Vancouver Explodes

Vancouver was incorporated on April 6, 1886 so that is our official birthday. However, many people feel that June 13, 1886 was the day that Vancouver was truly born.

Sunday, June 13, 1886 was a peaceful sunny day. Art Sullivan and a friend were lazing in a half-decked pleasure sloop just off the Burrard Inlet shore near the Indian Mission Church, west of Moodyville. Art and his mother were proprietors of the prosperous Gold's Hotel on Water Street. The Vancouver boom had been good to them and many others.

Suddenly, a fierce, freakish western squall swooped down on English Bay and the Inlet.

On the south shore, clearing fires to the west town were inflamed. The small, controlled blazes burst into a thundering menace.

Sullivan swung the sloop across the wind to head to the city wharf at the foot of Carrall Street. With two reefs in the mainsail, the jib blown away and his shipmate bailing furiously, he couldn't make the long slant to the wharf. He ended up at Hastings Mill, half a mile past the newly built wharf. That trip took less than twenty minutes.

That was all the time it took for the blossoming city of Vancouver to wiped off the face of the earth.

First warning of the impending disaster was the dense cloud of smoke from the western clearing. Then came the shouts of men running from the clearing camps, which were quickly followed by the clanging of the bell at St. James' Church at Powell Street and Westminster Road. Father Clinton had seen the mass of smoke in the distance and guessed correctly as to what it was.

There was no way to fight this fire. In seconds, not minutes the fire swept across the tangle of felled trees and brush along the shore of the inlet. It torched its way through the dense timber still standing south of Hastings Street. The flames jumped ahead of and cut off the men from the clearing gangs as they rallied on the Regina Hotel in its cleared area west of Cambie Street.

There were four avenues of escape for those in town; the city wharf at Carrall, along the CPR embankment or the road to Hastings Mill, to False Creek at Pender and Carrall or out the Wesminster Road and across the bridge to the south shore of the creek.

On the south shore, Sam Brighouse and George Black were racing horses that morning. One of the spectators, Lewis Carter - owner of Carter House - tried to make his way back into the city. He got across the bridge when the flames forced him into False Creek.

Houses in Vancouver that day did not 'catch fire'. Paint or the pitch on new boards blistered and ran, walls and roofs shimmered with heat waves for a second or two then the whole exterior of the building was a single mass of flame.

One eyewitness said, "Vancouver did not burn - it exploded."

The above information was taken from the book Vancouver, From Milltown to Metropolis by Alan Morley.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Popping Up

I started telling you about how Vancouver started to grow in 1886, especially after the city was incorporated in April.

Naturally, the retail trade boomed as the town exploded! Flour was $6 a barrel, rice $2 a sack, corn meal four cents a pound, bacon 15 cents. Rib roasts 12 1/2 cents, leg of mutton 15 cents, cod was five cents, salmon 65 cents, smelts 50 cents a bucket.

Nails sold for $4.50 a keg, cross-cut saws, $1 a foot, sad-irons 10 cents each and grindstones four cents a pound.

Seth Tilly carried newspapers from San Francisco, Portland, Seattle and Toronto. He even stocked the London News and Graphic! Frank Leslie's Illustrated Paper, Harper's Magazine, Weekly and Bazaar and Gody's Lady Book could also be found at Seth's.

Captain J. K. Ritchie of the Tivoli Saloon introduced the 5-cent schooner of beer and a second lumber mill was being built.

On Water Street, there were 36 considerable buildings - residences, halls, saloons, hotels and stores between Carrall and Cambie. The new Regina Hotel was west of Cambie and that street could boast at having the town's largest structure. The three-storey Carter Hotel. Also on Cambie, the Edinboro Hotel, the Scots Greys and Stag and Pheasant saloons as well as a few stores. Only a few buildings were on Abbott Street at the time. Carrall Street was just behind Water with 29 businesses including the new post office and the Ferguson Block where the CPR and BC Express offices were. Cordova was a residential district.

Hotels and boarding houses were on Hastings Street and Powell was the party street with the Tivoli and Cisne saloons, Fooks Columbia Hall, McLennan and McFeely's tinware and plumbing shop as well as Oppenheimer's store.

At Water and Alexander Streets were Hugh Keefer's store and Andy Linton's boat-building business. Oppenheimer Street (East Cordova) was residential; Westminster Road (Main Street) was nicknamed "Blue Blood Alley" since that is where the upper society lived.

Buildings were popping up on Dupont Street (under the present Georgia Viaduct) and on Pender. These were the main concentrations. Completed and half-completed buildings were scattered all over town. Streets-to-be were rutted trails winding through the stumps. The Eagle and Bridge Hotels rose on the south shore of False Creek.

Thanks to the book Vancouver, From Milltown to Metropolis by Alan Morely for the above information.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Sore Losers

Ever since its beginnings, British Columbia had been tormented by the bitter feud going on between the official clique and its supporters - more British than the British - and the growing Canadian element. For two decades, the battlegrounds were New Westminster and Victoria. After all, Burrard Inlet was too insignificant to be bothered with. And in its first election, Vancouver made its choice - the city is Canadian.

When R.H. Alexander taunted the newcomers as being "North American Chinese" then tried to oppose them at the polls with the real Chinese, it was the last showdown between the old vendetta and new wave. As we know, the old guard was defeated.

The old timers didn't accept the defeat gracefully. They started a petition to have the election voided and unseat newly elected mayor, MacLean. There were threats of violence, which didn't amount to anything.

The new city council held its first meeting on May 10, 1886. In addition to the mayor, there were 10 aldemen: Joseph Griffiths, Robert Balfour, Thomas Dunn, Charles A. Coldwell, E.P. Hamilton, Joesph Northcott, L.A. Hamilton, Peter Cordiner, Harry Hemlow and Joseph Humphries. The meeting was held at 2:30 pm in Jonathan Miller's house.

The city archivist recreated the scene:

"Mrs. Miller cleared the dining-room table. Some laid their hats upon it, others got more chairs out of the three or four jail cells (the jail was behind the house), an oil lamp swung above, the tiny room was crowded, the audience, such as could, peered through the open door.

"The poll clerk, the late Gardner Johnson, swore in the mayor-elect, and then the mayor swore in the ten alderman. A bystander... went round the corner and came back with a pad of paper, a pen and a bottle of ink and wrote "City of Vancouver" across the top of the first sheet."

The main business of the meeting was appointment of officials. J. Huntley was appointed city clerk pro-term at $75 a month; John Boultbee was appointed the police magistrate with no salary; J.P. Lawson assessment clerk and city engineer at $75 a month.

"As for city treasurer," said MacLean "I do not see any particular hurry for this appointment, having no cash to deposit in his hands."

The first communication dealt with was an offer from Silsby Manufacturing Co. of a second-hand fire engine on reasonable terms.

Thanks to Alan Morley and his book Vancouver From Milltown to Metropolis for the above information.

I hope you find the beauty around you.