Toy Takes Over

In 1904, the Sam Kee Company had a building at 433 Carrall Street - probably the 1903 commission by W T Whiteway. Soon after it appears that a third story was added. Development in this area in the early 1900s was extra ordinary as can seen by the history of this building. By 1911, it had been sold and the new offices and BC Electric Depot were being built there.

The company held 10 lots in Chinatown but also had land in Gastown, at the corner of Pender and Richards Streets as well as Burrard and Hastings Streets. They built residential hotels or apartments on those lots then turned them over to white hotel operators or non-Chinese management. Chang Toy owned five hotels and built two others on leased land. The company had greater land holdings outside Chinatown than they did within that community.

In 1910, the Sam Kee Company moved to 111 East Pender. This building was built in 1903 by Victoria merchant Chu Lai and designed by W T Whiteway. This building was later the home of the Green  Door Restaurant. By 1920, the company was located at 147 Keefer Street. This building has an interesting pedigree. The building permit was issued to Kennerley Bryan for Sam Kee in 1911 but the plans were attributed to Fred Townley for the Wing Kee Rice Mills (probably a Sam Kee company) existing from 1912. Maybe the final version was a revised version of Bryan's version?

The Sam Kee Company employed W F Gardiner in 1910. Gardiner was to design a $55,000 addition to an existing building on Powell Street. That would have been the City Hotel, on Powell Street, at the other end of the block as the Europe Hotel.  In 1911, the Oriental Hotel on Water Street was ordered demolished by City Health inspectors, despite Chang Toy's protest. That same year, Chang Toy built another hotel on Main Street. This one was designed by Perry and Nicholais. 

The Oriental Hotel, 1889. City of Vancouver Archives.

Looking south. From left to right - Methodist Chinese Mission, 445 Carrall St., Sam Kee & Co., 433 Carroll St.. Sun Sun Fine Tailoring, 429 Carrall St. Express horse - wagon.  Vancouver Public Library.

The Gim Lee Yuen store at 32 Dupont Street and other businesses including the Sam Kee building in the background at 433 Carrall Street. Dupont Street became Pender. City of Vancouver archives.

Chang Toy's private life was as productive as his professional one. In accordance with the Chinese custom of the time, he had five wives and several children by at least two of them. He never really learned to speak English and dressed in traditional Chinese death until his death in 1920.

Toy was willing to take risks, like many other Chinese businessmen of the time. Starting in 1893, he held a 25% stake in a gambling syndicate called Hop Lee Word Flowers, a word guessing lottery. The Sam Kee Company also imported opium if they had a customer who needed it. (Opium was legal in BC until 1908.) He operated the Sing Ping Theatre on Columbia Street - though the address was Keefer - which he had designed by architect W H Chow. Chang also invested in the troop that played there between 1915 and 1918. It doesn't appear that this was a money-making proposition though.

Thanks goes to the Building Vancouver blog for the information above. Friday, I will show you the mark Chang Toy left on the city.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Beautiful B.C.

Beautiful British Columbia. Not to sound like the tourism board but this is a gorgeous section of the world. However did we get that name though?

In a way, this segment of Canada was named after a river. If you think back to your school days, you may remember an Italian explorer, Christoforo Colombo.

In 1792, Bostonian Captain Robert Gray named his ship the Columbia. He also gave the same name to a river he was exploring. A river that had been named Rio de San Roque in 1775 by the Spaniards.

Sir Francis Drake had once called the area that stretched from California to Oregon and through B.C. "New Albion", but it didn't catch on.

Around 1793, Captain Vancouver decided to honour his king and gave the names of New Georgia to northern Washington/southern B.C. and New Hanover to the northern B.C. coast. That also did not catch on.

The Hudson's Bay Company named the northern part of this province, New Caledonia. Simon Fraser chose this name around 1808 because the area reminded him of his mother's descriptions of her homeland, the native Scottish highlands. The southern part of B.C. was known as Columbia.

