A Year in Five Minutes: Vancouver 1945

This year would see the end of the Second World War and Vancouverites would celebrate as many did across the globe. In 1945 we also lost one of Canada’s most celebrated artists and a well-known Vancouver parks commissioner who left a great gift to the city.

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

“War” News

The freighter Greenhill Park exploded in Vancouver harbor March 6, 1945, easily the most spectacular and disastrous event in the port’s history. Eight longshoremen were killed, 19 other workers were injured, seven firemen ended up in hospital and hundreds of windows in downtown Vancouver, some as far west as Thurlow and as far north as Dunsmuir, were blown out. Some initially thought it was a Japanese attack.

An investigation into the explosion was conducted by the department of transport and presided over by Mr. Justice Sydney Smith. His report was released two months after the blast. It concluded that the explosion had resulted from “improper stowage of combustible, dangerous and explosive material . . . and the ignition thereof by a lighted match.”

The main cargo of the ship was sodium chlorate but a fair amount of general cargo was loaded, too, including some barrels of liquor. In 1957—12 years after the disaster—one of the crewmen who had survived said that “it was impossible to keep anything like that secret from longshoremen and it wasn’t long before a narrow passage was cleared back to where the liquor was stowed.

“One by one, the men would come down into that hold to draw off a drink, or fill a bottle to take home in a lunch box. The last man to do so had already had a few drinks and he couldn’t see so well down in there. So he struck a match.”

A considerable amount of the liquor had been spilled out of the barrels onto the deck and that narrow passage was full of fumes—so, immediately, there was an explosion, with the results outlined above.

The Greenhill Park was towed to Siwash Rock, where the fire was finally extinguished.

More War News

On April 6 Coevorden, the Dutch city from which Capt. George Vancouver’s family derived its name, was liberated from Nazi occupation by Canadian troops. In a happy coincidence, April 6 is the City of Vancouver’s birthday.

The United Nations began operations in New York City April 25, 1945. The UN would officially come into existence October 24 as its charter took effect.

At 7:04 a.m. on May 7 air raid sirens began to blare out all over wartime Greater Vancouver to mark VE Day, for Victory in Europe. (It was May 8 in Europe.) Now attention would turn to defeating Japan.

On May 22 the first veteran moved into the first of the new veterans’ homes in Vancouver. They were a small part of some 300,000 veterans’ homes that would be built by the federal government after 1945 to address housing shortages as men returned from overseas. They were described as “very well built, very simple, very adaptable, the ultimate grow-home; just pop up the roof or one side to make an addition.” The houses were built using standard plans and prefabricated panels. There was a bungalow and a storey-and-a-half model. The average size was 1,200 square feet. Clapboard was a common exterior finish.

On July 16, 1945 the first atom bomb was exploded in a test at Alamogordo, New Mexico.

On August 6 the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.

On August 9 the atom bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.

On August 14 Japan surrendered and the Second World War ended. The victory was wildly celebrated in Greater Vancouver . . . and, oh yes, elsewhere, too.

Japanese Americans had been allowed to return to the coast in 1945, even before the war ended, but it wasn’t until 1949 that their Canadian exile was actually over. That same year, the federal government finally granted Japanese Canadians the right to vote.

On September 5, 1945 cipher clerk Igor Gouzenko walked out of the Soviet embassy in Ottawa. He revealed to Canadian authorities the existence of a Soviet spy ring in Canada. This has sometimes been called the event that marked the onset of the Cold War.

Burrard Dry Dock let go the last of its female workers in December. Out of a work force of 13,000 a thousand women worked at the plant, where, at the war’s height, 34 “Victory” ships were built in 26 months. (When victory was announced, some women workers found themselves in tears knowing their jobs had ended and that, despite a fight by their union to keep them on, the returning men would necessarily put them out of work.)

