Construction on one of Vancouver’s most beautiful (and now
vanished) buildings, the second Hotel Vancouver, began early in
1913.
Chronology Continued
[1757
- 1884] [1885 - 1891] [1892
- 1899]
[1900 - 1905] [1906
- 1908] [1909] [1910]
[1911] [1912]
[1913] [1914] [1915]
[1916]
[1917] [1918]
[1919] [1920]
[1921] [1922]
[1923] [1924]
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[1927] [1928]
[1929] [1930]
[1931] [1932]
[1933] [1934]
[1935] [1936]
[1937] [1938]
[1939] [1940]
[1941] [1942]
[1943] [1944]
[1945] [1946]
[1947] [1948]
[1949] [1950]
[1951] [1952]
[1953] [1954]
[1955] [1956]
[1957] [1958]
[1959] [1960]
[1961] [1962]
[1963] [1964]
[1965] [1966]
[1967] [1968]
[1969] [1970]
[1971] [1972]
[1973] [1974]
[1975] [1976]
[1977] [1978]
[1979] [1980]
[1981] [1982]
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1913
This year is sponsored.
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You'll note that this year includes events listed under "Also
in . . ." These are events for which we don't have a specific
date. If YOU know the
specific date of an event shown there, please
notify us . . . and cite the source! Many thanks!
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January 1 Joe Philliponi (born Filippone),
nightclub owner, was born in Italy.
January 31 Prisoner Joseph Smith, who had
killed guard J.H. Joynson in 1912, was executed at the B.C. Penitentiary,
the first and only hanging there. (Most executions occurred at Oakalla.)
January The North Shore Press newspaper began
publishing.
February Vancouver city police, who had agitated
for a six-day week in 1910, tried again. Again, their request was
shelved, and they continued to be on duty seven days a week.
March 7 Poet Pauline Johnson died of breast
cancer at age 52 in the Old Bute Street Hospital, Vancouver. She
was born March 10, 1861 on the Six Nations Indian Reserve near Brantford,
Ontario. Her father was George Johnson, a Mohawk, the chief of the
reserve. Her mother was Emily Johnson, a white woman from a wealthy
family who had come to Canada from England as a young girl.
The Women's Canadian Club began raising funds for
a cairn in Stanley Park, which marks the resting place of the Mohawk
poet's ashes. (Johnson apparently specified in her will that no
memorial be raised.) There is a good illustrated biography here.
A portion of it reads: “All flags in Vancouver flew at half-mast
the day she was buried. Her funeral procession included all of the
city's distinguished men and women, and representatives from every
society and club. A large group of Indians with their chief, the
son of Pauline's friend Chief Joe Capilano, walked near the end
of the procession. Before her death, Pauline had asked to be buried
in Stanley Park, her favourite place in Vancouver. She is the only
person who has ever been buried in the park.”
Also March 7 Port Moody was incorporated as
a city. Civic elections were held April 3. P.D. Roe, the owner of
a local sawmill, was elected the first mayor by acclamation.
March 17, 1913 The Vancouver Opera House,
which opened in 1891, reopened as the Orpheum (not the present one)
with vaudeville acts. (In July of 1935 it will become the Lyric
with talking pictures.) The building stood where Sears is today
on Granville Street.
March 19 Ben Wosk, furniture merchant, was
born in Vradiavka, near Odessa.
“Early in 1913”
Construction on one of Vancouver’s most beautiful
(and now vanished) buildings, the second Hotel Vancouver, began
early in 1913. The April 25, 1914 issue of Engineering Record gave
some of the details. “The original wood-frame building,”
says the article—referring to the first Hotel Vancouver, which
had opened for business in 1888—"had been from time to
time extended by additions until it covered an area of about 60,000
square feet, on most of which the structure stood five storeys high.
“In designing the new hotel, limitations were
put on the work by two conditions: First, a city ordinance had just
been passed placing the maximum height of buildings at 120 feet
with the allowance of a tower eight storeys higher covering one-third
the ground area; and second, the railway company [the hotel was
owned by the CPR] required that the business of the hotel should
not be interfered with during the construction period.”
The public library’s Building Registry indicates
that the hotel’s height of 120 feet was exceeded by 108 feet,
thanks to that eight-storey addition, for a total height of 228
feet [68 metres]. The building’s stepped construction resulted
in just 44 of the hotel’s 500 rooms being without an exterior
view.
“The new Hotel Vancouver,” Engineering
Record concluded, “was designed by Francis S. Swales, of Painter
& Swales, architects (a New York firm) . . . The contract for
the construction is held by Skene & Christie, of Vancouver.”
Building this big beauty took well over two years.
It opened to the public in 1916.
April 11 Vancouver’s “Mr. Showbiz,”
Hugh Pickett, was born in Vancouver.
