Ferndale

A few blocks in from Hastings Street and off of Victoria Drive is a street called Ferndale. According to map, Ferndale Street runs for five blocks between Victoria Drive and Nanaimo Street. There is history in those five blocks though.

Until 1929 this was Keefer Street and it was on the street car line. The street car went west into downtown and was extended to Boundary Road between 1910 and 1919. (There is still a Keefer Street in Strathcona)

This house at 1945 Ferndale was built in 1908. A Joseph Rainey (name may be misspelled) applied to have the house hooked up to the city water system. By 1909, the resident was Gordon Loane, a cashier at the Hastings Shingle and Manufacturing Company. One of the mills for the company was on Powell Street, which is a short walk downhill from Ferndale.

For a number of years prior to WWI, the owner of Manitoba Transfer, John Cummings, lived in this house. A transfer company was the precursor to present day teamsters. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters logo incorporates two horses and this is reminiscent of the transfer companies since they would drive heavy-duty carts pulled by two horses.

The house at 1945 Ferndale has been loving restored. The original mouldings have been matched; the original staircase, windows and siding have all been kept. Although the new owners gave the interior of the home a more open plan, the original doors were reinstalled in other parts of the home.

Not so much care has been taken with the house across the street, 1946. First resident was a teamster by the name of John H. Enright and this home was built in 1912. Yet, if you look close and use a little imagination, you can see how beautiful and majestic the home once was.

The Vancouver Improvement Company - who owned much of Vancouver's east side - opened this area for development from 1907 to 1909. This street was close to the waterfront industrial area and downtown so it was probably marketed as the working class area of the new high-end suburb Grandview. The lots were smaller and the views were much less grand.

Thanks goes entirely to Bob_2006 at flickr for this information.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill, Vancouver, Ferndale, history, Hastings, shingle British Columbia, Canada, teamsters, restoration,City water

Neighbourly Love

These houses are at 148 (the cherry coloured home) and 150 West 10th. 148 is an example of the Edwardian builder style and was constructed in 1907. The original owner was a grocer by the name of Fred Welsh. 150 was built in 1907. 

Now here is where it all gets interesting. The owner of lot 150 built his house directly on the property line. This annoyed Welsh, whose property was vacant. In retaliation, he had his home built to the property line as well, making sure to block the bay windows of his neighbour. There were court proceedings and fights but the dispute was never resolved - as you can see today since the houses are so close together.

Both of these homes were restored by the Davis family for which they were presented the Heritage Canada award in 1981 for preserving the streetscape. The Davis' were also responsible for restoring 140 and 144 - both properties were once owned by Fred Welsh.

This JJ Bean has historical significance due to the location. This coffee shop is at the corner of East 14th and Main Street. At one time, there was a beaver dam here, located on Brewery Creek This created a swamp that extended south-east as far as Fraser Street. The swamp was drained in the early 1900s.

I have written on it before but it bears reminding how important Brewery Creek was to Vancouver and its development.

Brewery Creek was the first piped water supply to downtown Vancouver and to this city's first modern industry - Stamp's Sawmill. And though the area has been radically changed since those days, we should pay homage to what was once there.

When I walk these areas, I sometimes stop and think of what was here before. Now I see paved streets, buses, cars and buildings but it wasn't that long ago that it was all trees, trails, creeks and swamps. If all humans were to vanish today, would the city return to that?

This is 1975 Ferndale, built in 1909 and the first resident was a machinist by the name of Henry Robinson.

Thanks goes to a walking tour pamphlet I received from the Mount Pleasant Business Improvement Area and Bob_2006 at flickr.com for more information on the houses.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill, Vancouver, Davis, history, welsh, feud British Columbia, Canada, grocer, restoration,Heritage Canada Award

Money VS Morality

In 1948, over $30 million from tourism was spent in Vancouver. By 1975, that number was closer to $200 million. Vancouver was being promoted as the new 'Playground of North America'. Part of this 'playground' was the nightlife, including the strippers. However, civic boosters would never include those 'sordid' venues to lure tourists.

However, the strip tease industry employed thousands. Besides the dancers themselves, there were club owners, managers, booking agents, doormen, bouncers, ticket-sellers, hat-check girls, cigarette and cigar girls, go-go dancers, choreographers, photographers, costume designers, club secretaries, bookkeepers, MCs, DJs, cooks, kitchen staff, bus boys, prop and set people, lighting specialists, waiters, waitresses, cleaners, bartenders, the musicians who supplied the dancers with live accompaniment until the mid to late 1970s. The industry was also financially beneficial to lawyers who defended clubs when the establishments were raided by vice squads.

In addition to those directly benefiting from the striptease industry, the success of the dancers helped others as well. People such as speciality shoe makers, hosiery, make-up, and liquor suppliers. Cab drivers are enriched by the industry as are hair stylists, manicurists, pedicurists, security guards, wig-makers, tanning salon operators, clothing/fabric retailers, drug sellers, child care workers (those that took care of the dancers' children)  and plastic surgeons who performed breast enhancements. Even such organizations as the Vancouver Sun, Vancouver Daily Province, The Province and Vancouver News Herald found the strip tease industry to be profitable. The papers would sell daily advertising spots to nightclub promoters.

We can't forget the benefits of the striptease industry on the city's coffers either. There were permits to be issued for liquor and licensing, property taxes to be paid as well as utility payments. It is no wonder that the striptease industry became as vital to Vancouver's economic growth as our railway facilities, sawmills and grain elevators.

It's ironic though that, with all the money the stripteases industry generates, many never considered it labour. Only the untalented, morally disturbed or desperate woman would become a stripper. Surely, no respectable young lady would consider getting on stage, dancing to suggestive music and then taking her clothes off for an audience. Or even not getting totally naked, just teasing. Never mind that a striptease dancer could earn more than a secretary, a factory worker, baker or a retail clerk.

The morality minders, as I like to call them, wanted to shut down the night clubs that catered to the striptease. These high minded people protested, had obscenity laws enforced and made the lives of those involved in the industry difficult. Yet the industry survived.

Thanks again to Burlesque West by Becki L. Ross for all the information I am using for these entries. Wednesday, I will look at more on the striptease industry in Vancouver.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill, Vancouver, Becki L. Ross, history, Burlesque West, striptease British Columbia, Canada, morality, Vancouver Sun,the Province