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Thurlow and Alberni Streets: then and now
Garden family at 752 Thurlow Street, ca1890s. Photo courtesy Anders Falk Anders Falk is a Vancouver realtor with deep roots in the city. His great, great grandparents William and Mary Henderson Garden...
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Michael Kluckner’s Toshiko: a graphic novel
If you are like me and have a couple of Michael Kluckner’s books at home, you might be surprised to learn that his latest effort is a graphic novel. In his latest book, Toshiko, Michael has replaced...
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The Green Island Lighthouse now has Heritage Status
Green Island is one of 21 lighthouses in B.C. recently granted heritage status. This story is from a chapter on lighthouses that never made it way into Sensational Victoria. “The winter wind whistles...
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The unsolved murder of North Vancouver’s Jennie Eldon Conroy
Look for the full story of Jennie Eldon Conroy is in my book Cold Case Vancouver: the city’s most baffling unsolved murders out this October. Daien holding the mystery album. Eve Lazarus photo A couple...
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The Garden Family and the Lester Court Connection
William and Jack Garden before they left for Canada in the late 1880s. Photo courtesy Anders Falk I wrote about the Garden family a couple of weeks back. William and Mary Garden arrived in Vancouver in...
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Our Missing Hotel Heritage: What were we thinking? (part eight)
The much lamented—and never should have come down–second Hotel Vancouver should have the number one spot on any much missed heritage building list, but I’d argue that the Devonshire should be a close...
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From Newspapers to Exotic Escorts: Repurposing old buildings
426 Homer Street CVA 99-4879 1936 It’s hard to imagine today, but from the 1930s until the mid 1950s there were three daily newspapers—the Vancouver Sun, the Province and the Vancouver News-Herald...
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Skwachays Lodge, Cultural Tourism and Vancouver’s “Gentrifying DTES”
I’m not a huge fan of facadism—the practice of keeping the front of the building and tearing everything else down behind it—but in the case of Skwachays Lodge, it made sense. Skwachays (pronounced...
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Vancouver’s top five heritage inns
Occasionally it’s nice to celebrate heritage buildings that have survived the bulldozers and are being used in interesting ways. One of my favourites is the quirky Corkscrew Inn. 2735 West 2nd Avenue....
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West End Guest House: one of the last ones standing
Wandering down Haro Street in Vancouver’s West End, it’s a welcome surprise to come across the West End Guest House, a gorgeous Edwardian nestled in a sea of ugly, non-descript apartment buildings....
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Heritage Streeters with Michael Kluckner, Jess Quan, Lani Russwurm and Lisa...
Continuing on with a series I started earlier this year, I’ve asked a few friends to tell me their favourite Vancouver building and the one they miss the most. Michael Kluckner Michael is the...
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Hidden Pasts, Digital Futures: Vancouver Circa1948
Last Saturday I time-travelled to Hogan’s Alley and landed smack in 1948. Geographically, I wasn’t really that far away. I was standing inside a large box in Vancouver’s Woodward’s building using my...
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COLD CASE VANCOUVER: THE CITY’S MOST BAFFLING UNSOLVED MURDERS
A few days after Cold Case Vancouver was finished and sent off for editing; I received an email from Daien Ide at the North Vancouver Museum and Archives. Daien had come into the possession of a family...
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Phyllis James Munday (1894-1990)
October is women’s history month, and sometimes this gets lost in all the fun around Halloween. So before the month gets much further ahead, I wanted to give a nod to one of British Columbia’s...
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The Grain Elevators, a Fire and a Ghost Story:
And because it’s Halloween week: Forty years ago this October two explosions at the Grain Elevators rocked North Vancouver. Four men later died in hospital from severe burns, while one man was trapped...
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Murder in James Bay
The following story is an excerpt from Sensational Victoria: “Murders in the Capital.” A few years after the Bests’ bought their James Bay home, a young woman knocked on the door and asked if she could...
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Fred Hollingsworth’s Sky Bungalow
Sky Bungalow in the Bay’s parking lot on Seymour 1949 If you read my blog regularly, you know that I’m a huge fan of West Coast Modern, and especially of Fred Hollingsworth, an amazing North Vancouver...
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Vancouver Vanishes with Caroline Adderson
I’m thrilled to be one of several contributors to Vancouver Vanishes: Narratives of Demolition and Revival. There is a book launch at 7:00 p.m. on Monday night (November 23) at the Book Warehouse on...
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Muriel Lindsay – Murder in Mole Hill
Find the full story of Muriel Lindsay in Cold Case Vancouver: the city’s most baffling unsolved murders. Several people have asked me why out of the hundreds of unsolved murders in Greater Vancouver, I...
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Angus McIntyre’s Vancouver
Last week I had the pleasure of having tea with Angus McIntyre and a chat about his 40-year career as a Vancouver bus driver, his love of street lighting, urban history and transportation systems. East...
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