. The Pool Parlour On Tuesday 29th May 1923, G.J. Westwood received a building permit for a $3,000 one-storey building at 1816-1818 Commercial Drive. He hired William Francis Jones to design it, and R.E. James to build it, and by the following spring, Grandview Recreations was open for business at 1816 under the management of … Continue reading 100 Years Ago Today in Grandview, #11 →

. Swap Columns The Vancouver dailies included scores of pages of ads. Many of them were corporate material just trying to sell you stuff; but a significant number were "swap" ads, where individuals offered up something in exchange for something else. For example, on Saturday 3rd February 1923, someone offered a short silk plush coat … Continue reading 100 Years Ago Today in Grandview, #3 →

. The Great War of 1914-1918 brought with it many changes to Canadian society. This brief essay looks at one such change; the move from full service grocers to the concept of self-service. During the war, and for some time thereafter, most retail businesses on the Drive were still stores rather than shops, with apron-clad … Continue reading Bringing Self-Service To Vancouver & The Drive, 1918-1926 →

. The northwest corner of First and Commercial must today be considered a prime retail location. For most residents of the neighbourhood, except for those with memories stretching back more than thirty years, that intersection is Il Mercato Mall with a VanCity credit union on the corner itself. But before the mid-1980s, when the Mall … Continue reading Battle For The School Site, 1940-1955 →

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 →