We had good turnout for and excellent presentations at tonight’s Grandview Heritage Group meeting.
We decided that we won’t be meeting in December, so we’ll see you at our first meeting in 2019, which will be January 17th, in the Britannia Boardroom at 7:00 p.m. We will have our usual wide-ranging agenda to which you are always welcome to add items that you might want to discuss.

Hello!
Our October meeting is this Thursday, October 19th. As usual, we will meet in the Britannia Boardroom at 7:00 p.m.

This month’s agenda will include:

• Our regular review of things happening in the neighbourhood that are of interest to our group, led by Eric. Because we missed our Sept meeting, there’s a lot to catch up on.
• Update on our century sign campaign…
• Anything else you’d like to discuss!

We have today uploaded a new and updated version of the Grandview Database.  

This version incorporates more than 2100 new and amended data points since the previous release.

• Another 450 households have been entered from the 1921 Census. The 1921 census included details of house structure & size, and a raft of high quality data on rents in the neighbourhood;
• An additional 700 entries almost completes the 1913 City Directory
• About 475 new data points have been captured from miscellaneous references in the “Highland Echo” and similar sources covering the period 1901-1999;
• A similar number of data points have been collected from the first 49 editions of “Changes On The Drive” covering the period from 2011 through 2015.

We hope you find the Database of value, and we encourage and welcome corrections, and additions.

The always excellent BC Studies journal has now published online a map showing the location of all its articles over several decades. The map is easily scalable to any level of detail and could be a very useful tool for locating scholarly articles on a particular place.

I have to note that there have been no articles published that focus on Grandview. However, some of the seminal and important works about Vancouver in general can be found easily with this tool.

Many of our readers will have views on the political interface between heritage needs and the Provincial government. Those folks will want to know about the

joint All-Candidates’ Meeting for Vancouver-Mount Pleasant and Vancouver-Hastings, Monday May 1st in Gym D at Britannia from 6:30pm.

Quoting from the release:

All ten candidates running in Vancouver-Mount Pleasant and Vancouver-Hastings have said they are coming.

The format for this event is different from All-Candidates Meetings in previous elections.

6:30-7:00 — Everyone is welcome to enjoy socializing over a free light meal (vegetarian soup or chili, buns, butter, salad, and dessert).
7:00-7:45 — Each candidate will have an opportunity to make a 3-minute prepared statement.
7:45-9:00 — Participants will sit at either Hastings or Mount Pleasant tables while candidates in their riding visit their tables to have informal conversations about the issues that concern them — World Café style.

Have your heritage questions ready!

The British historical journal History Workshop has recently published an interesting piece on the value (and lack of use) of local histories.

“Local history takes in a broad range of historical inquiry that can cut across other disciplines and sources including oral traditions, social and cultural practices, ephemera, objects, sites and more. Local history is a powerful tool that contributes to place making and the construction of identity. These histories relate stories of community rituals, traditions and celebrations that are embedded in interpersonal and familial networks. These stories create a dense landscape of meanings that are layered and nuanced.”

Well worth the read.