The Vancouver Sun celebrated 100 years this past weekend, marking the occasion with tweets, articles, blog posts, a video collage, photo galleries, and the following editorial: The first words to appear in the editorial columns of The Vancouver Sun, the space the newspaper reserves for its own expression of opinion upon public events, disclosed that […]

I recently took my first trip to the North Vancouver Museum‘s Presentation House to find out more about their programs, archives, and current exhibits. The Presentation House is one of two locations for the museum, located on West 4th at Chesterfield, while the archives are over in Lynn Valley. The old schoolhouse building, and former […]

The Bailey brothers, Charles S. and William, setup shop in Vancouver at the end of the 19th century. Charles was the first to arrive from Ontario and form a photography company partnership, Neelands & Bailey, which lasted about a year. In 1890 William joined his brother in Vancouver and Bailey Bros Photography was born. 1886 […]

Already recognized in Canada and the United States, the City of Vancouver has also officially declared February as Black History Month. Last year I touched on Vancouver’s Black history by doing up a small profile on East Vancouver’s Hogan’s Alley, but there is a much greater story to be told and celebrated. Governor Douglas ca. […]

It was on this day, January 23, 1939 that the two lions on the South end of the Lions Gate Bridge were installed. The two regal figures were created by

Chances are you’ve passed by quite a few of Charles Marega’s pieces around Vancouver, perhaps several times daily. The Italian-born sculptor moved to Vancouver in 1909 and taught art in town for 30 years. He was commissioned to create some of the city’s most popular public art pieces including the following: Oppenheimer MonumentArchives Item# Mon […]

It was January 5, 1912 when the first professional hockey game was played in Vancouver at the Denman Arena1. The impressive venue (one of the world’s largest) was built in 1911 thanks to the hard work (and family lumber money) of brothers Frank and Lester Patrick. Source: The Story of the Vancouver Millionaires. Photographer: Unknown. […]

Thanks to Bob from Vancouver is Awesome, I discovered a new blog to add to my link list. It’s Changing Vancouver and it features “then and now” images of our city. As Bob kindly noted in his post, I’ve had my own Vancouver History: Then and Now series, I’ve helped the North Vancouver Museum promote […]

Browsing through the Vancouver Archives this morning I searched for photographed under the category “celebrations”. It was in that pile of digital photographs that I found a photos of Sister Frances of Strathcona receiving a “Good Citizenship Medal” from the City of Vancouver. 1929 – Archives item# CVA 99-1874. Photographer: Stuart Thomson Sister Frances Redmond […]

The City of Vancouver’s boundaries as we know them (Burrard Inlet, Boundary Road, the Fraser River, and Pacific Spirit Park) were not always part of Vancouver. Throughout its 125-year history, Vancouver has expanded and amalgamated several times. When it was incorporated on April 6, 1886, it was made up of what we would now call […]