Hydroelectric Power and Lions

In the fall of 1903 the first North Vancouver District Municipal Hall was built at the corners of First Street and Lonsdale Avenue. Although the city had been incorporated twelve years earlier the city council had been meeting at different places around Vancouver except for the one obligatory meeting each year in the proper district.

The Province reported on November 12, 1903 about the new Royal Bank at Hastings and Homer Streets. The bank had the city's first safety deposit box and two teller cages. It was put up by Jonathon Rogers (as you may remember Rogers was the first person to step off of the first passenger train to arrive in Vancouver. The Rogers building at Pender and Granville is named after him) One of the credited architects is Sydney Morgan Eveleigh after whom a city street is named.

November 13 of the same year the secretary at the Vancouver General Hospital reported that, during the last month, the hospital's expenditure had been $2,492.16. The house surgeon made a report that there were 38 patients - 26 males and 12 females - at the beginning of the month.

Five days later the Vancouver High School Cadet Corps - the first military cadet corps in Vancouver - was gazetted to the militia as a unit.

The city's first streetcars started serving the public in 1890 and the system was powered by electricity generated from a little steam powerhouse on what is now Union Street. The city grew as did service to meet the need. In 1903 the little power house was no longer sufficient to supply what was needed so an alternative had to be found.

The BC Electric Railway Company started looking for a new source near the city where hydroelectric power could be generated. They found it at Beautiful Lake or, as we know it today, Trout Lake. They built a  tunnel from Coquitlam Lake to Trout Lake. The fact that Coquitlam Lake was nearly ten metres higher than Trout and that there is an annual rainfall of 3.7 metres provided a motive force to generate the power.

Johannes Buntzen, BCER's general manager, supervised the production of the system which was the first hydroelectric powerhouse on the mainland. This Dane has been called the Grandfather of Electricity here in Vancouver because he went before the Vancouver City Council and urged them to attract new industry that could make use of this new source of power.

In 1903 was when H. Hooper drove Vancouver's first taxi - a 'wheezy, two-cylinder Ford'.

Ladner's Landing changed its name to Ladner in 1903. It has never been incorporated as a town or a village but has always been considered a part of Delta. Ladner does not have any official boundaries nor has it ever had a government of its own.

(This piece of artwork was on a shopping cart in downtown Vancouver)

The Carnegie Centre at Main and Hastings had stained glass depictions of Spenser, Milton and Shakespeare installed in 1903. Although they were removed at one time I can attest to the fact that those beautiful pieces of artwork are there today.

The first chairman of the Vancouver Parks Board, Alfred Graham Ferguson, died in San Francisco sometime in 1903. 

Another death in 1903 was that of Nicolai Schou, the first elected reeve of Burnaby who died in office.

The government wanted to stop immigration from China so in 1903 they raised the head tax on Chinese immigrants to $500. It worked, immigration ground to a standstill.

The three Latta brothers scaled the peaks of the Lions. They brought ropes to climb with them since they had heard that was how to do it. But once confronted with the mountain top the men were at a loss on how to use the ropes so those got thrown aside and the men climbed the peaks using small shrubs and bushes and cracks to haul themselves up. Although it would be considered poor climbing form today I am still in awe of the accomplishment.

Robert Service, future poet, arrived in Vancouver in 1903 after working a temporary job with a Duncan Dairy Farm. Here he got a job with the Canadian Bank of Commerce.

I hope you enjoyed this further look at events in 1903 and I sincerely hope that you find the beauty around you.

TAGS:Vancouver, Karen Magill, BC Electric Railway Company, Trout Lake,Coquitlam Lake,Johannes Buntzen,history,

Some Notable Facts

This is the Water Street Side of the Jones Block. I only took a photo of the address listed - the brighter  orange building - but maybe both buildings are part of the block. And here I can see some differences that were mentioned in an earlier entry.

In 1903 a Canadian Pacific Railway engineer -Henry John Cambie- moved to Vancouver.From 1876 to 1880 he was in charge of CPR surveys and his survey from the Yellowhead Pass to Port Moody set the route to the lower Fraser. Cambie Street is named after him. 

1903 was the year that Vancouver got its first Crown prosecutor. At the age of 24, John Wallace deBeque Farris arrived in Vancouver to fill the position.

The Capilano Golf and Country Club got its start in 1903. A philanthropist, Harvey Hadden, bought 160 acres in the Capilano Canyon from architect Sydney Morgan Eveleigh. Even though Hadden had never seen the property. He went on to build a 'sort of Garden of Eden in the forest' that he named Hadden Hall.

John Lawson a conductor with the CPR came west from Ontario in 1903. He later became known as the 'Father of West Vancouver'.

Jumping ahead to 1904.

On January 20 the Canadian government disallows a BC Act restricting Chinese immigration.

On May 11 W. Kaye Lamb was born. This is noted because Lamb went on to have distinguished career as an archivist and librarian. Provincial Archivist and Librarian of British Columbia from 1934 to 1940, University Librarian of the University of British Columbia from 1940 to 1948, Dominion Archivist of Canada from 1948 to 1968 and, overlapping with the previous, National Librarian of Canada from 1953 to 1967.

A May 20 a school opened in Lynn Valley with 18 pupils.

In June of 1904 Prussian count and financier Konstantin “Alvo” von Alvensleben arrives in Vancouver. Although he went on to become a stock promoter, make a fortune and be a prominent social figure he got his start painting barns, repairing fish nets as well as shooting geese and ducks that he then sold to the Vancouver Club for 35 cents each.

