The first tourist bus service began running in Stanley Park in 1908 but it wasn’t until the 1920s that a public bus service “challenged the supremacy of the electric streetcar”1 in Vancouver. 1940s: Grandview Hwy & the Bus Stop Coffee Shop. Archives# CVA 1184-3267. Photographer: Jack Lindsay. On March 19th, 1923 under BC Electric Railway’s […]

Anna Ethel Sprott (1879-1961) has a legacy in Vancouver that most might associate with a radio jingle: “Sprott-Shaw Community College, since 1903!”. However, Anna Ethel Sprott did more than marry the school‘s founder, R.J. Sprott, in 1918 and take on the role of president after his passing in 1943. She was a solid member of […]

Empire Stadium Ski Jump

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 […]

This Sunday Santa Clause will arrive to welcome the holiday season to downtown Vancouver and to help collect donations for the Greater Vancouver Food Bank. I browsed the Vancouver Public Library and City of Vancouver Archives to see if I could spot Santa around town throughout the years. As it turns out, he used to […]