that building was pushed over and the brick structure went up in its place.

The original owner of the brick building was William James Thomas, a local architect and contractor. [2] Whether Thomas ever owned the American Laundry or if he was strictly the landlord for awhile, isn’t clear. By 1913, however, the American Laundry was identified (accurately or not) as being a “Chinese laundry”.

The operator of the business by 1929 (whether he was the owner, then, isn’t clear) was called Mock Sing. The only reason that we know this much is that the laundry was robbed in November, 1929 and the local papers made a tremendous fuss over the police constable who saved the day and booked the rascal who had threatened Mr. Sing and the P. C.

The robber was Lowell Chinn, a person who was identified only as an American recently arrived in Vancouver. [3]

A little Chinese laundryman named Mock Sing gave [P.C. Denis] Johnston his big opportunity. Mock had been having a hard time of it. On October 2, a bandit entered his shop at 1339 Richards street, pressed a gun against him and took $25. One week later, the same raider again victimized Mock Sing [and this time, presumably, Chinn netted little or nothing for his efforts].

The hold-up occurred at 8p.m. After the bandit rifled the till, he ran to the back of the shop while Mock, heaping Chinese maledictions upon his head, darted into the street. He caught sight of husky Denis Johnston patrolling his beat with measured tread.

“Lobbers ketchum help, bandits!” screamed Mock.

“Be asly, me bhoy,” comforted Denis Johnston. “I’ll get your bandit for ye.” [The P.C. was of Irish extraction, in case that isn’t obvious!]

Vancouver Sun 23 Nov 1929 (comments in square brackets are mine).

Chinn threatened P. C. Johnston with a cigarette case which he wielded as though it were a revolver and shouted to Johnston “Stand where y’are or I’ll drill ya.” The constable it seems to me was full of the blarney, knew how to make a good story better, and added a lot of detail about how he felt when Chinn made his threat (which I’ll spare the reader of this post). Chinn was sentenced for six years for the hold-up at American Laundry ($25), robbery of another Chinese gent (50 cents), and another, earlier, Chinese laundry stick-up on Hornby Street ($15). [4]

By 1930, American Laundry had closed its doors. Thereafter, until 1950, there was a pretty rapid succession of businesses in the brick building at 1339 Richards:

• 1931, Patent Utilities Manufacturing had taken over the space. It didn’t last long.
• 1932-34, the address was shown in the Vancouver directory as “vacant”.
• 1935-36, Granolite Paint had its business there.
• 1937-38 it had become Electrical Sales & Equipment.
• 1939-40, Vancouver Stone Repair.
• 1941-43, H K F Machines.
• 1944-45, the building housed Aero Manufacturing machine shop and D. V. Manley manufacturers agents.
• 1946-49, T. Woodward roofing had the building for its business.

From 1950-67, the first long-term occupant of 1339 Richards was also the first in a string of restaurants in the building, Monty’s Spare Ribs. (The original proprietor of Monty’s was Max King; he claimed that Monty’s was named for Monty Montaine, the maitre ‘d at The Cave Supper Club during WWII).

Monty’s was followed by the Original Spare Rib House from ca1967- circa1972. From 1973 until the mid-1980s, Edgar’s Dining Lounge occupied the brick building. And that was followed, evidently, by one of the last occupants I was able to track down: a high-end Italian restaurant called Pappa Al Pomodoro in the mid-90s, briefly, at 1339 Richards (which the Sun’s restaurant reviewer, Mia Stainsby, accurately described as “a charmless section of Richards Street”).

CVA 779-E07.29 – 1339 Richards Street (Sir Edgar’s Dining Lounge; formerly the American Laundry building), west side of Richards. 1981.

By the 2000s, 1339 and the rest of the southern end of Richards Street had succumbed to the trend for densification sweeping all downtown districts, and was redeveloped as condos.

Finally, the little old brick building at 1339 gave way to the wrecker.

As I’ve noted elsewhere in this blog, it seems to me that peripheral parts of the city (e.g., East Vancouver, and the southern extremes of Richards and Seymour) tend to be less likely to quickly demolish buildings. The central (downtown) district seems more likely to “re-develop” its property — ironically, as that is today the most touristy area and the one in which there is greater call now for retention of heritage property.

Notes

1. This community at the south end of Richards has been, for most of the 20th century, a zoning muddle. In 1914, the year the American Laundry was apparently established, among the homes at the south end of Richards were these businesses: Pioneer Laundry (900), Pioneer Carriage & Shoeing (912), Albion Motor Co. (940), Imperial Art Glass (1059), Riggs & Higgins Sash Manufacturers (1067), Sing Lee Laundry (1068), Star Steam Laundry (1115), Berlin Dye Works (1122), Smith Co. Hardwood Lumber (1320), and Belt Line Transfer (1369). By 1929, when American Laundry was nearing the end of its life as a laundry, a much larger operation would be built a block away — Canadian Linen Supply (1200), known today as Choices grocers.
2. There was a firm called “American Laundry” with a Canadian base in Toronto. They seem to have manufactured steam laundry machines during this period. It is possible that they also invested in some store-front operations like the one on Richards Street, but I could not find any evidence to confirm that.
3. I find it interesting, that Chinn’s ‘voice’ — as attributed by the Sun — was stereotypically American gangster-ish! I assume this was done to help the reader keep track of the characters.
4. The Lowell Chinn convicted of these robberies seems to be the same as the Lowell H. Chinn who turned up in Spokane by 1937. He also had some scrapes with the law in that city. He pleaded guilty in 1941, for instance, to a charge of larceny for passing a bad cheque. In 1949, a second-degree burglary charge against Chinn was apparently dropped upon his being arrested in Cheyenne, Wyoming on another (unknown) charge. By 1958, he was serving time in Utah on a larceny conviction. Chinn died in Seattle in 1986.

Thanks to Robert of WestEndVancouver for his assistance with some of the research for this post.

Ted Lefebure’s ‘Voice’ (in the absence of a photo)

The germ of this post (if one may use such a word these virus-centric days) came from local music/theatre expert, Tom Carter. He found the correspondence that is at the post’s heart in a Gastown antique shop years ago and then forgot about it. Recently, the letter came to his attention again.

Unlike the typical VAIW post, there isn’t a featured photograph showing Lefebure; there simply wasn’t one that I could find. The letter written by E. S. Lefebure — his ‘voice’ — will stand in lieu.

First, however, a few details about Ted Lefebure and his kin.

Madras, India

Edward “Ted” Stewart Lefebure (1895-1946) was born in Madras (today’s Chennai), India to Edouard and Grace.

Edouard was born, studied and spent his early working life in England. Edouard trained in England to become a locomotive engineer. By the early 1890s, he was living in Madras, presumably working as an engineer on trains in that area.

I don’t know where Edouard met Grace. Like Edouard, she was born in England, but the two were married in Madras in 1892. In 1895, Edward Stewart was born to them in Madras; Ted was their only child.

