The CPR’s SS Princess Marguerite passing under the Lions Gate Bridge, another postcard by Edward Goodall. Here’s a handsome colour image of the ship taken June 30, 1973. You can hear the sounds of her final voyage in this video clip as she pulls into Seattle on September 17, 1989: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzHtRgtupss

More from Historylink.org:

The SS Princess Marguerite, built in 1925, and the SS Princess Marguerite II, built in 1948, were the most famous of these small luxury liners. Tragically, in 1942, the Princess Marguerite, serving as a troop ship during World War II, was torpedoed and sunk in the Mediterranean Sea by a German U-boat. Her successor, the Princess Marguerite II, was in service for 60 years under four different owners. At the end of her career, efforts to save the historic steamship for posterity proved unsuccessful and in 1996 she was sold for scrap metal. In March 1997, a former B.C. ferry, the M/V Queen of Burnaby, was renamed the Princess Marguerite III and put on the run between Seattle and Victoria, but the service was discontinued after three seasons. Ships carrying the name Princess Marguerite plied the waters between Seattle and Victoria for 74 years, becoming a part of Seattle’s waterfront scene. Her name has a permanent place in Pacific Northwest maritime history, evoking fond memories of favorite summertime cruises and vacations.

The ad where she was sold for scrap can be seen here.

The Burrard Motel, a vintage postcard by the Vancouver postcard artist Edward Goodall. This postcard shows the final design circa 1954; the hotel opened in 1956. I didn’t realize the Burrard Motel, now the Burrard Hotel is actually a trendy hip vintage midcentury modern mix of style and fashion, right in the heart of downtown Vancouver. Any hotel with an inner courtyard deserves some credit in my books!

PNE Promotional Postcard, depicting the BC Pavilion some time prior to its construction for the 1954 Empire Games. This postcard was part of a campaign seeking public support for the expansion of the PNE’s commercial buildings.

The card is addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Ratepayer, Vancouver, BC. At the time, postcard postage cost 1 1/2 cents. The card reads:

Please vote “yes” on the PNE bylaw, Dec 10th. The PNE pays all sinking funds and interest payments as in the past. Be sure to vote “yes” for this urgently needed expansion of your Pacific National Exhibition, a non profit public body serving you.

Ernest Ferguson
President PNE

ps: It won’t cost the taxpayers a cent. Your vote is needed!

When completed, the BC Pavilion housed the infamous Challenger Map, the largest relief map of it’s kind in the world. Later the building would house the BC Sports Hall of Fame. Since the Challenger Map is a personal favourite subject of mine, here’s a bit more from challengermap.org:

The Challenger Map resided in the British Columbia Pavilion at the Pacific National Exhibition in Vancouver. It was installed in 1954 at the time of the British Empire Games held at Empire Stadium also at the PNE Grounds.

Over the next 43 years the map was seen by millions of visitors to the PNE and many more tourists, locals and particularly school groups during the rest of the year.

In 1997 the BC Pavilion was torn down and the map moved to storage at Bekins Moving and Storage in Richmond BC.

Alan Clapp has been campaigning for a new home for the Challenger Map for years. In case you don’t know who Alan Clapp is, he was a key figure in the development of Granville Island, in addition to being one of the main organizers of Habitat 76, and he also happened to write a book on improvements for Granville Street in 1978.

The map was in real jeopardy in recent years, and after much campaigning, and as far as I know, its future is still undetermined. A small portion of the map was displayed at the ISU Joint Security Headquarters in Richmond during the 2010 Winter Olympics, but I don’t believe anyone really got to see it unless you worked in the building.

I do hope the efforts of George Challenger and Allan Clapp are not forgotten; this map deserves a permanent home.

2400 Court, a postcard of unknown vintage which appears to be signed by Christian Anderson, no relation to Hans Christian Andersen I presume.

UBC Library Building Plans by architects Sharp & Thompson (later known as Thompson, Berwick, Pratt & Partners). Actually, I came across these drawings via a brochure titled Scrapbook for a Golden Anniversary, the University of British Columbia Library, 1915-1965. It was there I learned that this drawing I posted 11 months ago was by the first UBC librarian John Ridington. The brochure featured a negative image of the Periodical Room, and added the comment “It was never built”. I came across the rest of the blueprints from the UBC archives here.

