[caption id="attachment_9657" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Members of the Yip Sang family in front of the Wing Sang Building 1901, photo courtesy of Henry Yip."][/caption] Since May is Asian Heritage Month I thought it was the perfect time to spend a day in Chinatown rather than dip in and out of the area as I tend to do. Our Chinatown is gaining national and international recognition. Last October the Feds designated Chinatown a National Historical Site. In November, the National Geographic named the Dr. Sun yat-sen Gardens one of the top 10 city gardens in the world. It’s long overdue recognition for one of the largest and oldest Chinatowns in North America. On the surface not a lot has changed in the last 20 years or so. There are the dim sum restaurants, herbal shops, tacky ornament shops and the in-your-face production of food—duck and pig carcasses, live bullfrogs in buckets on the sidewalk, tanks full of exotic fish and an array of fruit and vegetables still a long way from mainstream.

  [caption id="attachment_8917" align="aligncenter" width="560" caption="North Vancouver Trend House - 4342 Skyline Drive, North Vancouver"][/caption] The North Vancouver Trend House has sold for $1,375,000. The house on Skyline Drive was one of 11 built in 1954 for Ted and Cora Backer, designed by Porter & Davidson Architects, and sponsored by BC forest industries to boost retail lumber, plywood and shingle sales in the province. The other Trend Houses are in Victoria, Calgary, Halifax, Toronto, London, Winnipeg, Regina and Edmonton. One of the Toronto Trend houses was demolished and the Montreal Trend House came down last year. The North Van house needs love. What was once wood (and may still be underneath) has been carpeted over, wallpapered and dry walled. It’s looking tired and in need of an update. But at 2,472 square feet it’s still a good size family home with a dramatic split level open concept plan, sweeping vaulted ceilings the width of the house, and floor-to-ceiling glass windows.

[caption id="attachment_8909" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Bruce Emmett - Digital photomontage, Conveyor (2011)"][/caption] You are cordially invite to the opening of the upcoming exhibition of new work from artist Bruce Emmett at the West Vancouver Museum. The Mill Project Date: May 9 - June 16, 2012 Opening Reception: May 8th from 7pm Artist Talk: June 9th from 1:30pm Location: West Vancouver Museum, 680 17th Street, West Vancouver Bruce Emmett explores a single site in West Vancouver that contains three unique histories: the Vedder River Shingle Mill, West Vancouver High school and the Inglewood "Mil" Skatepark, the first skateboard ...

[caption id="attachment_8310" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Frederick Horsman Varley, Bridge Over Lynn Canyon, c.1932-1935 watercolour, gouache and chalk on paper, 21.8 cm x 26.3 cm. Vancouver Art Gallery Acquisition Fund VAG 96.3."][/caption] The Vancouver Sun ran a front page story last week about a man who paid $100 for two paintings at a garage sale only to discover that one was a valuable Tom Thomson, and the other, an early watercolour by Group of Seven artist Frederick Varley. The unidentified man carted off his haul to Maynard’s in a shopping bag, where auctioneers conservatively valued the Thomson at $250,000, and somewhat less, but way over the garage sale price, for the Varley. The paintings go under the hammer May 16, so with all the national attention they could go a lot higher. I was thinking about how Varley would have enjoyed this story as I walked my dog past his former North Vancouver digs. The old green house is across from the pipeline bridge on Rice Lake Road, a few minutes walk from The End of the Line, general store. Varley, one of the Group of Seven’s most notorious painters, lived there in the 1930s. Always broke, Varley moved to BC in 1926 to teach at a Vancouver art school and lived briefly at Jericho Beach with his wife Maud and their four kids. Soon after arriving, Varley began an affair with Vera, a former student and art model and the same age as his daughter Dorothy.

Annual Top Ten Endangered Sites Bus Tour & Launch DATE: Saturday, May 5, 2012 TIME: 1:00pm to 5:00pm (loading begins at 12:30 and bus departs at 1pm SHARP) LOCATION: Meet in the Vancouver Museum Parking Lot, 1100 Chestnut St. ADMISSION: $30.00; Heritage Vancouver Members $25.00 Ticket purchase online:  hvs-topten2012.eventbrite.ca Note: We've added a second bus, since the first bus has already sold out. Climb aboard two Transit Museum Society (TRAMS) historic buses for an exclusive guided tour of Heritage Vancouver's 2012 Top Ten Endangered sites. Be the first to know what sites are on the Top Ten this ...

