Next month McClure’s Cabs will be celebrating 100 years as a business in Vancouver, making it the oldest taxi company in the Lower Mainland. It was also the first taxi company to provide airport service in Vancouver. The theme of this week’s roundup of photos from the Vancouver Archives and the Vancouver Library collection is: […]

John and I are in Kansas City this week and when driving through KCMO, you get welcomed downtown by classic old billboards on rooftops and painted advertisements on the side of buildings. Photo credit: John Bollwitt on Flickr Vancouver used to have a lot of these until they slowly disappeared due to city bylaws. Now […]

While it’s not a brand most associate with our city specifically, yesterday Nabob coffee celebrated its 115th anniversary in Vancouver, where it originally began. 1924 – Water at Cordova (between Waterfront and Steamworks, today). VPL Accession Number: 10698. Photographer: Leonard Frank. 1932 – Water at Cordova. Archives item# Bu N436. Photographer: W.J. Moore. Founded in […]

Lumberman’s Arch is a popular meeting place and landmark on the North side of Stanley Park, West of Brockton Point. The single log propped up by two others is a monument to the major industry that built up our province and was installed by the Park Board and the BC Lumber Manufacturers Association almost 60 […]

Vancouver History: Queen Elizabeth Park – Sitting on top of Little Mountain in Vancouver, the land was originally owned by Canadian Pacific Railway…

July 5th, 1959 was the opening day of the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in downtown Vancouver and a few weeks later Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II personally gave it her name. The venue accommodates 2,781 patrons and over the years it has hosted some of the world’s greatest plays, musicals, operas, ballets and concerts. 1957, excavation […]

This morning the Vancouver Park Board said on Twitter that June 15th (the date of the Canucks game 7 match-up with the Boston Bruins) is also the 170th 103rd birthday anniversary of the death of Lord Stanley1. While we know Stanley for the park that was named in his honor, and his coveted cup, I […]

It’s no secret that hockey fever is alive and well in Vancouver… and it’s June. While it’s an unfamiliar feeling, it’s something this city’s been waiting for since Cyclone Taylor won the cup at the Denman Arena back in 1915. While browsing the Vancouver Archives’ blog, Authenticity, I noticed their latest post features hockey history […]

While on a photowalk through Stanley Park recently I grabbed a few shots of the site of the Cathedral trees. New evergreens reaching up to the sky from their oversized stumps just off the Cathedral trail, I realized that I haven’t yet shared the tale of the Seven Sisters. The group of majestic trees was […]

For the Vancouver Icons series I have been profiling buildings, statues, and landmarks that we see every day in Vancouver but are perhaps unaware of their history. The posts are photo-heavy, peppered with tidbits of information about the selected icon. When looking for ideas for this week’s subject I put the call out on Twitter […]