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Vancouver
The Golden Years
1900 – 1910
Photographs from the Philip T. Timms Collection.
A Vancouver Museums and Planetarium Association Publication.
Photographs by Philip T. Timms
Reproductions by Henry Tabbers
Design by Gordon Miller
Notes by Elizabeth O’Kiely
Consultants – Robin Brammall, Ronald D’Altroy
The Philip T. Timms collection of photographs is the property of the Vancouver
Public Library and the selection printed here has been made available through the
kind permission of the Vancouver Public Library Board. The Board of Trustees of
the Vancouver Museums and Planetarium Association wish to acknowledge the cooperation of the Library and its Director, Mr. Morton Jordan, and to thank the
Curator of Photographs at the Library, Mr. Ronald D’Altroy, for his assistance in
the preparation of this publication.
Copyright 1971 by the Vancouver Museums and Planetarium Association.
In his introduction to “The World of Philip
Timms”, the 1970 Vancouver Centennial Museum
photographic exhibition upon which this
publication is based, James B. Stanton, Curator of
History, wrote: “All of Timms’ photographs have a
certain recognizable quality about them; much of
the kindness and gentleness of the man himself
comes through.
His shots are candid and
uncluttered and capture dramatically the feeling
and mood of the time.
The Vancouver Centennial Museum is proud
to recognize the lasting and precious contribution
of Philip Timms, now in his 96th year, to our
cultural heritage.”
In 1898 Philip Timms, twenty-four years
old and newly married, left Toronto to move west.
Attracted by the prosperity resulting from the gold
discoveries of the Klondike, he settled in
Vancouver.
From an older brother he had learned
something of the new art of photography.
Postcards were extremely popular in those early
days before photography appeared in newspapers;
many of these pictures first appeared as postcards
and they are but a small sample of the many
thousands produced during Timms’ long career.
Timms managed his own photography and
printing shop from 1900 until his retirement in
1968. The result of his skill is an invaluable record
of the people and the city during those remarkable
formative years.
“In 1910,
Vancouver then
Will have a hundred thousand men!”
In 1906, when this slogan was popular, the
fledgling city of Vancouver was bursting with prosperity
and confidence.
The years from 1900-1910 were wonderful palmy
days throughout the “Mighty British Empire”, and in
Vancouver the tide of affluence reached undreamed of
heights.
The land boom was fantastic!
Everyone
speculated, everyone bought and sold lots (“Put your
money into Kitsilano and watch it grow. Lots for $2000.”),
everyone hoped to get rich, and many did.
The world in these Philip Timms photographs is
the world of a Vancouver of another era. This was the
time of the elegant Edwardian Age: extravagant, stately,
serene. Manners were formal and snobbish, though some
of the shackles of Victorian prudery were being shed.
Grandeur was the keynote and Vancouver’s young early
settlers were determined to be grand. Stained glass
windows, potted palms, plush velvet furniture, and Gibson
Girl waists were the height of fashion.
Surprisingly, in spite of preoccupation with
appearances, everyone managed to have a wonderful time.
They were so proud of Vancouver, proud that everything
in this new city was up-to-date. There had been
telephones, electric lights, and streetcars here for several
years. Vancouver was away ahead of most North
American cities.
Everyone loved the streetcars. They ran every five
minutes and the fare was five cents. Dressed in formal
finery, people took the streetcar to the theatre or to a
party.
The city streets in these photographs seem oddly
spacious, uncluttered. It is, of course, because there
were no cars. In 1906 the police acquired a motor
vehicle patrol and ambulance wagon, and a year or so
later the fire department was mechanized. Mostly,
though, horses were used for transportation. The streets
rang with sounds of trotting hooves, jangling harnesses
and creaking wood.
Vancouver grew and grew and by 1910 there were
indeed one hundred thousand men. The old townsite of
Hastings, Point Grey (including Shaughnessy Heights)
and South Vancouver were not yet inside the city limits.
The years from 1900-1910 were golden, happy
years: the salad days, when everyone had high hopes,
pots of money and no worries about the future. No one
suspected that social upheaval, depression and war lay
ahead; that soon the world would change, never to be the
same again.
