Car #124

On August 15, 1950 the BC Provincial Force was dissolved after 92 years of service. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police took over their duties.

The first Canada- wide rail strike began on August 22. It ended by government order on August 30, 1950.

Eccles-Rand Limited built Vancouver's first atomic bomb shelter and on August 29, they inspected it at an undisclosed yard in Shaughnessy.

September 1. The CPR went on strike and this affected many residents in Port Coquitlam since many of them worked on the marshalling yards there.

Also on September 1, 1950, the first regional shopping centre in Canada opened. Park Royal Shopping Centre originally opened on the north side of Marine Drive in West Vancouver and later expanded to the south side of the Marine Drive.

September 17 saw the last run of Vancouver open air streetcars. These observation cars were built by BC Electric in 1909 at their New Westminster shops. The end of the open-air streetcars also meant the end of tour guide Teddy Lyons.

Lyons was born in Portage La Praire and was a "spieler" aboard car #124 from 1911 to 1950 - 39 years. He was a character, pointing out interesting sites and cracking jokes. (Pointing up at seagull: “There’s the richest bird in Vancouver—he just made a deposit on a brand-new Cadillac”) Someone calculated that Teddy had travelled 930,000 kilometres during his career.

Here's a photo I found of Teddy on one of his streetcar tours. I got it from the Vancouver Public Library archives

September 21, 1950. John Oliver, the city's engineer, said he feared that if the provincial and dominion governments didn't contribute funds to the building of the Granville Street bridge, the project would cost $3 million more than the original projected cost of $8 million. (Actually, in 1939, it was estimated the bridge would cost $4 million to build.) Neither government contributed and when the bridge was completed in 1954, the total cost was $16 million.

Vancouver's Sunset Memorial Centre at 404 East 51st Avenue on September 29. It was officially opened through a telephone call from Bing Crosby. Crosby enjoyed this area, often visiting to relax and fish however, on this date, he was filming a movie. He did manage to view the centre when he visited the following year. 

Although local people protested, a BC Electric Tram made its last trip between New Westminster and Chilliwack on September 30, 1950. In a settlement, BC Electric contributed to establishing bus transportation. Businesses complained the mail was now slower. 

Thanks to  The History of Metropolitan Vancouver website for the above information.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill

Meanwhile, Back At Home...

While the men were overseas proving themselves during the battles of World War I, what was happening back in Vancouver? As I have said before, there was a fair amount of mourning since the death toll was great but the citizens didn't let that stop them. They rolled up their sleeves to back up the fighting men.

Social life was non-existent except where it benefited the war effort. Red Cross work took up the time of Vancouver women - whether they were housewives or society women, they all lent a hand. Hundreds of businessmen drilled in the Horse Show Building with the Home Guard.

When the Georgia Street Viaduct was opened July 1, 1915, it was one continuous carnival, organized by the United Commercial Travellers to aid war efforts.

The careless happiness of the boom days was over and, at first, the strains of war intensified - rather than relieved - the depression. By April 1915, Vancouver considered itself "in a state of siege", with relief gangs working in the parks for $1a day, paid in groceries, and relief funds almost exhausted, a condition, which was temporarily relieved by a provincial grant.

South and West Vancouver were in financial problems. Assessments in the South dropped 20 percent to $37 million in a single year; only the wealthy Point Grey claimed to be in good shape. That was because there were fewer men on its relief and the majority of its residents were people of some substance.

For the first time in 22 years, the population of Greater Vancouver declined by 34,000 to an estimated 172,230. The opening of the Panama Canal was something we had looked forward to but it did little to increase the port's shipping. This was due to the lack of vessels in the Pacific.

However, the grain railway freight differential remained 20 per cent to 31 per cent above the rate on eastbound shipments from prairie points and largely cancelled out the drop in ocean traffic. Tax sales of forfeited land were general, buying the land instead of disposing it in a real estate market that didn't really exist.

Almost all news that winter was bad whether it was from the war front or the economic front. Businessman and community leader, R.H. Alexander and CPR executive, H.B. Abbott, died. On April 29, the Connaught (Cambie Street) Bridge was almost destroyed, and Granville Street Bridge was damaged lightly by simultaneous fires blamed on enemy sabotage. The Cambie Bridge went a long time before being repaired and it wasn't until mid-summer that people began to feel things were picking up.

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

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill

Under the Bridge

While walking along Pacific Boulevard I passed under the Granville Street Bridge and happened upon this colourful, exciting mural. Hope you like it as much as I do.

These are shots of Templeton Secondary School located at 727 Templeton Drive. This was one of the first junior high schools in BC, opening in the fall of 1927. (The first was opened in Penticton in 1926 and Kitsilano Junior High opened in 1927)

The school was built between the years of 1926 to 1928 with an extension being added in 1962. It is a three-storey, reinforced- concrete structure with a flat roof and no basement. The original portion is clad in roughcast stucco and painted in the school's colours of purple and grey.

Architects Sharp and Thompson worked with the  School Board's architect F.A.A. Barrs to create this example of the proto-modernist aesthetic of the 1920s. The building is simply treated with large banks of windows and the pier-and-spandrel treatment that reflects the concrete structural frame.

From the information I read the interior is also something to be seen. The school has wide hallways and high ceilings as well as  panelled wood doors with wood surrounds (some with textured glazing and original hardware), scalloped arches in hallways, loudspeakers, paired glazed double doors with transoms, chamfered walls, running courses below ceilings and at hip-height, ventilation panels, and recesses for fire extinguishers.

The classrooms have recessed doors, some connecting classrooms, some slate boards, built-in storage units with original hardware, glazed sliding-door bookshelves and window ledges.

The old gymnasium has clerestory windows (pronounced clear story this is a wall that has a band of windows at the top), wall mounted metal gym equipment, ropes and benches while the new gymnasium has cinder-blocks, open-span ceilings, cast in place concrete bleachers and a retractable full height dividing wall.

The auditorium has a stage with flanking access stairs, a curved upper balcony with seating, a projection room with recessed utility doors and the original hardware.

The stairwells have wraparound wooden banisters with curved handrails and banks of windows for natural light.

There are also recessed and arched alcoves, fire-break pocket door between original and new buildings and terrazzo floors. The school still has the original lockers; the  home economics room with corner kitchen layouts and built-ins, sewing room with cupboards for ironing board, irons and notions, laundry chutes in science room. Templeton Secondary sounds like a perfect mixture of old and new.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

TAGS:Vancouver, Karen Magill, Templeton Secondary , Daffodils,Granville Street Bridge,Sharp & Thompson ,History,School Board,clerestory windows