Saskatchewan

When he was about 7, Ted and his parents moved to England. I assume that the reason for moving from India was Grace’s declining mental health. In 1902, Grace was admitted to the mental hospital in Wells, England. Grace died in that institution in October 1931. [1]

When Ted was about 15 (ca1910), he moved with his Dad to Canada. They settled in the vicinity of Biggar, Saskatchewan where Edouard took up a new occupation, that of a farmer.

In October 1917, Ted married Margaret Huggins (of New York State). Together they had two daughters, Rita and Norma. There is evidence that the couple didn’t live in Saskatchewan for all of their married lives. Rita and Norma were both born in Nepanee, Ontario.

The marriage was not to be long-lasting. In 1923, records show that Margaret moved back to the States, together with their two kids. In 1927, she married Theodore Hamilton in the U.S.

Vancouver

About 1929, Ted moved to Vancouver and he was resident at 530 Hornby Street (Hornby Mansions). A year later, he married Phyllis Irene Arnold (on the certificate of marriage to Phyllis, Ted wasn’t entirely honest; he indicated that he had been a “bachelor” prior). Phyllis had been born in England and was working as a maid at the time of her wedding. Ted and Phyllis moved several times over the early years of their marriage, ultimately settling for most of their marriage at 1320 East 11th Avenue.

According to the 1931 BC Directory, Ted’s occupation at the time was “painter”, presumably a commercial painter. But in the final years of his life, he described his occupation as “musician”.

Ted’s ‘Voice’

What instrument did Ted play? Did he perform solo, or was he part of a band? These and other questions will be addressed at the conclusion of this post.

Before we get to those, however, I want to share a letter written by Ted Lefebure to his Dad in 1933. The letter comes from the collection of Tom Carter. He found it in an antique shop several years ago and recently invited me to take a crack at figuring out who the writer was and what was the context of the letter. It offers interesting insights into Depression Vancouver of the mid-1930s and into the lives of the Lefebures.

1320 – 11 Ave. East
Vancouver, B.C.

March 10th, 1933

Dear Father,

I thought I would write a few lines to find out how you are and to let you know we are all well here yet [“all” refers to Ted’s family, I assume: Phyllis, two boys — Phillip and Dennis — and two girls]. We have had quite a hard winter for Vancouver. Had quite a bit of snow and frost, but the weather is improving now and I guess spring will soon be here. I do not suppose you have had any word from Mackinnen’s about the money yet. I have not heard from them for two months now. Well, I’m not fooling around waiting on them any longer. I have turned all my papers and correspondence over to a law firm here to attend to . . . . [He continues on for a couple of pages discussing this apparent family inheritance. Grace died in England in 1930, so it’s my suspicion that this is in reference to Ted’s Mom’s estate].

I am still doing quite a lot of playing, and am busy most every evening somewhere, although the pay is pretty small sometimes. Have great hopes of things being better in the musical line soon. Am getting pretty well known with the professional musicians in the city. Being well known here is half the battle. We are still playing over the air on station C.K.M.O.

The unemployment situation is very serious in Vancouver now. There is rioting almost every week. I have been down amongst them at different times and I think it is disgusting the way the police ride up and down the sidewalks with their horses and trample on people and knock them down with weighted clubs. My sympathy’s with the unemployed people. All they are asking for is a square deal from the rotten government, and they get their heads busted open. Is it any wonder that people are turning red? I’ll soon be a good Bolshevik myself

Well, I guess I had better close for this time. We are still living in hopes of being able to come down and see you sometime in the summer. Hoping you are keeping well. [Edouard would pass away in Edmonton in October 1935; I don’t understand ESL’s reference to his Dad’s location as being “down” relative to Vancouver].

Love from us all,

Ted

Tom Carter’s collection. (Note: I have edited this letter very lightly; mainly editing out Ted’s run-on sentences. Remarks in square brackets are mine).

Nanaimo Daily News. 5 July 1940.

According to the Sun, Ted played the violin. He might have played solo gigs, but I haven’t been able to find any evidence of that. He played with a band, and he was the leader:

Though not a Stadivarius, as violins go, it was a good one.

It once belonged to Ted Lefebure, the “Doc” in Doc’s Old Timers band that played in ballrooms around town in the 1940s.

Doc brought the instrument with him from the prairies in the 1920s. Doc’s son Phil, of Langley, says his dad died in 1946 and his mother, Phyllis, sold the violin to band member, Jack Alexander about 10 years later. [Phyllis died in 1965].

Vancouver Sun. 16 Nov 1993.

“Doc’s Vancouver Old-Timers Band” seems to have been the name of Ted’s band that was most often used. But on at least one occasion (on a gig in Nanaimo), they were known as the “Merry Makers”.

I tried to find photographs which might have included ESL (e.g., CKMO radio orchestras) in various local online archives. But no dice.

There remains for me, one final question: Why “Doc”?

I suspect that the “Doc” sobriquet was to make his surname less of an issue for people to recall. Most local band/orchestra leaders were known by their last names — e.g., Fowler’s Orchestra — and Lefebure doesn’t exactly roll off the Anglo tongue. So I’m guessing that the monosyllabic “Doc” was considered easier for Vancouverites to say and to remember.

Ted died in Vancouver at the young age of 51 in 1946.

Re N2.2 – Unemployed men at Victory Square being dispersed by police. July 1932.

Note

1. I am indebted to Robert of Westendvancouver.worpress.com for his assistance with some details in this post. He found evidence of Grace’s institutionalization in the Wells mental hospital, as well as other facts.

When the ‘King of Swing’ was Here

CVA 2014-089.0604 – Les Guildermeester (I have no idea who LG is or was), Benny Goodman and Hugh Pickett at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. April 1976.

Benny Goodman (1909-1986) was my musical hero during my high school years. No, those years were not for me the 1930s or 1940s. They were the late 1970s!

Yes, I was and am, perhaps, a bit odd. I was turned on to the musical stylings of the King of Swing some forty years after he made those sounds popular; when he was about a decade from death. But thanks to the magic of LP records, I was able to hear him and his trios, quartets, and other sub-band groups as freshly as when they made those recordings.

Well, I can hear you saying, what has this to do with Vancouver as it was?

I’ve just learned, thanks to the Hugh Pickett fonds at CVA, that Benny and his then-Sextet played Vancouver at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in April 1976, just shy of his 67th birthday. His sextet on this tour that included Vancouver consisted of:

• Benny Goodman (clarinet)
• Peter Appleyard (vibraphone)
• Tom Fay (piano)
• Eddie Duran (guitar)
• Connie Kay (drums)
• Mike Moore (bass)

• Warren Vache (trumpet)
• Buddy Tate (tenor sax)

Vache and Tate were added as soloists and weren’t, technically, members of the Goodman group. This version of the Goodman Sextet had been on a tour of North American locations: Boston, Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver. Seattle and Portland were next (and last) on the tour schedule.