London Drugs

Manitoba-born Sam Bass, 30—the son of Jewish farmer immigrants from Kiev, Ukraine—borrowed money and bought Schoff’s Drug Store at Main and Union in Vancouver, renamed it London Drugs. It almost didn’t happen: Bass, who’d been an RCAF pharmacist during the Second World War, was actually heading for California when he stopped over in Vancouver. Bass built a chain of London Drug stores, sold it to a U.S. firm in 1968, died in Vancouver November 8, 1990 at 75. (Today, London Drugs is owned by Vancouver-based Tong Louie, has thrived, now has 52 stores in B.C. and Alberta with more than 6,000 employees.)

Jonathan Rogers Dies

Jonathan Rogers, pioneer, contractor and philanthropist, died December 8 in Vancouver, aged 80. He was born July 30, 1865 on a farm, “Plas Onn,” in Denbighshire, Wales. He learned to speak English at age 16. Rogers, 21 at the time, was the first person to step down onto the platform on the arrival of the first CPR passenger train at Vancouver May 23, 1887. He was a painter, later builder and contractor. Rogers built up more than 1,000 feet of frontage along Granville and Hastings including the Rogers Building (1911), the handsome white terra cotta building at the northeast corner of Granville and Pender. He was a Vancouver alderman in 1906 and again in 1911.

As a Vancouver parks commissioner and chair (1908-43), Rogers maintained Stanley Park in its natural state. A biographical sketch by Eifion Williams reads: “Jonathan Rogers died in 1945 and left what at that time was a very large sum of money, a quarter of a million dollars, to various causes in Vancouver. The largest single bequest of $100,000 was given to the City of Vancouver to create a neighbourhood park in a poorer part of the city. After several delays, the park was finally opened in 1958 and called Jonathan Rogers Park in his memory.” That park is on East 7th Avenue. Rogers and his wife Elisabeth were arts patrons and world travelers. They loaned paintings from their collection to the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Fragments

In January Charles Cotterell, CPR assistant general manager since 1934, became president of The Vancouver Board of Trade.

The first family allowance cheques were mailed out February 20, 1945 by the federal government. Known as the “baby bonus,” they provided regular monthly payments of $5 to $8 to all parents of children under 16. ($5 then would be equivalent to about $60 today.)

February 25 marked the last broadcast by Earle Kelly, “Mr. Good Evening.” He died at Tranquille Sanatorium in Kamloops April 14, 1946 at age 66. Kelly began broadcasting the news in 1929.

A pre-school for deaf kids began April 18 at Lord Tennyson School.

On April 30 fire destroyed Capilano Stadium in Vancouver. The fire continued past midnight into May 1. It would be rebuilt quickly (and would be renamed Nat Bailey Stadium in 1978.)

Prime Minister Mackenzie King opened the 1945 federal election campaign May 16 with a speech from Vancouver broadcast over Radio CBR (now CBU). The text of that speech is at the City of Vancouver Archives, with King’s pencilled changes in the margins.

Gerry McGeer was named to the Senate on June 11.

On July 14, 1945 a remarkable story by the Province’s Jean Howarth told of a young man named Ivan Knopski—he ran a concession stand at St. Paul’s Hospital—who was building his own house at the corner of Main Street and East 29th Avenue. Knopski was blind. “His neighbors, as they watched him building, didn’t believe that. They were sure he was boasting, that he had some sight left. But when they heard his hammer going on into the night till 11 and 12 and no lanterns around, then they knew he must be telling the truth.” (The author went to that corner in 2009 to see if Knopski’s house was still there. Alas, it wasn’t.

Effective August 4th froth on beer glasses in B.C.’s beer parlors was limited by law to half an inch. Some scoundrels had been serving glasses with two, sometimes three inches of foam. Is nothing sacred?

Locomotive 374, which pulled the first CPR passenger train into Vancouver in 1887, arrived in the city August 22 for a last run before being put on outdoor display in Kitsilano.

