Visitor Attractions in Greater Vancouver

by Tom Poiker

For the last half century, when world travelers have been invited to name the most beautiful cities in the world, Vancouver has been among the top three. Still, about half of the top visitor attractions in Greater Vancouver were created within the last 25 years! Today, when asked for attractive places, we think not only about mountains, ocean and lakes, but also about trees and gardens, colorful streets and modern buildings, parks and beaches, good restaurants and interesting theatres, festivals, runs and parades.

This is certainly not an exhaustive list. There is too much going on in this corner of British Columbia! And, an important note: addresses and phone numbers change, so we’ve left them out. A call to Tourism Vancouver will get you information on any or all of these attractions.

Abbotsford Air Show on two weekends in August, the community of Abbotsford east of Vancouver swings into action. The first weekend provides hot-air balloon rides, model airplane contests, kite contests, etc. The second weekend is the one everybody talks about: the largest airshow in North America with the Biggest, the Fastest, the Loudest and the Bravest. Nothing beats the spectacle as Canada, the U.S., Britain, Russia and others put their newest aircraft through their paces. Abbotsford isn’t really in Greater Vancouver, but most of the people coming here are from the Lower Mainland. Ambleside Park A favorite beach-walking area with views of downtown Vancouver, Stanley Park and the Lions Gate Bridge, sailboats, freighters and tugboats ... and occasionally the tourist-beloved Royal Hudson, the only steam locomotive in service in Canada. There are playing fields, a pavilion and concessions at the park. Aquarium See article on Vancouver Aquarium B.C. Place Stadium opened in 1983 as the world’s largest air-supported Dome. With 60,000 seats it hosts the B.C. Lions CFL football team (from July to November), as well as major concerts, trade shows and other large gatherings. It was in this enormous building Queen Elizabeth II invited the world to Expo 86. The “Three Tenors” concert (Pavarotti, Domingo, Carreras) took place at B.C. Place December 31, 1996. The BC Sports Hall of Fame and Museum is housed within this giant structure. The Hall is dedicated to honoring the province’s athletes, teams and builders. Hands-on displays and touch-screen computers show the lives and accomplishments of B.C.’s top sportsmen and women. The stadium neighborhood has experienced a boom of new buildings with General Motors Place next door (home to the NHL Vancouver Canucks and the NBA Vancouver Grizzlies), with the big new Vancouver Public Library and the Ford Centre for the Performing Arts a couple of blocks away. B.C. Sugar Museum The company began in 1891, and displays here show interesting old sugar-processing machinery (some of it going back to the 18th century), advertisements, packaging and much else. Fascinating and free. Britannia Beach Home of the B.C. Museum of Mining, open late May to early October. Buddhist Temple The new wave of Chinese immigrants has taken a liking to Richmond where a large number of new immigrants have settled. Testimony of their commercial activity is the Aberdeen Shopping Centre. Their most impressive artistic symbol is the Buddhist Temple on Steveston Highway, a classic example of traditional Chinese architecture. Take your shoes off when you walk into the temple. Burnaby Lake is a large, shallow lake, surrounded by wetland. A rowing pavilion, an equestrian centre, picnic areas and many kilometres of walking trails provide many activities. There is an abundance of wildlife, especially waterbirds. It is said there are more beavers in this lake than anywhere else in southwestern B.C. Burnaby Mountain Park To the west of Simon Fraser University, the park slopes down to the suburb of Burnaby. It offers a splendid view of downtown and the islands through the Playground of the Gods, a monument for Japanese-Canadian friendship, and of Indian Arm to the north. There is a rose garden, some interesting totem poles and a restaurant. Kids: it doesn’t snow very often in Vancouver but when it does, this is the best sliding place in town, on anything from cardboards to high-tech toboggans. Burnaby Village Deer Lake Park contains a multitude of attractions besides those of a city park on a lake. There is the Burnaby Village Museum, a turn-of-the-century village with real people at work in traditional trades, like blacksmithing; the Burnaby Art Gallery, housed in Ceperley Mansion, a stately old home; an arts centre; a theatre complex; a large garden, and a big, splendid vintage carousel with 36 wooden horses and a pony-drawn chariot. A place to come back to again and again. April to October 1st and December. CN IMAX Theatre A five-storey-high screen in the Canada Place complex has regular showings of spectacular IMAX movies ... taking you out into space or right into a beaver’s underwater home. Canada Place was built as the Canadian contribution to Expo 86, the hugely successful world’s fair held in Vancouver in 1986 (21 million visits.) It looks like a great ship with the Pan Pacific Hotel as the stack and the Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre under the sails. There is a public promenade around Canada Place that gives an excellent view of the Port of Vancouver, with many explanatory plaques. Canadian Craft Museum A small gem of a building, and displays of highest-quality crafts. Even if you don’t buy (the gift shop is pricey, as the best often is) you’ll find this a visually rewarding experience. Canadian Museum of Flight and Transportation At Langley Airport, a “walkman” tour takes you past a fascinating array of dozens of aircraft “from World War I through the jet age.” Capilano Suspension Bridge is the ultimate tourist attraction: wilderness a few minutes from downtown, the hair-raising sense of danger when you walk 70 meters (more than 200 feet) above the yawning chasm of the Capilano River on a 450-foot-long bridge that seems to respond to every step you make, photo stops, a souvenir shop, teahouse, native carving displays, etc. You can take fantastic photos to show the folks back home. The sheer granite cliffs of the Capilano Canyon were carved out more than a hundred centuries ago by natural water courses left behind by glacial action. The first version of the bridge went in in 1889. Nearby is the Capilano Fish Hatchery with excellent glass-windowed displays of the life cycle of the Pacific salmon. You look right into the river to see the living fish. Chinatown in Vancouver is a visitor must. The third largest in North America (after San Francisco and New York City), it’s located along several blocks of Pender Street, with more shops and restaurants on Keefer, one block away, and along Main Street. Chinatown is the centre of the old Chinese shopping and restaurant district. The scene of violent racism a century ago, Chinatown is now one of the city’s liveliest areas for locals and tourists alike. Heritage buildings give the area a unique character of early century Chinese architecture, restaurants and specialty shops. Cloverdale Rodeo Second in size only to the Calgary Stampede, this May event brings calf roping, bronco busting, bull throwing and more with cowboys from all around North America. Cypress Provincial Park Walking up-up-up from Lighthouse Park will eventually get you to the top at Cypress Park. Driving up the mountain might be easier, and both routes give you sweeping views of Vancouver and the Islands. At the Park you’ll find an intricate network of trails for hiking, trails which turn into ski trails--both downhill and cross-country--in the winter. English Bay beach stretches from the Vancouver Aquatic Centre to Stanley Park, offering something for everyone throughout the year: sunbathing in summer; kayak rentals; walking in the winter; watching the sun set over the freighters; an international fireworks competition during summer festival . .. and on New Year’s Day, hundreds of foolhardy locals jump into the chilly water for the decades-long tradition of the Polar Bear Swim. English Bay gets its name because Capt. George Vancouver moored his ships here in 1792 while exploring local waters (like Burrard Inlet) at closer range. Watch for flying Frisbees, roller-bladers, joggers, skateboarders, cyclists, and elderly strollers! Fantasy Garden World A Disneyish attraction in Richmond with gardens, rides, a miniature train, a “castle” from Coeverden, Holland and an Olde World Village. (Coeverden was home to George Vancouver’s ancestors. His father was John Jasper van Coeverden.) Fort Langley Where British Columbia began. A restored version of the third fort (shortly after the fort moved to this site in 1839 it burned down, and had to be rebuilt), active from mid- May to the end of October. Historic buildings and authentically costumed staff take you back to the 1850s, and there are demonstrations by artisans of old-time skills like blacksmithing. The Langley Centennial Museum and the B.C. Farm Machinery and Agricultural Museum are nearby. Fraser Downs There’s a certain charm to harness racing, and this handsome little park is the place to enjoy it. October to April. For flat racing, see the Hastings Park entry. Gastown is where Vancouver started. This area might have ended as the local Skid Road with old warehouses and seedy hotels, had it not experienced a complete recovery and heritage- style Victorian renovation in the early l970s, an initiative of Vancouver’s Community Arts Council. The street is cobblestoned and bordered by young maple trees and antique street lamps. There are art galleries, souvenir shops, fine furniture stores, and a variety of restaurants and bars. Step into oddly-named side streets like Gaoler’s Mews and Blood Alley, and admire the “flat-iron” architecture of the Europe Hotel. Don’t miss the famous Gastown Steam Clock, likely the single most photographed object in Greater Vancouver, that pipes a tune every quarter of an hour. Gastown, by the way, was so nicknamed because of an early (1867 and on) saloon keeper, John Deighton, who talked so much he was called “Gassy Jack.” Early Vancouver grew around his saloon. The famous statue of Gassy at Carrall and Water Streets is a product of sculptor Vern Simpson’s imagination: nobody knows what the famed saloon keeper looked like (except for a contemporary’s description of him as having a “muddy purple” complexion). A photograph of a portly fellow with a beard was plucked at random from a pile of ancient photos by 1970s developers as someone who “looks as if he could be a Gassy Jack.” General Motors Place Guided tours of this newest of the city’s sports halls are available. The NHLs Vancouver Canucks and the NBA’s Vancouver Grizzlies play here. Granville Island was once a dilapidated and ugly industrial region in the middle of Vancouver. But, thanks to an imaginative federal government scheme (who would have guessed!) the island--which was originally nothing more than a sandbar that disappeared at high tide, then was built up with silt taken from elsewhere--has been transformed since 1973 into a mecca for shopping and cultural activities. A caution: parking is sometimes virtually impossible. We recommend coming by foot, public transit, bike, taxi or ferry. (A fleet of stubby little Granville Island Ferries brings people over from the south foot of Hornby Street.) The heart of the Island--or perhaps we should say the stomach--is the big, always crowded, Public Market with dozens of stands selling fresh vegetables, meat, fish and the like, and lots of booths selling ready-to-eat goodies. The Market is surrounded by four dozen small shops for food, clothing, art, boating supplies, etc. Look for the unique Kids Only Market. There’s a hotel, pubs, restaurants, bistros. Granville Island is also the seat for several theatre groups, making Vancouver one of the most interesting Canadian centres for the performing arts. Another tenant: the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, Vancouver’s leading art school. Grouse Mountain Should we call it urban skiing! You never get away from the view of the city and the inlet. It’s like taking off from the slopes and flying over the town. A popular spot for local skiers for decades. You could have dinner at famed Grouse Nest with an unsurpassed view 1,100 meters (about 3,600 feet) above town. Or you could just go to a lookout and look over the city for a place to have dinner after a long walk. The famous gondolas lift you to mountaintop in six minutes, and when the skies are clear the views are jaw-dropping. Horse- drawn wagons are a visitor favorite. (The