Using the photograph as a means of social
documentation, Philip Timms has captured and recorded
the personality of the developing city; those good years
when Vancouver was new and full of promise.
Vancouver began as a logging and
sawmill town: a settlement that grew near the
Hastings Mill on Burrard Inlet. For over sixty
years the noisy mill dominated the Vancouver
landscape and tall-masted sailing ships from all
over the world came to load lumber at the pier.
The sawmill shut down forever in 1929.
The forty acres on which it stood, right in the
heart of the city’s most valuable land, had
become economically unfeasible to maintain.
Sailing ship and steamship loading at Hastings Mill, 1907
The corner of Main (then Westminster) and Hastings
streets, between the Hastings Mill and the settlement at
Gastown, was the logical place for the city centre and for a
while it was. Then, following the C.P.R., the town gradually
moved westward and this corner, its high hopes dashed,
become known as the “Old East Centre”. The old City Hall
had been built in 1899 as the City Market. In 1903 the
Carnegie Library was built on the corner to the north of it.
This building, which later housed the museum, still stands
today.
Main Street looking North
City Hall and Carnegie Library, 1910
Carnegie Library, Main & Hastings Streets.
Despite its youth, the city of Vancouver has had many
faces. The first of these was the Gastown settlement, which
grew around Gassy Jack Deighton’s saloon. Following the
devastating fire of June 1886, a new city rose almost
immediately. As the western terminus of the Canadian
Pacific Railway (Port Moody’s claim to this fame was short
and sweet) Vancouver had become important overnight.
The Byrnes Block, on the property where Deighton’s
saloon used to be, is now one of the principal historic
buildings at Maple Tree Square in the Gastown area. The
white Alexandra Hotel, an Edwardian structure, was later
replaced by a warehouse.
Cordova Street was for many years the main business
and shopping street.
Funerals at that time were very grand affairs. They
were usually attended only by men, wearing crepe
armbands. If the hearse was decorated with black plumes
an older person was to be buried, if with white plumes, a
child. Most people travelled to the burial at Mountain View
Cemetery on a special line of the electric tram.
Alexandra Hotel, Byrnes Block on the left at Maple Tree Square 1907.
Funeral procession on Cordova Street.
Orangemen, Elks, Knights of Columbus, Shriners and
other fraternal organizations were strongly organized sixty years
ago. In 1906, one thousand Orangemen from Vancouver
cruised to Victoria to celebrate July 12th.
Early Vancouver had military bands, school bands, lodge
bands and theatrical bands. During the summer there were
continuous parades, with magnificent horses like the prize
winning high steppers owned by Drysdale’s Drygoods Store,
and smart troops in dress uniform, and, of course, the loud
rousing rhythm of the music.
Parade, Cordova Street, Dominion Day, 1907.
Vancouver has had several “first white
babies”. Confusion arose because births were
recorded at that time in the family Bible; few were
officially registered.
Three or four claimed the title but the matter
did not seem finally settled until 1939 when
Margaret McNeil, born April 29, 1886, twenty days
after the city was incorporated, was found living in
the United States after a lengthy search by city
archivist Major J.S. Matthews, V.D.
Philip Timms, left, on Mount Pleasant Band Excursion.
Orangemen’s Day Parade, Georgia Street, 1907.
The first “first baby” was not born until August,
1886, but she had a great time before she was eventually
disqualified. She was Edith Jackson, and to celebrate her
twenty-first birthday and impending marriage Miss
Jackson was graciously presented with a silver service
and illuminated address signed by the mayor and twelve
aldermen. Then, seated beside his worship in a horsedrawn carriage, she was driven through the streets of the
city while crowds cheered!
Parade, Hastings Street, 1906.
“First Baby” Parade, 1907.
North side of Pender Street, Chinatown, 1907.
North side of Pender Street after race riots, 1908.
As early as 1907, the Vancouver Tourist Association
was urging visitors to see “picturesque Chinatown”. There
had been a large Chinese population since Gastown days and
by 1900 its base was firmly established on Pender Street
between Carrall and Columbia. This part of Pender was then
called Dupont Street.