Visiting movie actress Yvonne De Carlo (born September 1, 1922 as Peggy Middleton in Vancouver) celebrated her birthday at the Hotel Vancouver’s Panorama Roof. She was appearing here as part of an “Yvonne De Carlo Week” in the city. De Carlo had appeared in, among others, Salome Where She Danced (the 1945 role that made her a star), and as a handmaiden (uncredited) in the 1942 Hope/Crosby comedy Road to Morocco. Howard Hughes made his first visit to Vancouver about this time, at the controls of his own plane. We can date the visit because he met (and, some say, romanced) the lovely Miss De Carlo while here. And, according to an article by Aaron Chapman in the Courier (December 16, 2004), Hughes also played golf at the Capilano Golf Course.

Also on September 1, the Sun reported on Page 1: “Imperial Bank of Canada announced today the purchase of the Williams Building, south-west corner of Hastings and Granville. Purchase price was reported to be $465,000.”

A news report datelined September 10 out of Portland, Oregon: “Following consultations with Dr. Gerald Wendt, noted scientist, the Pacific Northwest Trade Association . . . approved appointment of a committee to collaborate with its fisheries committee in consulting with University of Washington scientists and others on the advisability of utilization of the atomic bomb to blast out Ripple Rock, navigation hazard on Canada’s route to Alaska.” Yikes! The rock was later taken out with conventional explosives.

Three VFD firefighters were killed September 14 fighting a fire in the McMaster Building on Homer Street.

After RCAF war service, Samuel Patrick Cromie, 27, third son of Robert Cromie (who founded the Vancouver Sun) returned to the Sun to begin work November 1 as mechanical superintendent. (Before the war he’d worked in the circulation department and as a pressman.) He was soon made vice president.

It was announced on November 5 that the Boeing Aircraft Co. factory on Coal Harbour—pretty much inactive with the end of the war—was to be sold to B.C. Packers, likely for use as a maintenance plant for their fishing fleet. “The big building, the main Boeing plant before the war added the Sea Island hangar and shops [in Richmond], would be used for the present as a net and gear storage loft . . . The building has a 132-foot frontage on West Georgia, extending back to the water’s edge.”

On November 6, 1945 Vancouver’s city council cancelled an order that had established separate swimming days at Crystal Pool for non-white people. The pool, the Province reported, “is now open to everyone, all the time, regardless of race, creed, or colour. Park Board commissioners at a special meeting voted to withdraw previous rules about special days for whites, negroes, and Orientals.”

For 10 days in December 1945, B.C. Electric tested a 1940 trolley bus borrowed from Seattle. The public liked it, and that and the bus’s performance convinced B.C. Electric to commit to a ‘rails to rubber’ program that would eventually replace the streetcar. See 1948.

Also in 1945

H.E. Bond became president of the Vancouver Real Estate Board.

George Frederick Curtis became the first Dean of the Law Faculty at the University of British Columbia. He had graduated from the University of Saskatchewan in 1927 and was named a Rhodes Scholar. He earned a BA in Jurisprudence in 1930 and a BCL at Oxford in 1931—achieving first class honors in each. After a number of years spent in private practice in Halifax and teaching at Dalhousie University, Curtis was hired by UBC. He would be dean for 26 years, stepping down in 1971.

Seattle brewer Emil Sick bought Capilano Stadium. It was in bad shape, needed fixing up, and wouldn’t open until June 15, 1951.

After his return from a German prisoner of war camp, Saskatchewan born Art Seller took advantage of the postwar flying boom: in partnership with Harold Foster, whom he later bought out, he formed the Royal City Flying Club at Vancouver Airport. It had one war surplus Tiger Moth. Later, a second Moth would be added.

The United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union was organized.

The first double chairlift in North America was constructed on Grouse Mountain, running from the top of Skyline Road to a village of more than 100 cabins used by local residents as weekend retreats. Later, The Cut chairlift would be built, connecting the village to the top of the mountain.

Lansdowne race track was sold to the B.C. Turf and Country Club.

The first Cloverdale Rodeo was staged.

After six years D. MacKay ended his term as chief of the Vancouver Police Department, and was succeeded by A.G. McNeill.