horses come up in the gondolas, too.) Grouse’s Theatre In The Sky shows locally-themed videos. Harbour Centre is one of the more interesting modern buildings in Vancouver, as if a flying saucer had landed on top of a high-rise. The two highest levels are an observation deck, called The Lookout, and a revolving restaurant called Top of Vancouver. The restaurant rotates 360 degrees in an hour. The Lookout has knowledgeable young guides and lots of plaques describing distant buildings and landmarks. You glide to the top of this 167-metre-high building, tallest in the city, in 50 seconds in glass-walled elevators on the outside of the building. Take your friends out for lunch for a glorious, panoramic view of the city and its mountains. The first two storeys of Harbour Centre were donated to Simon Fraser University as its Downtown Campus, the venue of many high-tech conferences with superb technical installations. Hastings Park Raceway Thoroughbred racing from early April to early November. A covered grandstand and genuinely good food. There’s been racing here from 1889, and since 1961 all Lower Mainland flat racing has been concentrated at Hastings Park. (For harness racing, see the article on Fraser Downs.) Irving House Captain William Irving had this house built in New Westminster in 1865, when it was still the capital of the mainland colony of British Columbia, and furnished it opulently. it’s been lovingly maintained, and looks as if the Captain had just moved out. (One odd feature: a crack in the wall caused by a 1946 earthquake.) Lighthouse Park The North Shore is an area of parks, from the coast to the tip of the mountains. This is where the story (true) originated that, in summer, you can ski Whistler or Blackcomb Mountain in the morning and, on your way back to Vancouver, go for a swim in the ocean on one of the North Shore’s beaches--and dine at a fine restaurant in the evening. Lighthouse Park is 75 hectares of the most original and most rugged of the North Shore’s parks. Stunning views, and more than 60 bird species have been spotted here. Hikes through one of the few remaining original forests in Greater Vancouver end at Point Atkinson with its lighthouse. The lighthouse has been staffed without interruption since 1875, although a recent trend toward unmanned stations may have now put an end to that tradition. Lonsdale Quay A handsome shopping, restaurant and food market complex at the foot of North Vancouver’s Lonsdale Street. A big seafood restaurant in the area was once a working ferry on the inlet. The SeaBus, which crosses Burrard Inlet every few minutes, docks here. Lynn Canyon Park Lynn Canyon’s Suspension Bridge, built in 1912, is 50 metres above scenic Lynn Creek, and it’s free. There is a very pleasant Nature Walk through 250-hectare Lynn Canyon Park, past deep water pools. It starts with a fine introduction at the small Ecology Centre (interactive displays and educational programs), near the bridge. Scattered here and there throughout the park, the stumps of once mighty forest giants, some with loggers’ springboard notches still visible. The park began with a 12-acre donation of land by the logging McTavish brothers. For hardier hikers, Lynn Headwaters Regional Park beckons. Maplewood Farm A year-round North Vancouver location, five acres of fun for the little ones: there are pony rides, milking demonstrations, and more than 200 domestic animals and birds to see. Minter Gardens Another big, beautiful collection of themed gardens (11 of them), this 27-acre specimen is near Chilliwack 65 kilometres east of Vancouver. There are witty topiary displays, a maze and--unique in North America--Penjing Rock Bonsai (dwarf plants). Mount Seymour Provincial Park First, you have to drive 1,000 metres (about 3,300 feet) up. But stop at the two viewpoints, one overlooking Indian Arm and, on clear days, Washington State’s Mount Baker, the other looking west towards downtown and the Islands. Then you arrive at a large parking lot to start some beautiful skiing in the winter and equally enchanting hiking in the summer. The Museum of Anthropology If a city is lucky it gets something special, what we might call a gift of the gods. Vancouver has the Museum of Anthropology at UBC. It is inspired--and inspiring--architecture, by Vancouver’s Arthur Erickson. The museum is filled with some of the world’s most beautiful and striking native art, and is surrounded by magnificent views. The building is a combination of concrete and glass creating an openness matching the grandeur of the native art inside. Centrepiece is Bill Reid’s Raven and the First Men, a large carving-- a masterpiece--depicting a native story of the creation of men. Don’t have time to include this in your itinerary! Make time. You’ll remember it forever. Museum of the Royal Westminster Regiment A small museum devoted to the regiment is housed in an 1895 Armory gun room. Free, year-round. Pacific National Exhibition This big annual late-summer fair was planning a move as our book was going to press. The 1997 PNE will be at its longtime home, Hastings Park. After that, who knows! See Mark Leiren-Young’s article on the Exhibition. Park & Tilford Gardens Eight separate theme gardens on the North Shore, created in 1968 by a privately-owned distillery. In the Rose Garden there are nearly 300 plants, in 24 varieties. Free admission and parking, and open seven days a week. The Port of Vancouver is Greater Vancouver’s bustling heart, one of the three largest North American harbors, and busiest on the Pacific coast of North America. It occupies much of Burrard Inlet west of the Second Narrows bridge. From docks for luxury liners to grain elevators, from large lumber loading areas to huge mountains of sulphur, there is everything that has to do with international shipping. The port can be viewed from many points in greater Vancouver, from Stanley Park to Burnaby Mountain and from the SeaBus Terminal to the North Shore Mountains. Queen Elizabeth Park Greater Vancouver is a hilly place, and one of the most unique of the “hills” is this strikingly landscaped 150-metre (500foot) high extinct volcano. Queen Elizabeth Park, named in 1939 for the Queen Mother (the present Queen’s mother), is the public garden of the city. Once a rock quarry, now a riot of color, with flowers, shrubs, rare trees, and more on every side. A favorite for wedding parties, it’s a great place to stroll around, and the views are magnificent wherever you are. Watch for a dramatic sculpture by world-famed Henry Moore. Also in the park, the Bloedel Conservatory, a year-round tropical paradise under a “triodetic” dome ... with parrots and tiny tropical birds, more than 50 kinds, flitting between the exotic plants, and the soothing splash of waterfalls. Japanese carp glide beneath the waters. A bonus: it’s warm year-round. Seasons Restaurant in the Park hosted a summit lunch April 3, 1993 for U.S. President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin. Rainforest Reptile Refuge A year-round display in Surrey of more than 300 reptiles and amphibians. Redwood Park This lovely 32-hectare Surrey park is rich in exotic trees from around the world. Two profoundly deaf and gently eccentric brothers, Peter and David Brown, owned this property and built themselves a multi-level treehouse in it where they could be away from the rest of the world. A “replica” (nothing like the rude original) of the treehouse can be seen. The Browns gathered seedlings of trees from other countries and planted them here. George C. Reifel Bird Sanctuary This 850-acre sanctuary on Delta’s Westham Island, 10 kilometres west of Ladner, is a resting place for thousands of migratory birds on their way south to warmer places in fall and their way back in spring. With three kilometres of hiking trails and a nature house, there is much to see--and hear--all year long. More than 1.5 million birds pass through here annually (240 species have been spotted!), many thousands just stopping to rest and feed, others to spend the winter. Some species make this their home year-round. Operated by the B.C. Waterfowl Society, a non-government, self-supporting non-profit organization. The Sanctuary has been called a “rural remnant of the once vast Fraser estuary marshes.” Robson Square Robson Square starts with the New Courthouse, a massive slope of glass covering the Law Courts. The Courthouse opens up into a public space with a waterfall, trees and many stairs--the gathering point of young people in the summer--that descend to a lower level with restaurants, conference rooms and a skating rink. Arthur Erickson, the complex’s architect, showed the world with this structure that high-rises are not the only solution for inner cities. Robson Street, busiest pedestrian thoroughfare in Greater Vancouver, used to be called “Robsonstrasse” when it was more European-themed, but it’s been homogenized in recent years. High energy street, and great for people-watching. Roedde House Museum This little charmer is set in a West End block (bounded by Barclay, Nicola, Haro and Broughton Streets) called Barclay Heritage Square and featuring nine historic houses built between 1890 and 1908. Roedde House, built in 1893 for Vancouver’s first bookbinder, Gustav Roedde. has been owned by the city since 1966. It’s operated by the Roedde House Preservation Society, a non-profit volunteer group, and has been handsomely restored. There are guided tours and afternoon tea. Royal Hudson Steam Train Canada’s only steam-operated locomotives, the beautifully-restored 2860 and 3716, take travelers along more than 60 kilometres of spectacularly scenic Howe Sound from North Vancouver to Squamish. (The 2850 Hudson drew King George VI and Queen Elizabeth across Canada in 1939, and the King was so impressed with its power he gave his approval for the Hudson locomotives to carry the “Royal” designation.) At Squamish you can visit the West Coast Railway Heritage Museum, with more than 50 locomotives-- including the only surviving Pacific Great Eastern Railway steam engine--and cars on display, one of them a handsomely restored Executive Business Car. Also in or near Squamish, the Howe Sound Brewing Co., logging shows and scenic Shannon Falls. To vary your trip, you can return by sea on the MV Britannia, or go up on the boat and return by rail. Science World Housed in what is sometimes nicknamed the “golf ball,” this former Expo pavilion at the east end of False Creek is a delight for children of all ages. In three major galleries (biology, physics and sound) it presents a scientific view of the earth and life in B.C., with lots of hands-on displays to illustrate scientific concepts in fun ways. There’s a Natural History Gallery, the “Mine Game,” a 3D Laser Theatre, and the Omnimax Theatre, presenting spellbinding films on the world’s largest domed screen. Seymour Demonstration Forest See the article on the GVRD. Simon Fraser University Just turned 30, with one of the livelier histories of any university in North America (a hotbed of student and faculty unrest in the turbulent Sixties), Simon Fraser is a dynamic centre of studies and research located atop Burnaby Mountain. The attraction here (for the non-student) is its architecture by the young Arthur Erickson, with partner Geoffrey Massey. The campus buildings hug the mountaintop in a dramatic sprawl. SplashDown Park Three minutes from the Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal, this 13-slide 10-acre fun spot is Vancouver’s only waterpark. Stanley Park is the jewel of Vancouver, the envy of every city planner in the world. It is unique as a city park, not only for its size (408 hectares, or 1,000 acres) and its closeness to the downtown area but also for its beauty and the variety of amenities it offers, from the forest-like interior of the park (criss-crossed by safe walking trails), to the ocean beaches, to kids’ playgrounds, to the built-up area of the world-famed Vancouver Public Aquarium. The park follows a wise rule of recreational planning: to protect an area from being overrun by users, set aside a small section and make it high-density, with intensive use. Of course, with nearly two million people able to use the park, not to mention out-of-area visitors, we cannot expect it to remain an untouched wilderness. By concentrating people in the southern reaches and around the rim of the park, a large area has been kept in a relatively natural state. The park’s walking trails, by the way, were originally “skid roads,” used by early loggers who greased them with whale oil to permit teams of oxen to drag massive, felled trees to the water’s edge. There are hour-long horse-drawn tours of the park’s highlights, using teams of giant