Spacing Vancouver is excited to announced the launch of Michael Kluckner's newest book - Vanishing Vancouver: The Last 25 Years. This is the fifteen book this well-known local historian and artist has released! And if any of his past works are an indication of what to expect, this one is sure to be worthy of a spot on your bookshelf. Michael is inviting anybody and everybody interested in the history of Vancouver to any of the following events: May 3rd (Thursday), 7 pm: launch party at People's Co-op Bookstore, 1391 ...

[caption id="attachment_8013" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="The Dominion Building. Photo courtesy of the City of Vancouver, 2004."][/caption] A few weeks ago I was standing on the 11th floor of the Dominion Building looking down its spiral staircase and thinking about architect John Shaw Helyer. Helyer designed the 1910 building and then supposedly committed suicide by throwing himself down those same stairs at the building’s grand opening. It’s quite a story, it’s just not true. Helyer died from a stroke in 1919. But just because that’s an urban myth, it doesn’t mean the building hasn’t its own great story. For starters this overdressed red brick and yellow terra cotta structure with its oddly shaped beaux-arts roof comes from a time when architectural sculpture helped shape Vancouver. One writer called it a 19th century Parisian townhouse that should be one storey high, stretched up into an eccentric skyscraper.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="East side of Commercial Drive - 1700-block - in 1936 (VPL 23618 part)"][/caption] Jak King knows a lot about the history of Commercial Drive. In his recently released The Drive: A Retail, Social and Political History of Commercial Drive he does a great job of outlining a detailed history of the Drive — focusing on the area from Venables to 7th Avenue in the period between the early 1920's to 1956. Having read every issue of the Highland Echo — Commercial Drive's weekly newspaper (which ran from 1936 to 1969) — Jak has documented change through a detailed construction of the people, stores, buildings and curiosities that shaped the 'backdoor' of Vancouver. His book also highlights changes in technology, the important creation of a transportation hub, as well as the formative people and interesting events that saw Commercial drive through the beginning of the 20th century. These early events truly cultivated this unique and often autonomous Vancouver community. This was recently followed by The Encyclopedia of Commercial Drive - a 558 page collection of all businesses and business owners along this well-known street up to 1999. Both books are the first of a series by the area resident on the history of the Drive that tells a story not often heard in our future-foreward city. Spacing Vancouver contributor David Peacock recently had the wonderful opportunity to sit down with Jak to talk about his book in a cafe on the Drive that he certainly knew a long back story on. ••• Spacing: The Drive details so much change in ownership from the 1920's through the 50's, does this constant rebirth reflect a bigger societal value in the neighbourhood? Jak: I think that the one thing that we've really maintained is the fact that our stores here are small, and they are generally locally managed. There are chains here — there is the Starbucks here, the Safeway here, whatever else — but essentially most of the stores here are small and locally managed. That's something that has come through history and has been retained. I think that does add to the friendliness of the neighbourhood, and to the fact that we have survived some pretty rough times here. I am a little concerned about the fact that 30 years ago we had a dozen restaurants here and today we have 94. In many ways that's a good thing, making it a very friendly neighbourhood. But what bothers me is that there are 86 businesses that are no longer in existence, that have been taken over by restaurants. I would hate us to become just a foodie neighbourhood. We used to have a lot of furniture stores, appliance stores, more shoe stores, and now we have almost nothing but restaurants for the last 20 years.

Looking to get your urban fix, 1920s-style? Check out the new exhibition at the Museum of Vancouver: Art Deco Chic: Glamourous Fashions of the 1920s and 1930s. The loose-fitting, geometrical dresses of the 1920s spoke to women's newfound freedom and allowed the quick movements characterized in dance styles like the Charleston, while more precise cutting and tailoring returned in the wake of the Great Depression. Other influences on the fashions of this era were blockbuster films, architectural innovations seen in masterpieces like the Empire ...

An Evening at the Marine Building (1930) Penthouse WHERE: Tuesday, March 20, 2012 | 5:30pm to 8:00pm LOCATION: Marine Building Penthouse, 2000 – 355 Burrard Street; TICKETS: $100 donation to Heritage Vancouver Society; Includes wine and hors d'oeuvres reception. (Tax receipts will be issued)   Heritage Vancouver Society invites you to attend a Special Evening in the ultra-elegant, Jazz Age Penthouse of the Marine Building, "Vancouver's Finest Heritage Building". This is a unique opportunity to explore the two floors of the private Penthouse, enjoy the Art Deco atmosphere and the fabulous view, hear about its unique history ...