Province. 10 April 1976.

There is another element that makes the Goodman Sextet worthy of mention in VAIW. According to the Sun, Goodman was the first registered guest to stay in the new Four Seasons Hotel at Georgia and Howe (Sun, 23 April 1976). Apparently, Goodman was arriving in the city the day before the hotel was due to open and that made him “the hotel’s first guest”. Given that the hotel was due to close in January this year, this forgotten tidbit seems worth noting.

Peter Appleyard, the Brit who made Toronto his home, was the principal media spokesperson during the Sextet’s time in Vancouver. It was his voice, rather than Benny’s, that was in local news accounts of the Vancouver session. I think it was Goodman’s preference not to talk a lot with media types. He much preferred to play . . . and I still prefer to listen to the King swing it!

The album cover art adjacent was, as I recall, from one of my favourite Goodman recordings. It was made in 1967 and features such classics as “How ‘ya Gonna Keep ’em Down On The Farm” and “Autumn Leaves”.

This online version brought back some memories.

1948 Exterior Views of Vancouver’s Grand Old Lady

This is a pictorial post of crops based on some terrific images made of the Old Hotel Vancouver (1916) by Don Coltman in April 1948.

Judging from the titles given the original images, I take it that these were commissioned by T. Eaton Co. — the corporate caretaker of the property (as well as the adjacent York Hotel and International Cinema) until the giant downtown Eaton’s store occupied the space in 1972 (to be succeeded by Sears and then by Nordstrom’s).

There were at least two major major occupants of the Old HV in its final months: the Citizen’s Rehabilitation Council (which housed veterans of WWII) and the National Employment Service (aka the Unemployment Insurance Commission). There was a UIC “women’s entrance” on Howe and a “men’s entrance” on Granville Street (why two entries were considered necessary, I don’t know). The CRC entry seemed to be the former main entry to the Old HV on Georgia Street.

Crop of CVA 586-7067. The principal entrance to Old HV, looking west on Georgia Street. 1948. Don Coltman.

Crop of CVA 586-7046. Corner of Howe and Georgia of Old HV. 1948. Don Coltman.

Crop of CVA 586-7056. Men’s Entrance to Vancouver’s UIC office — on Granville. (Note tracks for streetcars on Granville). 1948. Don Coltman.

Crop of CVA 586-7010. This seems to have been made in the Old HV’s laundry lane, looking out toward the then-Court House (now the Art Gallery). 1948. Don Coltman.

Crop of CVA 586-7012. This is a view of the Georgia at Granville corner. The building across Granville is the Old Birk’s building. 1948. Don Coltman.

Crop of CVA 586-7028. A similar view to the one immediately above, but looking south on Granville with the Old HV to the right. 1948. Don Coltman.

Crop of CVA 586-7056. View of the Old HV to the right on Granville. The International Cinema is on the left. 1948. Don Coltman.

Crop of CVA 586-7035. Women’s UIC entrance on Howe. 1948. Don Coltman.

Crop of CVA 586-7043. A gent looking out the window of reception area of the York Hotel (by this time, owned by the same people as owned the Old HV — Eaton’s). 1948. Don Coltman.

Crop of CVA 586-7037. A UIC clerk? through window on Howe side of Old HV. 1948. Don Coltman.

Crop of CVA 586-7034. Gents visible through windows on Howe side. 1948. Don Coltman.

Crop of CVA 586-7068. Looking east on Georgia through the main entry to Old HV. 1948. Don Coltman.

Crop of CVA 586-7063. A gent looking (wistfully?) out of a window on the Georgia side of Old HV. 1948. Don Coltman.

Nine months after the original images were taken on which the above crops were based, the end of January 1949, the wreckers came on site and proceeded to demolish the Old HV.

William Fowler: Early Orchestra Leader in an Innocent Age

Crop of Mil P183 – William Fowler’s Orchestra at the 1st Annual Ball of F. Company 6th Regiment, D.C.O.R. at Lester Hall (1205 Granville). Note: The orchestra is in the orchestra gallery at the back of the hall. I’m not sure which of the men is Fowler. Vancouver, B.C. Dec 15 1911. Bullen & Lamb photo.

William Fowler (1875-1936) was the leader of Fowler’s Orchestra from ca1902 to ca1915. He was the eldest son of James Fowler and Jane Youngson. His sole sibling was his younger brother, Peter. The Fowlers came to Vancouver from England in 1891.

The first gig of Fowler’s Orchestra seems to have been the grand opening in 1902 of the Colonial Hotel. The Colonial Hotel still stands today, however these days it is known by a different name: the Yale Hotel (1300 Granville).

In 1907, at age 32, Fowler married Ellen Elizabeth Horsfield (age 21) in Vancouver. Like William, Ellen (1885-1952) had been born in England (although she was a much more recent arrival; she came in 1904). William and Ellen would have one child, Jane.

Fowler’s Orchestra played many Masonic [1] events. I assume this was partly because Masonic lodges were in such abundance and had a substantial membership at the time; also partly because Fowler was a Mason. But I should point out that Fowler didn’t seem to discriminate against other groups. For example, he took on jobs for Roman Catholic groups (e.g. the Knights of Columbus ball, and the opening of St. Augustine’s Roman Catholic Church hall in 1911 in Kitsilano).

Among the many news accounts of the events at which Fowler’s orchestra played, I’ve chosen the one shown below. It is a good example of period language and of the mood and priorities that seemed to prevail in the city prior to WWI.

The second ball of the series given by the Girls’ auxiliary [this seems to have been a group which was fundraising for VGH] in Lester hall last night proved a most delightful affair. The gaily decorated hall presented an almost fairylike scene. The walls and galleries were almost entirely hidden from view by a profusion of delicate paper flowers and blossoms, while from the gold and red draperies festooned from corner to corner overhead, large imitation roses were suspended by fine wire giving them the appearance of having fallen and being caught in mid-air. The hall was comfortably filled for dancing, about 250 guests being present, while the music played by Fowler’s orchestra was excellent. Amongst those present were . . .[a list of what appears to have been most of the ladies present, along with a description of what each was wearing! For example:] . . . Mrs. C. S. Douglas, gowned with white net over satin . . . Mrs. S. S. Taylor, vieux rose satin with handsome steel bugle trimming . . . . [etc.]

The Province. 5 February 1910.

Other groups that Fowler’s orchestra played for included the Sons of Ireland, the Lancashire Old Boys (which typically met in O’Brien’s Hall on Hastings near Homer), Sons of St. George, Sons of England, the Cooks and Waiters of Vancouver (a trade union group), the Jolly Club (!), Musicians Mutual Protective Union (of which Fowler was a life member), and the British Isles Public Schools Association (which seems to have been composed of ‘old boys’ who had attended ‘public schools’ in Britain — what we’d call ‘private schools’ in North America; their wives were welcome at dancing events).

