THE GREAT FIRE: June 13, 1886. Fires, set to burn slash in this area, were fanned by sudden winds from the southwest. The flames spread quickly, reducing the dry, wooden buildings of Vancouver to ashes in less than an hour.
B.C. ELECTRIC DEPOT: On this site stood the ticket office and waiting room of the B.C. Electric Railway. Passengers could catch city streetcars or take the Lulu Island Interurban Line, which went via Marpole to Brighouse Racetrack and Steveston.
B.C. ELECTRIC HEAD OFFICE AND DEPOT: From this site the B.C. Electrical Railway Company operated the Fraser Valley Interurban Line which, by 1910, ran via Central Park and New Westminster to Chilliwack (76 miles).
THE NORTH ARM ROAD: In 1875, a wagon road was cleared from the North Arm of the Fraser River to this area, where it joined the False Creek trail. Together these rough roads linked the settlements of Eburne (Marpole) and Lulu Island with Granville, better known as Gastown.
ARRIVAL OF THE FIRST TRAIN: The first C.P.R. train from Eastern Canada to Vancouver arrived near here. The headlight carried a transparency of Queen Victoria, and Mayor Malcolm MacLean, the city band and a crowd of cheering citizens welcomed its arrival.
SHANGHAI ALLEY: For four decades, this was a centre of activity for Vancouver's Chinese community. Stores, restaurants, a pawnshop, a public bath and Vancouver's first Chinese theatre building, The Sing Kew Playhouse, were crowded into this lane. A parallel venue, Canton Alley, was located west of here. It was demolished in 1949.
CITY PAYROLL STOLEN: September 28, 1922. On this site, near the side door of the old City Hall, three men, armed and masked, robbed the Paymaster and his assistant of the entire monthly payroll of $75,000.
