The Vancouver Historical Society Newsletter Preserving and promoting the history of Vancouver since 1936 HS Vol. 56 No. 7 | April 2017 | ISSN 0823-0161 100-block East Pender Street, 1960. COURTESY CHUNG COLLECTION, UBC LIBRARY AND RARE BOOKS The Historic Buildings of Vancouver’s Chinatown n 2014, the City of Vancouver an- April Speakers: City Planner Tom Wanklin will speak nounced a three-year, $2.5 million about the rich histories of these buildings I John Atkin & Tom Wanklin grant program to provide critical up- and how the societies they housed helped grades to Chinatown’s historic clan and efforts to sustain local businesses, China- Chinatown survive and prosper in the society buildings. At the time, critics town’s unique character will be lost.” face of discrimination, disenfranchise- warned that while the funds would main- John Atkin agrees. ment and threats of urban renewal. Built tain the physical buildings, the neigh- “It’s easy to look at the society in an era when mutual support was nec- bourhood was still under threat by accel- buildings and say, wow, we’ve saved Pend- essary for the city’s Chinese immigrants, erated gentrification. er Street. Done,” he says. “But if you lose clan and benevolent societies provided Then last year, the National Trust the vegetable shops and the barbecue housing, loans and other social supports for Canada featured Vancouver’s China- shops, then you don’t have a living neigh- to a tight-knit bachelor community. They town on its annual list of Top 10 Endan- bourhood. Pender Street would become also helped settle disputes and oversaw gered Places. The charity blamed relent- a petting zoo for society buildings, but the return of remains to China when less development, warning that “without you have nothing else.” somebody died. better control on new development and Atkin, a civic historian, and DTES CONTINUED INSIDE NEXT MEETING: 7:30 P.M., Thursday, April 27, 2017 at the Museum of Vancouver President’s Notes hree things this month. TFirstly, big thanks to ev- eryone who participated in our Incorporation Day luncheon on April 2nd. Our former president and treasurer, Scott Anderson, teamed up again with his wife Amber to coor- dinate the event; Florence and Author and photographer Vickie Jensen. PHOTO COURTESY VICKIE JENSEN Alan Sung ran the draw for Field Trip to Stanley Park’s Totem Poles book prizes and took photos; Duncan MacLeod brought the tanley Park’s totem poles first began attracting visitors and Robert Kerr bell from the Maritime Museum and rang it Slocals in the 1920s. Today they get more than 3.5 million to commemorate the Great Fire of 1886; Mike Harcourt visitors each year. Join author/photographer Vickie Jensen for made room in his busy schedule to speak of his many years a guided tour and discover the whys and hows of totem pole of public service and his predictions for the future. And, carving, the artistic culture of the Northwest Coast peoples, the many members came with their guests to make the event a controversial history of this amazing art form in the park, and success. Thank you all! the newest additions of Salish art. We’ll be meeting at Brockton Secondly, we are wondering how we can help Point totem poles at 1:00 p.m. To sign up please email info@ members who have difficulty attending lectures at the rel- vancouver-historical-society. If that is not possible, phone Bob atively inaccessible Museum of Vancouver. We obviously McDonald at 604-827-3622. feel a kinship with the MoV while recognizing that the Saturday, June 24 at 1pm. Meet at Brockton Point nearest bus service is a stiff five-minute walk away and the tariff on the city-owned parking lot is all but a shake- down. Some kind of ride-share or carpool arrangement New VHS Members might be possible to arrange. To begin, can anyone who Carola Ackery Robin Anderson William Stinson would be willing to share their car, or who would like a Mary Louise Stathers Joseph Planta ride, send an email to my address below, or phone and leave a message at our infoline number, 604-827-3622? Depending on the response, we may be able to set up Vancouver Historical Society Executive Board: some kind of electronic bulletin board to connect drivers 2016 - 2017 (ELECTED MAY 26, 2016) with passengers; alternatively, will someone volunteer to take this on as a project? PRESIDENT Michael Kluckner And thirdly, the April lecture on the Chinatown VICE PRESIDENT Eve Lazarus family buildings is one of those topics combining our in- TREASURER Grace Bu RECORDING SECRETARY Kellan Higgins terest in history with the challenges of a fast-growing city. DIRECTOR Robert McDonald Vancouver’s Chinatown is not a theme park due to the DIRECTOR Brenda Peterson persistence of the family and benevolent associations that DIRECTOR (PROGRAMS) Bruce M. Watson speak