Cascade Beer - The Beer Without a Peer, from the back of Fruit Magazine (December 1909), seen on archive.org. The name “STAHR” appears in the bottom right hand corner of the image.
Cascade Beer was an early brand of the Vancouver Breweries Ltd, the Reifel family’s brewing empire. If you don’t already know the Reifels, take a look at a few of their contributions to our city: they built the Commodore Block, the Vogue Theatre and the Studio Theatre (the Studio was across the street from the Vogue, which later became the Eve Theatre (1972-78), the Lyric, the Towne Theatre, Tonic, and now Joe’s Apartment); they donated property for the original Vancouver Art Gallery on Georgia Street; they built the “Casa Mia” (recently under contention as the owners want to convert it to a seniors’ hospice) and the “Rio Vista”, two mansions on Southwest Marine Drive; they farmed sugar beets during WWII on Reifel Farms; and as I’ve mentioned before, they donated the land for the George C. Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary in Delta. Oh, and yes, they may have participated in sending alcohol into the US during prohibition. But more about that some other time.
Cedar Cottage Station as sketched by a Grade 7 student at Lord Selkirk Elementary School. From Chuck Davis’ website:
In 1910 Vancouver’s Cedar Cottage neighborhood got its name from an Interurban train stop there. The station, in turn, was named for the Cedar Cottage Brewery.
And more from the Gibby’s Field Group site:
1902 (ca.) Cedar Cottage Brewery established by John Benson at Westminster Road (Kingsway) and Knight, on the banks of Gibson Creek at the site of the present-day Safeway building King Edward Village.
According to the book House of Suds: A History of Beer Brewing in Western Canada by William A. Hagelund, five other local breweries in Vancouver circa 1900 included:
- Stanley Park Brewery
- Red Cross Brewery
- Royal Brewery
- Columbia Brewery
- Doering & Marstrand (Vancouver) Brewery
Again, thanks for your submissions, Sid!
More beer labels for sale on ebay. These aren’t even all depicting Vancouver, but I don’t care - they’re super! From the same collector, in Warsaw Poland. No doubt there is a great story behind this collection. I’ll be very curious to learn where all these labels are going to end up! An emerging book, perhaps, or decoration in a brewmaster’s den?
Update: Yep, it turns out, these labels are part of the largest collection of Canadian beer labels in Europe, according to the seller! Spectacular! Labels from Saskatchewan, Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia will be up for sale next week. You heard it first hear, folks. Breaking news brought to you by Illustrated Vancouver!
Vintage Vancouver beer labels, from Capilano Brewing Company and Vancouver Breweries Limited, seen this week at auction on ebay, from a seller in Warsaw, Poland of all places. The Capilano Brewing Company dates back to 1934 (note the label is stamped 621+35, my guess indicating 1935) and the second label is a special Jubilee beer for the city’s 50th birthday in 1936 (note the label is stamped 4+8+36, most likely indicating 1936). Vancouver Breweries Limited dates back even further to 1901, and became part of the holding company British Columbia Breweries in 1911, and continued to operate under the name Vancouver Breweries for a good while. Cursory brewery details obtained from the book Brewed in Canada: the untold story of Canada’s 350-year-old brewing industry by Allen Winn Sneath.
Granville Island Brewing signage, artist unknown, seen last week at Go Fish Ocean Emporium.
Capilano Beer ad, from the book Vancouver’s First Century: A City Album, 1860-1960. edited by Anne Kloppenborg, et al.
