Heaven Sent

While I was walking along Kingsway I happen upon a large purple building, Purdy's Chocolates so today I am going to show you some photos and tell you about this Vancouver company.

In 1907 Richard Carmon Purdy opened his first chocolate shop at 915 Robson Street. Purdy was born on January 20, 1878 in London Ontario.

Purdy married Sophia Stewart and on January 18, 1900 their son Frederick Wesley was born. A census in 1901 listed Richard Purdy not only as head of household but one who had an occupation as a barber.

Tragedy struck in 1903 when young Frederick died. Following the death of his son Purdy moved to BC to start a new life.

Purdy's initial endeavour into the chocolate business was quite a success. Soon he couldn't keep up with his customers' demands and opened a second shop at 675 Granville Street across from the Hudson Bay Company.

In 1914 Richard Purdy established his corporate entity, R.C. Purdy Chocolates Limited.

In 1918 Purdy moved his Robson Street store to 990 Granville Street.

In 1925 Richard Purdy was forced into receivership. Fortunately his creditors thought that the company was worth saving and sent in a bookkeeper by the name of Hugh Forrester to reorganize and help save the chocolate manufacturer.

Forrester was able to start paying back the creditors and within a few years and eliminated the mountain of debt. However the  creditors who had saved the company were not interested in running it so they sold it to Forrester for $1.

And Purdy? Well he had taken a hit but he wasn't out. It wasn't long before he was selling his chocolates, made in his kitchen, from a rolling cart on Granville Street.

It wasn't long before he opened a new chocolate shop called Window Made Candy in Burnaby. Purdy ran the store quite successfully until retiring.

In February of 1941 Richard Carmon Purdy changed his name to Norman R. Purdy. A year later, at the age of 66, Norman R. Purdy died.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill, Vancouver, Purdy's Chocolates, London Ontario, Granville Street, Robson Street, British Columbia

Oddly Enough

In 1917 The Province reported that BC women now had the right to vote. However the story was buried deep within a report from legislature and it was prefaced by a report of agriculture.

Also in 1917 a Vancouver businessman by the name of Alvo von Alvensleben was arrested in the US as a German spy. It seems that British Intelligence agents had sent a list of 'dangerous German spies' to the US government and this fellow's name topped the list.

In 1918 a RAF pilot by the name of Lt. Victor Bishop crashed his plane, an H-2 "flying boat". The interesting point of this is that he crashed through the roof of a West End doctor. Bishop stepped out of the plane and into the upstairs hallway. From there a resident helped the pilot down the stairs and out  the front door to a waiting ambulance.

If we think that penalties for not paying taxes are harsh now just be glad you didn't live here in 1919. In that year there were more than two thousand pieces of Vancouver property listed for sale by auction. These properties were seized due to non payment of taxes and some people owed less than ten dollars.

Construction on the Peace Arch was stopped in November of 1920 in order to allow time for the concrete to set. Work wasn't resumed until June of 1921.

Also in 1920 loggers in Surrey discovered a large eagle's nest. It was so big that it was too large for a farm wagon to take away. Wonder how big the bird that made it was?

Still in 1920, this time in Port Coquitlam, a fire started in the fire chief's kitchen above the firehall. The flames destroyed the fire hall and half the buildings downtown.

In 1921 the director of what was to become the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra absconded with all the orchestra's money. Henry Green was never seen or heard from again.

On July 27, 1923 50,000 people gathered in Stanley Park to hear visiting US President, Warren Harding, speak. Harding was the first sitting US President to visit Canada. Harding died in San Francisco a week later.

A two year old cow at the Colony Farm at the mental hospital of Essondale set a world record for milk production in 1923. Colony Grebegga Valdessa as she was known was the best in her age group with producing 28,371 pounds of milk in a year which works out to be about 78 pounds a day.

I want to thank The History of Metropolitan Vancouver website for the preceding information.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill, Vancouver, Colony Farm, Essondale, Peace Arch, Port Coquitlam, British Columbia

A Guy

Monday was a beautiful  sunny day here and I went walking along Kingsway, looking for old buildings that I had addresses to. A lot of them weren't there any longer, having been replaced by newer, less interesting structures but this one was there.

This is the Sir Guy Carleton Elementary School, more commonly known as Carleton. It is located on Kingsway and Joyce Streets and is part of School District 39 in Vancouver.

This Collingwood district school has a long history.

This schoolhouse has been central to Collingwood since its completion in 1896. It was originally named Vancouver East School but was renamed Collingwood Heights in 1908 and the Sir Guy Carleton in 1911.

Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester was born September 3, 1734 in Strabana Co. Tyrone, Ireland and died November 10, 1808 in Stubbings, Maidenhead, Berskshire. He was an Irish-British soldier who twice served as Governor of the Province of Quebec from 1768 to 1778 then he concurrently served as Governor General of British North America from 1785 to 1795.

Carleton has grown from the one room schoolhouse it was originally into what you are seeing today. It now houses nineteen classes from kindergarten to Grade 7 and educates about 420 students a year. Students are of a diverse population, much like Vancouver itself. After Grade 7 students from Carleton will go on to Killarney Secondary School or Windermere Secondary School.

This is known as Vancouver's oldest school.

In March of 2008 kindergarten classes had to be temporarily relocated due to damage caused when the schoolhouse was set on fire.

Just over a year later, on April 9, 2009, a student - who had been dropped off at 7:30am - spotted a corpse on the schoolyard. Classes were cancelled for the day and according to the report I read, police haven't identified a suspect in that suspicious case.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill, Vancouver, Sir Guy Carlton., Collingwood, corpse, Vancouver East, British Columbia