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Swastikas and the Traveller’s Hotel
I was over on Vancouver Island this week doing some biking and stopped in at Ladysmith. It’s the first time I’ve been there and it was great to walk down a main drag that still has many of its heritage...
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Let’s Do The Scramble
There’s a Facebook post going around about “pedestrian scrambles”—intersections where every car stops and pedestrians cross in all directions. It’s a simple concept that saves you from being turned...
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Our Missing Heritage – Vancouver Police HQ
After I stumbled over a photo of the former Vancouver Police Headquarters on East Cordova Street, I asked my friend Tom Carter if he knew why it had been destroyed. Was it to make way for the...
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The Point Ellice Bridge Disaster – May 26, 1896
On May 26, 1896, 143 people crammed onto Streetcar No. 16 to cross the Point Ellice Bridge. It was Queen Victoria’s birthday and they were on their way to attend the celebrations at Macaulay Point...
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How the Museum of Exotic World became Main Street’s Neptoon Records
I had the pleasure of visiting Neptoon Records on Main Street for the first time last week. The place was packed with browsers, most of them young. The second thing I noticed was the sheer number of...
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Selwyn Pullan Photography: What’s Lost
I finally got a chance to drop by the West Vancouver Museum yesterday to check out the latest exhibition on the photography of Selwyn Pullan. Assistant curator Kiriko Watanabe has done an amazing job,...
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West Coast Modern Architecture
There is a chapter in Sensational Vancouver called West Coast Modern which explains the connections between artists and architects and the West Coast Modern movement in Vancouver. Last week I wrote...
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Kits Point and the Summer of ‘23
By Michael Kluckner Michael Kluckner is a writer and artist with a list of books that includes Vanishing Vancouver and Toshiko. His most recent book is a graphic biography called Julia. He is the...
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Our Missing Heritage: Vancouver’s First Hospital
Last week, Michael Kluckner and I were over at Tom Carter’s studio looking out his seventh storey window onto the EasyPark—a cavernous concrete lot that fronts West Pender and takes up the entire city...
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The History Store
Chris Wright wants to start a cultural movement around history. A former location scout for the film industry and a treasure hunter with a metal detector, he is the owner of The History Store in Mount...
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Rhona Duncan (1959-1976)
Rhona Duncan died years before I moved to North Vancouver, but whenever I drive up Larson and cross Bewicke I think of her. And, 42 years later, her murder still haunts my friends and neighbours who...
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Captain Pybus and Vancouver’s St. Clair Hotel
A little while ago I was having lunch with Tom Carter and Maurice Guibord at the newly renovated Railway Club. Afterwards, we were walking along Richards Street and Tom gave us a tour of the St. Clair...
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The Royal Crown Soap Company
Occasionally, when I’m searching for photos using the baffling search engine at Vancouver Archives, I stumble across an interesting building or streetscape that I’ve never seen before. Often the...
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The Art of Frits Jacobsen
By Jason Vanderhill I first heard about Frits Jacobsen, and saw his beautiful drawings in a post by Jason Vanderhill on his Illustrated Vancouver blog. Jason kindly allowed me to repost it here. Frits...
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The BC Mills House Museum, a Mystery, a Captain and a Troll
The BC Mills House Museum at Lynn Headwaters plays a cameo role in Rachel Greenaway’s brilliant new mystery Creep where the action all takes place in upper Lynn Valley. While the little house has sat...
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10 things you won’t see at the PNE this year
The PNE opens today at Hastings Park, and at 108, must be one of Vancouver’s oldest institutions. Not surprising it’s also changed a lot over the years. Some things will be missed and others not so...
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The 1981 PNE Prize Home
Ralph Bower photo, Vancouver Sun, 1981. In 1981, British Columbia was in the throes of a recession, house prices were plummeting, and first-time buyers were looking at interest rates of over 20%....
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Jimi Hendrix Plays the Pacific Coliseum—September 7, 1968
This is an excerpt from Sensational Vancouver. On September 7, it will be 50 years since Jimi Hendrix played the Pacific Coliseum. Four years after the Beatles and 11 years after Elvis Presley played...
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YVR: Fifty Years Ago
On September 10, 1968 the Vancouver International Airport opened a spanking new terminal building to handle all domestic, US and international flights. It was one of the few airports where aircraft...
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Art, History and a Mission
In 2016, the Vancouver Historical Society was contacted by the Port of Vancouver and asked what we’d like to do with a three metre-high sculpture made from BC granite that had been sitting on their...
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