authentically of Chinese-Canadian culture, both DIRECTOR (COMMUNICATIONS) Madeleine de Trenqualye today’s and of the racist era that ended, at least legally, in DIRECTOR (COMMUNICATIONS) Stevie Wilson 1947. But, as a participant in a recent SFU City Conver- sation put it, who is it being saved for? There are newer Appointed Positions commercial areas dominated by “Chinese businesses” ARCHIVIST Alexandra Allen and customers. However, the city’s response – to upzone INFO LINE Jeannie Hounslow and stimulate a condo boom of new development and MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY Mary Wallace Poole new residents – is bleeding the area’s architectural and NEWSLETTER MAILING Mary Gavan cultural uniqueness. Come, listen, and participate – this TOUR COORDINATOR Jo Pleshakov is one our programs that has a foot in the past and the CONTACT other foot squarely in the present. Vancouver Historical Society Info Line: 604-827-3622 Mailing Address: P.O. Box 3071 Vancouver, BC V6B 3X6 Michael Kluckner Website: www.vancouver-historical-society.ca [email protected] Newsletter Editor: Eve Lazarus | [email protected] Newsletter Design and Production: Kellan Higgins Upcoming Speakers The VHS invites everyone to attend our monthly talks. Admission for non-members is by donation. Talks are held at the Mu- seum of Vancouver, 1100 Chestnut Street (in Vanier Park) at 7:30 p.m. on the fourth Thursday of every month except June, July, August and December. Thursday May 25, 2017 Morag Maclachlan’s Legacy: the untold story of Noel Annance Speaker: Jean Barman, author/historian Jean Barman’s latest book: Abenaki Daring: The Life and Writings of Noel Annance, 1792-1869 tells the story of an Indigenous man who There are around 100 societies in Chinatown, and roughly half own buildings, 12 of which was caught between two worlds. He are over 100 years old. The buildings reflect the architecture of Southern China, where the was too indigenous to be accepted majority of B.C.’s early Chinese immigrants came from. Their distinguishing architectural in the fur trade, and too highly edu- features include deeply recessed balconies that recall both the ancestor hall of the clan areas cated to fit in on his return home in and the residential buildings of Guangdong province. PHOTO COURTESY VPL 41625 1834. Noel Annance used his writ- CONTINUED FROM FRONT PAGE businesses like green grocers, fishmon- ing skills to show the government Today, the societies have evolved gers, and butchers have closed in the past the Indigenous people’s plight in into social clubs and guardians of com- six years, according to a study by the Hua Canada. munity heritage, says Atkin, who co- Foundation, Atkin notes there are en- wrote Chinatown’s National Historic couraging signs of revitalization. Site District application, and is currently “We’re seeing a younger genera- Thursday September 28, 2017 President of the Chinese Canadian His- tion take an interest in societies and in The Japanese-Canadian Intern- torical Society. making sure that they don’t disappear. ment—75 years on Atkin says that if Chinatown is to Chinatown is also proving to be a draw Speakers: Mary and Tosh Kitigawa survive as a cultural landscape, the neigh- for some third-generation Chinese en- bourhood needs breathing space to tran- trepreneurs, like Ryan Mah, the great- The incarceration of 21,000 Jap- sition. grandson of famous B.C. grocery store anese-Canadians in 1942 was a “No one is saying Chinatown can’t businessman H. Y. Louie.” shocking period in Canada’s his- change and can’t evolve, because China- Mah’s restaurant on Main and Keef- tory that directly affected Mary and town today is vastly different from China- er is part of a recent wave of businesses Tosh Kitigawa. The Kitigawas will town in the 1970s, which is vastly differ- injecting new life into the neighbourhood. discuss the anti-Asian sentiment ent from Chinatown in the 1950s, which “Anyone who thinks we’ll get Chi- that led to the forcible removal of was light years away from Chinatown in natown of the 1970s back? No,” says At- Mary’s father by the RCMP to work the 1930s,” he says. “But if you set in mo- kin. “But if I can walk up the street and on the road camps. The rest of the tion a rate of change that doesn’t allow go to Dollar Meats, go to Ho Ho, and family were sent to the horse barns for the evolution, then you stand to wipe buy broccoli in the neighbourhood, then at Hastings Park and later interned it out and you don’t get it back.” Chinatown survives.” at seven different camps. While more than half of local food — By Madeleine de Trenqualye An Accidental Postcard By Eve Lazarus arsha Fuller was cleaning out a cli- Ment’s attic in Western Maryland when she came across this postcard of a traffic accident featuring a Grandview street car in 1909.