Painted on the sides of brick buildings that lined Hastings and other downtown thoroughfares that have existed for the better part of the last century, there was obviously a time when Vancouver’s ghost signs were just signs. Thanks to the Vancouver Archives, here’s a quick look at these painted adverts in their heyday. 1917 – [...]

In honor of International Women’s Day in March, the Stanley Park Nature House will feature an exhibit about E. Pauline Johnson – Canadian poet and stage performer. I have profiled Pauline a few times before, even making a few pilgrimages to her modest monument between Ferguson Point and Third Beach in Stanley Park. Pauline, whose [...]

On Wednesday I captured the progress of the demolition of two buildings at Robson and Granville which revealed a “ghost sign” on the side of the Charlie’s Music building. Immediately Jason Vanderhill and Robert White pointed out on Twitter that this was indeed a ghost sign – the shadow of an old painted advertisement. With [...]

Art Deco Chic, the latest exhibit from the Museum of Vancouver, opens March 7, 2012 and I am currently doing a ticket giveaway for opening night. In conjunction with this, I thought it would be fun to browse the Vancouver Archives and preview some historic style from Vancouver’s earlier years. (Left) 1916 – BC Sugar [...]

Flipping through the pages of Chuck Davis’ History of Metropolitan Vancouver I came across an image of a man with a mop standing on top of the Challenger Relief Map. Created by George Challenger, to this day it’s the largest map of its kind in the world. Since his arrival in British Columbia in 1896 [...]

The Vancouver Sun celebrated 100 years this past weekend, marking the occasion with tweets, articles, blog posts, a video collage, photo galleries, and the following editorial: The first words to appear in the editorial columns of The Vancouver Sun, the space the newspaper reserves for its own expression of opinion upon public events, disclosed that [...]

Although yesterday’s numbers haven’t yet been tallied, it’s estimated that 49 million cases of beer were consumed during last year’s Super Bowl1. While everyone slides back into work this morning I figured an ale-themed archive photo roundup would be in order. 1890 – Employees of Doering and Marstrand Brewery in Mount Pleasant. Archive item# Dist [...]

While at the BC Sports Hall of Fame I came across the inductee information for Trev Deeley (1920-2000), a name associated with the award-winning Harley-Davidson dealership. When I happened to drive by the Deeley Motorcycle Exhibition on Boundary Road not even 24 hours later I took it as a sign — this was a story [...]