Walter Moberly Elementary School, built in 1911, burned down. It was rebuilt in 1946. It’s at 1000 East 59th Avenue.

W.H. Malkin stepped down as chair of the board of governors of the British Columbia Cancer Institute, and was succeeded by Dr. A. Maxwell Evans, who would serve for 33 years.

B.C. members of the Fraternal Order of Eagles (established in 1898 in Seattle) formed the first Provincial Aerie.

CKWX became an affiliate of the US-based Mutual Broadcasting System.

The magazine BC Outdoors began publishing.

The Hollyburn, built in 1936 for the West Vancouver Municipal Ferry system, was sold to Harbour Navigation. She was busy during Expo 86.

The provincial government created the B.C. Power Commission, which began extending electricity into rural areas.

Weldwood’s manufacturing operations in British Columbia began this year when a predecessor company, Western Plywood, began producing fir and poplar plywood in a Vancouver plant.

The first mall in Canada, West Vancouver’s Park Royal Shopping Centre, was heralded as innovative state-of-the-art shopping at its launch this year. Developed by British Pacific Properties, it marked the concept of a major store as an anchor, (in this case Woodward’s) attached to a handful of smaller shops and surrounded by ample free parking. It would undergo several expansions and a major addition to the south on the other side of Marine Drive.

Aragon Recording opened at 615 W. Hastings. One of its founding partners, broadcaster and musician Al Reusch, would acquire sole ownership of the three-room space in 1954.

Writer, columnist and Member of Parliament Paul St. Pierre (his books include Breaking Smith’s Quarter Horse; Smith and Other Events, and many others), born in Chicago in 1923, came to Vancouver. His 1950s CBC television series Cariboo Country (which launched the acting career of Chief Dan George) would be a huge hit.

In 1945, the city agreed to provide $1 million for a new main library to replace the 1901 Carnegie building. It won’t open, however, for another nine years.

Poet Earle Birney won the second of his Governor General’s awards for poetry. He won the first in 1942.

Vancouver-born movie actor John Ireland, 30, appeared in his first film, A Walk in the Sun.

Mary Pack, dismayed by the lack of services for physically handicapped children in Vancouver, started the B.C. Spastic Society. That would become the B.C. Division of the Canadian Arthritis and Rheumatism Society in 1948.

Italy-born Joe Philliponi (born Filippone), about 32, opened The Penthouse dinner club at 1019 Seymour. It’s still there, more than 60 years later. Philliponi would be shot to death in his office September 18, 1983.

Foon Sien Wong, a spokesman for Chinese rights, began a fight to get the vote for Chinese Canadians.

Departures

Emily Carr, artist and writer, died March 2, 1945 in Victoria, aged 73. She was born December 13, 1871 in Victoria. In 1899, writes Constance Brissenden, she travelled to Ucluelet on Vancouver Island, the first of many trips to paint Native sites. Trips made by Carr to aboriginal villages on Vancouver Island and the Queen Charlotte Islands resulted in her most famous work, as she showed the houses, totems and settlements of the people there. After travels to Europe, Toronto and the Cariboo, Carr moved to Vancouver in January 1906, renting a studio at 570 Granville. She taught art classes from 1908 to 1910. After travels in B.C. and abroad she returned to Vancouver in 1912, renting a studio at 1465 W. Broadway. In March 1912 she exhibited paintings she had created in France. In April 1913 she rented Vancouver’s Drummond Hall and showed 200 paintings before returning to Victoria to live on family property. Later in life, encouraged by Ira Dilworth, she wrote books including Klee Wick and The Book of Small. She was awarded an honorary degree (D.Lib) by UBC in 1945. Read Dear Nan, Letters of Emily Carr, Nan Cheney and Humphrey Toms, edited by Doreen Walker.

Elsewhere

Anne Frank, 15, died in March at Belsen Belsen concentration camp in Germany.

US president Franklin D. Roosevelt died April 12.

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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.