Author Archive

Vancouver Heritage Foundation is a registered charity supporting the conservation of heritage buildings and structures in recognition of their contribution to the city’s economy, sustainability and culture.

Nellie Yip Quong and neighbourhood children (?) photo courtesy of Mrs. Eleanor (Yip) Lum collection.

Our city’s early history is full of  hardships, busts, booms, fiery destruction and rapid reconstruction. It is also a place where people from all over the world came to build a new life. In celebration of Asian Heritage Month, Vancouver Heritage Foundation‘s Places That Matter plaque project is honouring a love story and an advocate, in a non-Chinese woman who really mattered to the Vancouver Chinatown community. Some say very few people in the community mattered more than Mrs. Nellie Yip Quong (nee Towers)…

“Nellie Towers of St. John, NB met Charlie Yip Quong while teaching in New York. Married in 1900, the couple moved into the Yip Sang family compound in Chinatown in 1904. A feminist and social activist, “Granny” spoke five dialects and became a bold and outspoken advocate for her adopted community. In 1917, Charlie and Nellie moved to 783 East Pender Street and it was here that Nellie served as a trusted and well respected midwife to some 500 Chinese Canadian women.”

At the beginning stages of contacting Nellie Yip’s family and the current owners of the house, we knew we had an amazing story on our hands and wanted to be sure we could share it with a wider audience. Dr. Henry Yu, of UBC’s Chinese Canadian Stories project, was the person to contact. With amazing support from CCS and the Chinese Canadian Historical Society of BC, we were able to get the UBC student film crew to make a short about the house, the history, and the family! Check out the video here. It’s awesome! There’s also a research diary blog post by Janet Tse.

All this leads us to the plaque presentation taking place this Saturday May 25 at 2pm at the former house of Charlie and Nellie Yip. Eleanor  (daughter) and Starlet (granddaughter) Lum will be in attendance, as well as Aunt #18 Molly, the only living offspring of Yip Sang’s 23 children. Aunt Molly was delivered by Nellie Yip.  Other special guests,  Jim Wong-Chu, Larry Wong, and James Johnstone will be in attendance and our Places That Matter bike tour group will stop by with historian  John Atkin at the helm. Below is the invitation the presentation, as well as a lovely note we received. Please RSVP to  jessica@vancouverheritagefoundation.org  if you would like to join us!

Mrs. Eleanor (Yip) Lum in front of the house on East Pender. Courtesy of Mrs. Eleanor (Yip) Lum Collection

…READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

Vancouver Heritage Foundation is a registered charity supporting the conservation of heritage buildings and structures in recognition of their contribution to the city’s economy, sustainability and culture.

Vancouver Heritage Foundation‘s 2013  Heritage House Tour is coming up in two weeks and we’re giving you the inside scoop on some unique sites opening on tour this year! The tour is on June 2nd from 10am-5pm. One of the more interesting sites on this year’s tour is a 1906 Japanese tenement, now converted into Single-Room Accomodation (SRA’s). Volunteers from the Nikkei National Museum, the Vancouver Japanese Language School and James Johnstone, House Historian, will be on site to answer historical questions about the site which has a very intriguing history! From a tenement for Japanese workers, to a possible (unconfirmed) stint as a brothel, to its current use as an SRA, this building holds a wealth of Vancouver history. It will be open only in the morning (10am – 1:30pm) during the tour, so if you want to get inside, make sure you get there early.

If you fancy a lunch stop, the Vancouver Japanese Language School at 487 Alexander St will be open from 11am-2pm offering a delicious bento (udon noodles, Japanese side dishes and dessert) for $10. They will also offer 15 minute building tours, highlighting the heritage daycare renovation of the 1928 Hall. Tours begin every 1/2 hour.

So who was Yonekichi Aoki? From the 1901 census, Yonekichi Aoki (1861- 1940) immigrated in 1896.  His wife Suye (1877-1931) came in 1897.  They had at least one son, George Tameo Aoki who married Kiyo in 1929. (He went to get his bride in Japan and brought her back to Canada). There was an Aoki still living at the buildings address in 1941, before the forced expulsion of all Japanese Canadians from the Coast in 1942. There are two large biographies of Yonekichi Aoki and the Nikkei National Museum Archives will have them on display at the Heritage House Tour in translation!