Clydesdales and other big horses, and look for the charming miniature railway and Children’s Farmyard. There are many attractions within the Park: The Seawall walkway, affording you one of the world’s great walks, wraps entirely around the park, giving pedestrians and cyclists nine kilometres of breathtaking views of the city, the harbor and the mountains beyond. Stroll a portion, stroll it all. The hiking trails in the interior of the Park guide people through thick forests, with manychances to get out to the Seawall and join in with the crowd. The Stanley Park Causeway winds gently around the perimeter of the park, giving drivers (don’t go too fast!!!) a general glimpse of what can be seen in detail, with many chances to stop and enjoy. The Nine O’Clock Gun. It’s been in the park for a century, once used to signal the end of theday’s legal fishing, but for decades now a famed nightly time signal. Ever since the gun was “kid- napped” by University of British Columbia engineering students (who returned it when a"ransom" was paid to the Children’s Hospital), there has been a protective fence around it. Thegun is fired electronically from the harbormaster’s perch high atop a downtown skyscraper. Beaches and swimming pools. The Royal Vancouver Yacht Club with its myriad of boats Brockton Point with a famous old Lighthouse and picturesque (and genuine) totem poles Prospect Point with striking views of Lions Gate Bridge, the north shore and the mountains. No, they’re not the Rockies! Those are along way away to the east. These are the Coast Mountains. Ferguson Point and the Teahouse The Tennis Courts and Pitch and Putt area . . plus the Hollow Tree, Giant Checkerboard, and much, much more. Steveston Village Once a centre of Japanese fishing activity before World War II, Steveston is home to a big, colorful commercial fishing harbor. Visitors buy the sea’s bounty directly from the boats at the public fish sales dock. A series of shops and restaurants has developed on and near the wharf, making this a very pleasant outing throughout the year. A relic of fishing’s glory days, the century-old Gulf of Georgia Cannery on the Steveston waterfront, was restored in the 1990s and is now a National Historic Site; guided tours show how this important industry once operated. Nearby are the Britannia Heritage Shipyards, the oldest remaining structures on the Fraser River, weathered by a century of exposure to a silvery grey. Dr. SunYat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden is a beautiful, quiet oasis in the heart of a busy city, a “refreshment for the heart.” Behind the Chinese Cultural Centre, this first full-sized classical Chinese garden ever built outside China (created by experts flown in from that country) provides a glimpse into another world of symmetry of architecture, rocks, trees and water, unknown in the West. Every square inch of the space has been exquisitely designed ... even the eaves on the roofs have been shaped to turn rain showers into beaded curtains of water. Handsome, porous “Taihu” rocks and jade green water add to the quiet, exotic beauty. The garden is a genuine must see. Docent-guided tours. Trev Deeley Motorcycle Museum More than 200 classic and antique motorcycles, representing 43 makes, have been gathered at this Richmond site. UBC Botanical Garden Seventy acres of plants from around the world, set in a coastal forest at the University of British Columbia. You’ll find 400 species of rhododendron here, and a 16th century “Physick Garden.” Established in 1916, this is the oldest university botanical garden in Canada. The University of British Columbia is the oldest and largest university in the province. Its haphazard mix of architecture is one of its visitor attractions. Walk along the Main Mall, down to the rose garden, with its beautiful views across the Strait of Georgia, or go to the Asian Centre and the beautiful Japanese Nitobe Gardens, an authentic Japanese “Tea and Stroll” Garden. Don’t miss the new Centre for Native Studies with its impressive and massive beam structure, look for the dramatic new Koerner Library and visit the world-famed Museum of Anthropology The campus is adjacent to big (763 hectares), attractive and undeveloped Pacific Spirit Regional Park, and it’s possible to climb down to the beach. (Caution! Wreck Beach is clothing optional.) There are 50 kilometres of walking/ hiking trails in the park, 35 km of equestrian trails and another 35 km for cyclists. This area was logged by Hastings Sawmill from 1860 to 1923, then endowed to the university. You’ll see second-growth Douglas fir, western red cedar, western hemlock and more. Vancouver Aquarium is famous the world over, with pools for Orcas (killer whales), plump white Beluga whales, Steller sea lions and enclosures for sea otters, seals and other water animals of the Pacific. The many galleries within, including an Indonesian Reef exhibit, feature hundreds of different species of Pacific marine life. Kids will enjoy the Graham Amazon Gallery, with its giant fishes and hourly rainstorms. The Vancouver Art Gallery is a heritage building that once was the Courthouse. With the neoclassical exterior preserved, the new interior houses, among other Canadian and international artists, the largest collection of Emily Carr paintings anywhere in the world. The building’s original architect, Thomas Rattenbury, also designed the Legislative Buildings and the Empress Hotel in Victoria. (p.s. Rattenbury was murdered by his wife’s young lover.) Touring shows bring a mix of modern and traditional. Vancouver East Cultural Centre A former church in an East Vancouver residential neighborhood, the “Cultch” offers a wide variety of theatre, music and dance, with a focus on contemporary performing arts. There are also special childrens’ programs. VanDusen Botanical Garden This relatively young, but already well respected, big botanical garden is a joy for everybody who likes plants, There is much to see, to learn and to do: 22 acres of beauty, tranquil ponds and great views. Right in the centre of the city, the garden (once a golf course) has areas representing different parts of the world. There are sculptures, and an Elizabethan hedge maze. Vanier Park There is always something happening at Vanier Park when it’s sunny, and often when it’s not: the Beautiful People jogging along the beach; fighter kites rushing up to challenge airborne competitors; model sailboats chasing ducks and being chased by them in the pond; catamarans and sailboarders in the water; and in the summer, Bard on the Beach, a local professional Shakespeare company under artistic director Christopher Gaze offering, in a huge red-and-white tent, excellent productions of Will’s classics. Overlooking all of this, and sharing the same distinctively-shaped building, are the Vancouver Museum and the Pacific Space Centre, which includes the H.R. MacMillan Planetarium. The shape of the building was inspired by the hats of Haida natives. The Planetarium has regular multimedia shows on its 20-metre domed screen on the planets, galaxies, comets and such. Nearby Gordon Southam Observatory (free) lets you look through telescopes at the heavens--when the weather cooperates. The Planetarium and Observatory are evolving into the Pacific Space Centre, being developed as this book went to press. “We will be renovating the Star Theatre,” says president and chair Stephen J. Miller, “with sophisticated new control systems, video projection units and a live performance stage. We will be offering a new exhibit hall with hands-on, interactive experiences and learning systems employing technologies developed right here in British Columbia. Our new Centre will also feature a Cosmic Simulator taking visitors on explorations into outer space, and Groundstation Canada, a multi-screen theatre and demonstration lab for visitors and schoolchildren.” The gleaming crab fountain in front of the Museum/Planetarium was created by sculptor George Norris, and is worth a visit by itself. Also in this spacious park, the Maritime Museum and the Vancouver Academy of Music. The museum features exhibits highlighting this area’s rich marine past, with a Children’s Maritime Discovery Centre where kids can take the helm of a scale-model tugboat and “navigate” it around English Bay. Next door is a unique structure specially built to house the St. Roch, a ship built for the RCMP (nicknamed “horse sailors") which became the first to go through the Northwest Passage in both directions, and was also the first ship to circumnavigate North America. There are regular tours. In the western reaches of Vanier park, the Vancouver City Archives, a huge and fascinating collection of material from the city’s past. West End This has been called the most populated square kilometre in North America, but that’s not quite true: there are areas in New York City that are considerably more packed. Still, the population is high for such a small area. More to the point is that Vancouver’s West End is one of the most livable areas in Canada for singles and couples. Even though crammed with high rises, two- and four-storey apartment buildings and (a very few) family houses, there are still trees, parks and playgrounds and a lot of neat shopping and entertainment. The West End is a great place to live, bordered by the great Stanley Park, lively English Bay, the city’s energetic downtown and the busy harbor. There is a large gay population. Take a walk along English Bay, have tea in the old-world Sylvia Hotel, go shopping on crowded Robson Street and on Davie Street see The Mansion, a fine old home converted to a popular restaurant. Westminster Quay Shops, restaurants, a broad boardwalk, an authentic paddlewheeler, and excellent views of the working Fraser River: tugboats, log booms, barges, freighters and more. One of New Westminster’s real attractions. Whistler Village Ski magazine named Whistler the number one ski resort in North America, and Snow Country Magazine gave it the same title four years running. Golf magazine chimes in by rating it “one of the best golf resorts in the world.” There are four courses here, three with designers even duffers have heard of: Arnold Palmer, Robert Trent Jones, Jr., and Jack Nicklaus. Whistler, 120 kilometres north of Vancouver, with 1,600 metres of vertical drop, highest on the continent, is a gateway to skiing on a grand scale. Two adjacent mountains, Whistler and Blackcomb attract skiers from all over the world. But a first class ski resort cannot exist on natural attributes alone. Whistler has developed an excellent infrastructure: eating, lodging and shopping locations are all within easy walking distance in the no-car village. If it’s good (and expensive) the Village has it. Snowboarding and cross-country skiing in the winter, hiking, mountain biking and water sports in the summer are offered to the energetic visitor. And for everybody else, there are conventions and festivals galore, with symphony concerts in summer right at the top of the skiing area. B.C. Rail has train service there. White Rock A favorite summer resort for Vancouverites since the turn of the century, White Rock is now a busy and attractive suburb. Thanks to its beautiful waterfront location, it brings Vancouverites and foreigners to enjoy a day at the beach, a swim in the ocean or merely a leisurely stroll along the shore. A famous old (1914) pier here was once a landing dock for coastal steamships, now offers scenic strolling and fishing. White Rock was once the site of an international Sandcastle competition (cancelled because of rowdyism) in the summer that lured hundreds to the broad expanse of the beach here to try their hand at sand sculptures. The town is named for a huge (486.63 ton) white rock on the beach, deposited millennia ago by a glacier. Wreck Beach Vancouver is blessed with about 56 kilometres (35 miles) of beaches, all of them public, most of them developed. They are all worth visiting, but Wreck Beach, just some hundred steps below the University of British Columbia, is the most beautiful, the least developed and the most controversial because it is clothing optional. On sunny days more than a thousand naked sun worshipers can congregate here. The beach’s name was given it for the now vanished hulk of a wrecked vessel here. Yaletown was a Vancouver warehouse district only a decade ago, but has now evolved into an attractive quarter of sophisticated cafes, restaurants and upscale shops. A favorite locale for the growing film industry. The name comes from the nickname for this area a century ago, from CPR workers (who had come down from the railway town of Yale) who moved here in the mid-1880s to help bring the railway into Vancouver.