The admission charge (presumably to cover the cost of the orchestra and catering of ‘dainty’ sandwiches) for dances of the sort that Fowler’s Orchestra played during this period tended to be less than $1 per person. There were different rates for different genders: typically at Fowler events it was 50 cents for gents and 25 cents for ladies. I’m not sure why the gender differentiation. Perhaps it was due to there being more guys than gals in the city and the organizers wanting to encourage attendance by ladies so that there would be enough dancing partners to go around.

World. 17 December 1915.

One of the final events that Fowler’s Orchestra played was for the Vancouver General Hospital’s New Year’s reception in 1915. VGH had officially opened in 1906, but the first nurses’ residence wasn’t opened until 1915. Fowler et al set up in the dining room of the nurses’ buildings.

At the end of 1915, it was announced that William Fowler would take on the managerial reigns of the Ross Music Store (334 West Hastings). He didn’t seem to keep this job very long, however; perhaps a single year. After that, it seems, he retired. Despite being a popular early orchestra leader in the city Fowler, it seems, was not well known — at least not by members of the Fourth Estate. In his 1936 obituary, the writer seemed to be at such a loss at what to write about the band leader that he devoted a whole paragraph of the four-paragraph obituary to pointing out that William was the son of James Fowler, who had superintended construction of several CPR Empress steamships.

Little did the citizens of Vancouver then realize that the relatively carefree days that preceded the 1914-18 war would not return. It was inconceivable that the war would claim some 60,000 Canadian lives and that many more would suffer mental and physical disabilities as a consequence.

By 1918 and beyond, the party was definitely over.

---

Notes

[1] Some of the Masonic groups were known by names that are still recognizable, such as the International Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF), and some that are not, such as the “Sons of Hermann” and “Lodge Merrie England”!

Earle Hill: From ‘Dainty’ to ‘Cave Man’ Music

CVA 99-4556 – Earle C. Hill and Hotel Vancouver orchestra in Spanish Grill Sept 20 1933 Stuart Thomson.

Earle Hill (1887-1955) was a noteworthy orchestra leader in Vancouver in the late 19-teens and the ’30s and ’40s.

Earle Channell Hill was born in 1887 to William and Vella in Vanvert, Ohio. He played the violin. He had his first performance opportunity when he was in high school in Ohio, by playing Brahms in a hotel lobby with a string trio he’d assembled. He later played for vaudeville theatre in various Ohio locations and also joined the Cleveland Philharmonic Orchestra.

Earle Hill. Cropped image taken from the cover of sheet music for “Sittin’ Around”. Tom Carter collection.

Shortly after that, a friend of Hill’s who’d left Ohio for Canada, wrote to him, suggesting that he come up to Winnipeg where he could probably find performance work. He took his friend’s suggestion, and he went to Winnipeg in about 1912 where he worked at various small music jobs, but then he heard of an opportunity at the Canadian National Railway’s (CNR’s) Hotel Macdonald (1915- ) in Edmonton. Together with his brother-in-law, Calvin Winter (organ) and Frank Emde (cello) they formed the Macdonald Trio and played the hotel for about three years (1915-18). The three also offered studio classes in violin, cello, and piano as well as “orchestral classes” at the Majestic Theatre building on Jasper Ave. in Edmonton.

In late 1918, Hill was offered the job of leader of the Hotel Vancouver orchestra (succeeding Oscar P. Ziegler — the first VSO conductor — who had recently died). Hill’s music stylings were described in the local press as being “tasteful and dainty.” Hill was even vice-president of Vancouver’s Clef Club — an organization which had as one of its aims to eliminate jazz music (World, 5 June 1920).

He stayed at the Hotel Vancouver for just a couple of years; by July 1920, he was orchestra leader at the Barron Hotel (SE corner, Granville at Nelson). A typical programme at the Barron included selections from Grieg, Verdi, and Beethoven. Pretty longhaired stuff.

1921 saw Hill making a departure, both physically and musically. He returned to Winnipeg where he was employed to succeed E. Joseph Shadwick as the conductor of the “Famous Capitol (Theatre) Symphony Orchestra”, where his group would play for the silent films of the day. By about 1925, the name of the group was changed, at Hill’s suggestion, to the “Famous Capitolians”. The new name had such cache that the management group in charge of Western Canadian Capitol Theatres (Famous Players) changed the names of all of the Western Capitol orchestras to match that of the Winnipeg theatre.

Hill led his Famous Capitolians in Winnipeg until May 1931 when he agreed to lead an orchestral group in the CPR’s Royal Alexandra Hotel in Winnipeg. He was at the Royal Alex for just a matter of months.

In autumn of 1931, Hill accepted a return call to Vancouver. His first job was with the Strand Theatre Orchestra. In 1932, he would lead the Orpheum Theatre Concert Orchestra. And in 1933, he would return to the Hotel Vancouver — this time playing the Spanish Grill (see featured photo above), where his group would provide dance music on Wednesday and Saturday nights (from 9.30 p.m. to 1 a.m.; “No cover charge, $1.50 supper included”!) He seems to have been attached to the Hotel Vancouver until ca1935.

Hill took a 3-year sabbatical from Vancouver starting in about 1936. (1) This period seemed to mark a fundamental change in the kind of music on offer from Hill’s orchestras. He accepted a position as the leader of the band attached to Winnipeg’s branch of the Cave Supper Clubs. It would be known as “Earle Hill and the Cave Men”, and it would not be known for its dainty renderings of Greig!

When he returned to Lotusland at the end of 1938, it was to take on the job as the band leader of Vancouver’s Cave Supper Club (626 Hornby). The Vancouver Cave advertised itself as being “Vancouver’s Newest and Most Novel Cabaret. Gay informal dancing and floor shows of distinction. Dance to Earle Hill’s scintillating rhythm.” With his Vancouver Cave position, he left the ‘dainty music’ of his earlier professional life behind for good.

Hill played the Cave from 1938-44 and then, abruptly, stopped performing. In 1945, he took a job as a department manager at Kelly Piano. That was followed by various other posts with music shops in the city.

In a profile on his life written a few years before his death, he attempted to explain why he quit leading bands in the mid-’40s: “If I put my head in a lion’s mouth and I get an idea that it is thinking of closing its mouth, I take my head out, to make it easier for him. But I still get the urge to put it back again.” (Sun, 9 January 1951)

He resisted the urge, however, and died of heart failure in 1955 at the age of 67.

Earle Hill and His Cave Men at the Winnipeg establishment of the Cave Supper Club. 1937. Source.

Notes

(1) Hill’s first wife, Leona, died in 1934 at the age of 38. He married his second wife, Marion, in 1942.

Former U.S. President Tours Vancouver…in About 30 Minutes

CVA 99-1276 – Former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt (left, lifting hat) with Mayor L.D. Taylor (right, hat in hand) walking west on Cordova Street, outside CPR Depot. (Note: The boy who is right up against the coattails of TR reminds me of the newsboys in this image featured in an earlier VAIW post). July 18, 1915. Stuart Thomson photo.

