In 1986, Vancouver celebrated the city’s 100th birthday by installing 100 plaques around the city. My goal is to find all of them! At the end of the project, I hope it’s like a little guidebook to the city’s history.
The Royal Engineers had this area set aside as a military reserve in the 1860's. A seaplane base was established after World War I and expanded during World War II. Also used until 1939 as a golf course, some of the area became a city park in 1967.
In 1886, after the fire, Frank W. Hart moved an old roller rink from Port Moody to Carrall and Dupont (Pender). In reality a rude canvas-roofed barn, it was Vancouver's only theatre for the first three years.
The Vancouver Club was formed in 1899 as a result of a merger of the Vancouver Boating Club (1886) and the Burrard Inlet Rowing Club. In 1911 it moved from the foot of Bute Street to its present site. It is Vancouver's oldest continuous sports organization.
Named by Captain George Richards in 1860, this became a popular recreation area with the development of the West End in the 1890's. Over the years amenities were added, including sand (1898), bath houses and pier (1909) and a bandstand in Alexandra Park (1914).
Limited access initially restricted industrial development but by 1886 the first sawmill, Leamey and Kyle's, began operation north of Yukon Street. Other industries including shingle mills, breweries, slaughterhouses and metal works followed. Visible blight and pollution led to re-development in the 1960's.
During the 1880's the first house on North Arm Road (now Granville) was a bootlegging establishment. Patrons ordered illegal beer by calling for “lemon squash” and whiskey by asking for “crackers and cheese”.
This congregation has had three homes since 1887. The first at 434 Main; the second at 604 Hamilton; and the present at 969 Burrard. Renamed Hamilton Hall, the second church building was invaded on October 13, 1936 by 300 unemployed in the “Baptist Church Riot”.
Opened in 1896, in what was then the school district of East Vancouver, this school was named after Sir Guy Carleton, colonial Governor of Quebec. It includes the oldest classroom still in use and has been a community focal point for 90 years.
English author, Rudyard Kipling, visited Vancouver several times and made some unwise investments in real estate while he was here. He bought the first piece of land without seeing it and the second plot legally belonged to someone else, even though Mr Kipling paid taxes on it for years.
The majority of East Indian immigrants were Sikhs from the Punjab region of India. Many were employed in the sawmills around False Creek. By 1908 the first temple, a centre for religious, cultural and social affairs, was built at 1866 West 2nd Avenue.
St. Mary’s, the oldest church in Kerrisdale still in use, was dedicated on July 23, 1914. The land on Whitehead Road (now 37th) was bought in 1911 and for the next three years services were held in a temporary wooden structure with a canvas roof.