Additional material provided by Kirstin Brundin and by Heather Chapman, Elvira Quarin and Tracey Corbett of Tourism Vancouver.

Hotels in Greater Vancouver

by Claire Hurley

The colonial hotel, built by the Grelley brothers on Columbia Street in New Westminster around 1860, was the first hotel in the Greater Vancouver area. In those days New Westminster was connected to Burrard Inlet by a meandering Douglas Road. In 1865, at the Inlet end of the road, Oliver Hocking and Fred Houston opened the Brighten Hotel with beautiful grounds, picturesque walks and a floating wharf. The hotel attracted vacationers from New Westminster who, starting in 1867, could take a weekly stagecoach to get there. Maximilien Michaud, who had walked to the Pacific coast from Eastern Canada, bought the place in 1869 and renamed it the Hastings Hotel. Other early hotels of note were Mansion House in New Westminster (1868), the Deighton Hotel (built by Gassy Jack Deighton of Gastown fame in 1870) and the Granville Hotel (1874). The latter two were destroyed in the Great Fire on June 13, 1886. With great speed new hotels were built: in 1886 the Terminus Hotel at 30 Water Street featured projecting bay windows on the upper floors; rooms at the opulent Alhambra Hotel, built in 1886-87 at 2 Water Street, went for more than a dollar per night!

The Canadian Pacific Railway built the first Hotel Vancouver which opened May 16, 1887, at Georgia and Granville Streets. Its location, far from the centre of town, was ridiculed by some. However the site afforded fabulous views and its luxurious style ensured its success. The timely arrival of the first CPR passenger train a week later boosted business. The first banquet of the Vancouver Board of Trade was held in the hotel March 5, 1889--at a cost of $12.50 per plate, which included a quart bottle of Mumm’s Extra Dry Champagne. And Vancouver’s Canadian Club held its inaugural luncheon there September 25, 1906, with Governor General Earl Grey as guest of honor, an event marked by the first public singing of the “Buchan version” of “O Canada.”

Vancouver experienced rapid growth between 1908 and 1913. The flatiron building at 43 Powell Street, the Hotel Europe (1908-09), is one survivor of this period. Other early hotels and buildings in Gastown and neighboring Chinatown remain intact because of the B.C. government’s 1971 decision to designate these areas as historical sites, thereby preventing demolition. A splendid new Hotel Vancouver, the second, was built in 1916 on the same site as the first. It was a building still fondly recalled by oldtimers for its grandly ornate exterior, but it was not well-built and deteriorated over time. The first convocation (1916) for the conferring of degrees by the University of British Columbia was held there. The Georgia Hotel, still active, opened May 7, 1927.

In 1928 the Canadian National Railway began building a chateau-style hotel at Georgia and Hornby Streets but the depression halted construction in 1932. The building stood uncompleted for five years, until the CNR reached a joint-operation agreement with the CPR--whose second hotel was proving too costly to maintain--and construction resumed. Still it was seven more years before the grand new structure opened. The new (the third and present) Hotel Vancouver was hastily completed in time for the royal visit of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. The official opening took place May 25, 1939. In 1962 CP Hotels, unwilling to spend more money on a hotel it didn’t own, decided not to renew its contract. CN contracted the hotel’s management to Hilton but then resumed sole management in 1983. Finally, in 1988, the hotel’s ownership came full circle as Canadian Pacific Hotels once again acquired the Hotel Vancouver. The famed hotel’s steep green copper roof (used to dramatic effect in the 1975 film, Russian Roulette), ornate dormer windows, menacing gargoyles and notched machicolations evoke memories of medieval French castles.

Some fondly recalled hotels live on only in memory: on December 10, 1962, the old Union Steamship Hotel on Bowen Island--once a favorite gathering spot for leisure-minded locals--was demolished and the resort closed down. And, on a more dramatic note, on July 5, 1981, the Devonshire Hotel was brought down by a controlled explosion. New hotels blossomed in the 1980s in anticipation of Expo 86 and to meet the increasing demands of the convention trade. Following Expo, offshore investors bought, sold and built hotel properties at a fast pace. More hotel development is inevitable following the construction of a new convention centre in Vancouver, a facility whose location was not yet announced at this writing.

Consular Corps

by Sandra McKenzie

Diplomacy is the primary vehicle by which nations communicate political concerns, negotiate trade deals, settle disputes and protect the interests of their citizens abroad. At the senior diplomatic level are the embassies or, among the Commonwealth nations, high commissions, located in the host nation’s capital. Typically embassies wrangle with high-level contentious political and economic issues such as, say turbot over-fishing or human rights violations. In Canada 112 nations post ambassadorial staff in Ottawa while another 50 countries oversee their North American interests from embassies in Washington, DC.

At the junior level of the diplomatic community are the consulates, which usually handle the day- to-day bureaucratic and commercial interests of their country. They process visa and passport applications, promote trade and tourism, and provide legal advice and support to their citizens traveling abroad who have run afoul of local law. While embassies are always located in the national capital, consulates are scattered throughout the country’s major cities. Montreal has 88 consulates, Toronto 82 and Vancouver 64.

Consulates can be headed by either career diplomats who are citizens of the state they represent or by honorary consuls. Appointing an honorary consul is frequently a cost-saving measure, preserving a diplomatic presence without the overhead of staffing. But sometimes the appointment confers an entree into Canadian political life. Singapore, for example, has former Chief Justice Nathan Nemetz as honorary consul general. Though Mr. Nemetz is not directly involved with consulate work, he does bring high-level political connections to the job.

An honorary consul is a private citizen appointed by a foreign government to represent its interests. In Vancouver 26 consulates are staffed by full-time career diplomats and 38 by Canadian residents. In most instances honorary consuls serve a primarily titular function, leaving the actual business of the post to the professionals. But some appointees play a more direct role. Jeffery Moore, for instance, who is El Salvador’s consul in Vancouver, organizes shipments of tools, equipment and school supplies to El Salvador.

While an honorary consul usually has close links, either by birth or business, with the country he or she represents, this is not necessarily the case. Vancouver horologist Raymond Saunders, best known for restoring the Gastown steam clock, is honorary consul for Guinea, a country he has never visited and in which he has no special interests. Saunders sought the job and paid several thousands of dollars for the privilege. While Saunders hasn’t divulged the exact amount he paid, the estimated price for an honorary consulship in Western Canada runs as high as $25,000, plus any expenses incurred.

For about the price of a country-club membership, the appointment virtually guarantees an entry to the cocktails-and-canapes circuit. Among the more interesting social and economic doors that suddenly swing open are invitations to dinner with visiting Royals and reserved seats at major events such as the Commonwealth Games. A diplomatic association with a major country can bring in as many as 300 invitations a year. Other perks include diplomatic license plates, which allow the bearer to park darned near anywhere he or she pleases. While an honorary consul may hold dual citizenship (granted at the discretion of the country represented), he or she does not enjoy diplomatic immunity and cannot claim exemption from Canadian law.

In Vancouver the first consulate to be recognized by the Canadian government belonged to Chile, which established its interests here in 1892, naming M.P. Morris as the honorary consul general. Brazil followed Chile’s lead in 1915 and in 1920 Belgium became the third country to appoint a consul to Vancouver. In contrast the U.S. waited until 1928 before establishing a consulate here. Great Britain joined ranks after 1930. The most recent arrival on the diplomatic scene is Belize, which established its Vancouver presence in 1995.

What, precisely, were Chile’s early interests in a rag-tag town in the Pacific Northwest! The answer, if it exists, is buried deep in the archives in Santiago, though the current Chilean consulate staff speculate that they might have been protecting shipping interests and possibly monitoring the welfare of migrant miners seeking work in British Columbia’s copper mines. In any case Chile’s Vancouver consulate remained an honorary posting until 1990 when it was upgraded to a full-time, professional office.

Trickier to determine is the size of any given consulate. For diplomatic purposes, consulates are ranked equally. Though the world is currently a relatively quiet place, for security reasons several countries do not publish any personnel details, including staffing figures. However the People’s Republic of China, which occupies two buildings on Granville Street, maintains the largest full- time staff.

Longest serving of all local consular officials was Vancouver businessman Frank Bernard, vice- consul for Spain from 1940 to 1989, an astonishing 49 years.

Vancouver’s prominence as a centre for diplomatic activity is a recent phenomenon, dating back only to about 1990. In the past six years 20 nations, including former Soviet bloc countries like the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic, Hungary and Poland, have either established a presence here or have upgraded their operations. According to David Harris, chief of protocol for the provincial government, the reason is Vancouver’s geographical position as a meeting point for Asian and European interests. With its relatively balmy climate, Pacific Rim connections and burgeoning high-tech economy, Vancouver has become a door to the world. For countries such as Indonesia, India, Malaysia and South Korea, Vancouver is a gateway to the North American market. Europeans, on the other hand, view it as an opening to Asia.