When former U.S. President, Theodore Roosevelt, came to Vancouver on July 18, 1915, he was in town for about half an hour. The Roosevelt party, according to press accounts, consisted of three people: Colonel Teddy Roosevelt, Mrs. Roosevelt (Edith Kermit Roosevelt), and Teddy’s secretary, W. J. McGrath (a Dalhousie University graduate). The group was on the way to Seattle where they would attend the Panama-Pacific Exposition. They had come via Banff, where they spent two days. The Vancouver stop was truly a ‘whistle-stop’; his train had arrived in the city from Banff at 9.25 a.m. and he had to be on his Seattle-bound ship at 10.00.

Although Teddy was in Vancouver scarcely half an hour, he managed to fit into that time an impressive schedule of hat-raising, glad-handing, speech-making, autograph-signing, and motorcading! One could be forgiven for thinking he planned to run for office north of the 49th parallel!

The image above, made by Stuart Thomson, in my judgement is a brilliant piece of camera work. It deserves to be more widely acknowledged as such. The boy approaching Roosevelt and Taylor (from the right foreground) is dressed in a suit which appears to be a match for that worn by TR (how, by the way, were these guys able to tolerate three-piece suits in mid-July — even if they were summer weight?). The boy’s hat is a bit different from TR’s, but it is a junior sized version of an adult hat, not like the soft caps worn by other boys in the image. The boy seems to be captured in the process of raising his hat just as TR is raising his own head gear! And the look of bemusement on TR’s face caught by the camera is classic, brilliant Thomson timing. It would be challenge enough to get this scene right today, much more in 1915. Bravo!

The quote which follows is taken from the Revelstoke Daily News. It is a more succinct recounting of Vancouver happenings than anything that appeared in Vancouver papers regarding TR’s time here (local accounts included far more info — of a picayune sort — than a present-day blog reader would wish to slog through. Trust me).

VANCOUVER, BC, JULY 18 — Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt was welcomed here this morning by about 3,000 citizens. Wearing a summer suit and a big panama hat, the big Bull Moose stepped off the train jauntily when he was greeted with rounds of cheers. He was met at the depot by a large committee of prominent businessmen as well as Mayor Taylor (1) and members of the city council. For a few minutes he was busy handing out autographs and in reply to Col. Worsnop’s (2) greeting said:

“I am proud at the showing that Canada has made in the way of helping Great Britain. Will you see that my regrets are expressed to the soldiers in the city that I could not stay and see them and express my appreciation of Britain’s noble work in the great war [Ahem, umm Teddy, I think you mean Canada’s noble work].”

Passing to the automobile that was in wait for him and which whisked him round the city at 40 miles an hour for 20 minutes — for he had only 25 minutes to stay [some accounts say 35 minutes] — he met a number of Highlanders, whom he saluted….

“Men of this country,” he said, “at the front have fought and died honorably. It is lamentable that they should die but the blood of martyrs is the seed of the church and I say that no national fabric can be built until it is cemented by the blood of those willing to make the sacrifice of their lives for an ideal. Every man will walk with head higher with pride when thinking of the manner in which the Canadian sons have responded to the great call,” a statement which was received with cheers….

Revelstoke Daily News, July 19, 1915 (By Daily News Leased Wire from Vancouver, BC) – Emphasis mine.

This raises a couple of questions in my mind.

First, what was the nature of the 40 mph, 20-minute whiz around Vancouver? Where did Roosevelt’s motorcade go? Well, it seems pretty clear that it didn’t get anywhere near the 100 block of West Hastings, as is implied by information accompanying the final photo below from CVA. A paragraph in the Vancouver Daily World maintains that the motorcade went only to Stanley Park:

A few moments later Colonel Roosevelt was in Alderman Kirk’s car in which, accompanied by Mrs. Roosevelt and the mayor, he took a trip around Stanley Park.

Vancouver Daily World, 19 July 1915

Secondly, why on earth did Roosevelt engage in his loquacious (and to my 21st century mind, insensitive) remarks pertaining to Canada’s contribution to the ongoing Great War? I’m referring to his comment about how “the blood of martyrs is the seed of the church.” (Note: This is a misappropriated quote from early church father, Tertullian. . . a pacifist! This was spotted by my friend, Tim. Thanks, Tim.) Almost as shocking as the fact that he said this is the response of the crowd. . . they cheered?!

This, indeed, was a different time.

Crop of CVA 99-1277 – Teddy Roosevelt speaking to crowd, evidently outside of the CPR Depot. July 18, 1915. Stuart Thomson photo.

CVA 99-1278 – Teddy Roosevelt standing in back seat of car, speaking to crowd in front of CPR Depot. July 18, 1915. Stuart Thomson photo. Classic auto expert, Peter Findlay, has identified the car shown above (with its distinctive windscreen design) as being a 1914 Cadillac. The steering wheel is also distinctive — known as a ‘fat man’ variety.

CVA 1477-652 – “Part of motorcade during Theodore Roosevelt’s visit to Vancouver. August 1914.” This description is the one given by CVA. I don’t think this is accurate for a number of reasons: (1) according to VDW, the 20-minute motorcade of TR went through Stanley Park; (2) early automobile expert, Peter Findlay, in reply to a query from me, maintains that the vehicles shown in this image look more like 1910 than 1915 models; (3) early fashions experts puts the clothing worn by the people in this image at closer to 1910 than 1915. (The autos in this photo are proceeding in a westerly direction down the 100 bock of West Hastings — they are just passing the Ormidale and Fleck Blocks.)

Notes

(1) Members of the committee included the following (according to The Province):

Mr. Jonathan Rogers, president of the Vancouver Board of Trade; Mr. George E. Graham; Mr. W. A. Blair, secretary of the Vancouver Board of Trade; Mr. Justice Morrison; Col, C. A. Worsnop; Sir Charles Hibbert Tupper; Mr. F. W. Peters, General Superintendent of the C.P.R.; Mr. I. N. Miller, Jr., president of the American Club; Mr. C. E. Tisdall, M.L.A.; Mr. A. H. B. Macgowan, M.L.A., Mr. H. H. Watson, M.L.A.; Mr. H. H. Morris, president of the Vancouver Bankers’ Association; Mr. J. M. Bowell, collector of customs; Dr. F. F. Wesbrook, president of the University of British Columbia; Mr. F. Carter-Cotton, chancellor of the University of British Columbia.

The Province, 19 July 1915

Mayor L. D. Taylor was not included among the wealthy/influential types who composed the Roosevelt welcome committee. So LDT, ever crafty, met TR’s train at Mission, and rode with TR into the City, thereby beating the committee at their own ‘welcome’ game!

(2) Colonel Worsnop had written to TR inviting him to meet with him and his Vancouver Seaforth Highlanders and deliver a speech. TR, however, sent a reply expressing his regret that his brief time in the city would not allow it.

