The West Lawn

On April 1, 1913, the doors to the Hospital for the Mind at Mount Coquitlam opened its doors. However, the name was confusing for the mail delivery so it was soon changed to Essondale, in honour of Dr. Henry Esson Young. The name would stay Essondale for fifty years until it was renamed Riverview.

The Public Hospital for the Insane in New Westminster sent 340 patients to the Male Chronic Wing, later known as the West Lawn. By the end of the year, the new building housed 453 patients.

Then World War I started and 52 staff members joined the war effort. These temporary positions were filled by those rejected by the armed forces or married men. Before this, the only married men allowed at Essondale were doctors. Desperate times call for changes in policy. During World War II, this privilege was extended to women.

By 1916, the population at Essondale had exploded. The West Lawn unit was now overcrowded with 687 patients. Dr. J.G. McKay, the Medical Superintendent, urged the government to build a new acute unit to house another 150 patients. That would take another eight years.

But Essondale was still regarded as a showcase of modern mental health care.

"It was a delightful Sunday afternoon in June when we paid our visit to this unique institution. We saw the patients roaming around the inviting recreation park or lying lazily under the trees. They all appeared to be satisfied with their lot. The lawns in front of the building are in the process of being terraced, and a large artificial lake is being planned. The patients will be able to fish there to their hearts' content.

Facilities for all sorts of outdoor games have been provided and any fine evening after tea you can see innumerable games of baseball, football and cricket in progress...of utmost value for mental patients. It renders them more composed and patient, and better satisfied with themselves. Being a factor in the production of health and happiness, it also becomes a mean of a cure. Recoveries are more frequent when the patient has the advantage of an agricultural colony. The crop raised last year included sufficient vegetables to supply the hospital and fodder to feed the great herd of livestock all winter long."

Excerpted from The Colony Farm for the Mentally Defective by Genevieve L. Skinner, Saturday Night, 1914. 

In 1916, when UBC opened, John Davidson moved approximately 26,000 plants - Essondale's botanical garden plants collection - to the university. The trees were too large to move and they stayed at the hospital grounds. The nursery also stayed and by 1922, it had expanded to cover 12 acres. Essondale, then Riverview, continued to supply shrubbery and trees to public institutions and highways in the province until the 1960s.

Head Gardener Jack Renton, who had trained in Kew England at the Royal Botanical Gardens, was now head of landscaping. Renton not only helped transform Essondale grounds into a serene, beautiful environment but he also aided in obtaining more than 160 species of trees from most continents.

Thanks to the PDF, Riverview, a Legacy of Care and Compassion for the above information and to the City of Vancouver Archives for the old photos.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill

Years of Blood

World War I had ended and Vancouver rejoiced. 100,000 people resided in the town at that time and the only ones not watching the parade on November 11, 1918, were either marching in it or the motormen and conductors on the street cars. Which, by the way, were stalled for three hours.

A prominent, notoriously tight fisted, financier stood on the curb in a fur-collared overcoat, watching the parade pass. One hand waved his bowler hat while the other held a cheap tin horn, which he was blowing vigorously as he danced  a jig.

"Where'd you get the horn?" someone asked.

"Last one in town," the financier answered. "Had to pay a feller a dollar and a half for it." His face took on a puzzled expression. "... an' you know, it ain't worth two bits." On the street, drums pounded and trumpets blared as another band went by. The tycoon yelled and tooted on his horn before saying to his friend "...but what's a dollar on a day like this?"

As the parade went by and the crowd began to move on, the financier wiped the moisture off the mouthpiece, carefully put the horn in an inside pocket and put the bowler in place on his head, giving it a firm tap on the crown. He solemnly looked at his acquaintance and said,

"You know, George, it's the first time in my life I've ever said anything like that."

The celebration went on for hours but by the evening, it had spent itself. 

On the waterfront, every flag was at half-mast as the Princess Alice glided slowly into her berth at the CPR's Pier D.

At 7 a.m., November 12, her ghastly cargo was unloaded. 157 roughly shrouded bodies that were laid in long rows on trestles in the gloomy, cavernous wharf-shed. At 9 a.m., small groups of men and women filed through the improvised morgue to identify the bodies. 

These were not soldiers killed in war but victims from the wreck of the Princess Sophia in Lynn Canal, the worst marine disaster in the history of the Pacific Coast.  Many of these victims are buried in Mountainview cemetery and I wrote about this disaster in 2011 if you want to check it out.

World War I was over and "at the going down of the sun, and in the morning," the city honoured its dead.

Thanks to the book Vancouver, from Milltown to Metropolis by Alan Morley for the above information. I think I cried through most of this entry from being overjoyed imagining the excitement on November 11 with everyone partying then the heavy hearts the next day as the real world intruded with the delivery of those 157 corpses.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill

11/11/18

The labour troubles during and after the war culminated in the longshoreman's strike in the winter of 1923-24. Even though that was a bitterly fought fight, Vancouver was fortunate enough to escape the impact of a major upheaval such as the Winnipeg general strike of 1919.

The Canadian Legion also didn't turn on the unions as "betrayers of men at the front" like the American Legion did. And Canada was at war for almost three years longer than the U.S. Our fighting men were mostly working men during some period of 1914-18 either before enlisting or after they returned, wounded. A very large proportion of the union were men who had fought in the war by the time the was ended.

The last of WWI saw the trends of 1917 intensify. Except for the strikes. There was full employment, business was "the soundest in history", prices went higher, stocks of goods were low and housing was scarce.

The main war industry continued to be shipbuilding. 39 vessels, large and small, were completed, six still on the way with 33 wooden and 12 steel ships contracted for. There had been 39 tag days during the war, which raised $105,000 for various charities; people were complaining about the frequent appeals.

 
All things come to an end. Including WWI. News of the armistice arrived just after midnight, early in the morning on November 11. The town went wild; lights blazed, whistles blew, elderly housewives danced in the streets, dignified businessmen yelled, shrieked and beat on tin cans.

All day long, the streets were filled with people. At noon, traffic could not move at Hastings and Main. A step-seated, open B.C. Electric sightseeing car careened all over town with a band jam-packed on board, blaring out all the wartime songs. It was piloted by fast-talking, wisecracking Teddy Lyons.

A civic parade that afternoon made its way through the crowds of hoarse, happy, tired but still yelling and cheering men, women and children.

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

I hope you find the beauty around you.