Vancouver History Blog - Forbidden Vancouver

The Marine Building

18 May 2018

[By Lani Russwurm] The Marine Building at 355 Burrard Street is widely considered the best piece of architecture in the city and among the finest examples of Art Deco architecture anywhere. It’s also the star...

Vancouver’s Royal Theatre bombing, 1933

16 May 2018

[By Lani Russwurm] An early morning explosion on 20 March 1933 rocked the 100 block of East Hastings Street. A bomb had been placed beside the ticket booth of the Royal Theatre, and the blast...

Title image showing Luther Powell saluting outside Klan Headquarters in Shaughnessy Heights in November 1925. Photo by Stuart Thompson, City of Vancouver Archives #99-1499.

The History of the Ku Klux Klan in Vancouver

05 Mar 2018

[by Lani Russwurm] The Ku Klux Klan is a uniquely American phenomenon, but in the 1920s Klan organizers decided to spread their venom internationally. They set up chapters in Saskatchewan and other points east of the...

The Death of Janet Smith

10 Oct 2017

[by Lani Russwurm] The death of Scottish nurse Janet Smith in a Shaughnessy mansion in 1924 is Vancouver’s most notorious cold case — a tale of unsolved murder, high society, racism, drug-fuelled parties, torture, and even...

Cordova Street looking west at Cambie Street, ca. 1900. Online Archive of California, UCR/California Museum of Photography #1996.0009.X4834.

Past & Present: Cordova Street, 1900/2017

24 Jul 2017

Cordova Street looking west at Cambie, ca. 1900 and 2017. The building on the left, on Cambie Street, in the 2017 pic was built in 1913 at the tail end of a major building boom....

Secret Vancouver Beach Histories title image, English Bay, ca. 1925. McCord Museum #MP-0000.158.144.

4 Secret Vancouver Beach Histories

04 Jul 2017

[by Lani Russwurm] It looks like summer weather is going to linger for a while, so we thought we’d supply you with some beach reading. The following are little known histories of four Vancouver beaches. Two...

Dominion Day celebration in New Westminster, 1878. Photo by French, City of Vancouver Archives #677-452.

Dominion Day on Burrard Inlet

01 Jul 2017

150 years ago, Gassy Jack was just thinking about opening a saloon at Burrard Inlet (which he did later in 1867). British Columbia had only united with Vancouver Island into one colony the year before...

Douglas Firs in the West End, with the first Hotel Vancouver in the distance. Photo by William McFarlane Notman, McCord Museum #VIEW 1803.

Past & Present: the West End, 1888/2017

15 Jun 2017

Looking towards downtown Vancouver from Thurlow and Barclay Streets in the West End. The old photo was taken by William McFarlane Notman of the Montreal-based Notman & Son studio. Notman’s father, William, opened his studio...

5 Secret Stories from Stanley Park

06 Jun 2017

[by Lani Russwurm] Stanley Park has lots to attract the millions of visitors it sees each year, from the ever-popular totem poles, to the many monuments, forest trails, and of course, the seawall. What attracts...

Fergusson Block, 200 Carrall Street, 1887. Photo by JA Brock, City of Vancouver Archives #Bu P80.

Past & Present: Ferguson Block, 1887/2017

26 May 2017

This is the second Ferguson Block built on 200 Carrall Street in Gastown’s Maple Tree Square. The first version, made of wood, was obliterated in the Great Fire of 1886. This one was completed the following year,...