July 23, 1904 was the day that the first bridge to span the Fraser River opened. It was quite the marvel. On the lower level it carried trains while the upper level was for pedestrians and vehicles. It was just wide enough for two hay wagons to pass each other. It cost 1 million dollars to build.

Two days after that the first branch of the Bank of Nova Scotia opened at 418 West Hastings Street.

September 10, the Grey Fox - Bill Miner - jumped into outlaw history by holding up a train at Silverdale, near Mission. He then escaped over the border to Whatcom County in Washington State. Miner received his nickname due to his white hair and sly ways and was a favourite among the people.

Other notable happenings in 1904 include:

The first auto dealership in Vancouver was started by Frank and Fred Begg. Industrialist John Hendry bought the first gasoline powered car.

The first movie house was opened in New Westminster by Frank Kerr. When the film broke Kerr had to glue it together.

The Steveston Land and Oil Company was formed in order to drill for oil on Lulu Island.

A wharf was built in North Vancouver by Charles Cates to handle cargo travelling from California to the Klondike.

Miss Harriet Woodward opened her private school on the northeast shore of Deer Lake in 1904. She also opened a post office in her home which she ran for 45 years.

BC sealing captain, Alexander McLean sometimes lived in Vancouver and in 1904 Jack London`s novel the Sea Wolf was published. London based the main character - Wolf Larsen - on McLean.

The Vernon and Nelson Telephone Company bought out a series of telephone companies around the province and changed its name to the British Columbia Telephone Company.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

TAGS:Vancouver, Karen Magill, 1903, Sea Wolf,1904,Frank Kerr,history,

1901 and 1903: Good Years

Hello one and all. Did you have a great weekend? Mine didn't start off the greatest but I am pleased with how it progressed.

Today I am going to post a bunch of pictures and then some information on the city. Thanks to the website The History of Metropolitan Vancouver for helping me with the information.

Some of the photos I am showing you today are of interesting things I happen to see on my walks.

In 1884 huge knot free beams (112 feet by 28 inches or 34 m by 70 cm) left Burrard Inlet Sawmills bound for Beijing's Imperial Palace.

F.L. Carter-Cotton owned the paper The Advertiser, which was about a year old and on March 31, 1887, The Advertiser merged with another year old paper, the News.

These were taken through the window at a doctor's office.

Squatter Sam Greer - where Greer's Beach got its name (Greers Beach is now Kitsilano Beach) - shot the sheriff when the law officer came to evict him on September 26, 1891. Greer's act of defiance didn't help eithier since while the official was recuperating Greer and his family were removed, the buildings levelled and Greer jailed.

The founder of Roger's Sugar Refinery and his wife - Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Tingley. Rogers - had a housewarming party at their mansion Gabriola on Davie Street. The information I read states that there is a restaurant there now but the one mentioned is not listed so I will check on that one day.

King George V and Queen Mary were Vancouver's first Royal Visit on September 30, 1901. At that time they were still the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and the young city really showed off for them. The future ruler of England and his wife even got to watch "a forest giant being cut up" when they visited the Hastings Sawmill.

The future city of North Vancouver was booming as well in 1901. A census recorded 365 people living there and it was described in the British Columbia Directory as a suburban townsite.

A five-day steamer service that travelled from Seattle to Skagway - with a stop in Vancouver - was inaugerated in 1901. The Vancouver Board of Trade put pressure on to make sure this service was undertaken.

On January 6, 1903 the Vancouver Business College opened with four students.

On March 10, 1903 the old Ross McLaren mill in Port Coquitlam saw new life. The Fraser River Sawmills Company was formed on that day and operated out of the old mill. The Fraser River Sawmills Company would grow to become the largest shipper of lumber in the British Empire. 

April 15, 1903 was the day that Union activist Frank Rogers was shot and killed on a Vancouver Street. Although someone was arrested for this crime, the suspect was acquitted in court later and the murder was never solved.

Summer of 1903 was when a cable suspension bridge was extended across the Capilano Canyon and replaced an earlier, rougher version. This was the start of the first commercial attraction in North Vancouver. (Just in case you aren't aware I am speaking of the Capilano Suspension Bridge which is a major tourist attraction today. Now I would visit there and write the history but I am terrified of suspension bridges. Maybe someday though.)

I was walking along Robson Street on Saturday and happened upon this vehicle.

I wonder how he or she drives this?

On August 26, 1903 the Art, Historical and Scientific Association created the Vancouver Museum.

On October 1 of the same year a Mr. W.S. Holland heard a disturbance around 3 am. He looked out to see what appeared to be a large dog chasing his chickens. So Holland shot the intruder and then went back to bed. The next morning Holland went out to find not only a few dead chickens but also a big, dead timber wolf. Holland lived at the corner of Burnaby and Cardero Streets. Even back then that was in the city.

On October 8, 1903 at the St. James Hall in Vancouver, a social center for sailors - the first Mission to Seamen - was established.

On November 3 a plan was established to get rid of the pesky crows in Vancouver. Although a by-law banned the discharging of firearms in Stanley Park officials said they would look the other way that day as the park was closed to the city and numerous hunters came out to bag one of the creatures and get paid a bounty. The crow had the last laugh though. Today, near the Willingdon exit on Highway 1 in Burnaby, from about 5,000 to 8,000 crows gather every day as dusk falls.

On a reinforcement wall along Commercial Drive there is a series of mosaics set in the wall. This is one that I really like.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

TAGS:Vancouver, Karen Magill, B.T. Rogers, Gabriola,Fraser River Sawmills CompanyKing Edward V,Vancouver Museum,history,