Chinese had been brought in by the thousands to supply
the demand for cheap labour in British Columbia and in spite
of a head tax which had been increased to $500 in 1903 they
continued to arrive. These were not tolerant times. While
many of the white population admired the skill of the Chinese
as cooks, launderers, domestic servants and market gardeners,
many treated them with ridicule and contempt. Their strange
language and unfamiliar customs made people uneasy and
suspicious. The Chinese clung together for protection against
this persecution, adding to the tension.
This intolerance turned to bitter resentment at the least
sign of financial depression. In 1907, a slight hesitation in a
booming economy combined with the arrival of a record
number of Asian immigrants to trigger the explosion. The
town went mad, and on a Saturday night in September an
unruly mob with banners flying surged towards Vancouver’s
Chinatown. 15,000 men became rioters that night. Nearly
every window was smashed, every shop looted, every
Chinese in sight beaten.
North side of Pender Street, 1907.
Dupont Street, now Pender Street, between
Carrall and Main was Vancouver’s official restricted
area, the Red Light District. There were two factories to
process opium, and Chinese lotteries were popular.
When the town became respectable these reminders of
the gay old days had to go. During the crackdown
period, scandal broke out when one of the “ladies of the
night” who had already paid her regular police
protection money was asked by police to leave her
Dupont Street premises. “She voiced her complaint
abroad,” reported the News Advertiser, on June 5, 1906.
The chief of police was suspended over this incident and
ugly charges of graft alleged. The women residents of
Dupont Street received
notice that they would be expected to remove within a
month.
The police had a more difficult time closing
down the lotteries. Every time they tried to make a
raid, the suspects mysteriously vanished. Reporting
one large raid on June 1st, 1906, the Province reported,
“36 Pender was raided by Police last night, but the
Chinese all escaped by a trap door”.
The opium factories were outlawed in 1908 and
soon after that, scandalous old Dupont became part of
respectable Pender Street.
The permanent buildings in these pictures are
still in use in the heart of Vancouver’s Chinatown.
Pender Street, 1906. Red light district premises and opium factory on the left. Chinese premises on the right.
Chinese laundry, and produce carts loading on Carrall Street, 1906.
Cambie and Hastings intersection saw many changes as
the city expanded. In 1870 an imposing Court House was built
on the triangular corner (now Victory Square). It boasted a
classical dome topped by a stately female statue representing
Justice. Next to it, on Hamilton Street, was the Inns of Court
Building of the legal profession. The Dominion Trust
Building which still dominates the corner was completed in
1909. This splendid extravagant structure was once reputed to
be the tallest in the British Empire. Many a business man who
invested in the building lived to regret it when the project
ended in financial scandal. Its steel skyscraper design
became obsolete soon afterwards with the development of
reinforced concrete construction. The building today is a
wonderful reminder of the richness and grandeur of a
bygone era.
Level downtown streets were usually paved with
wooden blocks laid on concrete and coated with tar. The
granite block paving used on steeper grades can still be
seen on Hamilton Street.
Hamilton Street, Dominion Trust Building under construction, Court House dome on the right.
Hastings at Cambie, 1905.
When the C.P.R. built their station at the foot of
Granville Street, and started, in 1905, to build their
magnificent new hotel at Granville and Georgia, Cordova
Street began to fade in importance. Granville became the
main street and the Hudson’s Bay Company and Drysdale’s
Drygoods moved their stores up from Cordova. The clock
outside Trorey’s Jewelry shop became Birks’ Clock, and
moved along with Birks to Granville and Georgia. All the
way up Granville as far as Davie, solid buildings took shape.
The Robson-Denman-Davie streetcar belt-line confirmed the
westward trend.
Pioneer merchant Charles Woodward’s first store was
at the corner of Westminster and Harris Streets (now called
Main and Georgia). In 1903 a new store was built at Hastings
and Abbott. Woodwards chose to expand and improve these
premises as the city grew, rather than join the trend westward.
Hastings Street, 1909.
