The Vancouver Historical Society Newsletter Preserving and promoting the history of Vancouver since 1936 HS Vol. 56 No. 4 | January 2017 | ISSN 0823-0161 Project 200 was a failed plan from 1968 that included a forest of highrises and residential towers, a hotel, and a waterfront freeway in downtown Vancouver. Note that Waterfront Station is missing from the plan. IMAGE COURTESY OF TOM CARTER A Half Century of Civic Politics ur January speaker, former City and utopian schemes such as the coopera- the defined party politics of the preceding OCouncillor Gordon Price, will re- tive housing of South False Creek. eras. During Harcourt’s time, Vancouver flect on the turbulent half-century that For a period in the 1970s, the hosted Expo and the Centennial and, with began with the discontented 1960s, the TEAM party led by Art Phillips turned a sudden lurch into the international spot- great freeway debate, and the experiments away from the developer-driven agenda light, began its transformation into the with urban renewal-style social housing in of the 1960s. Jack Volrich, who started glassy city of today. Strathcona. The defeat in 1972 of the Non as a TEAM alderman, moved the city to Gordon Price first came to public Partisan Association and its flamboyant the right when he became mayor in 1976. attention as an advocate in his neighbour- and controversial Mayor Tom Campbell However, his successor, Mike Harcourt, ushered in an era of empowered citizens presided over a mixed council with less of CONTINUED INSIDE NEXT MEETING: 7:30 P.M., Thursday, Jan. 26, 2017 at the Museum of Vancouver President’s Notes lthough it feels like a Anew year, we are midway through our annual program- ming, with five lectures to go before we wrap up in May and our summer field trips begin. As ever, I am amazed at the range of topics and the efforts presenters make to educate and entertain us. Civic poli- tics, artists’ struggles, the cot- tage country of Indian Arm, and the past and uncertain future of Chinese-Canadian “family buildings” occupy the next four months; confir- mation of the May lecture, which includes the annual general meeting, is pending. Most members of the board were able to par- ticipate in early December in a planning session for 2017–18. The selected speakers will explore the history of Japanese-Canadians, gangs, gardens, family housing, You’re never too young or too old to enjoy the perks of a VHS forensics, the fur trade, North Vancouver, and the Van- membership. Sign up at: www.vancouver-historical-society.ca couver of the 1970s as seen through the photo archives of the Sun. As he has done for many years, Bruce Watson is coordinating the speakers program. We are very fortu- New VHS Member nate to be able to rent such a good room at the MoV at Neville Hogsden an affordable rate, giving us one of the best venues, with one of the biggest screens, in Vancouver. The Incorporation Day luncheon is another of our Vancouver Historical Society Executive Board: traditions. Please mark your calendars for Sunday, April 2016 - 2017 2nd – we have booked the University Golf Club again, (ELECTED MAY 26, 2016) and will announce the program and begin to sell tickets PRESIDENT Michael Kluckner in February. Speaking of continuity, our past president VICE PRESIDENT Eve Lazarus Scott Anderson and his wife Amber have generously of- TREASURER Grace Bu fered to coordinate the event again. RECORDING SECRETARY Kellan Higgins From old volunteers to new ones: Mary Wallace DIRECTOR Robert McDonald Poole has become our new membership secretary. Mary DIRECTOR Brenda Peterson is an experienced administrator and management pro- DIRECTOR (PROGRAMS) Bruce M. Watson fessional. She has worked primarily in the not-for-profit DIRECTOR (COMMUNICATIONS) Madeleine de Trenqualye sector and is now the principal of Braveheart Consulting. DIRECTOR (COMMUNICATIONS) Stevie Wilson She specializes in contract administration and organiza- Appointed Positions tion services. Her email address for all enquiries is mem- [email protected]; however, membership renewals ARCHIVIST Alexandra Allen INFO LINE Jeannie Hounslow proceed as before, either by mail with a cheque to our MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY Mary Wallace Poole post-office box, or on-line by credit card through our NEWSLETTER MAILING Mary Gavan website. TOUR COORDINATOR Jo Pleshakov CONTACT Michael Kluckner Vancouver Historical Society Info Line: 604-827-3622 [email protected] Mailing Address: P.O. Box 3071 Vancouver, BC V6B 3X6 Website: www.vancouver-historical-society.ca 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 Museum 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. The Royal Hudson captured at Arbutus and Broadway by Angus McIntyre in 