In the early 1960s there was great concern about the health, welfare and education of children in Grandview, and the apparent slumming down of the neighbourhood in general. In that period, much of the health and welfare delivery system was in the hands of United Community Services (UCS, which eventually morphed into United Way). On … Continue reading GWAC Founded 51 Years Ago Today
On 27th February 1915, while the world settled in to a major European War, the following ads were run in "The Vancouver Daily World" (p.16): "$75 cash, $20 monthly, inclusive price only $1,550, buys a new well-built modern bungalow on First Avenue, close to Commercial Drive; has full basement, bath, toilet, open fireplace, best electric … Continue reading 100 Years Ago Today in Grandview
I was researching something this morning and came across the following story from "The Vancouver Daily World" of 10th January 1910 which illustrates what parts of Grandview and Vancouver were like at that time: ***** "A daring attempted holdup was made on a laundry driver Saturday night at 6 o'clock, when three men pointed three … Continue reading Daring Hold-Up In Grandview!
Thanks to Blair Redlin who has pointed out a story in the Vancouver Sun regarding the need for a new future for the wonderful 1947 mural that currently decorates a wall in the Maritime Labour Centre at Victoria and Triumph. The magnificent mural was painted in 1947 by Fraser Wilson and was carefully moved from … Continue reading The Maritime Mural
Once again we had a full house for our meeting on 19th February. We covered a lot of ground and had two very special visitors. Eric began the meeting by taking us through some of the changes in the neighbourhood that we have noticed over the past month or so. These included the sale of … Continue reading Notes To February Meeting
Seventy-five years ago today, the then-newly renovated theatre in the 600-block of Commercial Drive was opened and re-named as the York Theatre. The theatre, previously called the Palace, had been operated by the Vancouver Little Theatre Society since the 1920s. During the late 1930s, the group had fundraised enough money for a complete refurbishment of … Continue reading York Theatre Anniversary
We had another full house for our monthly meeting on Thursday, and it was an interesting one. Eric Phillips continued his marvelous Mechanicals and Materials series, this time with a lively discussion of what and how to keep records of your house. Using his own home as an example, he talked about property records, such … Continue reading Notes To January Meeting
Almost any house built prior to the 1990s will contain some asbestos. This WorkSafe BC link will show you some of the more common places and give an overview of asbestos in the home. It is interesting that the diagram uses a relatively modern house as its example. Asbestos, as the miracle do-anything product, came … Continue reading Eric Phillips on Asbestos in Older Houses…
A full house of about 25 for our November meeting... • Our Geography 429 student, Kevin Shackles, introduced himself to the group. He will be working on a project in the Spring to map the old grocery stores and other commercial storefronts of "back-street" Grandview (that is, not The Drive, not Hastings Street) and investigate … Continue reading Meeting Notes from November 20th
We had another fine turn-out for our October meeting, with some new and welcome faces. We began by discussing the Coalition of Vancouver Neighbourhood's all-candidates meeting. The candidates' responses re: the Heritage Action Plan were discussed. It was also noted that all parties other than Vision had stated their opposition to the current Grandview Community … Continue reading Notes From Our October Meeting
Strathcona, Vancouver’s historic east end, has been home to generations of immigrants from around the world. In the 1930s the local elementary school was called “the Little League of Nations” acknowledging the 33 nationalities that attended classes there. In the surrounding neighbourhood, local churches reflected the diversity and the evolving nature of immigration; a Lutheran … Continue reading Early Immigrant Walking Tours: Strathcona
Silhouetted against the grey autumn sky .... work by the City on one of our derelict buildings!
• Presentation to the Citizens Assembly: In response to the request from Rachel Magnusson, organizer and chair of the assembly experiment, for info from the GHG on heritage issues, we discussed who would be able to go on October 4th at 12:30. The time constraints, which bear a remarkable resemblance to speed dating, were described … Continue reading Notes from the September 18th meeting
A record of the event the GHG held on Sunday, September 7th, which turned out to be the last day for the house. About 25 mourners attended, plus cameramen from CityTV and Global. Impromptu but very good. Pictures of the funeral from Jak's blog Global TV evening news: the funeral is from 8:28 to 9:08 … Continue reading The Funeral for 1723 Napier
There was a full house again for the GHG's monthly meeting, held (as always) in the boardroom at Britannia at 7 pm on the third Thursday. Cynthia Low, the executive director of Britannia, gave a Powerpoint presentation and listened to questions and comments about the ongoing planning process to replace the current Britannia Community Centre … Continue reading August 21st meeting recap
I have been doing more work on the 1921 Census for Grandview and have discovered that the north side of the 2000-block Venables Street was missed by the enumerator. The south side of the block (house numbers: 2012, 2030, 2036, 2052, 2056, 2062 and 2076) is captured on pages 4, 5 and 6 of district … Continue reading Missing Block in 1921 Census
About 20 people showed up at the boardroom at Britannia Community Centre for the monthly GHG meeting. • the launch party for the 2014 Centenary Signs, with cake and refreshments, will be at 11 am Saturday June 28th at Mosaic Park at the corner of Charles and McLean in the heart of the "west of … Continue reading Our June 19th meeting
At last month's GHG meeting, I gave a presentation of the Grandview years of James Guinet, who built more than 50 houses in our neighbourhood between 1907 and 1912. This is an accessible version of that presentation: Guinet_web_Presentation I will work on remembering how to put up a self-running version!
This fascinating structure is what is known as the Black House, on E. 6th by Main. Bruce Macdonald has been researching this property and is sure it is from 1889 and is perhaps the oldest building extant in Vancouver outside of the old downtown core. It is in solid shape and is currently occupied by … Continue reading Mount Pleasant Heritage Group
Here are Maria and Eric manning our booth just as the torrential downpour began to ease off. Thank goodness for sunshine later! We had a wonderful time on the Drive yesterday, meeting folks and having a number of fascinating conversations about heritage houses and local history. Thanks to everyone who stopped by, and to all … Continue reading GHG At Car Free Day 2014
grandviewheritagegroup.ca 