First and Second

World War I had a great impact on the world, including Vancouver.

It had been a century, since the wars of Napoleon, since the world had seen a conflict of such magnitude. The American Civil War may have been bitter and destructive but it couldn't compare to this.

War had become a gallant, occasionally fatal game to the British. These clashes were directed by professionals in an atmosphere of pageantry and hero-worship. The threat was never more than the possible collapse of a single nation. The episodes weren't as drastic as the threat of ending an entire civilization and way of life.

For the next five years, 1914-1915, this threat was real to every citizen of the Western World.

This was an immensely personal conflict to the people of Vancouver, even more so than World War II. Canada's casualties in 1914-18 were greater than those in the entire United States forces.

There were streets in Vancouver where every house had a man overseas and every block mourned two or three dead. The First World War was sheer grinding, continuous, merciless slaughter - something the second war never approached.

It wasn't a matter of if a loved one would be killed or maimed but rather when. Battalions were made up of approximately 1,100 officers and men and could be "used up" in two battles.

The 7th Battalion spent 3 years on the front and 9,000 humans went through its ranks. 1400 were killed, 7000 wounded.

The last original officer of the 16th Battalion was killed two years after the battalion arrived in France. In two years, the 47th Battalion lost 22 officers and 639 men killed, 2000 wounded. These were local units made up of local men.

Reading the paper was a horrifying experience after a battle. Casualty lists filled long columns in the papers day after day.

World War I was a war that struck home struck hard. Whereas the Second World War was a war of anxiety and frustration, had been anticipated and was never quite as bad as expected; the First World War was a war of sorrow and hatred, an unparalleled nightmare. People were unprepared for it and it struck a new terror almost daily into the hearts and minds of the people.

 Thank you to the book Vancouver, From Milltown to Metropolis by Alan Morley.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill

Chinatown

This is 524 Pender Street - in 1904 when this photo was taken by Philip Timms, there was no division of East and West Pender - of the manager of the Timms and Company Print Shop, George F. Timms and his son, Max.

Philip Timms took this 1907 photo of boarded up buildings in Chinatown after the race riots.

These last two photos, taken by Philip Timms, show businesses damaged during the race riots of 1907.

Today, I want to talk to you about Vancouver's Chinatown. Like most North American Chinatowns, ours was established and maintained by segregationist policies and racist attitudes among the local citizens and government. 

Chinese immigrants, like the European settlers, came to Canada looking for a better way of life. Often, they were given the lowest jobs for the poorest pay. The first wave of Chinese immigrants came over in the 1850s during the Fraser gold rush. However, CPR engineer, Andrew Onderdonk recruited between 8,000 and 17,000 Chinese workers between 1881 and 1885 in order to build the mountainous sections of the railway around Yale. This influx is what led to the formation of Vancouver's Chinatown.

These people worked for half the wages of the white labourers and often sent money home to China. Many of the Chinese were stranded in BC after the railway was completed. The CPR had no further use for them and took responsibility for the people they brought over. The Chinese settled in an area near Pender and Carrall Streets, which the called "Saltwater City". This 'city' soon reached the shores of False Creek.

Even though the Chinese helped build the railway that cemented Confederation, many of them dying in the process, they were not rewarded or welcomed. As we know, a 'head tax' was put on each new Chinese arrival, making it difficult for the male Chinese population here to bring over their wives and children.

W.M. Bruce took this photo on March 29, 1902 of the laying of the cornerstone for the Carnegie Centre.

The Metropole Hotel and Oaks Cafe on Abbott Street. Photo by Stuart Thomson, taken in 1925.

Looking east from near Carrall to Columbia in 1904. This section of what is now East Pender was called Dupont Street until 1907. The businesses and men are Chinese. Photo by Philip Timms.

In 1906, this is what the 400-500 blocks of Carrall Street looked like. 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. Philip Timms is listed as photographer.

By the dawn of the twentieth century, approximately 2,100 Chinese people lived in Chinatown. Most of them worked in their own small business since they were excluded from many occupations. The laws of the time prevented Chinese from voting and prompted many confrontations. Two noteworthy events include a riot in 1887 and a 1907 rampage. In 1907, members of the Asiatic Exclusion League marched on Chinatown, looting and destroying property. 

The federal government got into the fray in 1923 with the Exclusion Act, which effectively prevented Chinese immigration. It took 25 years for the act to be repealed. During this time, the population of Chinatown dwindled. The old died or moved out of the area. It was the bravery of Chinese-Canadian soldiers in World War II that forced the Feds to repeal the act and give Chinese-Canadians the vote. Wives and children, newly arrived, settled in Chinatown and Strathcona. 

Chinatown was threatened in the 1960s when the city's freeway plans might have demolished both neighbourhoods. Fortunately, residents' protests not only stopped the roadway but also prompted a greater appreciation of this part of the city's heritage.

Philip Timms caught this photo in 1904. This is Looking west from Columbia to Carrall on E. Pender St. (Dupont until 1907). Chinese men are on the street along with several wagons and a dog. In the background is the Central School (centre). 

In 1926, Stuart Thomson took this photo of the Chinese Branch of the Royal Bank.

The Bailey Bros took this 1887 photo looking east on Dupont Street (now Pender)

October 25, 192. Stuart Tomson photographed the funeral procession for David C. Lew

In 1971, Chinatown was designated a historic district and in 1979, a streetscape improvement program emphasized the architecture and ambience of the area. Vancouver's Chinatown is Canada's largest and home to the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Garden, the Chinese Cultural Centre, unique buildings (You've seen many of them in past entries of the Vancouver Vagabond) and many small businesses.