The tenement building was typical of those built by early Japanese settlers in Vancouver. Aoki started logging in 1895 at Indian River and like many, worked at the Hastings Sawmill on Burrard Inlet at the foot of Dunlevy. From the late 1800s to World War II, Alexander Steet was part of the bustling Japantown district centred on Powell Street.  In 2006,the tenement become Ross House, a privately owned Single Room Accommodation (SRA). A tribute to the owner’s son who died of a drug overdose in 2000, the house has 24 rented rooms and much of the original 1906  building still remains including fir floors, tongue and groove panelling in the hallway, and the ghost lines of many doors that lead to speculation that it may at one time have been part of the Alexander Street red light district. …READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

Vancouver Heritage Foundation is a registered charity supporting the conservation of heritage buildings and structures in recognition of their contribution to the city’s economy, sustainability and culture.

Vancouver Cycle Club in 1914 at the Old Courthouse (now Vancouver Art Gallery) in front of the King George VII Fountain on Georgia St. (now on Hornby)

Introducing our Inaugural Season of VHF Guided Bike Tours!

Brand new for 2013, Vancouver Heritage Foundation is offering guided bike tours. Take a ride through our bike-friendly city and learn some history while you’re at it! Our inaugural season includes two different tours both with experienced and enthusiastic guides to inspire a range of cycling enthusiasts. Reserve your spot here for VHF’s Bike Tours, visit www.vancouverheritagefoundation.org or call 604 264 9642.

First up is the Places That Matter bike tour. Join historian and avid cyclist  John Atkin on a tour via Vancouver’s bike lanes  of Vancouver Heritage Foundation’s Places That Matter plaque sites Saturday, May 25th from 1-3pm.  Learn why these hidden (and not so hidden) places were chosen as part of 125 sites (plotted on Google Maps) to receive our lovely blue “Places That Matter” plaques. On the tour, you will hear the stories and see the plaques that have been installed around the city, and then make a special stop midway to take in the Nellie Yip Quong House plaque presentation live! The tour starts at Canada Place and will travel along bike lanes to get to Strathcona, False Creek, and Fairview Slopes, over the Burrard Street Bridge, and back to Robson Square (very close to the location of the archival photo pictured above).

• Saturday, May 25, 2013
  
• Time: 1:00pm – 3:00pm
• Starting Point: 999 Canada Place (at the information kiosk)  and ending at Robson Square. Please arrive prepared with a bicycle, safety equipment, water bottle, and anything else you may need to enjoy your ride.
• $20/person + tax.  Get your tickets here.
• Spokes Bicycle Rentals is generously offering a 30% discount on bike and equipment rentals to anyone attending one of our Bike Tours. Rental includes a bike, helmet and lock. Please note BC laws require all riders to wear bike helmets.
• This bike tour is recommended for intermediate cyclists (those comfortable with city cycling and mild inclines) …READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

Vancouver Heritage Foundation is a registered charity supporting the conservation of heritage buildings and structures in recognition of their contribution to the city’s economy, sustainability and culture.

Gibby’s c. 1908 CVA 330-18 Flett Rd (E 18th Ave) Looking East on E. 18th with Dumfries in the background

We’re excited to spend the afternoon out in the sun tomorrow~ Friday May 3rd ~ celebrating the history of Gibby’s Field at VHF‘s Places That Matter plaque presentation #54! The fun begins at 2pm at the remaining site which is now three City lots with the official street addresses 1454, 1458, and 1462 East 18th Avenue. This site is part of 19 acres purchased by Irish-born Moses Gibson in 1893 to use as a dairy farm.   Known locally as Gibby’s Field, this small patch of green contains the last remaining vestige of Gibson Creek, which originated above Kensington Park at 37th Avenue and Knight Street. Gibson Creek was part of the China Creek watershed that fed into the eastern basin of False Creek which provided water for the Cedar Cottage brewery (located around Kingsway and Knight), and local Chinese market gardens. Early residents recall a thriving waterway filled with salmon, trout, lamprey and stickleback.  Since 2000, there has been local interest in preserving Gibby’s Field as a community green space and even before 2000, local residents have been meeting, using and enjoying this unique neighbourhood gathering spot.

Find us at 2pm, at 1458 East 18th Avenue, between Knight and Dumfries (look for the crowd).  Special guests include long time residents of the area who still remember the original creek and orchards, plus the great-grandson of Moses Gibson himself!

After the plaque presentation, join us at 3pm for the reception at Tyee Elementary School 3525 Dumfries St, a short walk away. Their annual plant sale, rummage sale, and food fair is taking place from 3-8pm. False Creek Watershed Society will be on hand with displays and VHF will be there too until 4pm. Come have a chat!