Empire Field, from the 1954 British Empire & Commonwealth Games, illustrated on a Macfarlane Lang & Co’s biscuit tin, from Glasgow, Scotland. Seen previously, this biscuit tin from competitors Gray and Dunn.

A promotional Woodwards school textbook cover depicting a panoramic view of a coastal city very reminiscent of Vancouver, BC. (There is a small chance this was generic art that was used in other cities, but I’d like to think it’s our very own.) I can’t quite make out the initials with certainty in the bottom right hand corner, but it looks like either A. J. B. or possibly A. S. B. Theoretically, that might be Arthur J. Bannister (who was in the BC Artists exhibition in 1945), or perhaps Albert J. Blaney (who was in the BC Artists exhibition in 1946); both artists are listed in Gary Sim’s British Columbia Artists index.

I reduced the drawing to black and white and crudely Photoshoped out some of the extraneous info in an attempt to isolate the panoramic scene of the city.

The Pattullo Bridge souvenir luncheon menu from the 1937 opening, animated. The original artwork is signed EVS I think (as seen in the bottom corner of the finished panel). I have to admit, it’s a pretty awesome foldout menu for any era. This animated image has been compiled/edited by me; the original PDF scan of the menu is still online at the Buzzer Blog. Special thanks to the Buzzer Blog for posting this back in 2009, and extra special thanks to Lisa Codd, the curator at the Burnaby Village Museum who originally provided the scans to the Buzzer. This item has now been transferred to the Burnaby Archives.

Virginia Ayers at the New West blog Tenth to the Fraser recently raised some critical questions around the replacement plan for the Pattullo Bridge. She also mentioned the upcoming open house on The Master Transportation Plan. It’s taking place Thursday, May 3rd at Century House from 2-4pm and at the Justice Institute from 6-9pm.

spencerjohn:

Vancouver Healing Lodge 31 West Pender (Opening June 11th)

This is going to be a really significant addition to the DTES. I’m really proud a former co-worker of mine was behind this! Actually, he’s VNHS president!

Here’s the background on the building’s heritage from the City of Vancouver administrative report from October 2010:

This building is primarily valued for its architecture and the history of ownership and use. Designed by the same talented architect who designed the World Building (Sun Tower) - W. T. Whiteway, this attractive building was made with high quality brick and the combination of steel columns and fire-resistant millwork floors. The principal facade is characterized by rich surface details, ornamented window surrounds and entablatures.

Built in 1913 for Storey and Campbell, owners of the Storey and Campbell Co., this residential building (aka Palmer Rooms) provided lodging on the upper floors, with retail at the ground level. It was conveniently located between the warehouse district and Chinatown, and within walking distance to the major transportation nodes. The building remained in the Storey family until 1946, when it was purchased by Lai Hing. Lai lived in this building and operated his hotel business under Wingate Hotel for about 30 years. Most recently, the building’s name was changed to Pender Hotel.

ps: Architect and concept illustration credit goes to Joe Y. Wai Architect Inc.

“So this is Canada”, the satirical revue as advertised in the October 2nd, 1926 edition of The Morning Leader, Regina, Saskatchewan. This is a followup to my previous post showing the speculative drawing of a theatre at Broadway and Granville on land owned by J.A. Schuberg. This next quote should help to explain who Mr. Schuberg was. From the Who’s Who of Victorian Cinema: 

John Albert Schuberg (aka ‘Johnny Nash’), lived from 1875-1958. Schuberg, whose professional name was Johnny Nash, came from a Swedish family living in Minneapolis, and was already an accomplished magician by his teens. In 1894 he moved to Canada, touring the country’s fairs and variety halls. In 1898 he acquired an Edison projector and added films to his act…Wishing to end his family’s traveling life, Schuberg converted an empty shop at 38 Cordova Street, Vancouver into Canada’s first cinema in October 1902. He opened further theatres in Winnipeg and elsewhere, eventually owning eight theatres in Canada and the United States and by 1919 had become western Canada’s leading cinema exhibitor…

Luke McKernan

“So This is Canada” featured some real heavyweights of its day: John A. Schuberg presents a Charles E. Royal Production written by W.S. Atkinson. The ad boasts it’s “The World’s Funniest Show!” It must have been good, because this production went on a cross-country tour after some 50,000 people saw the show in Vancouver in a 6-week standing-room-only run at the Empress!

