December in Vancouver History

December in Vancouver means holiday shopping at the market, ice skating at Robson Square, light displays and city views from the ski hills. Here’s a quick glimpse of this festive month throughout the last century thanks to Chuck Davis’ History of Metropolitan Vancouver:

1936: City Hall prior to opening. Leonard Frank Photos. Archives# City P19.1

December 1, 1936: Vancouver’s new city hall opened for business.

December 3, 1929: The Commodore Cabaret opened on Granville Street.

December 3, 1949: A photograph appeared in the Province showing the site for something called a “shopping centre” on the north shore. It would be called Park Royal. It was Canada’s first shopping centre.

December 4, 1972: Minimum wage for adults in British Columbia was set at $2 an hour, the highest in Canada.

December 6, 1969: The Bloedel Floral Conservatory opened at Queen Elizabeth Park.

December 9, 1962: Elected on this day, Bill Rathie was the first Vancouver mayor to have been born in the city.

December 9, 1985: The third iteration of the Cambie Bridge, that we use today, opened.

December 16, 1931: Elizabeth “Betsy” Flaherty, a buyer for Spencer’s department store, got her flying license. She was about 53, making her the oldest female pilot in Canada.

December 17, 1903: BCER pushed a button and this began to flow of electricity into Vancouver. The then Trout Lake Power Station (after 1905 Lake Buntzen) started and produced the first hydro electric power in the Lower Mainland. Two days later, on December 19th, the City of Vancouver was first lit by water power. The Province newspaper of the day printed an article titled “Steam discarded in favour of Water Power”. Prior to 1903, the electricity used to power the streetcars, interurbans, lighting, as well as power industry in the area came from a thermal electric plant located at Prior and what is now Main Streets in Vancouver. This plant was aided by a small steam plant in Burnaby near the present Newell Substation.

December 20, 1911: Denman Arena opened at Georgia and Denman, welcoming professional hockey to Vancouver. With a capacity of 10,000 it was the world’s largest artificial ice rink.

December 24, 1951: Named “most beautiful woman in the world,” Yvonne De Carlo visited Vancouver (her home town).

December 28, 1968: Chuck Davis had a note that the thermometer dipped today to -.2 F, “the only sub-zero temperature ever recorded in Vancouver.

Sources: Vancouver History.
Related Posts: January 1st in Vancouver History, February in Vancouver History, March in Vancouver History, July in Vancouver History, August in Vancouver History, September, October in Vancouver History, November in Vancouver History, December in Vancouver History.