Some countries have foregone embassies in Ottawa and have, instead, concentrated their resources in Vancouver. Belize, for example, closed its embassy in 1993 and opened an office here in 1993. Singapore, which maintains a full-time consulate staff on the West Coast, relies on a consulate in Manhattan to handle other Canadian affairs.

Cruise Ships

by Gary Bannerman

Vancouver has become one of the most significant ports in the passenger-shipping world, home base for what is the industry’s most profitable market on a per-passenger basis.

In a mass movement of people and ships not seen since the Klondike Gold Rush of a century ago, vacationers, predominantly Americans, sail the Inside Passage of British Columbia each summer to the 50th state.

Some of the largest and most luxurious ships afloat make Vancouver a regular port of call between May and October. In 1995, 25 different ships made over 270 separate sailings, carrying more than 600,000 passengers. They collectively spent $140 million in Canada. The economic impact, measured in provisions, ship servicing, employment and other spin-offs may be double that amount.

Passenger travel along the coast has been a factor of every chapter of British Columbia history. Vessels owned by Canadian Pacific, Canadian National Railway, Union Steamship Company and other competitors have worked the British Columbia-Alaska trade.

Several of Canadian Pacific’s renowned and beloved White Empresses were based here, postcard sights as they made their way through First Narrows. This evolved in later years into a CP partnership with Union Steamships of New Zealand, marketed as The Australasian Line, transporting passengers and cargo from Vancouver to the Orient.

But Vancouver was never a major port of the world passenger liner business. Immigrant ships of all shapes and sizes occasionally stopped here. During World War II several of the passenger ships conscripted into troop-carrying modes went into B.C. yards for refit. One of these was the original Queen Elizabeth, in her dull naval grey, which dropped anchor in English Bay en route to Yarrows Shipyard in Victoria.

In 1954, when the Orient Line included Vancouver in a pioneering Pacific itinerary with the ships Oronsay, Orcades and Orsova, a new era dawned. The British giant P&O Lines, which would ultimately absorb the Orient Line, began its association with the arrival of Himalaya in 1958.

This occurred amidst the death throes of pan-oceanic passenger shipping, as the great lines tried to compete with aircraft. Many famous corporate names disappeared during the 1960s. Venerable firms such as P&O, Cunard and Holland America flirted with vacation travel and managed to survive, but the modern cruise industry was the creation of newcomers.

One of these was a Canadian-born Seattle businessman, Stan McDonald, who had developed a taste for cruising with a charter ship serving the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair.

Following that event, McDonald looked for another ship. He was aware that Canadian Pacific’s small coastal steamer Princess Patricia, although busy each summer from Vancouver to Alaska, was idle in the winter. He chartered her for two seasons, the first Mexican Riviera cruises from Los Angeles. Princess Patricia lent her name to what would become one of passenger shipping’s most famous firms, Princess Cruises.

McDonald chartered two larger Italian ships in 1966 and set about building his company to serve Alaska in the summer, Mexico in the winter, At first, he competed only with the small Canadian railway ships, but he soon attracted company.

P&O diverted 28,000-ton Arcadia into seasonal Alaska service. When McDonald acquired the 20,000-ton Island Princess, majestic by 1970 standards, P&O responded by purchasing a 17,000-ton Scandinavian vessel, and called her Spirit of London (subsequently renamed Sun Princess), the first purpose-built cruise ship ever to enter the fleet. Holland America, the historic Dutch firm, and the super-luxury fleet of Royal Viking Line came next.

The Port of Vancouver processed 22,800 cruise passengers in 1971. The total passed 170,000 in 1981; 423,000 in 1991 and a staggering total of 600,000 in 1995.

Canada Place, a cruise port, hotel, office and convention centre complex, was built in advance of the Expo 86 world fair. The five sails have become the most identifiable landmark on Canada’s West Coast. The facility’s ocean terminal was designed to handle as many as five ships at a time but when Canada Place opened in 1986, it faced a difficult reality: the average cruise ship had doubled in size and even bigger ones were planned. The modern port could often serve only two of these new giants at any one time. While 20,000-ton vessels were still dominant in 1980, a few ships in the 70,000-ton range now make Vancouver their summer home.

Ballantyne Pier, a cargo terminal in Vancouver’s East End, was temporarily put into service for cruise passengers in 1983. It has been in continuous service ever since. The Port of Vancouver recently invested $46 million to give it permanent life as a convertible facility for pulp and paper products in the winter and cruise ship passengers in the summer.

The Port of Vancouver expects to serve more than one million passengers a year by the turn of the century, a volume that would require additional terminal capacity.

Greater Vancouver Convention & Visitors Bureau

by Alan Daniels

A newspaper advertisement placed by the newly formed Vancouver Tourist Association in 1902 stated “Vancouver has excellent accommodation and a large number of private boarding houses. Rates are the same as other coast cities.” A photo taken two years later outside the bureau’s first office at 439 Granville Street shows a shingle which reads: “Headquarters for visitors and tourists--free information bureau.” Today Vancouver is one of North America’s hottest destinations, attracting 6.5 million overnight visitors who spend $1.7 billion each year. The city hosted 328 conventions attracting 148,000 delegates in 1994.

Vancouver’s potential for creating wealth and jobs through tourism was identified as early as 1929 when members of the Vancouver Publicity Bureau concluded that “money expended to advertise the tourist attractions of the city brought better returns than that expended on advertising for new industries.” Inspired by a report that 99,495 automobiles carrying 354,015 passengers had entered B.C. over the Pacific Highway at Douglas and Huntingdon, the bureau took city council members to dinner at the Terminal City Club and promptly hit them up for an advertising grant of $35,000. The request sparked a lively debate with some councillors arguing that the bureau should not be subsidized by taxpayers’ dollars. However Mayor W.H. Makin, noting that the ratepayers get the benefit of every dollar spent, said: “I am anxious that we should develop the modern spirit of looking at things in a big way and not with a village outlook.”

In 1935 the Vancouver Sun campaigned for a convention bureau. Hotel Devonshire manager Karl de Morest pointed out that Bellingham hosted three times as many meetings as Vancouver and alderman J.J. Mcrae said: “Our merchants need the business that conventions bring, and our city can stand a little of the cheer that throngs of visitors bring to the city.” By 1950 the convention business had started to grow despite Vancouver"s geographic disadvantage of being “at the end of the line.”

Vancouver Tourist Association and the B.C. Automobile Association were run by a common executive board, but in 1952 they split. Vancouver’s “happiest marriage,” as it was described by VTA president Fred Brown, ended by common consent at noon on January 12. Three years later the bureau became the Greater Vancouver Tourist Association and in November, 1963, after moving to new premises at 650 Burrard, it got a new name: Greater Vancouver Visitors and Convention Bureau. This lasted until 1973 when it became the Greater Vancouver Convention and Visitors Bureau. Perhaps it couldn’t decide where the emphasis was. In any event from 1986 the agency has been known simply as Tourism Vancouver and the convention business was turned over to crown-owned B.C. Pavilions Corp.

Not altogether by chance, Vancouver’s millionth convention delegate arrived during Convention Week in April 1967 but it was another decade before Canadian Pacific’s Pier B-C, on the central city waterfront, was suggested as the site for a Downtown convention centre. Tourism minister Grace McCarthy asked former B.C. Hydro chair Dr. Gordon Shrum to be project director. Shrum, who was then 82, must have known what was coming. “As long as it’s within the next 10 years,” he remarked with a cynicism that proved well-founded.

The facility, to be funded by three levels of government, was initially projected to cost $25 million. By 1980, with construction not yet begun, it had soared to $52 million, then, within months, $80 million. By the time steel was ordered, in September, 1981, it was $100 million. A year later in November 1981, it was $135 million and politicians were starting to panic. On December 8, 1981, Premier Bill Bennett postponed construction indefinitely.

Then Expo 86 came to the rescue with Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau’s dramatic announcement that Ottawa would fund the Pier B-C development to be the Canada Pavilion at Expo. It would be 9,000 square metres under one roof, room enough for 10,000 people. The final cost for what is now called Canada Place was $144.8 million. It opened as a convention centre on July 9, 1987, to host the International Culinary Olympics, but soon proved inadequate as Vancouver’s reputation grew.

As this book was going to press, a major new convention facility was projected. All that remained to be decided was which of the three bidders would get approval.

Tourism Essay

by Judi Lees

It comes as no surprise that tourism is on a roll in Vancouver. Accented with a cityscape that blends architectural feats like the soaring five sails of Canada Place, towering skyscrapers and an eclectic mix of ethnic neighborhoods, the city scene complements Mother Nature’s best. One can’t help but marvel at the foresight of the city’s forefathers back in 1886 when their first resolution was to purchase 405 hectares and declare it a park. Surely they had tourism on their minds. Today, Stanley Park is Canada’s largest city park and a famous landmark. More than one international traveler has recalled Vancouver to me as “the city with the wonderful park in the middle.”

Expo 86 was the turning point. Not only did the world’s fair attendance surpass expectations--13 to 15 million visitors were projected and more than 20 million came--but visitors fell in love with the city. The love affair has continued. Today tourism is Greater Vancouver’s largest industry, generating an overall economic impact of $3.52 billion, creating $800 million in tax revenues and supporting over 62,300 jobs. (In the province, tourism ranks second only to softwood lumber and pulp exports. Revenues have increased an average of four per cent over the last four years.)

What brings them? A city that bustles with kinetic energy and thrives on this energy, a city where people are the focal point whether they arrive on a cruise ship for a day’s tour or book into a five- diamond hotel and “do the works” from Stanley Park to the Museum of Anthropology. Thanks to a mosaic of cultures, visitors are invited to imbibe in culinary feasts (from Thai to East Indian to Chinese and Greek, we have it all) and to participate in colorful events such as the International Dragon Boat Festival. Vancouver grabs attention, first with its dramatic setting then with its western hospitality. Our casual, West Coast lifestyle lends itself to a cheerful service industry where nothing is too much trouble. Most downtown hotels offer babysitting, can arrange dog walking and are adept at problem-solving. At the Waterfront Centre Hotel a concierge had a guest’s pearls restrung in record time.