April 17 Baseball's Athletic Park was dedicated.
Bob “Mr. Baseball” Brown built a fine wooden ballpark
at the southeast corner of Fifth and Hemlock. 6,000 fans filled
every seat to watch the Vancouver Beavers beat the Tacoma Tigers
8-4. The first admission prices were 25 and 50 cents.
April 18 The City of Port Coquitlam celebrated
Inauguration Day, marking its incorporation as a city, breaking
away from the District of Coquitlam. Its population of 1,500 took
as its motto By Commerce and Industry We Prosper. The first mayor
was James Mars. Coquitlam lost a bit more of its territory as tiny
Fraser Mills also broke away.
April 22 Vancouver's Rotary Club was organized,
with 94 members. It was the first Rotary Club in the area, and only
the third in Canada.
April Artist Emily Carr rented Vancouver's
Drummond Hall and showed 200 paintings before returning to Victoria
to live on family property.
May 16 An Act of Parliament created the Vancouver
Harbour Commission. The first commissioner was Frank Carter-Cotton.
May The North Vancouver Rowing Club was launched.
May 27 The Capilano light was installed on
the north side of the entrance to Vancouver harbour. It was destaffed
in 1946 and replaced with a beacon.
June 18 The Fraser Valley Milk Producers Association
was formed. Today it’s Dairyland.
June 28 Says the Vancouver World in today’s
edition: “Throwing open its doors this week to the travelling
public, the Hotel Connaught, one of Vancouver’s very finest
hostelries, was at once favored with the support which so fine a
place really deserves. And the hotel really is good.” Today,
the Connaught is known as the Historic
Ramada West Pender.
July 12 The Pacific Highway opened. It ran
from the Fraser River bridge to the U.S. border. A new Customs Office
opened at the border, in a tent. Later, a permanent wooden building
will be constructed. The highway was paved in 1923.
July 31 Alys Bryant, a visiting American aviatrix,
was the first woman in Canada to make a solo flight. She flew at
Minoru Park in Richmond.
Also July 31 Samuel Brighouse, Vancouver and
Lulu Island pioneer (he was one of the “Three Greenhorns”)
died.
July North Vancouver’s City Hall at First
and Lonsdale was remodelled as a Post Office. Council moved to temporary
quarters in the Keith Block.
August A slide at Hell's Gate prevented a
record sockeye run from reaching its spawning grounds. Massive amounts
of rock were accidentally blasted into the Fraser River during construction
of the Canadian Northern Railway.
September 8 Bill Miner, the “Grey Fox,”
died in a Georgia prison.
September 12 Singer/entertainer Thora Anders
was born in Victoria.
September 19 Impresario Gordon Hilker was
born in Vancouver.
September The recently paved “Vancouver
Road” was renamed Kingsway and opened with great fanfare and
a parade of automobiles. A local newspaper wrote, on October 1:
“The new highway between Vancouver and New Westminster passing
through South Vancouver and Burnaby is now complete . . . It is
a broad, magnificent road, and by none will it be more appreciated
than motorists, who, to the number of six hundred, made the trip
between the two cities on the day the road was opened. There is
a famous London highway of this name, and it is thought our Kingsway
is named for that one.”
October 13 Journalist and newspaper executive
Stuart Keate was born in Vancouver. His early life, the opening
pages of his autobiography Paper Boy, is a really interesting look
at the Vancouver of this era.
November 3 The Alcazar Theatre opened at 639
Commercial Drive with the comedy “Too Much Johnson.”
Later it will be renamed the York Theatre.
November 8 The doors of the “elegant
and vast” new Birks store opened at Georgia and Granville.
An advertisement cited the name of the managing director, George
Trorey, reminding us that when Birks came to Vancouver in 1907 they
purchased his jewelry shop at the northeast corner of Hastings and
Granville . . . and with it the famous clock.
December 4 An Ayrshire cow, “Flossie,”
was given an award by the Canadian Ayrshire Breeders Association
for producing 11,655 lbs of milk and 446 lbs of butterfat over 314
consecutive days. Flossie was owned by the Shannon Brothers of Cloverdale.
December 6 Jonathan Miller III, a Vancouver
pioneer (first constable, first postmaster), died at age 79.
Also in 1913
A general financial depression began. The frenetic
pace of building of recent years ground to a halt.
Frank Wesbrook became the first president of the
University of British Columbia.
The World Building (now known as the old Sun Tower)
was completed.
Conservative Hall, later called Dundarave Hall, was
built on Marine Drive in West Vancouver and used for community social
activities. It has also served as a cabaret, a church, a furniture
store and restaurant.
The Campbell River Lumber Company, with about 250
workers, built a mill in White Rock about a mile east of the railway
station.
