January 14th, 2016 The ultimate expert on all historical matters pertaining to Vancouver, Chuck Davis, routinely asked students in Vancouver
There’s a reason why Major James Skitt Matthews has been dubbed The Man Who Saved Vancouver.
Irascible, endlessly energetic, and passionate about his adopted hometown, Matthews not only wrote, interviewed, and collected the city’s past, but also terrorized decades of mayors and councils in the name of his self-appointed mission: establishing—and later expanding—its archives. As a result of his efforts, Vancouver was the first city in the country to have its own civic archives, and the breadth of what he collected provides an invaluable glimpse into the city’s growth, stretching all the way back to the mid-1860s.
“Every British Columbian owes James Skitt Matthews an incalculable debt,” writes historian Daphne Sleigh in The Man Who Saved Vancouver, her biography of the archivist. “Had it not been for his extraordinary interest and persistence in searching out any item relating to the earliest history of Vancouver (and peripherally other parts of the province as well), we would have a much less graphic picture of the unique period when the city was born.”
Mike Mcardle tells us all about Major James Matthews in his segment “The Last Word” on CTV News Vancouver.
On April 10, 1836 a little Hudson’s Bay boat called the Beaver arrived in Vancouver. Its busy career ended when it was wrecked off Prospect Point in 1888. (Part of the wreck is visible at very low tide.)
On April 12, 1980 one-legged runner Terry Fox of Port Coquitlam began his cross-country “Marathon of Hope” to raise money for cancer research. And did he ever!
On April 22, 1961 North Vancouver’s Lions Gate Hospital, the fifth largest in the Greater Vancouver Regional Hospital District, opened at its current site with 285 beds.
On April 28, 1911 William Templeton, who would later become the first manager of the Vancouver Airport, built and flew a home-made biplane at Minoru Park race-track. This was the first plane built and flown in Greater Vancouver.
Hundreds of books have been produced by Vancouver writers, and dozens more have been written about Vancouver. Now, researched exclusively for vancouverhistory.ca, Karen Cannon has compiled an annotated list of 945 Vancouver books. Ms. Cannon is a retired librarian. You’ll make some fascinating discoveries in her collection.
January 14th, 2016 The ultimate expert on all historical matters pertaining to Vancouver, Chuck Davis, routinely asked students in Vancouver
If there was someone who knew the people and places of Vancouver, it was Chuck Davis. ‘Mr Vancouver’ – historian, author and broadcaster.
Chuck Davis won two awards for his bestselling book The Chuck Davis History of Metropolitan Vancouver