We had another great meeting last Thursday evening. We covered quite a lot of ground: It was noted that the 1921 Census of Canada is now available for scholars. At the moment it is made available via Ancestry.ca and a subsription membership is required. The current search engine dies not allow searches via addresses. Bruce … Continue reading Meeting Notes: August 2013
Category: 1920s
The 900-Block Commercial east side
A group of us were at Zawa's the other night, after the Heritage Awards, relaxing over food and beers, when the conversation turned to the short one-storey flat-roofed building that sat at Commercial & Venables until it burned down at the end of the 1990s. It seemed that most of us had memories of one … Continue reading The 900-Block Commercial east side
Tour of St. Francis Church and Rectory
On Thursday evening last, Fr. Eugenio, pastor of the St. Francis of Assisi parish in Grandview, very kindly invited a group of GHG members and friends to the Church on Napier Street where he took us on a tour of both the church and the rectory where he lives. In the early 1920s, Franciscan monks … Continue reading Tour of St. Francis Church and Rectory
The Wealthy Barber and The Tin Man
Just the other day I was standing on Commercial Drive looking across at two of my favourite buildings which are in the centre of the east side of the 1600-block. The building on the left is the Odlin Block and the building on the right is the Rodway Block. My interest was piqued because these … Continue reading The Wealthy Barber and The Tin Man
York Theatre Renovation
The renovation of the old York Theatre at Commercial and E. Georgia is moving ahead quite quickly. As a result of the stripping of stucco from the south wall we now have another "ghost" sign: this one for the Little Theatre. It is not so easy to see, especially with the scaffolding still in place, … Continue reading York Theatre Renovation
St. Francis of Assisi church and the Italian community
(This is an excerpt from the recently published Vanishing Vancouver: The Last 25 Years [Whitecap Books]. The photographs are from The History of Saint Francis Parish, Vancouver, published in 1959) The Franciscan Monastery, its front porch closed in, on Semlin at Napier in the 1950s There are just a handful of places in … Continue reading St. Francis of Assisi church and the Italian community
International Women’s Day: Catherine Bufton
In honour of International Women's Day, I thought I'd write a short piece on one of the most dynamic women ever to grace Grandview and Commercial Drive. Catherine Bufton (nee Drake) was born in Gloucester, England, in 1881. She emigrated to Manitoba where she met and married Hubert Bufton. After Hubert's service in World War … Continue reading International Women’s Day: Catherine Bufton
Bungalows Popular in Grandview in 1922
This little piece comes from the Vancouver Sun 2 February 1922.
Robertson Presbyterian Church Development
A large part of the iconic 1908/c.1921 Robertson Presbyterian Church (and from 1978-2011 a Fijian Hindu temple and cultural centre) will be demolished to make room for a ten-unit housing development on the corner of Napier and Salsbury. The south-facing wing and the west-pointing lean-to will be torn down. The remaining BC Mills Timber & … Continue reading Robertson Presbyterian Church Development
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