A Leisurely Life

Friday, I told you a little about the life of the elite in the early 1900s in Vancouver. However, leisure was something to be enjoyed by people in walks of life. The mild, coastal climate seemed to bring that out in people.

In 1910, Hastings Park hosted its first annual summer fair. The population of Vancouver was 65,000 at that time and 68,000 people paid 50 cents to enter the gates.

People tended to focus on Stanley Park for year-round recreation. As they still do today. The huge, forested land mass at the mouth of Burrard Inlet was originally set aside as a bulwark against a US invasion into the British Colony. Fortunately, residents of Vancouver saw more to the area than that. When our first city council was formed, one of the top priorities was to request use of the then federal military reserve as a city park.

CPR land surveyor, Lauclan Hamilton, advanced the proposal. It is said that the CPR lobbied for the park so that their West End developments  would be more valuable. In 1889, Lord Stanley officially dedicated the park  "to the use and enjoyment of people of all colours, creeds and customs for all time." It didn't take long for the park to become the pride of Vancouver.

Here was where the citizens went to enjoy summer strolls and bicycle rides. A prime attraction in the park was the Hollow Tree and the towering grove of Douglas Fir and western red cedar, known as the Seven Sisters. This was a favourite spot for visitors to have a chance to see the "giants of the forest".

A lone black bear, kept by the first park ranger, became the first inhabitant of the Stanley Park Zoo. The park ranger's son, Henry Avison, recalls one day.

"One sunny Sunday afternoon, the wife of the Methodist clergyman approached the bear...and poked it in the ribs with the point of her umbrella. The bear took umbrage, and took a swift swipe at its molester... and, in the twinkling of an eye, there was more than her slip showing." Not long after, a bear pit was constructed to protect the decency of park visitors.

Hollow Tree. Photo taken in the early 1900s by Philip Timms.

The Dominion Photo Co. took this shot of the Seven Sisters in 1921.

In 1912, the zoo was expanded when a British landscape architect, T. Mawson, laid out the winding paths and gardens we see today. 

There are other recreational spots in Stanley Park like the Vancouver Rowing Club, the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club - both established in 1905. These clubs are social and recreational centres for the privileged. The Brockton Point Athletic Grounds - today's Brockton Oval - was the site of popular lacrosse matches and bicycle races. If musical entertainment was more to a person's liking, they would spread out on the grass around the bandstand at the site of present-day Malkin Bowl.

Just outside of Stanley Park - at Georgia and Gilford - was the Horse Show Building. It was the second largest structure of its kind in North Amerca, second only to New York's Madison Square Gardens. Annual equestrian shows were the places for the West End Elite to see and be seen. The Horse Show Building was built in 1898 and demolished in the 1960s.

In 1911, the Denman arena - close to the Horse Show Building - became the first in Canada to house an artificial ice rink. Four years later, the Vancouver Millionaires won the Stanley Cup there.

I would like to thank the  book Vancouver a History in Photographs by Aynsley Vogel and Dana Wyse for the above information and to the Vancouver Public Library for the old photos.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

The Year...1948

On January 3, 1948, two Vancouver Sun photographers, Art Jones and Ray Munro, formed the freelance photography business, artray. For some unremembered reason, the two were angry with Hal Straight of the Sun. Many of their photographs have been donated to the Vancouver Public Library website and I have used a few in blog entries.

January 12, Gordon Campbell - future mayor of Vancouver and premier of BC - was born in Vancouver.

On February 9, the go ahead was given for motel construction along Kingsway.

(these photos were taken on Tuesday. You can see the apple blossoms starting. Here comes spring!)

On March 6, 1948, the Province newspaper featured a photo of a sad looking young man sitting on the rubble of the partially demolished Giant Dipper roller coaster. The story below read: 

“THEY'RE TEARING DOWN the Giant Dipper at Vancouver's Hastings Park today to make room for the extension of the racetrack. This may be good news to adult followers of the galloping bangtails, but it's something close to a major tragedy for thousands of youngsters. Shown viewing the crumbling skeleton with nostalgia and sorrow is 14-year-old Bob. Said Bob, ‘If they want to rip things apart in this town, why don't they start in on a few schools?’ The Giant Dipper has been a top attraction at the midway since 1925. It cost $65,000. It was almost a mile long, and the cars reached 40 miles an hour. The longest sheer drop was 60 feet—a thrill credited with having hastened the ripening of many a beautiful friendship. In 1927 the Duke of Windsor, then the Prince of Wales, tried out the Dipper one afternoon and liked it so well he returned in the evening.”

