As we make our way through Vancouver’s 125th anniversary year, many have been looking back to see how our city has grown. Thanks to the efforts of Vancouver’s first Archivist, Major Matthews, and photographers who took to documenting the ‘early years’ we can view glimpses of what Vancouver was like in its formative years. One […]

Fred Herzog’s Vancouver

Most parks in Vancouver are named after former Parks Board members or royalty – but not Emery Barnes Park in Yaletown. The grass, stone walkways, water features and new playground on Davie is named after a man born in New Orleans in 1929 who made his way to Canada, into BC Provincial Legislature and is […]

The Ceperley Meadow at Second Beach in Stanley Park is home to festivals, bike rides, power walks, and outdoor movie nights. It’s also where you can find the site of Vancouver’s first children’s playground after Grace Ceperley (who loved children) willed an endowment for that purpose in the late 1920s. Photo credit: steveleenow on Flickr […]

There are names you see around town yet rarely place them or their historical significance. From Abbott to Tatlow or Shaughnessy, Malkin is right up there. W.H. Malkin was a a major food wholesaler (Malkin’s Wholesale Grocers was at 57 Water Street) who became the Mayor of Vancouver 1929-1932. He slipped into the Mayor’s office […]

I was browsing my favourite Vancouver History site the other day and came across a mention that Robert Burnaby has more landmarks named after him than any other BC pioneer. With so many streets, parks, and monuments dedicated to those who helped shape our region I decided to look a bit further into Burnaby’s past […]

It’s been a few years now since I discovered the work of Pauline Johnson and I’ve been enchanted by her writing ever-since. Pauline Johnson (1861-1913) was the child of a Mohawk chief and an Englishwoman and as a writer and poet, she traveled across North America and England giving readings of her work and performing […]

As we were taking a stroll down Dunsmuir Street in Cumberland this weekend, Keira was filling me in on all of the regional history. I realized that even though I’ve profiled the origins of street names in Vancouver, I have never mentioned Dunsmuir and the family’s impact around the province. Aside from the street traversing […]

Samuel Brighouse was one of the earliest settlers on Burrard Inlet (he was one of the Three Greenhorns) and in later years also had a farm on Lulu Island in Richmond.

Vancouver History: The Three Greenhorns John Morton, Sam Brighouse and William Hailstone