Historic Vancouver Photos

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by Changing City

The Courthouse was demolished in 1911, when the building that's now the Art Gallery replaced it. https://changingvancouver.wordpress....t-court-house/. It was on the other side of Pender Street from the High School / Art School / VCC, so it's hard to see how it could have been the bones of that development

We haven't posted anything on the old High School on ChangingVancouver yet, but we've got an image to use, so there should be something soon. The old High School building sat in the middle of the block that VCC now occupy, so it probably couldn't have been incorporated into the current buildings on either Pender or Dunsmuir Street.

There was a Vancouver High School and Central School on that block. Right?

[jollyburger]

And from Illustrated Vancouver with the proposed City Hall.



http://illustratedvancouver.ca/post/...wvancouver1922

I wonder what the reasoning for building the current city hall outside of the downtown core was..

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

There was a Vancouver High School and Central School on that block. Right?

Yes - the High School was on the southern half of the block, facing Dunsmuir; that later became the School of Art. The 'Public School' (Central School) was on the northern half, on Pender. the Vancouver Vocational Institute - now VCC - replaced them both over time.

[osirisboy]

I didn't realize that those public bathrooms have been around that long. I've never gone down in there before. Wonder what they looked like way back when they opened

[jlousa]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

And from Illustrated Vancouver with the proposed City Hall.



I wonder what the reasoning for building the current city hall outside of the downtown core was..

My understanding is it was to appease South Vancouver and Point grey which had just recently amalgamated with Vancouver and to show that the power would not be held just the old Vancouver. But I'm sure there are those with more knowledge on the subject and hopefully they'll chime in.

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by osirisboy

I didn't realize that those public bathrooms have been around that long. I've never gone down in there before. Wonder what they looked like way back when they opened

Interesting read from an old Sun article about the remaining public washrooms:

By the 1920s, women won a place in a series of underground toilets installed at busy downtown thoroughfares, including south of the Granville Street bridge, Kingsway and Broadway, and the two surviving facilities on Hastings.

Prophetically, city planners of the day included attendants' rooms in the downtown (eastside) locations — apparently to keep the peace. There, not unlike today, "remnants of frontier culture were … particularly persistent," Andrews writes.

http://www.walnet.org/csis/news/vanc...un-000311.html

There's a bunch of old documents in the archives:

Sanitary/Underground/Underground Public/Public Comfort

http://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/p...mfort-stations



Victory Square toilets in 1923

http://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/c...amilton-street

This research paper has some of the documents and more information that you would ever want to know about the history of Vancouver public washrooms:

http://ojs.library.ubc.ca/index.php/...load/1359/1404

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by Changing City

The Courthouse was demolished soon after 1911, when the building that's now the Art Gallery replaced it. https://changingvancouver.wordpress....t-court-house/. It was on the other side of Pender Street from the High School / Art School / VCC, so it's hard to see how it could have been the bones of that development

We haven't posted anything on the old High School on ChangingVancouver yet, but we've got an image to use, so there should be something soon. The old High School building sat in the middle of the block that VCC now occupy, so it probably couldn't have been incorporated into the current buildings on either Pender or Dunsmuir Street.

Yeah, I corrected my post because I had forgotten that the old Court House was on the site of Victory Square.

One building site for which there isn't much information is the site of the parkade on Pender between Cambie & Beatty.
Apparently the first Vancouver Hospital was located there along Cambie, but I think there was a more ceremonious institutional building to the east.

See this 1948 pic:

[officedweller]

Thanks for the washroom info!

Originally Posted by jlousa

My understanding is it was to appease South Vancouver and Point grey which had just recently amalgamated with Vancouver and to show that the power would not be held just the old Vancouver. But I'm sure there are those with more knowledge on the subject and hopefully they'll chime in.

I also recall reading that there were labour riots at the time downtown so they wanted it away from downtown.

[Klazu]

Originally Posted by officedweller

Victory Square with the [old courthouse] [EDIT: Central school] behind (current site of VCC):


Vancouver History: Courthouse Square, 1924
https://twitter.com/HeritageVan

How does the photo make it look like the park is all flat, although in reality (and I would think also back then) it has an incline.

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by officedweller

Yeah, I corrected my post because I had forgotten that the old Court House was on the site of Victory Square.

One building site for which there isn't much information is the site of the parkade on Pender between Cambie & Beatty.
Apparently the first Vancouver Hospital was located there along Cambie, but I think there was a more ceremonious institutional building to the east.

I think that's the Rotary Clinic. Map of the block:

http://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/s...obson-street-2



http://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/r...west-pender-st

Also that modern looking white building on the Larwill Park site is the just built Larwill Bus Terminal.

[officedweller]

Thanks!

Great map and nice pic of the Rotary Clinic, too.
That looked like a nice symmetrical building (nicer than the Heather Pavilion, but undoubtedly smaller).


I noticed the newly built bus terminal in that other pic too.

Found a couple more of the Rotary Clinic.
Click through to the archives website for detailed large size pics.


http://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/v...otary-carnival


http://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/v...ary-carnival-2

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by Klazu

How does the photo make it look like the park is all flat, although in reality (and I would think also back then) it has an incline.

I think if you take a photo from the top of the Flack Building it might look similar since it's not a massive incline.

[Jebby]

Originally Posted by Klazu

How does the photo make it look like the park is all flat, although in reality (and I would think also back then) it has an incline.

You can see the incline on the wall on the right side of the park.

[Vin]

Originally Posted by Klazu

How does the photo make it look like the park is all flat, although in reality (and I would think also back then) it has an incline.