Now I have to admit, I am hardly the expert on Vancouver’s theatre history. All of these significant details were courtesy of the artist Tom Carter, whose expertise was invaluable in making this post happen; he also provided the ad for this post!

Tom recommends two more books about J.A. Schuberg; first there’s Embattled Shadows: A History of Canadian Cinema, 1895-1939 which was used as a reference in the Who’s Who of Victorian Cinema above. And evidently there’s an unpublished autobiography that Schuberg’s grandson donated to the VPL titled Fifty Years A Showman by John Schuberg.

In the future, I hope to highlight more gems from Vancouver’s theatre past. With a little bit of microfilm and some expertise from Tom, perhaps we can uncover a few more of Vancouver’s entertainment legends!

And ps: Here’s the review of the show in the October 2nd, 1926 The Morning Leader (I think) from Regina, which gives a great background into the making of the play.

Remember this; we’ll always have Victory Square. Plate by Royal Winton, 1936.

The Burnaby Mountain Centennial Pavilion, 100 Centennial Way, Burnaby. This was built for the 1958 centenary celebrations, if you haven’t deduced that already. At this point in time, SFU was merely a recommendation in a report entitled Higher Education in British Columbia and a Plan for the Future, by Dr. J.B. Macdonald [source].

Update! I should add, I didn’t realize that Horizon’s Restaurant is now occupying the Centennial Pavilion! Furthermore, there was a fire at the restaurant in the spring of 2010, but the good news is, they were insured, and the restaurant has been rebuilt thanks in part to $300,000 of additional help from the City of Burnaby. It’s interesting to see how the building has been adapted over time. I’m glad I found this grand opening souvenir program!

Townley and Matheson (1919-1964)
Townley, Matheson & Associates (1965)
Townley & Matheson, Kelly, Humphrey & Ritchie (1966)
Townley, Matheson & Partners (1967-1974)

Phantom views of the Lions Gate Bridge foundations, from a brochure published in 1939. The colophon thanks Leonard Frank (photographer), Don Munday, the Sun Publishing Company Limited, and anonymous friends for the publishing of the brochure. Don Munday was the mountaineer who discovered that Mystery Mountain (later named Mount Waddington) was taller than Mount Robson. The brochure failed to thank the illustrator, so I am unable to credit him here; it was commissioned by the First Narrows Bridge Company no doubt, perhaps Don Luxton knows who it may have been. This brochure has been published to archive.org thanks to Langara College Library.

Last week while browsing MacLeod’s Books, I saw this 1936 Golden Jubilee poster amongst the Vancouver ephemera pamphlets. The poster was printed by Bulman Bros. (BC Ltd.) Vancouver, Canada. There’s no artist credit for the poster, but I wonder if it might have been one of the three musketeers: Paul Goranson, Orville Fisher, or E.J. Hughes? It is extraordinarily theatrical, and quite imposing! I don’t have the wallspace for this, but surely someone here does! The poster was $40, although there was a second tattered copy for a bit less. 

This ceremonial commemorative style proclamation was repeated again in 1958 with this poster (photograph by Bob Kronbauer), which came with a book that was published for BC’s colonial centennial celebrations. Did anyone see anything similar for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee? Any one of our followers get a Diamond Jubilee medal?

Oh, and one more thing; I saw Claudia Cornwall speak at the West Van Library this week, and I highly recommend her new book on Kurt Lang. I’m mentioning a book on photography here because Claudia points out it was Kurt Lang who started the bookstore that would become MacLeod’s books! Check out the exhibit at SFU, and take note there’s a symposium on Curt Lang’s photography scheduled for Wednesday May 9, 2012 at 7pm. Room 1600, SFU Vancouver, 515 W. Hastings Street.