Avon Theatrical Productions: A Checklist

Crop of CVA’s LGN 999 – Night scene showing ‘old’ Pantages on 100 block East Hastings — what would become, in 1952, the Avon Theatre. 191- BCER.

The Avon Theatre was originally known as the Pantages, from its opening with that name as a vaudeville house in 1908 (on south side of East Hastings between Columbia and Main). It was identified less formally as the ‘old Pantages’ with the opening in 1917 of a ‘new’ Pantages (on south side of West Hastings between Carrall and Abbott; demolished 1967). With the opening of the ‘new’ Pantages, the ‘old’ theatre was known variously as the Royal, the State, the Queen, and the State again.

CVA. Avon business card given to Major Matthews.

In 1952, a repertory group under the leadership of Sydney Risk (1908-1985), Everyman Repertory Co., leased the former State Theatre building from landlord Jack Aceman (1910-1989) and it was re-named the Avon Theatre. Risk‘s company, prior to moving into the Avon, was located at 2237 Main Street (Main at 7th). Everyman put on a total of 13 productions until Risk and his group parted company with the Avon in April 1953.

Jack Aceman and Charles Nelson produced 12 plays from June 1953 until they packed it in at the end of 1955. After that, the theatre was no longer known as the Avon. It was, initially, the Fairview Branch 178 Canadian Legion Social Club, which leased the space from Aceman Investments to stand bingo events. In 1956, the Canadian Chinese American Theatres Ltd. took over the old Avon to present mainly Chinese language films.

The Pantages/Queen/State/Avon Theatre was demolished in 2011.

What appears below is a checklist showing the theatrical productions staged by Risk and by Aceman & Nelson. Only shows put on by these appear below.* In most instances, I have shown the name of the play and the playwright(s), the opening date, the director’s name, the headliners (stars); and supporting cast (probably incomplete, in some cases). In the few instances when I’ve had access to a play’s programme, I’ve been able to add staffing information, as well.

(1) “MacBeth” (William Shakespeare): September 29, 1952

• Director: Sydney Risk
• Headliners: Dean Goodman (1920-2006), Dorothy Davies (1920-2002)
• Supporting cast: Juan Root
• MacBeth marked the beginning of the 7th season of Everyman Theatre since it was formed in 1946. Prior to this production, Everyman had been playing at 7th and Main Street

“MacBeth” – Avon Theatre, 1952. Tom Carter Collection.**

(2) “The Importance of Being Earnest” (Oscar Wilde): October 13, 1952

• Director/Producer: Sydney Risk
• Headliners: Richard Litt, Alma Thery, Ronald Siddons
• Supporting cast: James Onley, Ted Babcock, Joanne Walker, Gwen Arntzen, Myra Benson, William Hernon

(3) “The Late Christopher Bean” (Sidney Howard): October 20 1952

• Director: Dean Goodman; Producers: Sydney Risk, Dean Goodman
• Headliners: Zasu Pitts, William Buckingham, Doris Buckingham
• Supporting cast: Juan Root, Georgia Nelson, Jim Onley, Wendy Martin, George Murphy, Stan Jones

(4) Double bill: “Down in the Valley”, a folk opera (Kurt Weill and Arnold Sundgaard); and “A Phoenix Too Frequent”, a 1-act play (Christopher Fry) : November 3, 1952

• Director: Sydney Risk
• Headliners: Dorothy Davies, Ed McCurdy,
• Supporting cast: Natalie Minunzie, Andrew Snider, James Johnston, Jessie Richardson, John Emerson, Lee Butcher, Tom Wright, Len Haymen
• Laurence Wilson (conductor of CBC Orchestra) conducted a 15-member pit orchestra for DITV. A Vancouver News-Herald article pointed out that some of the Avon’s best seats would be sacrificed for the inclusion of the pit orchestra in DITV

(5) “The Play’s the Thing” (Ferenc Molnar): November 17, 1952

• Director: Dean Goodman; Co-Producers: Sydney Risk, Dean Goodman
• Headliners: Dean Goodman, Doris Sheridan
• Supporting cast: Ted Babcock, Stan Jones, Ron MacDonald, Norman Newton, and Juan Root.

(6) “Murder Without Crime” (Lee Thompson): November 26, 1952

• Director: Sydney Risk
• Headliner: Dean Goodman
• Supporting cast: Ron MacDonald, Angela Wood, Rae Brown

(7) “Androcles and the Lion” (George Bernard Shaw): December 10, 1952

• Director: John Thorne
• Headliners: James Onley, Georgia Nelson
• Supporting cast: George Murphy, James Peters, Glyn Jones, Myrna Benson, Russ Crossland, Len Lauk, Andy Snider, Renee Gordon

(8) “Little Women” (Louisa May Alcott): December 26, 1952

• Headliner: Doris Buckingham
• Supporting cast: Wendy Cox, Arthur Keenan, Angela Wood, Earl Baerg, Ted Babcock, Andrew Snider, Renee Gordon Eleanor Nicholls

(9) “Tobacco Road” (Erskine Caldwell): January 7, 1953

• Director: Dorothy Davies.
• Cast include: Babs Hitchman, Doug Haskins, Louise DeVick, Ross Mortimer, Ted Babcock, Tamara Dlugo, Douglas Hellier, Jean Robb, James Peters, Russ Crossland, Andrew Snider and George Barnes.
• TR was described as “adult entertainment”; no matinee performances.
• There were two special matinee productions of “Rumpelstiltskin” on January 10 and 17 (and probably also on the 24th due to the postponement of Tobacco Road because of the associated public relations fracas).

Program cover from Avon Theatre re-staging of Tobacco Road, 1953. Tom Carter Collection.

(10) “Hamlet” (William Shakespeare): January 28, 1953

• Director: Dean Goodman.
• Headliners: Dean Goodman, Mary Matthews
• Supporting cast: George Murphy, James Onley, Dodd Dalsgaard, Ron MacDonald, William Lawson (among a total of 20)

(11) “Light Up the Sky” (Ross Hart): February 11, 1953

• Director: Sydney Risk
• Headliner: Dorothy Davies
• Supporting cast: Babs Hitchman, Andrew Snider, Bruno Gerussi, Cathy Graham, Frank Lambrett-Smith, Ted Babcock, George Barnes, Don McManus,  Angela Wood, George Barnes, David Jones, Derek Ralston, Bob Haskins, and Jean Robb

(12) “The Hasty Heart” (John Patrick): March 4, 1953

• Director: Dorothy Davies.
• Headliners: Bruno Gerussi, Vivien Brooke-Harte
• Supporting cast: John Haddy, Harry Mossfield, Doug Haskins, Len Gibson, Alec Denbigh, Guy Palmer

(13) “The Passing the Third Floor Back” (Jerome K. Jerome): March 25, 1953

• Director: Dorothy Davies.
• Headliner: Bill Buckingham.
• Supporting cast: Jessie Richardson, Frank Crowson, Janet Bragg, Alma Thery, Noel Barrie, Ted Babcock, Bruno Gerussi, Jack Ammon, Dorothy Fowler, Vivien Brooke-Harte, Myra Benson

(14)  Re-opening of “Tobacco Road” (Erskine Caldwell): April 11, 1953

• Director: Dorothy Davies
• Cast: Ted Babcock, Doug Haskins, Georgia Nelson, Babs Hitchman, Eleanor Nicholls, Doug Hellier, John Leslie, Cathryn Graham, Jean Robb, George Barnes, Jack Ammon
• Company Manager: Bruno Gerussi; Stage Manager: Dave Jones; Stage Designer: Gary Ness

Program from Avon Theatre re-staging of Tobacco Road, 1953. Tom Carter Collection.

