Walking around Stanley Park nowadays there are hardly any remnants of the zoo that once housed over 50 species of animals, from monkeys and cobras to penguins and kangaroos. However, the old cement polar bear habitat still haunts the grounds just west of Brockton Oval and south of the Vancouver Aquarium. When I was young […]

Legendary elusive billionaire Howard Hughes once holed up in Vancouver’s Bayshore hotel (now Westin Bayshore) for six straight months. It’s been 40 years since his stay and Heritage Vancouver is hosting an anniversary tour to commemorate the unusual event. 1961 – Bayshore Inn, Coal Harbour. Archives item# 2010-006.046. What Howard Hughes at the Bayshore: 40th […]

If you live in Vancouver, chances are that you’ve passed a building designed by architect Francis Rattenbury. From Victoria and Nanaimo to Revelstoke and Jasper, several of Rattenbury’s houses, commercial buildings, and CPR-commissioned hotels still stand today. Photo credit: 1892: Roedde House This is arguably the first structure that Rattenbury built in Canada. It was […]

Both Heritage Vancouver and the Vancouver Heritage Foundation host fascinating walking, neighbourhood, and housing tours around Vancouver. One upcoming event that caught my eye, aside from tomorrow night’s dinner in the Marine Building penthouse, is a walking tour with twist. Photo credit: davefisher99 on Flickr – Submitted to the Miss604 Flickr Pool. Walking Tour & […]

Walking past the box office of the Spanish Revival style building, I opened the doors to the Patricia Theatre and was greeted with the haunting aroma of buttered popcorn. A poster board propped up in the entranceway spelled out the future of the historic Powell River theatre rather bluntly: Digital or Dark? The Patricia is […]

It was on March 10th 1870 the settlement know locally as Gastown was given its official name: Granville Townsite. Lord Granville was the Colonial Secretary at the time and the Granville Townsite was selected as the terminus for the Canadian Pacific Railway. It wasn’t until 1886 that the townsite was renamed, when it incorporated, as […]

This morning it was announced that Sears was closing its downtown Vancouver location, along with others in Calgary and Ottawa, by October 31st [News1130]. While rumours are flying about what will move into the Pacific Centre Sears spot, which they took over from Eaton’s back in 1999, my immediately reaction was that now we can […]

Painted on the sides of brick buildings that lined Hastings and other downtown thoroughfares that have existed for the better part of the last century, there was obviously a time when Vancouver’s ghost signs were just signs. Thanks to the Vancouver Archives, here’s a quick look at these painted adverts in their heyday. 1917 – […]

In honor of International Women’s Day in March, the Stanley Park Nature House will feature an exhibit about E. Pauline Johnson – Canadian poet and stage performer. I have profiled Pauline a few times before, even making a few pilgrimages to her modest monument between Ferguson Point and Third Beach in Stanley Park. Pauline, whose […]

On Wednesday I captured the progress of the demolition of two buildings at Robson and Granville which revealed a “ghost sign” on the side of the Charlie’s Music building. Immediately Jason Vanderhill and Robert White pointed out on Twitter that this was indeed a ghost sign – the shadow of an old painted advertisement. With […]