Historic Vancouver Photos

[Nutterbug]

Originally Posted by flight_from_kamakura

vancouver public library, kitsilano branch.

built in 1927, kitsilano branch was the vpl's first permanent branch, and the first public library in what is now vancouver's west side. located at 2375 west fourth avenue, it was callously demolished sometime in the 1970s and replaced with a beautiful parking lot for the architectural gem that is the fourth avenue safeway.

They do have a newer and better library somewhere in the Kitsilano neighbourhood, right? Better than keeping and maintaining a creeky and crumbling old building, no?

[flight_from_kamakura]

^ dude, i can almost hear you drooling.

[flight_from_kamakura]

the courthouse flagpole.

during that era when western frontier towns did all they could to attract attention in the eastern presses, vancouver developed a series of interesting landmarks. among them was the courthouse flagpole, said to be the tallest flagpole in canada. erected in a single day in august of 1913. (aside from the postcard, all images are from the city archives)

a typical postcard


erection of the flagpole






behold! the flagpole, in all its glory!

[flight_from_kamakura]

wesley methodist church.

located on the southwest corner of georgia and burrard, the wesley methodist church was built right at the turn of the century, with construction completed early in 1901. the wesley church merged with the st. andrews church in 1925, and the combined church moved to a new building in 1933 (which was one of the first buildings on vancouver's municipal heritage registar). unfortunately, this little bit of stone and bare neo-gothic whimsy sat vacant for some time, and as best i can tell, was demolished some time in the 1940s or 1950s. (images from city archives)

three images from the same view (looking southwest)




rear view, looking east (and slightly north) along alberni street


street view, looking south up burrard street


profile, looking north along burrard street

[David]

Wow, it is so hard to imagine Burrard and Georgia looking so tranquil! Thanks for sharing that

[flight_from_kamakura]

vancouver public library

the first truly 'central branch', the vancouver public library building at robson and burrard was constructed in 1956 and massively repurposed (ie. mostly demolished and rebuilt) in 1995 as the bctv/virgin building. for all its 'international style' soullessness, it's nonetheless noteworthy, if only because it brought tens of thousands of culture patrons to this most commercial of intersections.

[officedweller]

Now that HMV has replaced Virgin, the walls that were blocking the huge glass walls fronting the corner have been removed - restoring the original intent of the design.

[flight_from_kamakura]

saint ann's academy.

built in or around 1900, adjacent to the holy rosary cathdral (then not yet a cathedral) on the southwest corner of homer and dunsmuir streets, st. ann's was a parish school, vancouver's first catholic school. for a time, it was apparently considered vancouver's finest, but as with all things it declined. demolished sometime in the 1960s, the site is currently occupied by an office tower block.



from the opposite corner 1900s



looking west down dunsmuir, you can almost smell the fir trees


and a nice context shot, abutting the cathedral, with the birks building, the bay building, both hotels vancouver and the georgia hotel in the arriere-plan

[Distill3d]

are there any pictures of the Denman Arena on the corner of Denman and Georgia?

[johnjimbc]

I saw the movie "Changeling" this past weekend and was really surprised that it included a Vancouver scene - circa 1930. I was pretty impressed.


Changeling © 2008 Universal Pictures. All Rights Reserved. Images courtesy of CIS Vancouver

Here is the website link: http://www.renderocity.com/news.php?viewStory=14329

I was quite impressed with the CGI work, mostly in LA where the bulk of the story and scenes take place. But the Vancouver shot was really unexpected and cool. I recognized the mountains immediately.

Anyway, just thought it was cool.

[someone123]

Very interesting.

Definitely there are a few examples of buildings that should have been preserved, like the Birks Building. In many other cases it wouldn't have made much sense because of how quickly the city was growing. Practically everything built to suit Vancouver in the 1910s was hugely out of step with land values, etc. in the 1970s. In a city like Winnipeg or in most older cities this effect wasn't as strong.

Another thing to be aware of is that these photos can be a bit misleading. Those arches were almost certainly temporary, for example. They look wooden.

Vancouver still has some nice old buildings worth preserving but in general I like the fact that it's a modern city with a bright future ahead of it, rather than a city that is scrambling to figure out what to do with relics of a more prosperous era. The Rustbelt US cities have tons of great old buildings but they can be eerie places.

[hollywoodnorth]

Originally Posted by Distill3d

are there any pictures of the Denman Arena on the corner of Denman and Georgia?

i would love to see that area also......especially old DENMAN ARENA....I dont think I have ever seen a photo of it......

[Spork]

Originally Posted by hollywoodnorth

i would love to see that area also......especially old DENMAN ARENA....I dont think I have ever seen a photo of it......

Go to Library Square. The top floor, I think, has a huge collection of old Vancouver photos sorted by neighbourhood. Quite interesting.

[LeftCoaster]

Really? Thanks for the heads up, I'll be sure to check that out.

Off topic: Johnjim how did you find Changeling? I heard it was pretty good.

[johnjimbc]

I liked it! The settings were really captivating. It was nice to see a movie in which CGI was used to create a depiction of a real past setting (aside from Pyramids, that is). The story was quite good as well, although I have to say I didn't know the whole true back-story, which is very very dark and violent actually.

If you're going to go see it, don't wikipedia the real-life events or you may find it disappointing (because you'll know too much). But I just hadn't realized how dark the actual story was.

It did seem to go on for a bit, though, mainly because the real-life events did as well. But you sort of had to see the whole thing through to appreciate the real-life events. In other words, the story goes on for a few scenes beyond the main climac events so it is not as "neatly tied up" as a movie story is because they wanted to stay true to the actual events.

So, anyway, thumbs up from me. 3 1/2 stars (our of 4 ; ).

Of course, I liked Twilight as well, which is getting much more mixed reviews ; ).

[Dave2]

Originally Posted by hollywoodnorth

i would love to see that area also......especially old DENMAN ARENA....I dont think I have ever seen a photo of it......

http://images.google.com/images?hl=e...an+Arena&gbv=2

[Metro-One]

So a scene in the movie actually took place in Vancouver (where a tittle comes up and says Vancouver, Canada) or was it just filmed in Vancouver like so many others and said to be LA, Seattle, etc...

[johnjimbc]

Sorry, I wasn't completely clear on that in my first comment.

There is a scene in the movie that is supposed to take place in Vancouver - as itself! (which was part of the surprise) - circa 1930.

It is just one short scene, but the live (i.e. CGI) imagery includes the image I posted, with a little blurb that reads, "Vancouver, BC 1930" (or whatever year it was, it might have been 1929 or 1931).

[hollywoodnorth]

Originally Posted by Dave2

http://images.google.com/images?hl=e...an+Arena&gbv=2

cool! thanks!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/miss604...n/photostream/

I didn't know Boeing has a plant in Coal Harbour.....

[fever]

The foreground is not actually Vancouver, though. Victorian styles are rare outside of Gastown, and this part of Vancouver wasn't built until after 1895. The two red buildings on the left could be Vancouver. The street's also too narrow to be a Vancouver retail street, except for that that one block of Heather by 16th.