Vancouver Voyager: 1932

Today I am going through my files of photos and showing you some of the things I see around the city. I take photos of anything that interests me and I hope you enjoy them as well.

As well I am going to talk about some of the events that were to important to Vancouver in 1932.

By 1932 the Great Depression had settled over the country like a wet blanket. It is estimated that thousands were on relief and hundreds more were arriving by freight train daily. One reporter counted 1,250 men in the bread line at the First United Church and the city's cost for relief between 1931 and 1932 was over $1.3 million.

In January of 1932 the Hastings Mill Store opened as a museum. It had been moved from it original location on Dunlevy Street to where it now sits in Hastings Mill Park (aka Pioneer Park).

On February 28, 1932 actor, activist and musician Don Francks, (native name Iron Buffalo) was born in Vancouver.

February of 1932 was also the year that the morning newspaper, The Star, was shut down by Victor Odlum when the printers refused to take a wage cut.

The Strand Theatre, on the south side of Georgia Street at Seymour, was closed as a result of the Depression in February. It reopened in 1933.

March 31 proved that the silent film era was totally dead. On this the Beacon Theatre (the old Pantages) on Hastings Street was showing the 1915 classic Birth of a Nation.

On May 27 the Vancouver Youth Symphony Orchestra gave its first performance.

Famed pianist Ignace Paderewski performed at the Vancouver Arena on April 13. By 1940, eight years later, he was at the head of the Polish government in exile during the Second World War.

The Florence Nightingale of the City died at the age of 80 on April 13. Sister Frances (Mrs. Fanny Dalrymple Redmond) was our first public health nurse and was a nurse at the St. James' Church. She earned the above mentioned nickname for her devotion and commitment to the sick during the smallpox epidemic of the 1890s.

On April 25 the Vancouver General Hospital broke all previous records in their maternity ward. Eleven babies were born that day - one Japanese child and ten white babies. Six of the children were boys and five were girls.

these tiles are placed in the sidewalk on Hastings street in the Hastings/Sunrise District.

The Vancouver Police Department inaugurated a full radio system in April of 1932.

On May 4 a large demonstration of the unemployed was held at Vancouver City Hall.

In 1912 Robert Dollar established the Canadian Robert Dollar Co. in Vancouver to run the fleet of Dollar Steamship Line of California. Timber stands bought from the BC Government supplied his sawmills and the company's flag was a white dollar sign on a red background and it was known worldwide. Known as the Pacific's Grand Old Man, Dollar died on May 16, 1932 in San Rafael, California at the age of about 88.

Spring of 1932 saw the first Bradner Flower Show that was attended huge crowds. There was a concert and dance in the evening.

The Capilano Timber Company mills were destroyed by fire in June of 1932. Started in 1917 the company was ran a logging railway up the Capilano Valley to bring out the red cedar.

On Canada Day of that year, July 1, the Burrard Street Bridge opened. I have written on it before and the bridge's history so I won't do so now.

On July 17 the CPR began running trains through a tunnel downtown. The tunnel was built to get the trains off of the city streets. With a few modifications it has been transformed to be used by the Skytrain.