When the border was created at the 49th parallel in 1846, the northern part became known as British Columbia. New Caledonia was rejected due to the fact that there are French islands in the South Pacific using the same name and it might have become confusing.

So, this province was named after a river that was named after an explorer. Just be happy it wasn't a Spaniard who had named their ship after Colombo or this could have been British Colonic! Makes me think of a cleansing procedure.

Thank you Tom Snyders and Jennifer O'Rourke for the book Namely Vancouver from which I obtained the above information.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill, Vancouver, new Caledonia, history, Christoforo Colombo, Captain Vancouver British Columbia,The Hudson's Bay Company,Namely Vancouver

Happy Birthday Canada!

In honor of Canada Day - July 1 - I want to show you some gorgeous photos of artwork around the city while giving you some facts on my special country.

these are more photos of that mural that I found in an alley downtown.

Canada was established as a self-governing country on July 1, 1867 which means as of today we are 144 years old. However there were places called Canada in the confederation before this. The name apparently comes from the Aboriginal word Canata meaning village.

Canada consists of ten provinces and three territories. We are the world's second largest country by total area and our common border with the United States to the south and northwest is the longest in the world. We have the Atlantic Ocean at our east coast; the Pacific Ocean on the west coast and the Arctic Ocean in the north.

But I am the Vancouver Vagabond - I am a Westerner and more interested in the history of my part of Canada. After all the best is in the west and the finest is grown in BC. LOL


British Columbia is known for its natural beauty and our Latin motto is Splendor sine occasu which means 'Splendor without Diminishment'. Our name was chosen by Queen Victoria when she visited in 1858.

British Columbia joined the Canadian Federation on July 20, 1871 becoming Canada's sixth province.

Before the arrival of the Europeans, BC was home to many Aboriginal people and over thirty languages including Babine, Beaver, Carrier, Tsilhqot'in, Gitksan, Haida, Halkomelem, Kaska, Kutenai, St'at'imcets, Nisga'a, Nuu-chah-nulth, Nuxalk, Sekani, Secwepemc, Sinixt, Skwxwu7mesh, Tagish, Tahltan, Nlaka'pamux, Tlingit, Tsetsaut, and Tsimshian.

British Columbia has always had an abundance of natural resources such as salmon and cedar. Because the people of our province were not having to continuously scrounge around for food, they were able to spend their time on such pursuits as art, politics and warfare.

In 2009 the population of this province was estimated at 4,419,974 and over two and half million of those folks live in the Greater Vancouver area.

Although our climate is suited for outdoor recreation and we love to have tourists  visit, our economy is largely resource based. Our economic mainstay has long been resource extraction, namely logging and mining.

Now this is an interesting fact: even though BC is agriculturally rich - especially in the Fraser and Okanagan Valleys - less than 5% of the province's land is arable. In other words less than five percent of the land can be farmed on. That would have made farming very difficult for the first farmers in this province.

British Columbia's land area is 944,735 square kilometres (364,800 sq mi.) and our rugged coastline stretches for more than 27,000 kilometres (17,000 mi), and includes deep, mountainous fjords and about six thousand islands, most of which are uninhabited.

On the southeastern tip of Vancouver Island is our capital, Victoria - a beautiful city that I urge all visitors to visit. But the most populous city of the province is Vancouver. Being the endpoint of transcontinental highways and railways and the site of major Pacific ports we are ideal for a booming international trade.

But there are other major cities as well: in the lower mainland there is Burnaby, Surrey, Richmond, Coquitlam, Delta and our first capital - New Westminster; Abbotsford, Pitt Meadows, Maple Ridge and Langley in the Fraser Valley; Kamloops and Kelowna in the interior and Prince George is the northern part of the province's major city. (Nearby Vanderhoof is actually at the center of the province.)

There is so much more to say about this province but I am running out of room so I will leave that for another time.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill, logging, Vancouver,mining,tourists,History,Queen Victoria,international