A Year in Five Minutes: Vancouver 1909

By Chuck Davis, The History of Vancouver
Photo courtesy of Vancouver Archives

The Main Events: The second Granville Street Bridge opened; a new ferry service

On September 6, 1909 Governor General Earl Grey officially opened the new Granville Street bridge. Lady Grey cut the ribbon, as Mayor Charles Douglas looked on. The new bridge, east of the original (1889), extended from Pacific to 4th Avenue. This 1909 span would last until 1954, to be replaced by the present bridge.

A note on Mayor Douglas. He’d been born in Madison, Wisconsin on October 1, 1852 to Scottish-born parents. A journalist there, he became a realtor here. This was his only term.

Maillardville

The first contingent of 110 French Canadians from Quebec’s lumber industry arrived September 28 by train to work at Fraser Mills. Their residential settlement, built with company help, became known as Maillardville, named after community leader Father Edmond Maillard.

A new ferry

On November 8 the West Vancouver Transportation Company began a ferry service across Burrard Inlet with the 35-passenger West Vancouver. The pier on the north shore was at the foot of 17th Street, on land owned by John Lawson (one of the company’s founders), land now called John Lawson Park.

Teddy Lyons

The B.C. Electric Railway purchased plans this year for two open-air sightseeing cars from the Montreal Tramways Company for 25 cents and constructed them in their New Westminster shops. A young conductor worked one on short notice one day, and found himself a born showman. From that day on “Teddy Lyons and the observation car” were inseparable.

In other transportation news, in his valuable book Vanishing Vancouver Michael Kluckner says the BCER extended the 4th Avenue streetcar line west to Alma Street. To the east, the streetcar system was extended from downtown Vancouver to Boundary Road, and the development of Vancouver Heights—which, despite its name, was on the Burnaby side of the line—was spurred. It was designed as an exclusive subdivision which the developers hoped would rival Shaughnessy Heights. An example was “Overlynn,” the Charles J. Peter Mansion at 3755 McGill Street, built at a cost of $75,000.

Jack Johnson fights!

The new world heavyweight boxing champion, Jack Johnson, visited Vancouver March 10 for an exhibition bout at the Vancouver Athletic Club against an opponent named Victor McLaglen. This was Johnson’s first fight after winning the title. The Province of the day described Johnson’s opponent as “Vic McLaglan of Tacoma.” The World identified him as “Arthur McLaglen, a local heavyweight.” The Ring Record has it right: Victor McLaglen. He obviously wasn’t well-known at the time!

Jack Johnson certainly was. Johnson, 30, the first black man to win the heavyweight title, got a lot of attention while he was in Vancouver. He’d defeated Tommy Burns, the Canadian-born title-holder, in Australia the previous December and had returned to North America (aboard the Makura) in triumph.  “Great Reception for the Big Black,” read the Province’s headline. (One becomes inured to the shock of reading how minorities were described in newspapers of the day. This was a mild example.) “Anyone,” the paper continued, “who thinks this same Jack Johnson is an ignorant and unsophisticated negro should have seen the Chesterfieldian grace with which he bade farewell to those ladies in silks and satins on the Makura yesterday.

“Johnson has a pleasing voice, his soft, southern accent sounding almost strange coming from such a huge frame. In fact, from the delicate way in which he expressed himself one could almost close their eyes and imagine it was some ballroom dandy at an afternoon tea.” The champion was accompanied by Mrs. Johnson, “who,” the World enthused, “owing to the fact that she is a white woman, occasioned almost as much attention as her big, colored husband.”

Johnson toyed with McLaglen during the six rounds, and impressed the Vancouver Athletic Club audience of 1,000 with his speed . . . and his “classical English” in a short speech of appreciation to the throng after the fight.

Victor McLaglen, 26, later became a well-known movie actor. He won an Oscar for The Informer and was a terrific foe of John Wayne in The Quiet Man.

Women’s Press Club

“The Vancouver branch of the Canadian Women’s Press Club,” the Province reported October 20, 1909, “held its first regular meeting yesterday afternoon. The club has been formed with the object of bringing together all women writers of the City . . .” One of the founders of the local branch was Lily Laverock, one of the most interesting of all Vancouver pioneers. The Edinburgh-born Miss Laverock (she was Miss Laverock to everyone) had arrived as a child with her parents and went on to become the first female general reporter in the city. She worked first at the World and later became women’s editor of the News-Advertiser. Later she will become an impresario, and an impressive one.

Robert Clark

Robert Clark, merchant, died in Vancouver May 9, aged 65. He had an important influence on the business life of Vancouver. He was born in Lanarkshire, Scotland in 1845, came to Victoria in 1875, then to Vancouver in the spring of 1886. He opened a haberdashery store on Hastings Street, and built a large and successful business. He is considered the pioneer clothing merchant of Vancouver. Clark assisted in building the first Presbyterian church in Vancouver, and topped the aldermanic polls here in 1887, ’88 and ’89.

This excerpt from the web site of the Vancouver Board of Trade indicates the key role he played in the early business life of Vancouver: “Following the disastrous fire of June 13, 1886, when all but one of Vancouver’s buildings were destroyed, Vancouver businessmen held a number of meetings to discuss the need for some kind of business organization that could help to rebuild the young city. On September 22, 1887, such a meeting was held under the chairmanship of Alderman Robert Clark and the decision was made to form a Board of Trade.”

