On this day in 1989 SFU opened a downtown campus in the old David Spencer’s Department Store building on West Hastings between Seymour and Richards. 1930’s – Spencer’s Department Store. Archives item# CVA 1495-32 Built in 1908 and restructured by 1925, the Spencer’s stores in BC were bought up by Eatons in 1948 and most […]

Having previously featured photographer Leonard Frank I wanted to profile the photography of another Vancouverite who helped document our city during a specific era. Scanning the Vancouver Archives, I found a collection from someone I’ve featured many times before in some of my history posts or “Then and Now” photo collections: Don Coltman. 1940 – […]

Vancouver Icons: Hotel Vancouver – Vintage Photos of the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver – The First, Second and Third Buildings

It’s been 15 years since News1130 hit the airways in Vancouver offering up all-news, all the time (with traffic and weather on the 1’s). They’ve survived some tumultuous times in the local radio economy and have branched out to social media – even hosting their first Tweetup a few months ago that welcomed about a […]

The Vancouver Archives will be hosting a panel discussion at the UBC Robson Square Lecture Theatre April 26th called “Legacies, Lessons, and the Future: Harland Bartholomew’s Master Plan and Papers on the City of Vancouver, 1926-1948”. 1928 – Vancouver Town Planning Commission, Harland Bartholomew and Associates. Archives Item# PD 3113 In 1926, Harland Bartholomew and […]

All year we will be celebrating Vancouver’s 125th Birthday through public events and celebrations. Since the city was incorporated on April 6, 1886 I thought it would be interesting to see what happened after City Council was formed and our little townsite of Granville became Vancouver. September 1886 – Mayor, Council, City officials. Archives Item#LGN […]

Over the last seven years I have published over 3,700 posts about our region, 229 of which have been specifically about Vancouver’s history and 22 so far for Vancouver125. As the City of Vancouver celebrates 125 years since incorporation today I’m almost at a loss for words so I figured a bit of a video […]

The China Creek Skate Park in East Vancouver is one of the city’s most popular. An interesting tale of community in itself, the skate park was built in 1979 (which makes it one of Canada’s oldest) and in 2006 the skateboarding community rallied to save the park as its future was threatened in a proposed […]

Vancouver’s 125th birthday celebration is coming up in just a few days however throughout the year dozens of community organizations are hosting their own series of events in honor of the city’s history so far. As a part of the Vancouver 125 series, the SFU Undergraduate Semester in Dialogue presents “Tales from Terminal City” April […]

The other day I visited the UBC Archives after messaging back and forth with archivist Erwin Wodarczak, who runs the @UBCArchives Twitter account. Being a big fan of local history, and having previously visited the Vancouver Archives, I was excited to discover artifacts from their vaults and see what kind of resources were available for […]