Barbers On The Drive

Posted on June 18, 2013 by Jak King

I went to my barber this morning and had a cut. He mentioned that Frank’s Hairdressing had closed this month and that he, my barber Tino, is now the only barber left on the Drive. That got me thinking.

Here is a chronological list of all the barbers I know that operated on the Drive:

Albert Jensen (1910-1911)
Elie Bourdon (1911)
Teddy’s (1911)
Arthur LaRocque (1912-1917)
James Percolat (1912-1913)
Matthew Baumgartner (1912)
Frederick Eberle (1913-1915)
Ed Sweet (1915-1947)
Thomas Fredericks (1915-1925)
James Holt (1915-1916)
Willingdon’s (1916)
Arthur Fuller (1917)
OK Barbers (1918-1948)
Matthew Dunham (1924)
Lester Griffiths (1925)
Grandview Barbers (1926-1928)
Nifty Barber’s (1927)
Gerry Le (1928-1948)
George’s (1928-1947)
Tommy’s (1929-1993)
Francis Binon (1929)
Mac’s (1931-1962)
Ernest Benton (1931-1942)
Albert Taylor (1931)
Drive Barbers (1934-1973)
Jack Nairn (1940-1961)
White Rose (1943-1951)
Orville Brigden (1949-1974)
Young’s (1952)
Alexander’s (1953-1954, 1963-1979)
Ralph Hesper (1958)
Scott’s (1959)
Continental (1960-2000s)
Imperial barbers (1961-1991)
Dunc’s (1961-1973)
Guy’s (1965-1969)
Anne’s (1966-1968)
Figaro Style (1968-2000s)
Silano (1969-1970)
Dino’s (1970-1971)
Baron Style (1972-1973)
Frank’s (1981-2013)
Tino’s (1993-today)

Next Meeting: June 20th

Posted on June 17, 2013 by Jak King

Another month gone, and another meeting to come. Our June meeting will be this Thursday at 7pm at the Britannia Board Room.

One of the main items on the agenda wll probably be next Sunday’s Party at the Shelly’s Sign. Michael Kluckner will also give a presentation on the ins and outs of a genuine HRA project. And I am sure we will also talk about centenary plaques, the Community Plan, wrap up on Car Free Day and the Heritage Fair, the Grandview Historical Context Statement, and a bit more on the wiki, perhaps.

Do come along and join in the conversation that seeks to identify, preserve and celebrate the glorious heritage of Grandview. See you there!

Car Free Day on the Drive

Posted on June 16, 2013 by Jak King

The Grandview Heritage Group will have a table on Car Free Day. We are positioned on the west side of Commercial in the 1300-block, just outside Highlife Music.

Stop by and say hello!

Heritage Fair

Posted on June 8, 2013 by Jak King

Last Sunday we were involved in the Vancouver Heritage Foundation’s Annual House Tour. For the first time, they had what they called a Heritage Fair which happened to be at the rear of a tour house on Kitchener. This was our table.

… with Penny and Christine handling the duties. Several of us took shifts and through the day we saw several hundred people come through. It is always fun to talk about our neighbourhood and its heritage!

The 900-Block Commercial east side

Posted on May 29, 2013 by Jak King

A group of us were at Zawa’s the other night, after the Heritage Awards, relaxing over food and beers, when the conversation turned to the short one-storey flat-roofed building that sat at Commercial & Venables until it burned down at the end of the 1990s. It seemed that most of us had memories of one store or another that had done business in those four storefronts: Everbest Grocery, Master Tailor, Grape Escape, the conctionery store that had twelve owners in its first twenty years, and many more, including cafes, furniture stores and political hang-outs..

That got me remembering the problem of dates. There was an assumption that the building had been erected in 1907. However, I was never sure of that date. There had been no entries for any buildings at that end of the block until 1923, when they all suddenly appear at once. A more logical suggestion is that the building was erected in 1922 ready for full occupation by the following year. It has the appearance of similar buildings erected by Angus Campbell up and down the Drive in the late 1920s and 1930s, but I am not sure exactly who built this one. The image above is dated 1922 by City Archives.

Just today it occured to me to look at Goad’s map from December 1911,

And the evidence is plain, there were no buildings in that entire quadrant of Block 22 in December 1911. Thus, the 1907 building date previously accepted by most of us appears to be inaccurate. I am not aware of any later photographs that could prove the case, but I strongly suspect that those first four lots on Commercial remained vacant until 1922.

Another brick in the wall of Grandview history.

Many thanks to Patrick at Heritage Vancouver for wading through his pile of water permits!

2013 CoV Heritage Award

Posted on May 28, 2013 by Jak King

More On The Buftons

Posted on May 25, 2013 by Jak King

In another place, I have written about a marvelous lunch I had this week with JoAnn Bufton, granddaughter of Hubert and Catherine Bufton, founders of the florist shop that flourished on the Drive from 1920 through the mid-1980s. In addition to the wonderful oral history she was able to provide, she also gave me some images of the shops. This first one is the store at 1520 Commercial Drive, and is therefore from before December 1955.

