One City

In 1922, 3000 unemployed men took up residence in a camp in the exhibition buildings at Hastings Park. A year later, a second grain elevator was started in the harbour and westbound grain rates were cut by 10%. Burrard Drydock was under construction.

Grain shipments were growing and by 1924, there were 53 million bushels sent to the port - a major backlog of the port business. Vancouver lawyer, MLA and special counsel for the province, G.G. McGeer, argued ferociously at various conferences and hearings for an adjustment of freight rates. He had been doing so since 1916 and earned himself a considerable reputation as a fiery and persistent advocate.

When Louis D. Taylor took over as mayor at the beginning of 1925, the population of the city proper had grown to 126,000. The property assessments were $211 million. Point Grey and South Vancouver each claimed between 25,000 and 30,000 residents. The city's budget was over $4.8 million.

The civic cash relief dole had been eliminated and unemployment was a mere 1800. The first Second Narrows Bridge was near completion. West Vancouver had a road as far west as Whytecliff.

Taylor was again elected in 1926 and he carried with him an alderman who was to become famous as a CCF stalwart, Angus McInnis. Taylor was re-elected for the first two-term sitting for mayors and aldermen - 1927-28.

Taylor's previous two terms had seen Vancouver's prosperity continuing. South Vancouver was recovering financially, the Second Narrows Bridge opened and North Vancouver started the Grouse Mountain Highway and Chalet. (This enterprise later changed to private hands.)

Grain shipments increased 50 percent, for the first time Vancouver had a million tourists in a single year and the city also had 50 miles of ornamental street lighting. However, Taylor's greatest achievement in that time was the passage of the amalgamation vote, which unite Point Grey, South Vancouver and Vancouver into one city.

Thanks to the book, Vancouver, From Milltown to Metropolis for the above information.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill

Meanwhile, Back At Home...

While the men were overseas proving themselves during the battles of World War I, what was happening back in Vancouver? As I have said before, there was a fair amount of mourning since the death toll was great but the citizens didn't let that stop them. They rolled up their sleeves to back up the fighting men.

Social life was non-existent except where it benefited the war effort. Red Cross work took up the time of Vancouver women - whether they were housewives or society women, they all lent a hand. Hundreds of businessmen drilled in the Horse Show Building with the Home Guard.

When the Georgia Street Viaduct was opened July 1, 1915, it was one continuous carnival, organized by the United Commercial Travellers to aid war efforts.

The careless happiness of the boom days was over and, at first, the strains of war intensified - rather than relieved - the depression. By April 1915, Vancouver considered itself "in a state of siege", with relief gangs working in the parks for $1a day, paid in groceries, and relief funds almost exhausted, a condition, which was temporarily relieved by a provincial grant.

South and West Vancouver were in financial problems. Assessments in the South dropped 20 percent to $37 million in a single year; only the wealthy Point Grey claimed to be in good shape. That was because there were fewer men on its relief and the majority of its residents were people of some substance.

For the first time in 22 years, the population of Greater Vancouver declined by 34,000 to an estimated 172,230. The opening of the Panama Canal was something we had looked forward to but it did little to increase the port's shipping. This was due to the lack of vessels in the Pacific.

However, the grain railway freight differential remained 20 per cent to 31 per cent above the rate on eastbound shipments from prairie points and largely cancelled out the drop in ocean traffic. Tax sales of forfeited land were general, buying the land instead of disposing it in a real estate market that didn't really exist.

Almost all news that winter was bad whether it was from the war front or the economic front. Businessman and community leader, R.H. Alexander and CPR executive, H.B. Abbott, died. On April 29, the Connaught (Cambie Street) Bridge was almost destroyed, and Granville Street Bridge was damaged lightly by simultaneous fires blamed on enemy sabotage. The Cambie Bridge went a long time before being repaired and it wasn't until mid-summer that people began to feel things were picking up.

Thanks to the book, Vancouver, From Milltown to Metropolis by Alan Morley for the above information.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill

A Love of Literature

Today Sir Walter Scott's literary works are mainly used in high school and university reading lists but in his day, his works were so popular and influential in the development of the novel. Thus giving Sir Scott  his present position in learned shrines.

Scott's 'Waverly' novels were originally published anonymously and achieved great success before he revealed he was the author. Scott's wealth allowed him to purchase the Scottish estate Abbotsford. He lost the estate and much of his wealth when his publisher went bankrupt. However, a new crop of books gave Sir Scott more money and he was able to repurchase Abbotsford.

You may be wondering what do the works of an author - who died in 1832, 54 years before Vancouver was incorporated - have to do with this city? Well, Sir Scott's popularity continued, especially with Vancouver city engineer, William B. Young.

Between 1929 and 1932, Young renamed several city streets in the Little Mountain/South Vancouver area and he chose names after characters and titles in Scott's novels.

As you may remember, Vancouver and Point Grey amalgamated in 1929. This caused some confusion due to the irregular development of South Vancouver roads. It was an interesting problem for civic engineering.

Many of the numbered streets didn't match or meet up. For example, the street now called Waverly was originally East 49th and it lay between East 47th and East 48th. Talk about confusing! A renaming was definitely in order.

Young got to work.  Dandle Dinmont, a character in Scott's novel Guy Mannering, inspired Dinmont Avenue; the title character in the book Quentin Durward lent his name to Durward Avenue (prior to the amalgamation, this was known, unofficially, as Stretch Road after homesteaders Thomas and Catherine Stretch); there is Ivanhoe Street after the novel of the same name; Mannering Avenue - refer to the first part of this sentence for an explanation there; Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field produced Marmion Avenue.

The Waverly novel, The Heart of Midlothian provoked Midlothian Avenue. Midlothian, by the way, is a Scottish district near Edinburgh. Nigel Avenue comes from the Waverly novel, The Fortunes of Nigel; Peveril of the Peak has a main character Sir Geoffrey Peveril of Derbyshire so Vancouver has a street named Peveril Avenue. Then there is Talisman Avenue, Waverly Avenue and Woodstock Avenue, all named after novel titles. There was a Robsart Avenue, which was named after the character Amy Robsart from the novel Kenilworth but it was eliminated when the Capilano Stadium - now Nat Bailey Stadium - was built.

So that is a look at how a knowledge and appreciation for fine literature helped form Vancouver. I would like to say thank you to the book Namely Vancouver by Tom Snyders and Jennifer O'Rourke for the above information.

I hope you find the beauty around you.