Given the time and history of when many of Vancouver's streets were named, it isn't surprising that few streets are named after the Chinese population. There are over 770 streets in Vancouver and only Chinatown's Canton Alley, which disappeared in 1954 and Shanghai Alley refer to this ethnic group who did so much for the growth of this city and country.

Andrew Onderdonk is the only CPR official not have anything named after him - that was at his insistence.

A 1917 photo of the Sam Kee building, a truly unique building. The photo was taken by the Dominion Photo Co on September 20. If you want to know why this building is unique, see this entry

October 1921, photo taken of the Union Station by the Dominion Photo Co. It is still there today but has been renamed. Read about here.

 November 19, 1921, the Dominion Photo Co took this picture of the Ceperley, Rounsefell and Company building. It is at 739 West Hastings Street.

July 1927 and the Province newspaper building is decorated for Dominion Day. Photo by Dominion Photo Co.

I want to thank the book, Namely Vancouver by Tom Snyders and Jennifer O'Rourke for the above information and the Vancouver Public Library for the photos.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

The Dominion Photo Co took this January 5, 1928 photo of the Yet Sang Company.

The Dominion Photo Co took this photo of Shanghai Alley on February 14, 1944.

Chinatown - East Pender Street looking West towards Carrall in 1912 as captured by the Dominion Photo Co.

Philip Timms snapped this shot looking east on the 100 block of East Hastings on the north side.

Wrapping up '48

1948 is a year Jennie Wong will long remember. The Vancouver Sun, along with several radio stations, sponsored a contest. In this competition, the winner would be given a radio show of their own. Jennie, along with other hopefuls, sent in her audition tape to a panel consisting of Frank Sinatra, Freddie Robbins, a New York City disc jockey and orchestra leader Claude Thornhill.

As you have probably already guessed, Wong won the contest and was given a half-hour Saturday show on CKMO. She called the show Jennie's Juke Joint, making Jennie the first Chinese-Canadian disc jockey. Wong went on to work for CBC Edmonton as the 'weather girl' for their morning radio show. She also started her own business, doing theatrical and Television make-up in Edmonton. A job that lasted 25 years. The last report I saw, she became Jennie Diment and still lives in Edmonton.

Jack Varaleau, now of Vancouver, won the British Empire Weightlifting championship, breaking the Olympic record at the same time. Varaleau was a flight sergeant who served in the Canadian military from 1940 to 1969. He would later go on to win gold at the 1950 British Commonwealth Games.

The New Citizen, a bilingual paper (Chinese and English) was started by Vancouver's Roy Mah.

An interesting thing happened at the Theatre Under the Stars - TUTS - in Stanley Park during the summer of 1948. Singer Karl Norman tells what happened when the power went out during a production of the operetta Naughty Marietta:

“The orchestra kept playing,” Karl says, “and I kept singing, and people from the audience lined up their cars at the back of Malkin Bowl and lit the performance with their headlights.”

In 1925, Arthur Whalley opened a service station, general store and soft drink stand in Surrey. Pacific Stage Lines later opened a bus stop there and called it Whalley's Corner. In 1948, the name Whalley was officially adopted.

Bus service began in Burnaby. The city now had paved roads!

The Cloverdale Rodeo was enlarged but due to the Fraser Floods, the event had to be delayed until after Labor Day.

This was the year that sixty thousand daffodils were planted along the Stanley Park Causeway. The bulbs were a gift from the Netherlands to thank Canadian soldiers for their efforts in liberating the country from the Nazis.

After World War II, there was a housing shortage. There was a 120 acres of vacant land near Boundary Road and Grandview Highway that the city began to develop. Alderman Halford Wilson was chair of the civic street naming committee. Wilson announced the streets were to be named after wartime personalities, locations, battles and events which is why the streets have such names as:

Worthington and Falaise Avenues, Dieppe, Anzio, Mons, Normandy, Seaforth and Maida Drives, and Vimy and Matapan Crescents. Malta Place. Donald and Jack Worthington, sons of a former alderman, were soldiers.

Since 1905, the Fraser Street bridge was opened for passing ships by hand. In 1948, it became mechanized to make life a little easier. That upgrade lasted 26 years, until the bridge was replaced by the Knight Street Bridge in 1974.

Starting in 1943, military historian Peter Moogk has written, “the receding danger of attack brought a gradual reduction in the local defences to release trained personnel for the Canadian Army in Europe, which was now in continuous action. Soon after the war's end in September 1945 the gun batteries were dismantled and closed. Fort Point Grey was the last to go, in 1948, and there, appropriately, is a historic maker at the restored No.1 Gun position that recalls the battery's history.”

Here's one for all you Mad Men fans out there. Jimmy Lovick, also known as the 'true giant' of Vancouver ad men, started out on his own in 1948. Lovick opened James Lovick and Co. offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal. By 1958, Lovick's company's were the largest ad agencies in Canada with additional offices in Edmonton, London, Ont., Halifax, New York and San Francisco. Lovick didn't desert Vancouver though, where he had started his career in 1934, His offices were in his own building at 1178 West Pender Street.

I hope you enjoyed this look at the year 1948 in Vancouver Canada. I would like to thank The History of Metropolitan Vancouver website for the above information.

I hope  you find the beauty around you.