Cleveland's Water

The Greater Vancouver Water Board began operating in 1925 - bringing with it an amalgamated sewer system. Dr. E. A. Cleveland was put in charge and he began building the vast watershed and distribution system that gave Vancouver one of the finest water supplies in the world. It remains a monument to his name.

Cleveland liked to boast, "No case of disease has ever been traced to this city's water supply." He assured this by completely isolating the watershed with meticulous exclusion of all possible human disease carriers. 

During the Second World War, at the U.S. Navy's insistence (they were contracting port facilities here) the water was first chlorinated. Vancouverites were NOT happy about this. Many citizens travelled far afield to get untreated water.

Cleveland was heartbroken. The water system was his life's work and it all seemed for nothing now. Some public officials stated that the coliform bacteria count made chlorination mandatory. Cleveland fired back and said that this only proved dangerous bacteria could live in the water, not that it did. As well look to the perfect record of the system.

However, Cleveland was not successful with his arguments and the out-cry over the original chlorination died down, WWII ended and the water treatment continued. Albeit on a much reduced scale and it continues to this day.

According to a 1912 agreement between the CNR - Canadian National Railway - and the city, the CNR was obliged to build a hotel and a $20 million tunnel approach underneath the Grandview to the station on Main Street. The CNR was still using the Great Northern tracks to enter the city and had begun neither the tunnel nor the hotel.

Mayor L.D. Taylor took this project in hand and was determined to ensure that CNR held up its end of the agreement. During negotiations, he did compromise though. He yielded on the tunnel and persuaded Sir Henry Thornton to agree to a 600-room rather than a 500-room hotel. In December 1928, work began on the present day Hotel Vancouver at Georgia and Burrard Streets.

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

Oh! How Shocking!

Construction of the Female Chronic Building. June 28, 1929. Dominion Photo Co. Courtesy of the City of Vancouver Archives

Construction of the powerhouse at Essondale. March 6, 1925

The Nurse's Home at Essondale. Stride Studios, New Westminster. Apr. 23, 1929

Colony Farm, Essondale. 1914 taken by W.J. Moore Photo

Until the 1930s, there wasn't many ways to treat those with mental illness. A sanctuary - an asylum - provided a safe, quiet environment away from the stresses of society. Work therapy was another method of treatment commonly used at Essondale and other mental institutions. But the thirties brought new methods to treat the patients - drugs, electro convulsive (shock) treatments and surgery.

Insulin shock treatment and metrazol convulsive therapy were introduced at Essondale and primarily used to treat those with schizophrenia. High doses of insulin were injected into a patient causing convulsions - insulin shock therapy. For the metrazol convulsive therapy, injections of a chemical that caused convulsions was injected into the schizophrenic. These treatments were in use for about ten years until electro convulsive therapy replaced them. Insulin coma therapy remained in use for many years later.

At the end of the 1930s, Canada was involved with World War II. Many of Essondale's staff joined the armed forces and the hospital received a wave of war-shocked veterans. Once again, Essondale was overcrowded as the population rose to 4,100. However, due to the war and the depression, there was no building on the grounds.

Keeping trained nurses was difficult as they followed their patriotic duty and joined the war effort. So there was many untrained nurses. In 1942, there were three students to one graduate nurse - more than 100 nurses quit that year. At one point, more than half the staff lacked experience and training in hospital work and psychiatric care.

In an attempt to correct this, Essondale hired aides to help. The educational requirement for an aide was Grade 9. The nursing shortage was somewhat relieved when Essondale allowed the hiring of married women. Essondale, like many employers of the time, thought that women should leave the workforce and become homemakers after marriage. The war time shortage changed that attitude.

The nursing shortage also had an impact on the Training School. At times, there were around 100 student nurses working the wards but they had to wait a year or more for formal instruction.

Since the late 19th century, men had played an important role in caring for the mentally ill. They were known as the 'keepers'. The students at Essondale's Training School were mainly female. Nine male students attended the school between 1937 to 1942.

In 1945, special courses were introduced for male Charge Attendants, which lead to a certificate of Psychiatric Nursing. Student education in a wide number of disciplines remained an important part of the hospital's operations.

Thanks to the PDF, Riverview, A Legacy of Care and Compassion for the above information.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill

The Germans are Coming!

Last week, I told you about the American influence and immigration to Vancouver. Today, I want to remark about the German influence.

German settlers were among the first flood of immigrants to British Columbia in 1857. A variety of people came mainly from southwestern Germany. Shopkeepers, merchants, skilled artisians and craftspeople left their homes and ventured to this new land and brought with them much needed skills and trades.

These immigrants became prominent in Vancouver's social and political life. German clubs soon sprang up, the members preserving their heritage, language, music and cultural traditions.

There were a significant number of German immigrants during the early 20th century. Many became part of local society by marrying into the "old families". German investment bankers, noblemen, barons and counts - they all entertained lavishly. It was an era that came to an end due to the economic crisis prior to World War I.

World War I turned the Germans from much loved, revered people to vilified enemies overnight. German-Canadians were hesitant to speak their native tongue in public; German language church services were stopped and the federal government stopped all German newspapers. A census in 1921, after the war, showed a decline in British Columbia of nearly 40 percent of people declaring German origin and they spoke English in public.

But in World War II, attitudes towards Germans were less hostile. However, all Germans entering the country had to register as enemy aliens. Most of those interned at the outbreak of the war were released in 1941 as harmless. This time there were no bitter ethnic tensions and, as early as 1947, Germans were again admitted as immigrants, initially as "displaced persons" who fled their homes in Eastern Germany.

Around 300,000 German immigrants arrived in the province between 1947 and 1967. Once again, many were tradespeople with good educations and a reasonable command of the English language. They easily merged into our society and became British Columbia's second largest ethnic group next to the British. These immigrants were successful in business, professions and trades, they persevered and rarely suffered failure.

In the post-war era, many German-Canadians settled along Vancouver's Fraser Street and in the West End. There they opened small businesses and ethnic restaurants along Robson Street. In fact, Robson Street was sometimes referred to as "Robsonstrasse".

I am referring once again to the book The Greater Vancouver Book, An Urban Encylopaedia and this time the article is entitled Germans and was written by Sylvia Reinthal.

I hope you find the beauty around you.