(15) “The Drunkard” — a musical comedy (Timothy Shay Arthur): June 13, 1953 

• This had earlier been playing at the Cave Supper Club with same cast: John Watson, Cora O’Day, Dorothy London,  Alice Hulet, Elmer Cleve, Maryline Cleve.
• ALSO on Avon’s Stage were to be 10 vaudeville acts that would include singing, dancing, musical and comedy routines

(16) “Of Mice and Men” (John Steinbeck): October 5, 1953.

• Director: James Johnston
• Headliner: Lon Chaney, Jr.
• Supporting cast: Bruno Gerussi, Lorraine McAllister, Juan Root, Bill Buckingham, Walter Marsh, Barry Cramer, Stan Jones, Jack Coalston, William Tunstall

(17) “Mr Roberts” (Thomas Heggen): November 30, 1953

• Director: Dorothy Davies
• Headliner: Craig Stevens
• Supporting cast: Bruno Gerussi, Stan Jones, Art Keenan, John MacDonald, Roma Hearn
• Set design: Gail McCance

“Mr. Roberts” – Avon Theatre, 1953. Tom Carter Collection.

(18) “You Can’t Take it With You” (George S. Kaufman, Moss Hart): January 4, 1954

• Director: Dorothy Davies.
• Headliner: Charles Coburn
• Supporting cast: Verlie Cooter, Art Keenan, Margot Conine, Eleanor Collins, Wally Marsh, Otto Lowy, Tom Shorthouse, Howard Fair, Eve Newitt, Les Wagar, Bob Woodward, Sam Allman, Nancy Graham, Alma Thery, Rosemary Deveson, Andy Snider, William Gordon, John Maunsell
• Stage Manager: Les Wagar; Lighting: Tommy Lea; Assistant Lighting: Andy Snider; Properties: Margot Conine; House Manager: Tom Buchanan; Sets: Sydney Risk

(19)  Jan 25 1954 “Moon is Blue” (Hugh Herbert): January 25, 1954

• Director: Dorothy Davies
• Headliner: Peggy Ann Garner
• Supporting cast: Juan Root, John MacDonald, Allan Roughton
• Sets: Andy Snider; Artist: Victor Miles; Lights: Tommy Lea; Props: Margot Conine; Stage Manager: Les Wagar

(20) “For Love or Money” (Hugh Herbert): February 15, 1954

• Director: Dorothy Davies
• Headliner: Victor Jory
• Supporting cast: Lillian Carlson, Doris Buckingham, Wally Marsh, Margot Conine, Les Wager, Bud Slater, Molly Bellamy.

(21) “Kiss and Tell” (Hugh Herbert): March 8, 1954

• Director: Dorothy Davies
• Headliner: Margaret O’Brien.
• Supporting cast: Lillian Carlson, Doris Buckingham, John MacDonald, Barry Cramer, Derek Ralston, Bruno Gerussi, Hilda Browne, Bobby Johnston, Bud Slater, Rosemary Deveson, Andy Snider, Art Keenan
• Stage Manager/Sets: Andy Snider; Lights: Tommy Lea; Sound: Bruno Gerussi; Costumes/Props: Margot Conine

(22) “Country Girl” ((Clifford Odets): April 2, 1954

• Director: Dorothy Davies
• Headliner: Teresa Wright
• Supporting cast: Bruno Gerussi, Derek Ralston, Wally Marsh, Barbara Desprez, Lee Butcher, Howard Fair, Al Factor, Bud Slater

(23) “Springtime for Henry” (Benn W. Levy): April 19, 1954

• Director: Dorothy Davies
• Headliner: Edward Everett Horton
• Supporting cast: Mary Matthews, Jack Ammon, Patricia Leith
• Stage manager/Sets: Andy Snider; Properties/Costumes: Margot Conine; Lighting: Tommy Lea; Set Decorator: VIctor Miles; Doorman: Tommy Buchanan.

(24) “Burlesque” (George M. Walters, Arthur Hopkins): May 19, 1954

• Director: Dorothy Davies
• Headliners: Jean Parker, Robert Lowery
• Supporting cast: Barney Potts, Lorraine McAllister, Wally Marsh, Margot Conine, Les Butcher, Barry Cramer, Bob Reed, Rosemary Deveson, Sam Rosen, Andy Snider, Kitt Copping, Jean Duguid, Joy Lowe, Madelain Matthews, Shirley McCowley
• Stage Manager/Sets: Andy Snider; Properties/Costumes: Margot Conine; Lighting: Tommy Lea; Sound/Prompter: Barry Cramer; House Manager: Tommy Buchanan

(25) “The Show Off” (George Kelly): June 4, 1954

• Director: Dorothy Davies
• Headliner: Joe E. Brown
• Supporting cast: Doris Buckingham, Wally Marsh, Barry Cramer, Rosemary Deveson, Art Keenan, Hilda Brown, Derek Ralston, Andy Snider

(26) “Time of the Cuckoo” (Arthur Laurent): November 12, 1954

• Director: Dorothy Davies, Ben Strobach
• Headliner: Miriam Hopkins
• Supporting cast: Lillian Carlson, Hilda Browne, Rosemary Deveson, Cyril Slater, Sam Payne, Kitty Dutcher, Art Keenan, Robert Johnston, Brian Warkman

(27) “All My Sons” (Arthur Miller): December 11, 1954

• Director: Sam Payne
• Headliners: Edward Arnold, Doris Buckingham
• Supporting cast: Janet Brigg, Mel Richards

***

Note

*For example, the plays of the B.C. theatrical festival, which was often held at the Avon in February, are not included. Also, “Rumpelstiltskin” — which was a kids-only play that played two or three matinees is not counted separately (although it is mentioned along with “Tobacco Road” above).

**Thanks to Tom Carter for the idea for this post conveyed at a recent coffee meeting and for offering the scans shown above (with the exception of the first and last photos, which came from CVA).

Crop of CVA 790-2339 – Sun Sing Theatre (Chinese language theatre, as the old pantages ended by ca 1984). The building was finally demolished in 2011. 1985?