A good part of Vancouver’s appeal is the meld of nature and commercial attractions. It has become a cliche that you can sail and ski in one day; you can also meander through an old growth forest, visit Science World, browse designer shops, take in an internationally acclaimed production at the Ford Centre for the Performing Arts and dine in an elegant restaurant in one day. Granted, a very busy day--but it is possible.

A Vancouver visitor will not soon forget a boat cruise into Indian Arm, a friendly coffee bar on Robson Street, a stroll on the seawall, or a perfect sunset on English Bay. Tourism will continue as a juggernaut because Vancouver, once discovered, is truly unforgettable.

Eastern Religions

by Deana Luchia

The vast Pacific Ocean has proved to be a small obstacle for Asian migrants attracted to the promise of a new life in Vancouver. With this ongoing migration comes a rich variety of religious faiths practised in an array of shrines, temples and mosques throughout the Lower Mainland.

The largest Eastern religious community are the Sikhs, with more than 40,000 adherents. Many Sikhs began arriving in Vancouver from India at the beginning of the century (5,800 in 1906 alone), and they first established a place for worship in a rented house at 1866 West 2nd Avenue in 1906.

Another religion introduced from India is Hinduism, which is not as well established in the Vancouver area despite its widespread presence in Asia. Hindu workers first arrived in Vancouver in 1895 on the heels of a visit by Swami Vivekananda, India’s spiritual ambassador.

Because of racist groups like the Asiatic Exclusion League, and legislation like the Canadian Immigration Act of 1910, which specifically barred immigrants from India, the number of arriving Hindus was a trickle compared to other ethnic communities. A formal association of Hindus was not founded until 1971 and today there are about 14,000 Hindus in the Lower Mainland.

Most Buddhists in the Vancouver area are followers of the Jodoshinshu school, which arrived in Canada from Japan at the turn of the century. The first Buddhist church (Bukkyo-kai) was opened in 1905, and operated out of the rented city hall until the following year, when a building was purchased at 32 Alexander Street.

Buddhism’s influence grew steadily until World War II, when people of Japanese descent were forbidden to gather in groups and eventually forced to relocate to internment camps in the B.C. Interior. Their temples were sold, and when the war ended, most returned to Japan or went to Eastern Canada. Those that remained in Vancouver reopened services at the Hastings Auditorium, moving in 1954 to a site at 220 Jackson Avenue, where the Vancouver Bukkyo-kai continues to operate today. There are more than 31,000 Buddhists in Greater Vancouver, including many Chinese.

The first Muslim settlers came in the first few decades of this century, but most arrived after 1967, when immigration laws were relaxed. In 1971 John Norris wrote, in Strangers Entertained, “The three hundred Moslems in British Columbia are not an ethnic group in the proper sense of the word, but rather are members of a variety of groups, including Croats, Serbs, Albanians, Turks, Arabs, Iranians, Pakistanis, Indians, Chinese and Fijians.

Only the Pakistanis--numbering about a hundred--have more than a few representatives. Most live in the Greater Vancouver area.” Today the 23,000 strong Muslim population is served by the Islamic Centre, established in 1964 at 655 West 8th Avenue, and by mosques in Richmond and Surrey.

SIKH Khalsa Diwan Society 8000 Ross Street, Vancouver Sikh Temple Sukhoager 347 Wood Street, New Westminster Guru Nanak Sikh Temple 7050-120th Street, Surrey India Cultural Centre of Canada 8600 No. 5 Road, Richmond Nanak Sar Gursikh Temple 18691 Westminster Highway, Richmond Akail Singh Sikh Temple 1890 Skeena Street, Vancouver

HINDU Hare Krishna 5462 Marine Drive, Burnaby Mahatakrshima Temple 467 East 11th Avenue, Vancouver Vishva Hindu Parshad 3885 Albert Street, Burnaby ShivaTemple 1795 Napier, Vancouver

BUDDHIST Buddha’s Light International Association 6680-8181 Cambie Road, Richmond Dharmadhatsu Buddhist Centre 3275 Heather Street, Vancouver International Buddhist Society 9160 Steveston Highway, Richmond Lions Gate Buddhist Priory 1745 West 16th Avenue, Vancouver PPT Buddhist Society 514 Keefer Street, Vancouver Universal BuddhistTemple 525 East 49th Avenue, Vancouver Buddhist Churches of Canada 4680 Garry Street, Richmond Tung Lin Kok Yuen Canadian Society 2495 Victoria Drive, Vancouver Vancouver Buddhist Church 220 Jackson Avenue, Vancouver World Vietnamese Buddhist Order Chan Quang Temple 1795 East 1st Avenue, Vancouver

ISLAM B.C. Muslim Association 12300 Blundell Road, Richmond Surrey Mosque 12407-72nd Avenue, Surrey Pakistan Canada Association 655 West 8th Avenue, Vancouver

Vancouver Synagogues

by David Berner

Jews have always been wonderful about accommodating diversity. Why should Vancouver be different? From avant garde to Orthodox, from the most traditional to the most egalitarian and participatory, Ashkenazic, Sephardic and inventive congregations that are a creative mix of world traditions and modern needs, Greater Vancouver synagogues have it all.

Local Jewish historian Cyril Leonoff notes religious observance as early as 1887 in Mr. Zebulon Franks’ hardware store and home on Water Street. Mr. Leonoff cites a Yom Kippur service in 1892 as the first documented public service. The local press took note and led with the headline, “God’s Peculiar People.”

Vancouver’s first synagogue, built in 1911-12 on the southeast corner of Heatley Avenue and East Pender Street, was the B’Nai Yehudah (Sons of Israel). This wood-frame building was moved to the back of the lot and stuccoed over to match the new Schara Tzedeck when it was completed in 1921 at a cost of $65,000. Today that site is irreverently known as Beth Condo, since the old building became, as a part of the gentrification of the Strathcona neighborhood, a compact of privately owned apartments.

While the two great Oak Street synagogues, the Orthodox Schara Tzedeck and the Conservative Beth Israel stand within blocks of each other as public witnesses to the Jewish presence in Vancouver, synagogue life has never been more varied or vibrant in the Lower Mainland than it is today. There are fewer than 15,000 Jews but there are riches.

What do you want? Ultra-orthodox? The Heather Street Beth Hamidrash has become in its way the home of the Sephardic congregation. Reform? Temple Shalom, with 430 families, has the largest religious school in the city. Services in English and Hebrew are guided by “the Gates of Prayer” siddur. Women, called to the Torah and leading both services and policy meetings, are total participants.

Conservative Egalitarian? In Richmond? No problem. The Beth Tikvah, begun over 20 years ago, now boasts a new sanctuary, a Hebrew school, two choirs and a growing congregation of more than 300 families. Orthodox in Richmond? Eitz Chaim has grown from 11 families in 1977 to over 120 families and offers a full range of programs, including afternoon school.

The Beth Israel, with over 850 families, is both the largest congregation in Greater Vancouver and the largest Conservative synagogue west of Winnipeg. Like several local schuls, the B.I. strives to be a Bet Tefillah (House of Worship), a Bet Midrash (House of Study) and a Bet Knesset (House of Assembly).

Looking for a “traditional egalitarian Jewish alternative spiritual community in Vancouver?” Then look at Or Shalom in its new home on East 10th Avenue. Guitars, flutes, banners, tapestries, original songs, meditations and group aliyot are only the outward signs of a congregation that is not just different, but deeply committed to Jews of every kind. With over 200 members Or Shalom’s immediately recognizable hallmarks are inclusiveness, warmth and a sense of community.

Remember also that there are congregations in Coquitlam, White Rock and West Vancouver. The Har El congregation on the North Shore is beginning construction on a beautiful new $3 million synagogue and community centre designed by architect Mark Ostry. The new facility will be located on the southwest corner of Taylor Way and the Trans-Canada Highway, amidst creek and towering trees and, with 170 families in membership, will strive to serve all Jews on the North Shore.

Many of the congregations listed, large and small, extend the full range of programs to members and public alike: daily minyan, Shabbat services, High Holidays, Bar/Bat Mitzvahs, weddings, funerals, youth programs, Hebrew studies, summer camps, social action groups, counselling and community outreach .

Beth Hamidrash Sephcrrdic Orthodox 3231 Heather Street

Beth Israel Conservative 4350 Oak Street Beth Tikvah Conservotive 9711 Geal Road, Richmond

Burquest Jewish Community Association-Traditional New Westminster

Ohel Ya’akov Community Kollel 1965 West Broadway

Chabad-Lubavitch-Chassidic 5750 Oak Street

Eitz Chaim-Orthodox 8080 Frances Road, Richmond

Har El-Conservative 1735 Inglewood Avenue, West Vancouver

Lower FraserValley Jewish Community Centre 1349 Johnston Road, White Rock

Or Shalom-Traditional Egalitarian 710 East 10th Avenue

ScharaTzedeck-Orthodox 3476 Oak Street

ShaareyTefilah-Traditional 785 West 16th Avenue

SchaareTzion-Orthodox 8360 St. Albans Road

Temple Sholom-Reform 7190 Oak Street

Protestant Churches

by Lloyd Mackey

When John Morton trekked through the forests of what would become Vancouver’s West End in the 1860s, he little knew that his homesteading activity would impact for generations to come on the industrial, commercial--and spiritual--development of the new city.

One of the “Three Greenhorns,” Morton, following the gold rush, had migrated west from England via New Westminster. With little knowledge of the virgin forest, but a good deal of courage, they were carving out a new life for their families on land where highrise towers would one day sprout.

As it happens, John Morton was a Baptist. For him, settling his 200 hectares also involved putting down spiritual roots. So he became one of the early members, in the 1880s, of Vancouver’s little woodframe First Baptist Church.

The little congregation grew and, in 1911, built a towering new stone church at Nelson and Burrard, on property donated by Morton, kitty corner from the handsome tan-brick King George High School. They say that on Sunday mornings, you could clearly hear the church’s bells away over on Kitsilano Beach.

In the early twenties the church was destroyed by fire. It was rebuilt by the fledgling Dominion Construction, headed by another Baptist, Charles Bentall, whose family eventually developed the Bentall Centre, a few blocks north.

