More Memories from the Mural

There are a few more photos inspired by the mural at Campbell and Hastings Streets. So I will show you those and fill you in on more information.

This is the Twambly House and is an example of Vancouver's Victorian Stick Style homes.

The Marr Hotel was originally called the Stanley Hotel until 1898. It is now a low income residence.

In the basement of this establishment are the remnants of the stables used by the city constabulary.

Gore Avenue was originally a skid road on which oxen pulled the timber to the mill.

Now I walk down East Pender in Chinatown and don't think much about it. It is a street with lots of streets on either side. However at one time that was mostly water, namely False Creek. False Creek's original easternmost bank ended at what is now Clark Drive. In 1912 the railway began to drain the creek and fill it in to make new land for yards and terminals for the Great Northern Railway and the Canadian Northern Pacific Railway.

The creek was named by George Henry Richards during a survey in 1856-63.

This building has always interested me and although I took photos of it last year I didn't find any information on it. But the mural has solved that problem.

This building appears to have been built in two stages - the rear portions doorway is below lane level which suggests that that part of the building was built pre 1914 whereas the front was built in 1928.

And just down the street is the Rice Building.

It was built in 1912.

This warehouse and adjacent office building may have been built in 1905. Its owners have included Vancouver Vinegar &  Pickle (1916), Asahi Rice Company, Snowden Importers (1920), Royal Mattress Co. (1927), and Northwest Sack Company (1932).

At one time the railway tracks ran directly behind the building. This made it easy to load goods straight from the warehouse to the train.

This is 787 East Cordova, at one time the home to the Strathcona Business Improvement Assn. and sponsor of the mural.

And Strathcona got its name for Donald Smith, Lord Stathcona and former Hudson's Bay Company governor. He was also one of the founders of the CPR.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill, Hastings Dance, Vancouver,Strathcona Business Improvement Assn.,Donald Smith,Asahi Rice Co.,History,CPR

Barclay Heritage Square

Today I returned to the Barclay Heritage Square which resides in the square made by Barclay Street, Nicola Street, Haro Street and Broughton Street.

This is the entrance to Barclay Heritage Square. The entrance way as well as the walls in the nearby Fine Lawn Area were made out of granite from a turreted vintage home that was originally at the southeast corner of Broughton and Barclay. Unfortunately the house was demolished in 1984 as the development of the park was starting.

On the right side of the Roedde House Museum - which I wrote on earlier - there is an old Sycamore Maple tree and a row of Cappadocian Maples line Barclay Street. These trees were planted in the 1890s which makes them about as old as Vancouver itself. Or pretty close to it.

To be honest I have no clue what the difference is between a Sycamore Maple and a Cappadocian Maple so I took pictures of the trees in the area. They look impressive.

Perennial beds surround the entrance and are planted with hellebores, rhododendrums, viburnum and spring bulbs. That must be a gorgeous sight in the later spring and summer months.

The Fine lawn Area replaced an 1895 home that was not considered for rehabilitation due to its advanced state of disrepair.

Benches such as this one surround the lawn area. Visitors are welcome to sit and enjoy the majestic views of manmade beauties and nature's wonders.



The Centennial Fountain is in the middle of the park at the far end of the Fine Lawn. It was donated by the Wilkinson-Brighouse Family as a tribute to West End Pioneers. It is also a tribute to a resident who arrived in the West End wilderness in 1862, Sam Brighouse.

At 1459 Barclay Street is The George Weeks House which was built in 1895. It is now the Diamond Centre for Living and is run by the Friends for Life Society.

George Weeks served as a factor in the trading posts of Yale and Hope. He was also the manager of our city's first Hudson Bay Company store on Cordova Street.

In 1911 Weeks built a two storied apartment building on Nicola Street behind his house. The Shaftsbury Apartments consisted of six suites and sadly it didn't survive the revitalization of this square.

Weeks lived in this house until his death in 1948 and the Weeks family retained their residence for another forty years. Something you don't see a lot these days but I can imagine George sitting on the wrap around veranda watching his children and grandchildren and maybe even great granchildren playing on the large expanse of grass.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

TAGS:Vancouver, Karen Magill, Roedde House, West End,George Weeks,Barclay Heritage Square,History,The Shaftsbury Apartments,Maple Tree,Brighouse,

Digging through the Roots

When I was searching for information on different parts of Stanley Park I found a site with important dates in not only Vancouver's history but that of British Columbia. So today I am going to share with you some photos of Stanley Park and Vancouver and just fill you in on some dates. So here we go.