Stauffer’s and Mitten’s Arctic Club

Arctic Club interior. Phone booths, coat check, staff and members, n.d. The man standing nearest to the camera appears to be Robert White (a bartender at the Arctic Club for several years who was a victim of murder in 1959); Ken Stauffer is the other man standing, farther from the camera. Tom Carter Collection.

The Arctic Club was one of several cocktail and supper clubs in Vancouver in the ’30s, 40s, and ’50s (including the Quadra, the World, and Jean Fuller’s). According to recollections of the Arctic Club at the Vancouver Jazz Forum, it was a “suit and tie” joint where you needed to display a purchased membership card and sign in before entering. It was located at 718 W. Pender (south side of Pender, between Granville and Howe). (1)

In October 1934, notice was given in the local press that the Arctic Club, Ltd. would be applying for a provincial liquor license. The Club was co-owned by Bob Mitten, Sr. (1881-1956) and Ken Stauffer (1910-1978); Stauffer and Mitten both came to Vancouver from Saskatchewan — Mitten in 1929 and Stauffer in 1932. By 1935, Mitten and Stauffer established the Arctic Club. I suspect that the two men met while working for the Liberal Party in Vancouver, as both were active in the party (Mitten Sr. would marry Euphemia Stauffer thereby becoming Ken’s brother-in-law). In his obituary, Mitten is described as an “active campaigner” for the party and Stauffer was the Vancouver party president for awhile (Sun, 6 Nov 1948).

Mitten Sr. retired as a Club owner in 1943 due to ill health and his son, Bob Mitten Jr., ultimately took over his Dad’s share of the business. In 1959, Stauffer and Mitten Jr. bought The Cave supper club (626 Hornby) together from Isy Walters, and ran both night spots for a few years. Bob Mitten, Jr. died while in Hawaii in 1971. Stauffer ultimately sold The Cave to auto dealer, Stan Grozina (1937-2014) in 1973. (2) Grozina was the last Cave owner; it was demolished in 1981.

The alley view of the post-fire Arctic Club and Leonard’s Cafe. 1961. This photo was downloaded some years ago (by Tom Carter) from the “Nostalgic and Sentimental Vancouver” group on Facebook. The photo was supplied at that site by Ken Stauffer’s daughter-in-law, Barbara? Stauffer.

In December 1961, fire destroyed the Arctic Club, which took up the top floor of two buildings (together with a Leonard’s Coffee outlet and the Arctic Barber Shop, which were at street level). In the Club, 40 jobs were lost. Stauffer speculated shortly after the blaze that the Arctic might be rebuilt, possibly on the same site. But that didn’t happen. (3)

A napkin from the Arctic Club. n.d. Tom Carter Collection.

Odds and Ends

• When the Arctic Club first opened, it had a reputation as a gambling joint with a major poker game. The Arctic Club’s gaming associations seem to have been exclusively during the 1930s (Sun, 19 Mar 1947).

• Robert White, a bartender at the Arctic, was murdered in his West End apartment in 1959. A Romanian sailor was later extradited from Hawaii and charged with White’s murder. He was found guilty of the reduced charged of manslaughter; he served just a few months of his 3-year sentence in B.C. and then was deported to West Germany (Montreal Gazette, 17 Sept 1959). White appears to be included in the photo featured above, standing next to Ken Stauffer.

• Legendary local jazz pianist Chris Gage (1927-1964) was a fixture at the Arctic Club after his first night there in 1957. By 1959 he was being described in the local press as “the Arctic Club’s pianist”. I believe he continued in that capacity until the 1961 fire. The Arctic Club had a reputation for being supportive of all sorts of local music talent.

• Australian, Rolf Harris, had one of his first major gigs at the Arctic Club in 1961. And a “live” LP recording was made of “Rolf Harris at the Arctic Club” (possibly a year or two later). Following Stauffer’s passing, this quote was attributed to Harris: “Kenny’s death is a big loss. . . I owe virtually everything to him” (Victoria Times-Colonist, 11 Dec 1978).

____________________________________

Notes

(1) The Arctic Club on Pender Street was not the first club of that name; another club, the full name of which was the Arctic Brotherhood Club, was often referred to in abbreviated form as “the Arctic Club”. The Brotherhood met in the offices of senior members of the club, until taking rooms near the corner of Main and Broadway (World, 20 Jun 1908). One of the principal requirements of membership in Vancouver’s Arctic Club was that you had resided north of the 54th parallel for at least a year. Whether the Arctic Brotherhood Club had any substantive connection to the Arctic Club on Pender Street remains an open question. However, to me that appears doubtful.

(2) In 1963, Stauffer branched out beyond The Cave by purchasing the Cock ‘n Bull restaurant on West Broadway (today, adjacent to Jordan’s). He renamed the restaurant The Lulu Belle (a gay-nineties-themed family spot) and in 1975 changed the name to Clementine’s, transforming it into a discotheque for the younger set. When the Lulu Belle opened, Stauffer took at least two of his former Arctic Club staff with him: Bert Williams (manager) and Samuel Mee (food services) (Province, 16 Jan 1963).

Postcard advertising the Lulu Belle at 1424 West Broadway. Pat Trudell appears above on the piano. MDM Collection.

(3) In 1947, Mitten Sr. reportedly bought the the Arctic Club property for $50,000, however by the time of the ’61 fire, the Club property was owned by F. A. Menzies, who was also a part-owner of Leonard’s Cafe.

I’m indebted to Tom Carter for making much of his Arctic Club ephemera available for reproduction in this post.

Vending Before Food Trucks

Crop of CVA 800-0843. Food vendor on Granville Street, just south of Commodore Lanes. I am guessing this was taken sometime between 1975-85. Al Ingram photo.

CVA 1184-753 – Woman and small child at a street vendor’s popcorn cart. Probably taken in or near Stanley Park. 1943. Jack Lindsay.

Crop of CVA 7-152 – Street vendor’s bicycle (tricycle?) cart, vending lemon sodas and Almond’s ice cream. Dunsmuir Street, looking east towards the Drill Hall on Beatty Street. ca1914. J L Quiney.

Still showing a really goofy Expo ’86 Hot Dog Stand made from video produced by Yaletown Productions (CVA).

CVA 586-1339 – Appears to be a Stanley Park concession stand with girls participating in a Canadian Youth Hostel bike hike. I have deliberately not included most images of concession stands (excluding, primarily, PNE concessions), but this Stanley Park concession is just too iconic to leave out. 1943. Don Coltman.

CVA 99-4559 – Woman using pineapple juice vending machine at the Hudson’s Bay store. This photo isn’t, strictly speaking, of a traditional food vendor, but I couldn’t resist including it, as it represented a technology shift and it is simply such a cool image.1933. Stuart Thomson.

My all-time favourite food vending image. Woman with umbrella walking dogs past popcorn stand. Made along English Bay during the Sea Festival. July 20, 1967. English Bay. (230 of 245, CBC/Franz Lindner)