. On 26th June 1924, Angus Fraser was issued a building permit for a $2,500 "residence". However, in 1926/27, Fraser's company Crystal Dairy built a dairy on the site. Founded in 1922, Crystal Dairy was the largest independent dairy in Vancouver by 1936. Most of the building was essentially a milk delivery depot and stables, but … Continue reading 100 Years Ago Today in Grandview, #24
In May 1924, John Thomas Guy, a 40-year old Englishman, arrived in Vancouver seeking a site for his dream of building a piano making factory. After a brief exploration, he met with the Board of Trade and announced himself impressed with the possibilities, and noting that most of the materials he would need were available … Continue reading Commercial Drive’s Own Piano Man
A joint meeting of the Grandview Rate-Payers Association and the Parent-Teacher Association held at the Grandview Dancing Academy was told by the principal, H.B. Fitch, that attendance at Grandview School had jumped from 330 to 650 pupils. The school was seriously overcrowded. The principal urged everyone to get behind a new School Board By-law that … Continue reading 100 Years Ago Today in Grandview #22
. In September 1911, the BC Electric Company purchased most of the block at McLean and E. 2nd Avenue, and over the next few years built a full-scale gas works on the block. By 2nd February 1924, the Grandview gasworks had become a fully integrated part of Vancouver' power supply, and the company proudly advertised it … Continue reading 100 Years Ago Today in Grandview, #21
The Belmont Building at 1433-37 Commercial is architecturally unique on the Drive, with the open archway between the two bays. The lot was owned by Mrs Gamble and she paid $265 to Wylie & Ross to have a small shack-like store erected here from 1904. In 1912, major Grandview developer James Guinet purchased the property … Continue reading 100 Years Ago Today in Grandview, #19
. Armed Robbery of a Boy Jack Sherlock was a delivery boy for White's Grocery at 2657 Commercial Drive. He received a telephone order to deliver groceries to a house in the 1300 block of E. 8th Avenue. He was specifically requested to make sure he had change with him. He was unable to find … Continue reading 100 Years Ago Today in Grandview #16
. At a meeting on Friday 28th September 1923, the members and supporters of the Little Theatre approved "with much enthusiasm" the purchase of the Palace Theatre, 637 Commercial Drive. Built in 1913 as the Alcazar, it is now the York Theatre. For the previous two years, the Little Theatre -- described as "a true … Continue reading 100 Years Ago Today in Grandview, #15
. On August 4th, 1923, J.B. Elliogolt was granted Building Permit A-6234 to erect "new stores" valued at $6,000 on the corner of Commercial and Grant. He delivered a fine building which, after a major renovation in 1975, continues to grace the street one hundred years later. Image: GoogleStreetMaps, June 2022.
. I have today uploaded a document called Inventory of Commercial Drive Buildings. It is, so far as I can make it, an accurate listing of every building that has ever been on Commercial Drive between Venables Street and 7th Avenue. Entries in boldface are buildings that exist today; those in plain type are no … Continue reading Inventory of Commercial Drive Buildings
. On Friday, 18th May 1923, John Y. Steel received a $3,000 building permit for a new store at 1544 Commercial. Steel had operated a dry goods business at 1584 Commercial since 1918. This image from 1922 shows the empty lot beside the corner block. Steel had moved into his new building by the spring … Continue reading 100 Years Ago Today in Grandview, #9
. Friday evening, 23rd February 1923, saw the opening of the new I.O.O.F. Hall at 1718 Graveley Street. The new building was described as "handsome" and "commodious", with electric heating. More than 250 members attended the opening banquet, and they enjoyed: "an interesting program of vocal and instrumental music, followed by dancing to the orchestra … Continue reading 100 Years Ago Today in Grandview, #5
. It was a big day for Grandview -- January 29th, 1923 -- as the Grandview Theatre debuted its brand-new $15,000 orchestral organ. It was, they said, "the last word in organs." You got all this, plus a Jackie Coogan feature, for just 30 cents!
. In 1890, the boostering land owners of Vancouver and New Westminster -- backed by their respective mayors and financial elites -- decided it had become necessary to link the two cities by means of an electric interurban railroad. One contemporary observer later confided that "there was a strong suspicion in many minds" that an … Continue reading The Drive 1890s: False Start
. In the beginning there was forest, where the local indigenous peoples hunted deer and other animals for untold generations. But then the settlers arrived and much of the rolling hills east of the new city of Vancouver had been granted to the Hastings Mill Company as a timber lease in 1870. They paid a … Continue reading The Drive: In The Beginning
. The boom for building in Grandview was in the decade before the First World War, and by 1914, the neighbourhood was filling out and thriving. Unfortunately, the impact of the War and the business downturns immediately after, left the Drive without much opportunity for further development and expansion. These difficulties were exacerbated a decade … Continue reading The Viaduct That Saved Grandview (1938)
One hundred years ago today, 3rd June, 1922, there was an auction of household contents at 1549 E. 2nd in Grandview. The 6-room wooden house had been owned and occupied for some time by Albert Cameron and his wife, Susannah. Albert is listed in the census of the previous year as a carpenter in a … Continue reading House Contents, 1922
The first Isolation Hospital, known then as the pest house, in Vancouver was just a shack on the Inlet near where B.C. Sugar refinery would soon be built. However, when smallpox -- “the loathsome disease” -- struck in 1892, the shack was quickly abandoned, and infectious disease victims were shuffled off to a temporary camp … Continue reading Smallpox! Grandview’s Isolation Hospital
Visitors and locals alike often wonder why Commercial Drive south of First Avenue -- a wide arterial road -- is different than the northern half which is narrower and more intimate. The reason goes back more than 110 years and it all had to do with political intrigue in the Balkans. Like many streets in … Continue reading The Widening of Commercial Drive
It was the spring of 1949 and Commercial Drive -- after two long decades of Depression and War -- was reveling in the first flush of postwar prosperity: the stores were full and people finally had money to spend. No doubt, it was this very prosperity that drew Robert Harrison to the corner of First … Continue reading Shoot Out At First & Commercial
. At the last monthly meeting of the Grandview Heritage Group, Jak presented his research on an early church in Grandview. The following is a version of that presentation (1). This story began with a mystery. In the 1905 Vancouver City Directory, there are just a few listings for Park Drive, the original name of … Continue reading A Church, Lost and Found
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