The Sinking of The Greenhill Park is one of my favourite tracks off The Matinee’s latest album We Swore We’d See the Sunrise. It’s a beautiful and haunting song with a very real — and very tragic — event behind its name. An event that took place 69 years ago (tomorrow) in Vancouver’s harbour. March […]

The Academy Awards (Oscars) are taking place on Sunday, March 2, 2014 and when I was browsing the City of Vancouver Archives recently, I found the iconic statuette in a most unusual place: perched outside a building on Burrard and Georgia. Zoomed in. May 1955: Photograph by Walter E. Frost. Archives# CVA 447-330 Oscar’s Steakhouse […]

Over the last few of years I have featured themed collections of photos from the City of Vancouver Archives on my site. However, this month I thought I would change things up a bit and issue a challenge to my readers and local photographers. The challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to create […]

The PNE Forum building at Hastings Park holds its share of history, from hockey and lacrosse, to war-time injustices, roller derby and Nirvana. 1931: Archives# CVA 99-4015. Photographer: Stuart Thomson. Vancouver Exhibition Forum This 45,000 gross square foot building was constructed on the Vancouver Exhibition grounds in 1931. 1931: Construction of the Forum. Archives# CVA […]

One hundred years ago, our fair city was 28 years old and already survived a Great Fire, erected the tallest building in the British Empire, built a courthouse that stands today as the city’s art gallery, had a thriving interurban transit system and a population well over 100,000 (a fifth of what it is today). […]