1951

Above: Nat Bailey Stadium, formerly known as the Capilano Stadium which opened in 1951.
[Image: Vancouver Heritage Foundation]

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You’ll note that these years include 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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The 1951 census for British Columbia showed, for the first time, more than a million people in the province: 1,165,200. Other population figures from that census (for Metropolitan Vancouver) will be found at the bottom of this page.

BC’s population today: approx. 4,220,000.

January 26 Louis Armstrong and The All Stars appeared at Exhibition Garden.

March 21 Trans Mountain (later called Trans Mountain Pipeline) was incorporated. It will build a crude oil pipeline from Edmonton to its Burnaby Terminal. The first shipment of oil will reach the terminal October 17, 1953.

May 1 The RCMP took over the policing of Surrey from the B.C. Provincial Police with a cost-sharing agreement between the federal and municipal governments.

May 11 There was a demonstration at the Hotel Vancouver of the latest weapon in the war against impaired drivers: the “Drunkometer”. (“Latest” is a relative term: the device was invented by US scientist Rolla Harger in 1931. It was a machine that could determine the amount of alcohol in someone’s breath. A person would blow into a balloon, and the air in the balloon was then released into a chemical solution. If there was alcohol in the breath, the chemical solution changed color — and the greater the color change, the more alcohol in the breath.)

May Wallace’s Burrard Dry Dock bought out Burdick’s North Vancouver Ship Repairs.

June 15 Capilano Stadium opened. The Vancouver Capilanos, managed by Bob Brown (Vancouver’s “Mr. Baseball”) defeated the Salem Senators 10-3. See a terrific brief biography by Tom Hawthorn of Bob Brown here. Baseball historian Bud Kerr says the grass there came from Athletic Park. Capilano Stadium is known today as Nat Bailey Stadium.

August 14 Baker W.C. Shelly died. He had made his fortune with 4x Bread.

August 21 Work started on China Creek Park.

August 24 A large number of chess-playing immigrants came to Canada after World War Two and some ended up in Vancouver. The first Canadian Chess Championship began a week-long run today at the Hotel Vancouver.

August 1951 Postal zones were introduced into Vancouver.

September 1 The comic strip Mutt and Jeff started in the Province.

September 27 The Academy of Medicine opened in Vancouver.

October 20 Vancouver enjoyed a visit by Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip. The Princess would become Queen less than four months later, in February 1952, following the death of her father, King George VI.

Legend has it that Sun writer Jack Wasserman was covering the royal visit somewhere in the Interior (before the arrival in Vancouver) and, rushed for time, simply phoned in his notes. The notes were so good the Sun ran ’em as is. Then they gave him a man-about-town column, and he hit his stride.

October 31 The forest products firms MacMillan and Bloedel merged to form . . . aw, you guessed!

November 1 Lawrence Hall, site of primary education for the deaf, opened at Jericho.

December 24 Hollywood star Yvonne de Carlo, said the Province, “hasn’t forgotten her home town.” (She’d made her first modest foray into showbiz as Peggy Middleton, an usherette in Ivan Ackery’s Orpheum Theatre. She attended the Vancouver School of Drama and made her movie debut as a bathing beauty in 1942’s Harvard, Here I Come.) Ms. de Carlo, the Province reported, had started her own movie company, calling it Vancouver Productions. Her first film was a biblical one to be shot in Austria in the spring. Her film credits don’t seem to include anything like that. Ah, well.

December High tides and gale-force winds combined to flood 1,200 acres of farmland to a depth of five feet between the Serpentine and Nicomekl rivers in Surrey. Repairs cost about $20,000 and the land suffered lower productivity for the next few years because of salt residue.

Also in 1951

The Lougheed Highway was completed, accelerating development on the north shore of the Fraser.

Black Ball Ferries began a service between Gibsons and Horseshoe Bay with the MV Machigonne (passengers only) and the MV Quillyute.

The Workmen’s Compensation Board moved into a new head office at 707 West 37th Avenue. One of its claims this year: a Vancouver man filed a claim for a head injury he said occurred when he bumped his head on a counter at work. Investigation proved later that the man had struck his head on a pool table while retrieving a ball he had knocked off the table.

Eric Nicol began to write for the Province. More here…

A quote from Judge Angelo Branca’s memoirs: “In 1951, after 565 convictions in six years against betting shops in Vancouver, the trade was flourishing as never before.”

J.V. Clyne became a member of the UBC Senate. He would serve to 1960, later become chancellor.

Albert O. Koch stepped down from his second term as president of Beth Israel Synagogue at 4350 Oak. He had held the post since 1938. (His first term was 1933-34.)

The anti-potlatch law was repealed. The practice of the potlatch, central to Northwest Coast Native culture, had been outlawed in 1884. (A potlatch on McMillan Island, held in early September 1947, although illegal, was heavily attended by native people from all over the lower mainland.)

1951 census figures (2001 figures in bold)

Burnaby 58,376 (193,954)
Coquitlam 15,697 (112,890)
Delta 6,701 (96,950)
Fraser Mills 369 (annexed to Coquitlam in 1971)
Langley City 2,025 (1955 figure) (23,643)
Langley Township 12,267 (86,896)
Maple Ridge 9,891 (63,169)
New Westminster 28,639 (54,656)
North Vancouver City 15,687 (44,303)
North Van. District 14,467 (82,310)
Pitt Meadows 1,434 (14,670)
Port Coquitlam 3,232 (51,257)
Port Moody 2,246 (23,816)
Richmond 19,186 (164,345)
Surrey 33,670 (included White Rock) (347,825)
Vancouver 344,833 (545,671)
UEL 2,120 (8,034) Includes other bits and pieces
West Vancouver 13,990 (41,421)

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Anmore (inc. 1987) 1,344
Belcarra (inc. 1979) 682
Bowen Island (uninc.) 2,957
Lions Bay (inc. 1971) 1,379
White Rock (inc. 1957) 18,250

Biggest percentage leap in those 50 years: Port Coquitlam, with nearly a 16-fold increase. Biggest increase in absolute numbers: Surrey, with 314,155 new people in 50 years.