Many still remember the time the world-famous Seven First wife: “I am going to get my husband to get one. I think
Sutherland Sisters combed their unbelievably long hair in the
it will look swell on him. He has got tired of
window of McDowell’s Drug Store on Granville to advertise
paying the merchant tailor his prices for much
Sutherlands Sisters’ Hair Tonic.
inferior goods with less style to them”.
Second wife: “I will try to get mine to get one too”.
The Semi-Ready Shop on Granville quoted in their
newspaper advertisement this hypothetical conversation:
Granville Street, 1907, looking towards the C.P.R. Station.
Clock outside Trorey’s Jewellers at Hastings and Granville
McDowell’s Drug Store, Granville Street
Davie and Granville in 1906 showing the belt-line turnoff.
Funeral at Christ Church, 1904. “For Sale” sign, left, at Georgia and Hornby corner.
Clearing the site for the Georgia Street Court House. Christ Church in the background.
Before the Georgia Street Court House was built in
1911, the empty land on the site was a frog swamp, much
to the delight of the children of Vancouver.
Christ Church became well-established and fashionable,
supported by residents from the big houses nearby.
There was mud everywhere and the wagon wheels often
stuck in deep ruts. The city grew so quickly it was
impossible to keep up with paving the streets or with
building wooden sidewalks. Even on the sidewalks it was
quite a trick to dodge the splatters from passing wagons.
Grand new houses were built in the West End,
with stately domed towers and sweeping verandahs.
There were afternoons of croquet and tennis and
lemonade; there were a dozen beaux for every girl at
the dances in the evening.
Vancouver society was relentlessly formal and
correct. People were determined that things should
be done in the Best British Manner. Every hostess
had her regular days to receive “At Home”, and spent
long afternoons dutifully paying social calls. For
summer parties houses were decked with flowers and
gardens twinkled at night with Japanese lanterns.
Mount Pleasant and Fairview were promising
residential areas until False Creek became smoky
with industry. There was a lovely view from there at
that time, and the Fairview (Broadway between Main
and Granville) streetcar beltline made transportation
easy.
New houses at Mount Pleasant, 1906.
W.H. Armstrong residence, Comox and Jervis, 1909.
House of the architect, T.A. Fee, near English Bay, 1903.
House fire on Burrard St. near Georgia (left side).
House fire on Burrard St. near Georgia (right side).
The C.P.R. shaped the pattern of the city during
these early formative years. The original location of the
tracks, the station, the docks, the hotel, have left a
permanent imprint. The C.P.R. owned most of the
waterfront and vast tracts of land. When the company
opened up their exclusive new Shaughnessy Heights
subdivision the excitement was fantastic;
there were long line-ups to buy lots. The first house,
dated 1909, was that of Richard Marpole, head of the
C.P.R., at 1675 Angus Drive. Many elegant mansions
followed and in old Shaughnessy today many streets are
reminiscent of the grandeur of the Edwardian Age.
Shaughnessy property line-up: C.P.R. Station in the background.
Shunting trains, earsplitting steam whistles, black smoke belching from funnels, and clouds of soot from coal being
loaded for the boiler room fires punctuated the air around Vancouver’s waterfront sixty years ago. It was noisy, busy, and
dirty, but nobody minded. This meant progress!
Ships from far and near entered Vancouver’s fine natural harbour. There were merchant cargo ships, many with tall
masts and rigging, some powered by steam engines. Winches were steam powered, but a good deal of back-breaking work was
required of the stevedores. British Naval vessels from the Esquimalt Garrison often steamed into Vancouver harbour and there
was always an enthusiastic welcome for them. Their appearance reassured those concerned about the shaky defense system on
the west coast, and caused ripples of excitement among the young women.
H.M.C.S. Rainbow, the first of Canada’s own Pacific Fleet, was also stationed at Esquimalt. Though somewhat ancient
when she arrived in 1909, she gave a real boost to the pride and confidence of the residents of Vancouver.