1975. PHOTO COURTESY OF ANGUS MCINTYRE HS member Angus McIntyre shot across Broadway, parked, got out of my Thursday, February 23, 2017 Vthis amazing photo of the Royal car and took a grab shot. There was no Early Vancouver Artists: surviv- Hudson travelling along the Arbutus line time to set up.” Angus had his first show ing while being creative in 1975. “I was in my suite at the Fair- at the Baron Gallery in 2012 and this Speaker: Gary Sim, author and archi- mont Apartments near Broadway and photo was featured in the exhibit. Leg- tectural technologist Oak when I heard a steam whistle and endary photographer Fred Herzog not I knew that something was going along only attended, but bought this photo for Gary Sim will examine how well- the Kitsilano trestle as I could see smoke himself. He told Angus that some of his known BC artists such as Samuel coming up from that area,” says Angus. best photos are grab shots like this one. Maclure, Sophie Pemberton and Emily Carr made a living by be- “I got into my car and made a mad dash — Eve Lazarus coming teachers, architects and il- lustrators, founding galleries and fine arts groups, and organizing to CONTINUED FROM FRONT PAGE – supporting the more urban lifestyle fa- exhibit and sell their work. miliar, in Vancouver, mainly to West End hood, the West End, for citizens wanting residents. rid of the street-prostitution problem. Since ending his political career in Elected in 1984, he was part of the Non 2002, he has managed the City Program Partisan Association majority during the at SFU and developed an international Thursday, March 23, 2017 years when Gordon Campbell and Philip reputation as a speaker on urban issues. The Ferries of Indian Arm Owen were mayors. That NPA was a “big In February, 2013, he received the Simon Speaker: Ralph Drew, Mayor of Bel- tent,” with Price and his allies arguing for Fraser University President’s Award for progressive policies and, increasingly, ur- service to the university through public carra banist schemes. affairs and media relations; that July, he Ralph Drew has been Mayor of Downtown South was reinvented as received the President’s Award from the Belcarra for over three decades. He a residential area. Heritage preservation Canadian Institute of Planners “in rec- wrote his first award-winning book: became a concern, and innovative poli- ognition of an outstanding lifetime con- Forest & Fjord: The History of Bel- cies helped retain neighbourhoods such tribution to education and professional carra in 2013, and followed that as Mount Pleasant and Strathcona while planning in Canada.” He has blogged with Ferries & Fjord: The History adapting old downtown buildings to new on urban issues with a Vancouver focus of Indian Arm in 2015. Join Mayor uses. Spurred on by Price himself, cycling for many years, recently with a num- Drew for a talk about the floating as a mode of transportation emerged ber of collaborators, as “Price Tags.” grocery stores and travelling post onto the civic agenda. He promoted bet- (https://pricetags.wordpress.com) offices of Indian Arm. ter transit – from SkyTrain to B-line buses — Michael Kluckner In Memoriam: Len McCann (1927-2015) hat a wonderful surprise to learn Wthat long time VHS member and former president Len McCann had left a generous bequest to the Society. When Ivan Sayers, the Vancouver fashion histo- rian and long time friend of Len, heard of the endowment he said: “That is ex- actly what Len would do!” Membership in the Historical Soci- ety was so important to Len. He served as president from 1978-83 and was awarded the Vancouver Historical Society Award of Merit in 1992. It was Len who created what has become a VHS ritual for the last 35 years—opening our annual Incorpo- ration Day luncheon with the ringing of the bell from the Robert Kerr, a wooden sailing barque that had served as a refuge for hundreds of people fleeing the Great Fire of Vancouver in June 1886. As Es- ther Birney recounted, “how vividly the clang of this bell brought to its hearers Len checks label prior to installation at the Children’s Maritime Discovery Centre at the the excitement of relived history.” Vancouver Maritime Museum. PHOTO COURTESY OF ALLAN BAXTER Len was best known as the Curator of Maritime History at the Vancouver Company’s Beaver, the first steamship Russian emigré to China, upon the swirl- Maritime Museum, which he joined as to operate in the Pacific Northwest; the ing waters over Manson’s Deep, one of an assistant curator in 1968. Especially Canadian Pacific Railway and Union the deepest points in Howe Sound just knowledgeable about the Hudson’s Bay Steamship Company’s coast services; and off Point Atkinson, and a burial ground the famed CPR Empresses, Len worked for old sailors.