Finishing 1942

As I fill you in on a few last events of 1942, I am showing you part of an art display that was featured at the corner of Kingsway and Broadway last winter. It was an outdoor presentation that made great use of an empty lot.

Due to the wartime housing shortages, the federal government issued a order in council to allow Shaughnessy homes to be split into smaller units. This order remained in effect until 1955.

Shipping magnate, Robert Dollar, opened a mill at Roche Point in Indian Arm in 1916. The Dollar Mill was a major employer for many years but closed in 1942.

The lower mainland coastal batteries from Steveston to Point Atkinson were ready for an attack. They were manned by 720 gunners and supported by infantry regiments and auxiliary units. As well, anti-aircraft batteries of 40-mm and 3.7 inch calibre guns were at Point Grey, Little Mountain, Ambleside and other strategic places.

In 1942, Granville Island was closed to the public. It was determined to be crucial to the war effort and the island industries had to be protected from saboteurs.

34 patients died that year at Essendale Mental Hospital. They died of tuberculosis. It was also the year that ECT - electro convulsive therapy - was introduced at Essendale.

One of our city's oldest neighbourhood houses, Gordon House, opened in the west end.

Vancouver's Kinette Club - the women's counterpart to the Kinsman Club -  opened.

Straits Towing was formed by Harold Elworthy and Stan McKeen out of the one tug Preston-Mann fleet and McKeen's standard towing.

It took two years of fighting through the Arctic ice but the St. Roche finally made it to Sydney, Nova Scotia. She had left Vancouver on June 23, 1940.

Emily Carr donated 145 paintings and sketches to the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Roy Miki, third generation Japanese Canadian and Vancouver writer, was born in 1942 at a sugar beet farm in Manitoba.

Darshan A. Sangha was born in 1917 in Langeri, Punjab, India. In 1942, he became the first of Vancouver's Hindustani community drafted.

Saba's was Western Canada's largest retail house specializing in silks. They experienced a riot when 500 women showed up to buy 300 pairs of nylon stockings. Thankfully, no one was hurt.

A future publisher of the Vancouver Sun, Stuart Keate, began service as an information officer at the North Atlantic and Pacific theatres. The 29-year-old would serve in that capacity until 1945.

I also want to ask for your help. I have made the finalists for a book entitled '50 Great Writers You Should Be Reading' and I need votes. Would you please take the time to vote for me? The voting ends Monday, November 11 and here is the link. Thank you in advance.

Thanks goes to The History of Metropolitan Vancouver website for the information.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill, Vancouver, art, history, History of Metropolitan Vancouver, British Columbia Broadway, Saba's, Vancouver Sun, Kingsway, 1942

Still in '42

There are a few tidbits to 1942 that I haven't told you yet so that is what I am doing today.

In 1942, The Workmen's Compensation Board opened a rehabilitation centre in Vancouver in order to treat injured workers. During the last three months of that year, an average of 262 workers were treated daily at the centre.

The Ovaltine Cafe opened in 1942. It is located at 251 East Hastings and the interior has remained intact with varnished woodwork, booths, mirrors and a coffee counter. The show 'DaVinci's Inquest' featured the cafe quite often so if you happen to have a chance to see the show, you might get a glimpse of this Vancouver fixture.

The Shriner's Gizeh Temple was moved from Victoria to Vancouver.

Masumi Mitsui had won the medal for bravery during World War I. Despite this, he and his family were moved from their chicken farm in Port Coquitlam - it was taken away by the government - and forced to move to an internment camp.

1942 was the year that many people from the Prairies began to arrive in Vancouver. The Prairies were slower to recover from the depression and the people came here to fill jobs left vacant by the internment of the Japanese-Canadians.

The fishing industry was declared an essential service during the war. This meant that those working in that industry were exempt from conscription. Convicts were released to help work the fishing boats.

Much of the strawberry crop in 1942 was lost due to the interment of the Japanese-Canadian farmers.

Commercial blueberry farming began in Pitt Meadows though.

Baseball's Athletic Park was renamed Capilano Stadium. Athletic Park was dedicated in 1913.

Burnaby came out of the receivership it had been forced into during the Depression.

"Mr. Port Moody", John Murray Jr. died. Murray had named the streets of the municipality and his father was the area's first settler.

Thanks once again to the History of Metropolitan Vancouver Website for the information.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill, Vancouver, Masumi Matsui, history, History of Metropolitan Vancouver, British Columbia strawberry, Japanese Canadian, blueberry, Port Moody, 1942

1942 Again

Here's some more photos the haunted Old Spaghetti Factory on Water Street. I will show you those while filling you in on more activities of 1942.

On June 21, 1942, broadcaster and Mount Pleasant organizer Dave Adair was born. Nine days later, a favourite of mine and someone I have written on before, Terry David Mulligan, was born.

Alexander Maitland Stephen was a writer and poet who had been born in Hanover, Ontario in 1882. In his early years, Stephen worked in the fields of mining, logging and rural teaching. He served in World War I where he was wounded. After the war, he opened an engineering company here in Vancouver. Alexander Stephen was a well-known progressive social activist, a nationally known critic and the author of two novels in addition to plays, poetry and romances. In fact, his 1934 poem Vancouver, has been widely anthologized. He died on July 1, 1942.

Edgar Kaiser, future industrialist, was born on July 5, 1942.

On July 28, the Nine O'clock Gun at Stanley Park was silenced to save on gunpowder.

On August 19, Colonel Cecil Merritt became the first Canadian to win the Victoria Cross in World War II. He was from Vancouver.

The Wartime Prices and Trade Board began issuing ration books that covered the purchase of sugar, coffee and tea on August 24.

On September 30, the first women workers were hired by Burrard Dry Dock in North Vancouver. At the peak of wartime, 1,000 women were part of the 13,000 employees at the dock.

The last of the Japanese-Canadians left Vancouver for the internment camps on October 6.

A month later, November 6, one of the lions in front of the provincial courthouse was bombed. The culprit was never caught. Those lions were carved in 1908 by John Bruce and that building is presently the Vancouver Art Gallery.

The Alaska Highway - originally known as the Alcan Highway, was officially opened on November 20, 1942.

December 2, physicist Enrico Fermi split the atom.

On December 21, butter was rationed.

On the last day of 1942, Canadian word smith Bill Casselman was born.

I would like to thank The History of Metropolitan Vancouver websitge for the above information.

If you haven't had a chance yet, please vote for me in the contest to be included in the book '50 Great Writers You Should Be Reading'. Just click here!

I hope you find the beauty around you.


Karen Magill, Vancouver, Terry David Mulligan, history, History of Metropolitan Vancouver, British Columbia Bill Casselman, Japanese Canadian, Enrico Fermi, atom, 1942