In 1930 another new church was built across the street. It, too, was stone, but it was taller and longer. Its name, St. Andrew’s-Wesley United, indicates it was a merger of two churches, one Presbyterian, the other Methodist, resulting from the formation of the United Church of Canada five years earlier.

Those West End Presbyterians who wanted no truck with the new church built themselves a small but impressive four-columned brown-brick church on the southwest corner of the St. Paul’s hospital property just south of the two bigger churches. Then, in the 1980s, when the hospital needed more space, Central Presbyterian Church was replaced with a gleaming ten-storey hospital tower. Centralites moved across the street into a warm worshipper-friendly contemporary structure.

Closer to the city centre, the Anglicans had built their little cathedral at Burrard and Georgia at about the same time as First Baptist was settling in. “Little,” we say, because it could have easily gotten lost on the altar of its mighty British 14th century forebears. But a cathedral it was, nevertheless. And some of the 1970s church pillars (of the human sort) were not about to let the younger and untaught leaders forget it. It was about that time when developers wanted to pull down the cathedral and “bury” its congregation in an underground crypt molded sleekly into a tower dedicated to the god of commerce.

Throughout the years various downtown church properties were developed for other uses. Just a few years ago, developers tore down the Arts Club Theatre’s former home at Seymour and Davie. In earlier years, it was the home of Seymour Street Gospel Hall,

As the downtown grew, a “holy huddle” developed across False Creek in the Mount Pleasant district, known in more recent years for clashes between residents and hookers. The huddle’s most obvious landmark was the silvery spire of St. Giles Presbyterian Church, which successively became St. Giles United, Evangelistic Tabernacle and now an upscale condominium development retaining its heritage facade.

Across the street was the stubby stony structure of Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church. And within a few blocks could be found Tenth Avenue Alliance Metropolitan Tabernacle, Mt. Pleasant Presbyterian and Christ Lutheran. Today both the Baptists and Presbyterian buildings have largely immigrant congregations, from the Philippines and Korea respectively.

Across from city hall the Lutherans put up seniors’ housing on their property a few years ago, incorporating their church into the housing complex design in a fashion the Anglicans had rejected in their downtown cathedral.

Various Protestant churches dotted the scene in and around Granville Street, stretching from Granville Bridge south to the Fraser River. At l2th and Hemlock stood the impressive domed Chalmers Presbyterian, later a United church and now the home of both Holy Trinity Anglican and Pacific Theatre, a Christian live drama troupe.

Redeemer Lutheran is a fifties structure in mid-Shaughnessy, A few blocks south is St. John’s (Shaughnessy) Anglican, the place where Vancouver mayor Philip Owen worships, as did his late father, Lieutenant-Governor Walter Owen. Shaughnessy Heights United, just blocks south of St. John’s and slightly to the west on 33rd, was until recently the home pulpit of Robert Smith, a brilliant orator and former United Church moderator.

Proceeding south, we encounter barbecue pit-like Granville Chapel and Trinity Baptist. Both churches are a contemporary blending of Asian and Caucasian worshippers. Many are younger people from Hong Kong who have chosen to assimilate rather than stay in Chinese churches.

Trinity, for its part, was a fifties merger of two churches. From the west came Kerrisdale worshippers, whose building was sold to the Christian Scientists. From the east were the folk from South Hill Baptist, a structure whose tall, square tower is still visible for kilometres from the 49th and Fraser area. South Hill’s building has been subsequently occupied by two Chinese congregations, the most recent of Mennonite persuasion.

The last stop before the river is St. Stephen’s United, formed in the sixties as one of the last of that denomination’s rapid development of neighborhood congregations.

In other Vancouver neighborhoods, originally peopled mainly from British stock, Anglican, United and Presbyterian churches tended to dominate the ecclesiastical skyline. That was certainly true in Point Grey and the University area. Ryerson United, Kerrisdale Presbyterian, St. Helen’s Anglican and University Hill United were among the best known. While the others stayed put, University Hill United moved to the Vancouver School of Theology at UBC, selling its building to University Chapel, a congregation with strong links to Regent College, an evangelical UBC affiliate.

On the North Shore many large, wealthy Protestant churches serve the affluent suburbs. West Vancouver and Highlands United are notable. St. Francis-in-the-Woods Anglican, with a scenic oceanside setting in Caulfeild, has become a favorite place for weddings. And so has West Vancouver Baptist, set among the tall evergreens just south of British Properties.

New Westminster, the mainland’s oldest city, has maintained much of its British character long after other neighborhoods changed. And its churches reflected this. First Presbyterian, Queen’s Avenue United, Oliver Baptist and St. Paul’s Reformed Episcopal still have strategically located churches just uphill from the city centre, seemingly clustered around the more secular shrines, known as the Royal Towers Hotel, Douglas College and city hall.

Queen’s Avenue United, with its white, fifties post-modern style sanctuary, was the crowning achievement of Will Wilding, the architect of some 150 Western Canadian post-war churches.

One New Westminster landmark for many years was the Loyal Protestant Orphan’s Home, operated by the Orangemen of Irish Protestant fame. In due course, as the need for orphanages subsided, the site, adjacent to two large high schools, was taken over by a growing charismatic church, Royal City Christian Centre.

The civic governments of some of Vancouver’s surrounding suburbs have attempted, in more recent years, to entice congregations into what may irreverently be called “church malls.” In Burnaby, for example, Iglesia Ni Cristo (a Filipino-based group), the Evangelical Chinese Bible Church (with around 1,200 worshippers) and the Hare Krishna (with a 12-metre high statue of their master) are clustered on Marine Way. And the city’s leaders point out that there is room for more. Richmond has acted similarly adjacent to Highway 99, Where Mennonite, Greek Orthodox, Islamic and Chinese religious edifices are clustered together, with some vacant properties still looking for spiritual buyers.

Most of Vancouver’s suburbs have landmark churches--South Delta Baptist, near the highway to the ferry in Tsawwassen, Broadway Tabernacle in East Vancouver and Christian Life Assembly in Langley.

But tucked around the corners of most communities are tiny churches that development seemed to leave behind. Surrey has at least two--a Ukrainian Orthodox chapel, complete with onion-top tower, just steps from the Gateway SkyTrain station, and Christ Church Anglican in Surrey Centre. The latter is a rural congregation in south Surrey, not to be confused with Surrey City Centre, where the city’s downtown is emerging.

Many Vancouver churches began as neighborhood congregations in the twenties and thirties. Congregants either wanted to walk to church or had to because they had no cars and the streetcar service was not the best on Sunday mornings. Over time some of those neighborhood churches died, merged or grew and moved once larger and more generally accessible properties.

Consider the eastward migration of the Pentecostals. An enthusiastic and assertive Christian spinoff, the group had two neighborhood churches in Kitsilano, one at 4th and MacDonald, which was eventually replaced by a pub, the other at 6th and Fir, which gave way to an office building.

As more people took their cars to church, Broadway Tabernacle grew up. The church then moved south to Marine. Having moved, the tabernacle became, simply, Broadway Church. In the early nineties it outgrew its “new” 1,000 seat church and replaced it, across the street, with one holding 2,500 people.

Another different kind of Pentecostal church--Glad Tidings--was originally downtown, wedged between where the Queen Elizabeth Theatre and General Motors Place are now located. When it burned down in the fifties, its worshippers congregated for a while in a theatre near Joyce Street, then built a 1,000-seat edifrce on Fraser, just south of Kingsway. Outgrowing that, too, they added a 2,500 seat high-tech worship centre, with the help of a $1 million contribution from their most famous member, businessman Jimmy Pattison.

South Hill Baptist Church’s tall tower dominated a neighborhood that changed dramatically twice after World War II. The first change came when Henry and Arthur Block formed Block Brothers Realty, in part to sell houses being built by Mennonite developers in the south slopes areas. Many of those homes were bought by Mennonites and others whose mother tongue was German--some Baptist, others Lutheran. Churches of those denominations multiplied. The Mennonite congregations included First, Fraserview and Killarney Park; the Baptists included Ebenezer, Bethany and Immanuel; and the Lutherans included First, Killarney Park and Prince of Peace. Large numbers of them came from Europe via the prairies or the Fraser Valley. The Blocks, themselves, grew up in Yarrow, a Mennonite community southwest of Chilliwack.

As more Asian people--both of Chinese and East Indian extraction--moved into those areas, the German-speakers scattered, many returning to the more distant suburbs close to the rural roots inhabited by their forebears.

Fraserview Mennonite Brethren, for example, moved across the Fraser into Richmond, where its cross-topped structure can be easily seen from Highway 99. Arthur, one of the Block brothers, still worships there. Its former south slope home became a Chinese Baptist church. While most of those Germanic-background churches have stayed put, some will move with time. Bethany Baptist, for example, has a new high-profile site between Queensborough and Alex Fraser bridges in east Richmond.

A more obvious example of the in-migration--and transformation--of the Fraser Valley Mennonite influence is Willingdon Church, just south of the B.C. Institute of Technology in Burnaby. WiIlingdon began as an ethnic Mennonite Brethren congregation of about 300 people in the fifties. It drew many of its members from the new subdivisions which sprouted at that time in west Burnaby and East Vancouver.

Its leadership determined to let it grow beyond its ethnic origins, however. It became attractive to people looking for a fair mix of evangelical belief and progressive educational programs, and has grown to a community of close to 3,000 people. Among them is a healthy Hispanic contingent of 300 and a singles organization of 50.

One family recalls being impressed by watching the Crystal Cathedral on television, then looking for a church like it in their neighborhood, Willingdon was their choice.

In the Fraser Valley’s Bible Belt, churches often “hived off” as second and third generation worshippers looked for new ways of doing things. In Abbotsford the Mennonite Brethren and Christian Reformed churches (the latter of Dutch extraction) followed those modes. The first- generation immigrants were farmers and stayed in the original churches, while, in many cases, just down the street and around the corner, the younger teachers and business people developed new, more sophisticated churches. They did so while retaining their connections with the “mother churches.”

Greater Vancouver’s churches have sprung from many traditions. Vancouver is noted as being one of the most secular cities in North America, although the Fraser Valley Bible Belt provides a counter-balancing reputation.

It can be said of both Vancouver and the valley, however, that their churches are generally vibrant and outward looking, rather than being so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good.

