It was on this day in 1893 that the Hudson’s Bay Company opened a store at the corner of Georgia and Granville streets. 118 years later, the company is still in the same location (albeit in a different building). It’s been a shopping destination, a meeting place, and a gleaming beacon of Canadian pride during […]

On this day in history, September 21, 1980, the Stanley Park seawall loop was officially completed. To avoid erosion around Stanley Park, work began on the first part of the seawall in 1917 thanks to the vision of W.S. Rawlings and James Cunningham’s initiatives with the Vancouver Park Board. Over the next several decades it […]

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 […]