The second is from after they moved to 1675 Commercial, in the Bentholme Building.

Excellent examples of historic window dressing, for which Bufton’s won numerous awards.

Media Coverage

Posted on May 24, 2013 by Jak King

In today’s edition of the Vancouver Courier, an edition featuring all sorts of stories about Grandview, there are two articles about the Group. One tells the tale of the restoration of the Shelly sign, and the other celebrates our 2013 City of Vancouver Heritage Award for Advocacy.

Thanks to the Courier!

More History of the Waldorf Hotel

Posted on May 23, 2013 by Jak King

There is a fascinating article in the Vancouver Courier today containing an oral history of the Waldorf Hotel on East Hastings by Rick Mills, son of the founder.

“There used be a lot more houses in the east end so people could walk home after a night at the Waldorf. But our main business was the long-haul truckers who stayed at the hotel between hauls,” Mills recalls. “The lunches in the dining room were packed in the daytime with a lot of railway execs and lawyers from nearby offices. At night we were always busy with the crowds returning from the games at Empire Stadium or the racetrack.”

He recalls corruptable food inspectors, and bookies who used the hotel for their business. He also describes the end of the Mills’ family relationship to the hotel:

The Mills decided to sell the Waldorf by the end of 1970. “They built that Longshoreman Hall behind the Waldorf, and those guys weren’t as nice as the truckers. They had a 40-foot tractor-trailer in the back of the parking lot full of TVs and stereos they’d stolen off the docks that they were selling and they were fencing the stuff in the beer parlour. It was a good time to sell. The business had changed and it wasn’t so much of a family anymore.”

One small but interesting point is that Mr. Mills says the hotel opened on 26th December, 1948. That may well be true, but the formal opening, advertized in the Highland Echo was a few weeks later, on 24th January, 1949.

May 2013 Meeting Notes

Posted on May 22, 2013 by Administrator

We had fantastic turnout for our May 16th meeting, filling up the Board Room at Britannia, and we also worked through an ambitious agenda.

All the signs for our 2013 Centenary Campaign have been installed and we had a celebratory party in Grandview Park to acknowledge this year’s signs and the homeowners who agreed to have signs in their yards. The party was on May 4th, which, coincidentally, was also the second anniversary of our first Grandview Heritage Group meeting! Jak got a delicious cake from Fratelli’s and we had a few speeches and gave out some hand-coloured GHG pins — these will surely be collectors’ items some day! We have accomplished a lot in two years!

Michael Kluckner gave a report on the Shelly’s sign restoration project and also provided the group with a slide show about William Shelly and his Vancouver bakery empire. Via Tevere generously contributed $2000 to the sign project. Artists who worked on the sign were Victoria Oginski, our outdoor mural expert, Michael, and Penny. The idea was to revitalize and brighten up the sign, not to make it look new. Here’s the finished product:

Ann Daskal is the main organizer for the June 23rd party to celebrate the revitalization of the Shelly’s sign. She described the progress she has made so far. It’s really going to be a fabulous street party, chiefly for the folks who live in the Rose/Lily/Semlin area. It will an old-time “ice cream social” and will include a dedication and plaque unveiling, music by JazzMaTazz, a scavenger hunt with historical clues, colouring and arts and crafts projects for kids, cake, lemonade, vintage cars, and walking tours of the immediate area. (It’s a huge organizational job, and Ann would really appreciate volunteers to help her with all the aspects of putting on a big party!!)

GHG will have tables at both Car Free Commercial Drive (June 16th) and at one of the houses (on Kitchener St.) on the Vancouver Heritage Foundation’s Heritage House Tour (June 2nd).

May 16th, Bruce, Penny, and Michael paid a very informal visit to the Britannia Preschool and talked with a group of three- to five-year-olds. Our visit was organized by their teacher, Vasi Petoussis (who also happens to have one of our Centenary signs in her yard this year!). Here are photos of some of the kids and of Vasi and Bruce.

Maurice has offered to do another GHG walking tour west of the Drive in early October.

Lance and Jak talked about our upcoming GHG wiki. It has been launched and will be made public fairly soon and will enable us to organize and post a vast array of information about Grandview.

Lance also did some research into making “permanent” signs that we can offer to people who have had centenary signs for a year. The sign type he is recommending is printed on a ceramic tile. It would include the GHG logo in colour, the “title” of the house, a brief description of the house and its history, and a QR code that would take you to the page on the GHG wiki that contains information about the house. He had a sample tile printed up to show people what it would look like, and we were all quite impressed! It could be mounted on a house, on a fence, or on a wood stake. Very versatile.

The main event and highlight of the evening was Michael’s fascinating and comprehensive talk about Vancouver’s many house styles, which he illustrated with a slide show of photos and his drawings and watercolour paintings.

Penny Street