Cemeteries

by Harald Gunderson

Whether it be Fort Langley, Deadman’s Island, Forest Lawn, Mountain View, Capilano View, New Westminster’s Fraser Cemetery or Surrey’s Victory Memorial, the cemeteries of the region provide a pastoral “pleasure ground” where visitors can escape the hustle and bustle of city life in an outdoor museum without walls. Here displayed are memorial stones, columbariums and mausoleums, and an attractive array of flora and fauna.

Early cemeteries reveal a forest of upright memorial stones, dedicated to those who were loved, while more recent burial grounds may call for memorials flush with the ground and special areas for inurnment of cremated remains.

As B.C. Historical News indicated: “Custom points to an interesting aspect of the sociology of death. It would appear that even in death, people prefer to congregate with those whom they share a common bond. The bond varies. It seems to be religion in the case of the Jewish people; nationality among the Chinese, Japanese, Greeks and Russians; membership in a lodge such as the Masons, Oddfellows or Knights of Pythias; or a disaster in which all died together as in shipwrecks or fires; or service to one’s country such as the Royal Canadian Legion and their Fields of Honour.” And there are the unannounced and rejected. Those who lie in unmarked pauper’s graves or the 45 murderers who paid the supreme penalty.

The City of Vancouver’s oldest and most controversial burial ground is Deadman’s Island, a 2.8- hectare stretch of land surveyed by the Royal Engineers in 1863 and today the location of HMCS Discovery. In The Stanley Park Explorer, historian Richard M. Steele writes that both natives and non-natives used the island to bury their dead. Much earlier the Musqueam and Squamish peoples used the branches of the island’s massive trees for their ornately carved funeral boxes. On the ground, simpler wood-slab tombs protected the remains of others, moss-covered and half-hidden by the ferns and salal.

Steele says smallpox appeared in the area in 1888, and by April of that year quarantine regulations were in effect. The epidemic raged for two years and a number of victims were buried on Deadman’s Island despite the 1887 opening of the Mountain View cemetery. The epidemic’s casualties “joined the bodies of British seamen, infants and suicides interred there,” Steele writes. “To this day they remain on Deadman’s Island; despite later developments none of the dead was exhumed.”

Illinois-born Frank W. Hart and wife Amelia, who had started a small furniture factory, opened the city’s first undertaking establishment in 1886 on Cordova Street. Hart also opened the city’s first opera house and built Hart’s Arch to welcome the first Canadian Pacific Railway train on May 23, 1887. He was well connected at city hall, being a pal of Mayor M.A. Maclean, and with help from the latter, Mountain View Cemetery was surveyed in November 1886 and opened in 1887 with Caradoc Evans, an infant, the first occupant. Since that time more than 135,000 deceased have been interred in Vancouver’s only official burial ground.

Mountain View’s manicured lawns and gentle slopes of today are a far cry from the early days. The B.C. Historical News recalled the Masonic funeral for Alderman Joseph Humphries: “To make a grim business even grimmer, the route to the cemetery was a steep, corduroy road, built over swampy land. When it rained heavily, parts of the road were under water and the timbers of which it was made tended to drift apart. On the Humphries’ occasion, everyone except the deceased had to get out and walk across the swamp. Even then, one of the horses slipped between two of the timbers, the wheels of the hearse did likewise and the vehicle became mired in mud.”

Superintendent Wayne Smith says there are 90,000 graves, many at double depth to hold two deceased, and the cemetery is spread over 42.5 hectares west of Fraser between 31st and 41st avenues. As many as 13,000 veterans are buried there, including five or six winners of the Victoria Cross. The city stopped selling plots in 1986, although there are 3,600 graves that have been bought but never used. Interments for indigents are Mountain View’s main business today, but the city was said to be considering leasing the site to a private operator to cut the cemetery’s annual deficit of more than $600,000.

It’s little known that Vancouver started a second burial ground in Burnaby, about 1.5 kilometres north of the Lougheed Highway in the 1930s, with the burial of eight indigents. They were quietly exhumed in the 1970s. The burial ground was closed.

The Pioneer Cemetery is adjacent to St, George’s Anglican Church at Fort Langley. Most of those buried there were Hudson’s Bay Company employees or early settlers. A tablet on a large stone reads: “Among the many pioneers of the Langley district who are buried here are: Ovid Allard 1817-1874 and William H. Newton 1833-1875. Two faithful servants of the Hudson’s Bay Company at its Port Fort Langley.” The wrought iron cross attached to the church’s western gable memorializes a Hawaiian-born employee and formerly stood in the cemetery. The first burial in the Fort Langley Cemetery was in 1882, when Robert Mackie, father of the municipality’s first reeve, died. The cemetery is noted for its wrought iron grave enclosures, impressive marble and granite monuments, and mature landscaping.

The Royal Engineers started cemeteries in New Westminster at the corner of Agnes and Dufferin and between 8th Avenue and 10th Avenue, but these gave way to the 8-hectare Fraser Cemetery, opened in 1870 at 100 Richmond Street, located on a hill facing east and overlooking the Fraser River. Here you will find the earthly remains of such notables as “Gassy Jack” Deighton of Gastown, riverboat Captain William Irving, Raymond Burr of Perry Mason fame, and politicians and businessmen of yesteryear. Here you will also find special sections for members of the Masonic Order, the Oddfellows and the Church of England.

St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Cemetery in New Westminster, opened in 1880, covers slightly more than 2 hectares.

New Westminster’s Jewish Schara Tzedeck Cemetery is located at 23rd Street and Marine Drive on the boundary of New Westminster and Burnaby. There are many Jewish cemeteries spotted throughout the Lower Mainland.

And what of British Columbia’s luckless ones! Those whose lives ended when a scaffold door gave way! In his book Four Walls in the West--The Story of the B. C. Penitentiary, Jack David Scott says there was one hanging at this institution, built in 1878 and closed in 1980. Prisoner Joseph Smith killed guard J.H. Joynson in 1912 and was executed January 31, 1913. Smith, and others who died of natural causes while incarcerated, were buried in a small cemetery across the glen from the top of the prison. Earl Anderson, author of A Hard Place To Do Time--The Story of Okalla Prison, notes there were 44 hangings from the time the prison farm opened in 1912 to its close in 1991. Their remains would find a place in the pauper’s section of Mountain View or Forest Lawn Cemetery, opened in 1924, or families would claim them.

“The Old Cemetery” on Lillooet Road in North Vancouver is located in a wilderness setting and was established in 1909 with the first interment in 1910. Its 9 hectares will allow for interments for years to come with more than 10,000 graves already in use.

West Vancouver’s Capilano View Cemetery at 1490 3rd Street is another cemetery gem. Opened in the mid-1920s by the municipality, and with 7 of its 18 hectares fully developed, stone ruins have been used to form a columbarium wall with 502 rock and granite niches. Six satellite locations in a grove of mature trees offer the visitor a vista of great beauty.

Three corporations own four Greater Vancouver cemeteries. Service Corporation International (Canada) operates Forest Lawn Memorial Park and Ocean View Burial Park in Burnaby. Forest Lawn was started by Albert E Arnold in 1935 and is located at 3789 Royal Oak Avenue, while Ocean View primarily serves New Westminster and Vancouver’s East End. Its location is 4000 Imperial Street, directly across from Burnaby’s Central Park. Funeral homes occupy both sites, which were acquired by SCIC in 1969.

Spectacular, to say the least, is Ocean View’s mausoleum, which underwent a $1.2 million addition in 1986. Perhaps one of Canada’s largest mausoleums, it is adorned with a two-storey stained glass window and a marble statue carved from a single block weighing 2.5 tons and standing 183 centimetres high. There are approximately 4,500 entombments in the mausoleurn as well as a large number of inurnments. The cemetery has 86,000 interments, with 30 of its 36 hectares developed.

Valley View Memorial Gardens, opened in 1954 by Arbor Memorial Services, is at 14660 72nd Avenue in Surrey. It also has a funeral home on site.

Opened in the late 1950s, the I13.8-hectare Victory Memorial Park has been a landmark, with its big white cross, in the South Surrey-White Rock area for nearly 40 years. Victory was acquired in 1984 by The Loewen Group, now the second largest publicly owned funeral corporation in North America.

Newest cemetery in the Greater Vancouver district is at Whistler, opened in 1985 and comprising 1.3 hecatres, of which a fifth of a hectare has been developed for the community of 6,000. It’s in a wood-like setting with a stream running by near Alta Lake Road on the west side of the resort municipality.

It is now 30 years since the Gardens of Gethsemani was opened by the Archdiocese of Vancouver. On May 10, 1965, work commenced on clearing a portion of a 23.4-hectare site in South Surrey. It was the first regional cemetery and mausoleum to serve the needs of Catholics and their families in the Lower Mainland. According to Rev. Msgr. Nunzio Defoe, executive director, there has been a recent addition of a second mausoleum with 190 crypts and 72 niches. There’s also a full service Catholic chapel at Gethsemani.

There are other cemeteries just as important to their communities: Port Coquitlam at the top of Oxford Street, started in the 1950s; Surrey’s municipally owned Hazelmere, Sunnyside Lawn and Surrey Centre; Maple Ridge’s 6-hectare site at 21404 Dewdeny Trunk Road and the Burquitlam Municipal Cemetery, established in 1937.

All serve, and serve well. For as Longfellow wrote: “I like that ancient Saxon phrase, which calls the burial ground God’s acre.”

Iranians

by Hadani Ditmars

Vancouver’s Iranian population has tripled in the last five years. In certain areas of Lonsdale Quay in North Vancouver, shop signs in Farsi (Persian) are becoming the norm, and Persian restaurants, delicatessens and video shops are visible throughout the North Shore.

Prominent families such as the Khosrowshahis, who own Future Shop, have established themselves in the business community and Vancouver is now the home of well-known Iranian artists, architects and academics--many having arrived here in the last decade.

When asked to explain Vancouver’s popularity with the nearly 30,000 Iranians who reside here, many recent immigrants point to Vancouver’s natural beauty--and in particular the mountainous North Shore’s resemblance to Northern Tehran--as a deciding factor.

Environmental factors aside, for many Iranians Vancouver represents a safe haven, far from both the political turmoil that brought the first major influx of immigrants here after the Iranian Revolution in 1979 and the post-revolutionary economic hardship and restrictions on personal freedoms that have encouraged a wave of emigration since the end of the 1980s.

A small Pers