The history of Vancouver in bite-sized fun-facts and stories

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Lauchlan Hamilton was the CPR land commissioner who, starting in 1885 as a young man of 33, surveyed much of Vancouver and named many of its streets. (A plaque commemorating his work is on the building at the southwest corner of Hamilton and Hastings, once a bank.)

If you live or work downtown Hamilton put you where you are.

Hamilton’s impact on early Vancouver’s physical appearance was enormous, but this is just one of the Western Canadian cities he laid out. William Van Horne and the CPR gave him complete authority (at the age of 28) to select the 25 million acres the railway had been given as a subsidy and also authorized him to survey the land for the cities along the line. Hamilton designed early Calgary, Regina and Moose Jaw and, he once wrote, “numberless” other settlements along the line.

This Month in Local History

On June 16, 1928 Nat Bailey established a permanent restaurant in a small log hut at West 67th Avenue and Granville, calling it the White Spot Barbecue, the first White Spot drive-in.

On June 22, 1956 Burnaby’s stylish new Municipal Hall opened near Deer Lake in the geographical centre of the municipality. Architectural historian Dr. Harold Kalman wrote this about the building: “Fred Hollingsworth, one of the pioneers of the new West Coast style, produced an understated masterpiece of modernism, a two-storey structure whose crisp rectangular design symbolized Burnaby’s progressive leadership.”

Vancouver Books

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.