Last but not least, at 4pm, take a 60-75 min  free Jane’s Walk  “Where Gibson Creek met Davey Creek”, led by Dan Fass, nominator of the site and member of the Gibby’s Field subcommittee.  Dan will head out from the white tent set up by the displays at Tyee Elementary (look for the signs), and end back at the school. For more information about Gibby’s Field,  Gibson Creek and Davey Creek, or to download a pdf of a 32-page historical walking tour of Gibson Creek, click here.

Tyee Elementary Annual Plant Sale School Fundraiser!

Vancouver Heritage Foundation is a registered charity supporting the conservation of heritage buildings and structures in recognition of their contribution to the city’s economy, sustainability and culture.

1932 Interior of Victoria Produce Co. VPL #7921 Photo by Leonard Frank. Victoria Produce Company, 1743 Commercial - Chinese market - Interior of market.

“Vancouver, like all cities, was at one time almost food-self-sufficient. The new urban farming trend is really reclaiming some of that past– bringing food production back into the city and into view.” Peter Ladner

 Vancouver Heritage Foundation‘s annual Heritage House Tour is only a month away on Sunday, June 2nd, and since one of the houses on the tour features urban farming, we are presenting a pre-tour lecture “Past Forward: How Today’s Urban Food Revolution is Reinventing its Historical Roots” with Peter Ladner, Author of Urban Food Revolution: Changing the Way We Feed Cities. In this illustrated talk, he’ll show how new approaches to growing food in the city are reinventing old urban traditions. It all takes place Tuesday, May 21st at 7pm, in the modernist Unitarian Church, 949 West 49th Ave at Oak St. Sign up here. And don’t forget to get your tickets to the Heritage House Tour to see a working urban farm for yourself! Peter will also be available during the Heritage House Tour to talk urban farming one on one.

Urban farming in Vancouver is nothing new. Places That Matter has been honouring the history of many sites where Chinese market gardens existed: Douglas Park, China Creek (Cycle Track), Gibby’s Field (Kensington Cedar-Cottage). “Most of the Chinese who came to Canada in the 1800s and early 1900s left small farming villages in southern China, and many knew how to grow food and crops for sale. In many small towns in British Columbia— including big cities like Victoria and Vancouver— Chinese Canadian farms grew much of the fresh produce that fed the people who lived there. They also used hand baskets and trucks to deliver the vegetables and produce to customers and to the grocery stores and restaurants that they opened in every neighbourhood.”(CCS) Watch the video  Covered Roots: The History of Vancouver’s Chinese Farms (produced by UBC’s Chinese Canadian Stories)

Present day urban farming... Image from article : http://rabble.ca/news/2012/04/vancouvers-urban-farming-movement-growing

Vancouver Heritage Foundation is a registered charity supporting the conservation of heritage buildings and structures in recognition of their contribution to the city’s economy, sustainability and culture.

I love Heritage buttons!

VHF has been experimenting with designs for fun “I Love Heritage” swag, and hot off the Six Cent Press, we have newly released I Love Heritage buttons! Collect all three buttons with images of the Burrard St. Bridge, the Chinatown gate, and Mole Hill with text in ” Edwardian Buff” Yellow and the heart in “Strathcona Red”. Never heard of “Edwardian Buff” or” Strathcona Red”? They are part of VHF’s True Colours palette, a collection of original Vancouver paint  colours. THese historic  colours were discovered by scraping paint from over 100 turn of the century Vancouver homes, and developed by VHF with Benjamin Moore  for you to use!

We were handing  out buttons at our recent CBC Wall launch for Paul de Guzman’s “the people are the city…”. Paul’s artwork will be up for the next year, and if you walk by the JJ Bean kiosk at the CBC Outdoor Stage near the Library, you’ll  see it installed. If you want your own button you can  drop by our office or come to an upcoming program.  We’ll be handing them out until they’re all gone. Grab one and Tweet @VanHeritage #ILoveHeritage or post your pics to VHF’s facebook page with your reasons of why you love Vancouver’s heritage. Then wear your “I Love Heritage” button loud and proud in support of Vancouver’s amazing buildings, culture and history (Bruce did…) !

Bruce (Event Coordinator for Vancouver Electric Vehicle Association and VHF supporter) wearing our 3 buttons at the CBC Wall Launch