Admiral Quadra sails from Mexico to Alaska and claims the Pacific Coast for Spain in 1775. 

Three years later Captain Cook sails up the west coast and becomes the first European to set foot on what is now the western shore of Canada.

July 5, 1791 Spanish explorer Narvaez anchors off Isla de Langara now called Point Grey.

June 12, 1792 Captain George Vancouver arrives, charts and names Point Grey, the Strait of Georgia, Point Atkinson, English Bay and Burrard Channel.


Two days later Spanish explorers Galiano and Valdes arrive at Point Grey and meet Captain Vancouver upon his return from charting Howe Sound and Jervis Inlet. This occasion was marked by the naming of Spanish Banks.

1793 - Alexander Mackenzie becomes the first European to reach the west coast of Canada by land at what is now Bella Coola.

July 2, 1808 was the day that Simon Fraser becomes the first European to reach the area now known as Vancouver by land.

These facts, as dry as they may seem, are important because the chart how Vancouver and BC came to be.

Hudson Bay Company trading post Fort Langley on the Fraser River is established in 1827. I will be writing more on this company which still exists today and is so connected with Canada and its growth.

June 15, 1846 The 49th parallel as the border with the US is extended west of the Rockies.

Some Canadians feel that being patriotic means being anti American but that isn't necessary. As can be seen by a monument I saw today at Stanley Park.

The US side reads:

What an object lesson of peace is shown today by our two countries to all the world. No grim faced fortifications mark our frontiers, no huge battleships patrol our dividing waters, no stealth spies lurk in our border hamlets. Only a scrap of paper recording hardly more than a simple understanding safeguards lives and properties on the Great Lakes and only humble mile posts mark the inviolable boundary line for thousands of miles through farm and forest. Your protection is in our fraternity, our armour is our faith, the tie that binds more firmly year by year is...

The Canada side reads:

everincreasing aquaintance and comradeship through interchange of citizens and the compact is not of perishable parchment but of fair and honorable dealing which, God grant, shall continue for all time."

Erected by Kiwanis International in memory of a great occasion in the life of two sister nations. Here on July 26, 1923 Warren Gamaliel Harding, twenty ninth president of the United States of America and first president to visit Canada, charter member of the Kiwanis Club of Marion Ohio spoke words that are worthy of record in lasting granite. Dedicated September 15, 1925. Beautiful words and something to really think about. Of course over the years our borders have had to have security increased and immigration between the two countries is more difficult AND we do have our differences. Yet we are sister nations and like sisters we may disagree but when we do help each other. Like siblings we are there when needed. 

In 1846 Vancouver Island is made a Crown Colony with Fort Victoria as its capital.

1858 is the Gold Rush on the Fraser. The discovery of that wealth making rare mineral helped to not only make people wealthy it helped to create communities. When the fortune seekers arrived they needed all sorts of essentials from food to gold panning equipment to female company to bedding to whatever you can think of. And the smart ones, instead of chasing the gold, found ways to supply those needs. Once the rush was over many stayed on to create the cities and towns that  now exist.

August 2, 1858 is when the Crown Colony on the mainland of British Columbia is established. On February 14, 1859 Queensborough becomes the capital of that colony. On July 20 of the same year the name is changed to New Westminster.

Also in 1859 Colonel Tom Moody constucts the first road in the area, now known as North Road, which connects New Westminster with the Burrard Inlet.
July 16, 1860 New Westminster is incorporated.

1860 was also the year that Colonel Moody was charmed by a dancer named Lulu so he named an island after her. Lulu Island now makes up much of Richmond. According to Wikipedia this is a Colonel Richard Moody not Colonel Tom Moody.

On September 26, 1862 the area's first settlers, the McCleery family, arrive on the north arm of the Fraser. To pay tribute to those brave souls that land is now the McCleery Golf Course.
And to finish off today in July of 1865 Captain Edward Stamp establishes the Hastings Mill what is generally accepted to be the origin of Vancouver. Though some of us like to give credit to the saloon owner Gassy Jack too.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

TAGS:Vancouver, Karen Magill, Hastings Mill, Captain Edward Stamp,Gold Rush,Colonel Moody,North Road,history,