Passenger ships were like old friends whose comings and goings were followed with avid interest. A particular favorite
was the Union Steamships’ Britannia, with her familiar orange and black funnel. Carrying freight and mail as well as
passengers she made regular calls to the small settlements in Howe Sound. She was almost their only link with the outside
world. The Canadian Pacific Steamships were very familiar, gleaming white, shining with spit and polish. The Princess ships
on the coastal routes, and the Empress ships traveling to China and Japan, were renowned for their luxurious saloon passenger
accommodation and superb service.
Useful little tugs steamed about the harbour, towing logs or huge sailing ships, adding their bustle and noise to the
waterfront scene.
Loading lumber at Hastings Mill, 1908.
SS PONDO, unloading Australian hemp at C.P.R. Pier, 1907.
Coaling, C.P.R. Pier, 1905
U.S.S. WEST VIRGINIA in Vancouver.
C.P.R. Pier, 1907.
C.P.S.S. PRINCESS VICTORIA.
Johnson wharf, 1908.
SS BRITANNIA coming into dock, 1907.
There was great excitement when a passenger train
or steamship arrived in the early days. Often a band
played. Many very grand people, some even with titles,
travelled through Vancouver on their way around the
world. It was considered fun to go down to the station or
the dock after church on Sunday, to see who was arriving
and to have a look at the latest London fashions.
Vancouver people dressed in their best for these
occasions. The women in fancy trimmed straw hats wore
plenty of petticoats so that not a suspicion of limb could
be discerned through their long skirts, even in the
brightest sunlight. Beards were out of style for men, but
bowler hats and stiff collars were still correct. Boys wore
Eton collars, knickerbocker breeches; girls, straw hats
trimmed with ribbons and flowers, white cambric
dresses, black stockings, and boots. No one could say
that Vancouver people were not fashionably dressed!
It was an age of formality, but it was leisurely and
very gay. There were wonderful things to do for
amusement and early residents pursued their pleasures
with boundless enthusiasm.
Several hotels and restaurants were very posh, with
lengthy elaborate menus. There was an ornate Opera
House and several theatres, decorated in red plush and
gold. Concerts, traveling vaudeville shows, opera
companies; even motion pictures were popular. Women
played croquet, and had taken up tennis at the Denman
Street courts and grass hockey at Brockton Point. The
men’s baseball, football and cricket games drew huge
crowds. The skating rink was popular and in winter you
could take an interurban train to
Burnaby Lake for ice skating. The men played billiards
during their lengthy lunch hours; some frequented the
gambling houses, although in June, 1906, the News
Advertiser reported: “The changes at headquarters have
caused some uneasiness among downtown operators of
gambling houses. Last night the word passed around that
there would be no more protection.”
In summer people loved to be out of doors, where
one could admire the views.
These were flowery, sentimental days, and those
who lived in Vancouver were unashamedly proud and
indelibly impressed by the beauty and grandeur of their
natural surroundings.
On any sunny Sunday afternoon, Coal Harbour
was full of boats: sailboats, canoes, row boats. Women
in long white dresses and fashionable hats sat daintily on
cushions while their husbands or swains took command.
Many Indians and white people lived then in little
houses in Stanley Park and on Deadman’s Island where
there was a fisherman’s wharf.
Although swimming was a relatively new sport,
English Bay was as crowded then as now. Of the
women, only the very youngest ventured near the water,
modestly attired in knee-length black satin dresses and
long black stockings. Their mothers sat on the beach
with their parasols (suntans were not popular) showing
off their summer costumes.
The children, though, loved the water and quickly
learned to swim under the watchful eye of their beloved
Joe Fortes from Barbados.
Vancouver Rowing Club, Stanley Park, 1908, Deadman’s Island in the background.
English Bay, 1904, showing bath houses.
Organized excursions were all the rage. Every office, every schoolroom,
every lodge, every trade, had its annual picnic. Merchants closed their shops on
Wednesday afternoons during the summer and on every holiday hundreds set
forth on picnics. The trip to Bowen Island on the Britannia was a favorite. The
spacious picnic grounds there were a great place for excursions. Some
venturesome souls went a little further afield to camp overnight. In 1906,
Vancouver shops began to advertise equipment for camping; enameled plates,
tin cups, covered baskets and hammocks were considered essential items.
SS BRITANNIA, Bowen Island, 1907.