Just look at the Vancouver Daily Star building on the right of the picture and you can see the incline on Hamilton Street.

So many beautiful buildings should've been preserved around that area, like the lots east and west of the Sun Tower had beautiful structures with landscaped lawns, to be replaced with an ugly parkade and the present International Village mall. I think the problem was the desire of planners to keep high density only downtown, resulting in low-density heritage buildings being demolished, much like what is happening right now.

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by Vin

Just look at the Vancouver Daily Star building on the right of the picture and you can see the incline on Hamilton Street.

So many beautiful buildings should've been preserved around that area, like the lots east and west of the Sun Tower had beautiful structures with landscaped lawns, to be replaced with an ugly parkade and the present International Village mall. I think the problem was the desire of planners to keep high density only downtown, resulting in low-density heritage buildings being demolished, much like what is happening right now.

Not sure what beautiful building you think is to the east of the Sun Tower, but the International Village mall replaced a freight yard which you can see in that aerial quite clearly. The site sat empty and vacant for many years when the freight operations closed down.

You don't seem to understand that there's nothing the City can do to prevent the demolition of an old building - even a heritage building - if the owner wants to demolish it. They can offer incentives to keep it, but even that doesn't always work. Very few heritage buildings are demolished these days - although some old ones that aren't heritage designated come down. The costs associated with even propping up a façade are very high, and it doesn't make economic sense to retain something that has limited historic or architectural merit. The important and interesting buildings, like the Ormidale Block on West Hastings near here usually can be preserved.

[jollyburger]

Pendera that was built directly north of Sun Tower has got to be the biggest eyesore and totally killed the character of that block. Built in 1989.



http://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/v...wing-sun-tower

Another view on Changing Vancouver:

https://changingvancouver.wordpress....pender-street/

[quobobo]

Originally Posted by Changing City

You don't seem to understand that there's nothing the City can do to prevent the demolition of an old building - even a heritage building - if the owner wants to demolish it.

Even if the property is heritage-designated (which is not the same as being on the heritage register)?

My reading of the heritage designation page is that property owners need to apply for a heritage alteration permit for major changes, and the City could turn them down.

[Vin]

Originally Posted by Changing City

You don't seem to understand that there's nothing the City can do to prevent the demolition of an old building - even a heritage building - if the owner wants to demolish it. They can offer incentives to keep it, but even that doesn't always work. Very few heritage buildings are demolished these days - although some old ones that aren't heritage designated come down. The costs associated with even propping up a façade are very high, and it doesn't make economic sense to retain something that has limited historic or architectural merit. The important and interesting buildings, like the Ormidale Block on West Hastings near here usually can be preserved.

Nothing the city can do? More like, an inability to get things right.
That's where provincial legislations and municipal bylaws fail. Why aren't European heritage buildings in city centes demolished en-masse then? They don't, because I bet owners are not able to demolish them, and they establish modern city centres not too far away. Look at Paris and London (Canary Wharf for instance). In Vancouver, the desire to preserve urban sprawl low density neighbourhoods and confining the boundaries of downtown have contributed to the loss of heritage buildings. Even these days, the buildings of the 50s-80s are demolished, to be replaced by insignificant ones. That's sad.

By the way, the old freight operations buildings were beautiful: should have been preserved like those warehouses at Yaletown's Hamilton and Mainland streets.

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by quobobo

Even if the property is heritage-designated (which is not the same as being on the heritage register)?

My reading of the heritage designation page is that property owners need to apply for a heritage alteration permit for major changes, and the City could turn them down.

We're getting a bit of a way away from old photographs, but you're quite correct to identify the difference. The term 'heritage' gets thrown around here sometimes without any understanding of the nuances. There are old buildings - like the small 2-storey commercial building on one 100 block of main that was recently demolished for a new rental project.

Someone said that heritage buildings like that shouldn't be demolished, but it wasn't a heritage building (in that it wasn't on the heritage register), and to save it, and designate it would have required compensation through a bonus of space that might not have been practical and probably not economically warranted in that case. The City would have considered whether there was any great loss involved to the overall stock of remaining heritage buildings - presumably they concluded that it wasn't warranted in that case.

For buildings that are on the Heritage register, they can still get torn down. They come in 'A', 'B' and 'C' classifications. One recent example of an 'A' being demolished was the Legg mansion on Harwood - now redeveloped as the curvy Bing Thom designed tower.

The only 'protected' buildings are those with a Heritage Revitalization Agreement (HRA) - a legally binding agreement negotiated by the City and an owner of heritage property. There aren't as many of those, and there's no legislative basis for the City to impose such an agreement; it has to be agreed by the owner. In some places in the world it doesn't work that way, but the City of Vancouver has to work from the Vancouver Charter, and the Province has to agree to any changes. The recent heritage conservation area established in First Shaughnessy identified a list of buildings that are protected, where not all owners agreed. That's a very new change, and it could still get tested in the courts.

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by Vin

By the way, the old freight operations buildings were beautiful: should have been preserved like those warehouses at Yaletown's Hamilton and Mainland streets.

There were hardly any buildings where the mall was built. There was one featureless shed, and a series of rail lines. The big building to the east was a rooming house that was condemned and demolished in 1948. https://changingvancouver.wordpress....hanghai-alley/

The building closer to the Sun Tower was demolished after 1963 but before the early 1970s. The road system was re-aligned; Abbott Street was continued south of Pender for the first time. There don't seem to be any decent pictures of the front, but the rest of the structures had no redeeming architectural character that I can see - they were just big sheds.