Remember the band, the Ink Spots? Okay, that is going back a ways for some of you. On April 18, 1948, the group - starring Vancouver's own Bill Kenney - started a two-week engagement at the Palomar.

April 26, 1948 was Vancouver's first boat show.

May 9, 1948, the Women's Auxiliary to the Air Service dedicates a Remembrance garden in Stanley Park “as a living memorial in honoured tribute to the service, sacrifice and achievement of our gallant airmen.” A poem on a plaque in the garden reads:

Not here they fell who died a world to save Not here they lie but in a thousand fields afar 

Here is their living spirit that knows no grave 

Not here they were — but are

I am not ashamed to admit that poem brought tears to my eyes. So beautiful.

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

I hope you find the beauty around you.

...1947

This gave me a start one morning. I opened my curtains and, not quite awake, it looked like a man covered in blood was standing behind the dumpster.

On August 26, 1947, the war, World War II, was over. “After the Canadian army had vacated most of Ferguson Point, where a gun battery and camp had been located in 1938-45,” military historian Peter Moogk writes, “someone thought that the former officers' mess there would make a splendid home for the commander of the military district. So it was converted to serve this purpose.”

But the residents of Vancouver wanted the use of Stanley Park back, including unrestricted use of Ferguson Point. Now, the park is federal land, leased to the city but Commander Brigadier E.C. Plow left. Newspapers at the time said he was evicted but not according to Professor Moogk.  The house has now been converted to a restaurant.

The Vancouver Sun reported on September 13, that 18,500 auto mobiles were driven into downtown Vancouver everyday. More would come if there were more parking spaces available. The survey said that 6,000 of those cars had drivers who were going to work while the other 12,500 were for other matters such as shopping, making business and sales calls.

A headline in the Vancouver Province newspaper October 10: BIGGER HASTINGS TRACK - GIANT DIPPER DOOMED

“The Happyland Giant Dipper will be torn down to make way for a new 5 1/2 furlong racetrack costing $200,000, to be built at Hastings Park in time for the races next summer. The announcement was made today by Mackenzie Bowell, president of the Pacific National Exhibition. The present track is a half-mile affair (four furlongs). The new track will be pear-shaped.. Estimated at $200,000 at present costs, the price of the new track may rise before it is completed . . . McGill street will be re-routed immediately north of the present race track and a cement retaining wall, 23 feet at the highest point, will be built. Head of the stretch of the new track will be approximately where the popular Giant Dipper is now. The present concrete and steel grandstand will remain, but a new roof will be built. There will be more room in front of the stands. The track, cutting down from the dipper site and providing for a longer stretch run, will angle to cut through the centre of the present jockey's house. Then making a sweeping turn, it will go through the ‘L’ barn site and through two other old barns now where the back stretch will be. Frank Peterson, track expert for Bay Meadows and Portland Meadows, who examined dirt samples at Hastings track a week ago, believes that if the new track is dug down two feet, packed with Lulu Island peat then top-dressed with dirt and silt from the Fraser River bed, it will be among the finest and safest in North America. Mr. Bowell is doubtful if a new Giant Dipper will be built.”

It was October 15, 1947 when a late-night radio show made its debut on CKMO radio. The host of the show was a brash young deejay by the name of Jack Cullen. Originally the show was called DX Prowl (DX meaning distance in radio jargon) but then it was changed to Owl Prowl. “The show started October 15, 1947,” Jack recalled in 1994. “It ran from 10 p.m to 1 a.m. It was much more hit-parade oriented than today . . . I was a movie buff, and I subscribed to all the music and entertainment papers: Billboard, Variety, Metronome, Downbeat . . . and I used all this stuff. I sold my own spots ($1.50 or $2): I’d hustle by day, broadcast by night. The show clicked so quick. In six months I was laughing . . . I was making about $1,000 a month. In 1948 that was good.”

Five days later, the Vancouver Council of Churches was formed.

November 6, 1947, Woodward's Department Store expanded, opening an expansion.

Woodwards expansion. Photo Vancouver Public Library, 10421.

Jack Cullen broadcasting from a cab, parked at a drive-in restaurant. Photo taken in 1948 by Art Jones. Compliments of the Vancouver Public Library

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

I hope you find the beauty around you.