Bakeries and Stories

This building at the corner of Victoria Drive and William Street doesn't look like a lot and believe me it looked worse before the renovations started.

When the workers removed the stucco from the side of the building there was a unique addition found.

This sign dates back to the 1920s. Shelly's 4X Bakery Products was a Vancouver business that is now history.

William Curtis Shelly was born in Ontario in 1878 and moved to Vancouver in 1910 in order to expand his bakery business. The name apparently comes from the fact that Shelly started his business with a little more than forty dollars to his name.

Shelly's was around along. By 1929 records show that the bakery was part of Canadian Bakeries and had various locations around the city. A 1940 directory shows that a Shelly, Wm C. resided at 1563 Williams Street. Shelly died in 1951.

This is Washington Court at 998 Thurlow Street. It was built in 1910.

In 1895 Burnaby had to hire some police.. They needed someone to control the rowdies, let owners know that swine was running loose and enforce the wide tire bylaw for wagons. The salary was $2 a day and he was dismissed due to lack of funds two years later.

Our city's first CPR building was a tiny structure. It was moved from the north end of Howe Street to 10 Heatley Street in 1899. A CPR worker by the name of William Alberts had been injured on the job and he was allowed to move in and live rent free for the rest of his life. He resided there for fifty years.

It snowed in South Vancouver. On June 23, 1901.

In 1903 W.S. Holland shot and killed a timber wolf. It was at the corner of Burnaby and Cardero Streets.

The first auto club race around Stanley Park was held in 1905. There were eleven cars that started this race and only five completed it. All five vehicles were made by Oldsmobile.

Jeff  'the Boxing Kangaroo' delighted audiences at the Pantages Theatre in 1908. This is a bittersweet note because the last time I was in that area I noticed that the theatre has now been torn down. There went the last vaudeville house in Canada.

Victor McLaglen was an Oscar winning movie actor. But in 1909 McLaglen fought an exhibition fight in Vancouver with world heavyweight champion Jack Johnson.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill, Vancouver, Shelly's 4X Bakery Products, Victor McLaglen, Jeff the Boxing Kangaroo, Pantages Theatre, British Columbia