It was fun to take the ferry boat to
North Vancouver, or to paddle across the
inlet in a canoe. From the dock at the foot
of Lonsdale one could take a trail to Lynn
Creek, or in the other direction, a
waterfront path through the Indian village
to the Capilano River. At the end of a
short trail before the canyon was the first
dam with two holiday hotels on the river
bank.
First dam and cable car at Capilano River, 1904.
Foot of Lonsdale, North Vancouver, 1908.
Interurban train boarding at Kitsilano, 1907.
Interurbans were both predictable and popular. The marvellous electric
trains, usually two in tandem, had straw seats and separate smoking
compartments for men. Electric horn blowing, they swung along regularly from
downtown Vancouver to Steveston, New Westminster and Burnaby. There was
one daily run all the way to Chilliwack. There were special trains for the horse
races when the Minoru Race Track was opened on Lulu Island in 1909.
The first motor cars were alarming, expensive and unreliable and it was not
until around 1905 that many people ventured to consider buying one. Even then
they were not used to get about in, but only for sporty occasions. Cranking up
to set forth on a motor car ride was quite an event, often ending in mechanical
breakdown. Horses and street cars were more predictable.
Agricultural Fair, New Westminster, 1904.
Bridge from Vancouver to Eburne, General Store on left, 1908.
Where a bridge joined the North Arm Road to the farms of Sea
Island, the settlement of Eburne had grown. The Sea Island part of this
settlement is still called Eburne but the Vancouver side became
Marpole. The interurban stopped here enroute to New Westminster or
Steveston.
One nearby attraction was the Great Fraser Midden, discovered
when the forest was being cleared. Here was evidence of an
astonishingly rich and diversified culture – the archaeological remains
of a people who lived over 2000 years ago. The Vancouver Art,
Historical and Scientific Association was particularly interested in the
Fraser Midden in the early 1900’s, and many artifacts from here are
now on display at the Vancouver Centennial Museum.
Excavation at Great Fraser Midden (Marpole).
Hotel at Eburne, 1908.
Wagon Road on Sea Island near Eburne, 1908.
General Store, Eburne, Sea Island.
Steveston village, 1906.
Thanks to record runs of sockeye salmon on the Fraser,
Steveston, from 1900 to 1910, was a prosperous community.
This, combined with the development of gasoline engines for
the gill-net fleet and automotive equipment for the canning
operations, made the salmon industry big business.
Because of the large population of Indian, Japanese and
Chinese cannery workers Steveston was an interesting and
unusual community. In those days most people enjoyed the
excitement of a visit to the canneries during the fall salmon run,
and enjoyed also the pleasant scenery of delta farms from the
window of the interurban train.
Japanese fishermen, 1907.
Fishing boats at Steveston.
Steves (William Herbert) residence in Steveston, 1908.
2nd Avenue, Steveston.
Threshing at Steveston.
Stanley Park was the pride of everyone who lived in Vancouver
seventy years ago. There were many attractions – the grassy fields and
bicycle track at Brockton Point, the zoo with its birdhouse and bear-pit, the
paths through the dense forest, the beaches for picnics. Everyone knew Mr.
Avison, the park ranger, and many pitched in to help him clear trails and
build playgrounds.
Around the park drive people rode bicycles, tall treacherous affairs,
or drove their own horses, or rented horse drawn cabs. A canter before
breakfast was fashionable, the women riding sidesaddle along the bridle
trails. Most of all though, people liked to walk, taking their time, chatting
with friends, enjoying the wonder of trees and ocean.
Coal Harbour from Stanley Park.
In the lifetime of a man, in Philip Timms’ own lifetime, the city has grown
from a collection of shacks and a sawmill along the edge of the forest to become an
important metropolis. The bustling little community that Philip Timms first knew
as a young man has expanded beyond all recognition.
Although the horses and streetcars are gone, the mud has been paved, tall
skyscrapers have replaced wooden houses and giant bridges span the inlet – the
treasures of Vancouver’s natural heritage, the mountains, trees, and salty tides,
delight her citizens today just as they did in those golden years when Vancouver
was young.