West Vancouver built a ferry terminal at the foot
of 14th Street. In 1989 it became a designated heritage structure
with exhibition space for community displays.
C.H. Cates Ltd. was incorporated. Cates Tugs was
controlled by the Cates family until 1992, when it was bought by
U.S. entrepreneur Dennis Washington, owner of the Montana-based
Washington Corporation.
Hollyburn School opened, the first purpose-built
school in West Vancouver.
Natives of Kitsilano Indian Reserve sold its 29 hectares
to the Government for $218,750. The land was valued at $2 million
when divided into residential lots.
Businessman Philip Gilman built a grand mansion on
Jericho Beach. Known today as “Brock House,” it operates
as a seniors’ centre next to the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club.
Granville Island, once a mud flat, reached island
status this year through the miracle of dredging.
Construction started on the first Georgia Viaduct.
Its official name was the Hart McHarg Bridge, for a World War I
hero, but the name didn’t last.
The Credit Foncier Building at 850 West Hastings
opened.
The stern-wheeler Skeena was providing daily service
to Wigwam Inn at the head of Indian Arm.
Hollyburn School opened, the first purpose-built
school in West Vancouver.
Delta built its second municipal hall.
John Lawson served as the second reeve of West Vancouver.
The name of Barnard Street, after Sir Frank Stillman
Barnard, Lt.-Gov. Of British Columbia, was often confused with Burrard,
and so was changed to Union Street.
Lord Tennyson School opened at West 10th and Cypress.
David Livingstone Elementary, named for the Scottish
explorer and missionary, opened with eight classrooms.
The Pacific Great Eastern Railway, now BC Rail, began
its line from North Vancouver to Prince George.
Streetcar service connected Vancouver to North Burnaby.
The Hudson’s Bay erected a new building at Georgia
and Granville to replace the 1898 structure. This one is the familiar
white building, but not as big as the current Bay at that corner.
More will be added in later years.
The Bank of Commerce opened a branch at 859 Granville.
Taylor Manor was built at 951 Boundary Road.
St. Mary's Church began at 2498 West 37th Avenue
in Kerrisdale.
Truman Smith Baxter was mayor of Vancouver.
The 11th Regiment, Irish Fusiliers of Canada was
formed.
The Zionist and Social Society was formed.
Eric Hamber became president of Hastings Sawmills
Co.
The Sandheads #16 lightship went into service at
the mouth of the Fraser River. It had been built in 1880 as the
two-masted schooner Thomas F. Bayard, and in 2004 awaits major restoration
at the Maritime Museum.
Huge crowds turned out at Shaughnessy Golf Club to
watch Harry Vardon play. Vardon was the only six-time winner of
the British Open.
Queen’s Park in Burnaby was renamed Confederation
Park to commemorate Canadian Confederation. The park is at Willingdon
and Penzance.
Author/journalist Peter Stursberg was born in China.
Edgar George Baynes built the Grosvenor Hotel, then
became the manager.
Future artist B.C. Binning, aged 4, arrived with
his family in Vancouver from Medicine Hat, Alberta.
Fred Deeley, Sr. arrived in B.C. in 1913, representing
the Birmingham Small Arms, manufacturer of BSA motorcycles.
Cyclone (Frederick) Taylor joined the Pacific Coast
Hockey Association, giving the new league the credibility it needed.
He would play for Vancouver until his retirement in 1921. One of
the great hockey players, he scored 194 goals in 186 games.
Gordon Wismer, a future attorney-general, began his
law practice in partnership with Gerald G. (Gerry) McGeer.
1913 Paterson
[Photo: www.dyna.co.za]
Continued...
[1757
- 1884] [1885 - 1891] [1892
- 1899]
[1900 - 1905] [1906
- 1908] [1909] [1910]
[1911] [1912]
[1913] [1914] [1915]
[1916]
[1917] [1918]
[1919] [1920]
[1921] [1922]
[1923] [1924]
[1925] [1926]
[1927] [1928]
[1929] [1930]
[1931] [1932]
[1933] [1934]
[1935] [1936]
[1937] [1938]
[1939] [1940]
[1941] [1942]
[1943] [1944]
[1945] [1946]
[1947] [1948]
[1949] [1950]
[1951] [1952]
[1953] [1954]
[1955] [1956]
[1957] [1958]
[1959] [1960]
[1961] [1962]
[1963] [1964]
[1965] [1966]
[1967] [1968]
[1969] [1970]
[1971] [1972]
[1973] [1974]
[1975] [1976]
[1977] [1978]
[1979] [1980]
[1981] [1982]
[1983] [1984]
[1985] [1986]
[1987] [1988]
[1989] [1990]
[1991] [1992]
[1993] [1994]
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