Burrard View Park
Last week we checked out the Trans Canada Trail in North Burnaby and stumbled over what was once Crabtown. This week we walked west to Burrard View Park in Hastings Sunrise and found some more buried...
View ArticleThat House on Yale Street
We were trekking around Burrard View Park last week and came across this interesting looking house on Yale at North Kamloops Street. Turns out the house was built in 1931 at a cost of $8,000—a lot of...
View Article10 ways to research your home (or someone else’s)
Writer, librarian and podcaster Megan Cole sent me an email this week asking for some tips on researching the house where she used to live at 2856 West 5th in Kitsilano. It was such a great question,...
View ArticleThe Harwood Street House
Donna recently sent me this photo of a house on Harwood Street in the West End. She said: “I came across this picture in some old family photos. I live in Calgary and as far as I know, there is no...
View ArticleThe Vancouver Aquariums
According to its website, the Vancouver Aquarium was “Canada’s first public aquarium” when it opened on June 15, 1956 in its current location in Stanley Park. Well, no that’s not true, it’s actually...
View ArticleThe murders of Constables Gisbourne and Carr at the Canford Indian Reserve
When I was writing Blood, Sweat, and Fear: The Story of Inspector Vance, I experienced the researcher’s equivalent of winning the lottery, when I found seven boxes of files that were thought to have...
View ArticleThe Second English Bay Pier
Most people are surprised to learn that from 1907 to 1939 there was a pier at English Bay, but it was only recently that I found out that English Bay actually had two piers. Local historian and...
View ArticleBurnaby’s Top Secret Submarine Yard
Took the dog for a walk at the Barnet Marine Park in Burnaby last week and found a whole bunch of fascinating history. There are remnants of a once thriving village built around a saw-mill, and most...
View ArticleThe Manor House on Howe Street
As 14-storey office blocks go, there’s really nothing wrong with the Standard Life Insurance building at the southwest corner of Howe and Dunsmuir Streets. It’s got a bit of a mid-century vibe about...
View ArticleUnfinished Business: The Photography of Svend-Erik Eriksen
I’ve never met Svend-Erik Eriksen but we’ve been Facebook friends for a few years now and I really enjoy his photos. Last week I called him up and asked how he got started. Erik, is an animator by...
View ArticleThe Art of George Norris
Last week I had the pleasure of writing about Svend-Erik Eriksen and showcasing some of his fabulous photos of early Vancouver. I’ve been running a different photo on my Facebook page each day this...
View ArticleEpisode 01: The Murder of Jennie Eldon Conroy
In 2015, I was almost finished Cold Case Vancouver when research archivist Daien Ide sent me an email from the NVMA. Daien had just acquired an album with photos that went up to the early 1940s. The...
View ArticleRichard Berrow’s Law/History Quiz:
My friend Richard Berrow designed this quiz for his colleagues in the legal profession, and kindly sent me a copy. I thought that my friends and colleagues in the local history community would also...
View ArticleWho Killed Roddy Moore?
On the morning of Friday October 17, 1947, seven-year-old Roddy Moore waved goodbye to his mother and left for his grade one class at Begbie Annex school in Vancouver’s Renfrew area. It usually took...
View ArticleWoodward’s: Store #1
When I first came to Canada in the mid-1980s the Woodward’s Food Floor saved my life. It was literally the only place in Vancouver that sold jars of vegemite. And I certainly wasn’t the only one. Lots...
View ArticleHow To Catch A Killer: The Vivien Morzuch Story
In 2014, I was at a talk at the Vancouver Police Museum given by former homicide detective Steve McCartney. Steve was a homicide detective assigned to the Provincial Unsolved Homicide Unit which was...
View ArticleMissing Heritage: Firehall #2
I’ve been having a lot of fun putting together my new book Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History over the last year or so. It’s given me the excuse to zero in on different streets...
View ArticleEpisode 04: Missing or Murdered? The Mysterious Disappearance of Nick and...
I worked for the Vancouver Stock Exchange in the late 1980s—the same time that Forbes Magazine published a cover story calling it the “Scam Capital of the World.” While I never met Nick Masee, the...
View ArticleFrank Gowen’s Vancouver
Chris Stiles kindly sent me this fabulous panoramic photo that she and husband Alan found when they were going through some personal effects of Alan’s father recently. “My husband’s dad, Roy Stiles...
View Article