Fragments

On January 7 the first export shipment of grain was made out of Vancouver. Some 50,000 bushels of wheat from the prairies went to Australia.

On March 15 the first freight train (Blaine, Washington at one end, New Westminster at the other) traveled the new Great Northern Railway track along the White Rock foreshore, precipitating real estate speculation and a building boom. A customs post was opened at White Rock.

Vancouver longshoremen struck for higher pay March 29. They wanted 35 cents per hour for day work and 40 cents per hour for night work.

The first marathon run in Vancouver was on May 24, 1909 at Recreation Park. Mayor Douglas fired the starting pistol. The race was won by Vancouver athlete Will Chandler in 3 hours, 22 minutes and 11 seconds. 2,500 spectators cheered the 11 runners on.

In May the name of Vancouver’s 9th Avenue was changed to Broadway. There were a number of Americans involved in the city’s real estate boom (like Mayor Douglas) and it was felt that Broadway (after Broadway in New York City) would, in archivist Major J.S. Matthews’ words, “help promote some mysterious advantage.”

In June the first moving picture theatre opened in North Vancouver, at Larson’s Pavilion.

Minoru race track, named after King Edward’s Epsom Derby winner, opened August 21 in Richmond, with 7,000 people on hand.

Vancouver bought the first mechanized ambulance in Canada. On October 6, 1909 they took it out for a test drive and ran over and killed an American tourist.

Famed American evangelist William Jennings Bryan lectured at the Vancouver Opera House October 14.

Thomas Wilson Paterson was sworn in as Lieutenant-Governor on December 11, succeeding James Dunsmuir.

Built this year: The Evangelistic Tabernacle at 85 East 10th; the Normal School at 555 West 12th; the Winch Building at 757 West Hastings (now part of Sinclair Centre); Aberthau, at 4397 West 2nd, now the West Point Grey Community Centre; the Chinese Benevolent Society Building at 108 E. Pender (the Society was founded this year); the Cecil Hotel and the English Bay pier. A one-room schoolhouse was built this year for Point Grey’s 24 children. The wooden structure still stands on the bluffs overlooking Spanish Banks.

The Grandview Methodist Church was built at 1895 Venables. It would later become a United Church and, still later, would be converted into the East Vancouver Cultural Centre, the “Cultch.” At this writing, the “Cultch” is undergoing a complete metamorphosis, which can be read about here.

Also built in 1909: Hycroft, at 1489 McRae. It was the grandest home in Shaughnessy at $100,000 at a time when $3,000 would buy you a new house. Its owners, General Alexander McRae and his wife, turned it into a glittering social centre. Owned today by the University Women’s Club, inside and out it is one of the most beautiful buildings in the city.

The Interurban railway was extended from Eburne in Richmond to New Westminster.

Wigwam Inn, at the north end of Indian Arm, was built by German-born financier Alvo von Alvensleben. By 1913 it will be popular enough to have daily boat service provided by the stern-wheeler Skeena.

Richmond entered into an agreement to have its water supply piped from New Westminster’s reservoir, after many years of unsuccessfully drilling to find its own water.

The North Pacific Lumber mill at Barnet was destroyed by fire. A modern plant was constructed to handle 150,000 board feet a day. Separate accommodation was built for Caucasian, Chinese, and Sikh workers, and Barnet, although a part of Burnaby, became a company townsite.

Sculptor Charles Marega arrived in Vancouver, accompanied by his wife Berta. He will become a prolific creator of sculpted work around the city.

Frederick Begg arrived in Vancouver from Lindsay, Ontario and, with his brother Frank as partner, began the Begg Motor Co., the city’s first car dealer.

The Vancouver Police Department began its first mounted patrol for Stanley Park

Pitt Meadows got its first school and first telephone.

The Vancouver Fire Department got its first motorized aerial ladder, a 1909 Seagrave 75-foot  tractor-aerial ladder, first of its type built by the Seagrave Company. It was purchased because of the large number of high buildings being built downtown.

The Vancouver School Board began to offer night school courses. Some 966 people signed up.

Construction started on the Hospital for the Mind, later renamed Essondale, now Riverview Hospital.

The Vancouver Labour Council joined the Canadian Trades and Labour Council.

The Clayburn brick works were producing 30,000 bricks a day.

Fred Hinckleton built the first shack on Grouse Mountain. It quickly became a rendezvous point for hikers wanting food and refreshments

Stanley Park covers 405 hectares, much of it with grey squirrels, thanks to a gift this year of eight pairs from New York City.

A 1909 directory of Japanese immigrant businesses showed 568 businesses in the Powell Street area.

In her mid-40s Agnes Dean Cameron, Vancouver’s first woman high school teacher and first woman principal, traveled 16,000 kilometres up the Mackenzie River to the Arctic Circle, and published a book about it this year: The New North: An Account of a Woman’s Journey Through Canada to the Arctic, illustrated with photos by her niece and travel companion Jessie Cameron Brown. It was a smash. You can read the whole thing here.

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Chuck Davis is a Vancouver writer who has written, co-written, or edited 15 books. Most of them are on local history, and he describes his next book, The History of Metropolitan Vancouver, as the capstone of his career.