A new month has arrived with rain, winds, and Halloween preparations. In Vancouver history, October has had some defining moments, some of which have been captured and preserved in the Vancouver Public Library and City of Vancouver Archives, while others live on through the words of Chuck Davis’ History of Metropolitan Vancouver. Here’s a quick […]

There are characters that can define a community and in the 1970s, it was “Ace” Aasen — the self-proclaimed Mayor of Gastown. Although the area on the eastern edge of Vancouver’s downtown is named after another character, John “Gassy Jack” Deighton, this historic quarter seems to have always attracted interesting personalities. “Ace” Aasen, “Mayor of […]

Historically, the month of September has had its share of milestones and events in Vancouver. Everything from the disastrous “Great Fire” in New Westminster to the opening of Rogers Arena in 1995, the formation of The Vancouver Board of Trade in 1887, and the dedication of the steam-clock in Gastown on September 24, 1977. Today’s […]

A great bit hat tip to the Vancouver is Awesome team for spotting (and promoting) Vancouver Rising, a new Tumblr blog that takes footage from the Vancouver Archives‘ video collection and creates fantastic animated GIFs. Here are just a few of the gems they have posted so far: 1973: Granville at Robson – “Vancouver Impressions“. […]

On this day in history (September 2nd, 1927) Jonathan Rogers sold his namesake “Rogers Building” at the corner of Pender and Granville for $1 million to General F. A. ‘One Arm’ Sutton. At the time, it was the biggest real estate transaction in the city’s history. [source] Rogers was among Vancouver’s earliest pioneers and in […]