Charlie Chaplin appeared in Vancouver
(not yet world famous) May 8, 1911.
Here he is in 1922.
Chronology Continued
[1757
- 1884] [1885 - 1891] [1892
- 1899]
[1900 - 1905] [1906
- 1908] [1909] [1910]
[1911] [1912] [1913]
[1914] [1915]
[1916]
[1917] [1918]
[1919] [1920]
[1921] [1922]
[1923] [1924]
[1925] [1926]
[1927] [1928]
[1929] [1930]
[1931] [1932]
[1933] [1934]
[1935] [1936]
[1937] [1938]
[1939] [1940]
[1941] [1942]
[1943] [1944]
[1945] [1946]
[1947] [1948]
[1949] [1950]
[1951] [1952]
[1953] [1954]
[1955] [1956]
[1957] [1958]
[1959] [1960]
[1961] [1962]
[1963] [1964]
[1971]
[1972] [1973]
[1974] [1975]
[1976]
[1977] [1978]
[1979] [1980]
[1981] [1982]
[1983] [1984]
[1985] [1986]
[1987] [1988]
[1989] [1990]
[1991] [1992]
[1993] [1994]
1911
This year is sponsored.
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You'll note that this year includes events listed under "Also
in . . ." These are events for which we don't have a specific
date. If YOU know the
specific date of an event shown there, please
notify us . . . and cite the source! Many thanks!
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January 1 Hastings Townsite, the residents
of which had voted to be annexed by Vancouver, became part of the
city. (Today’s Glen Drive was the western edge of the townsite.)
As well, a small chunk of CPR property called “No Man’s
Land” was annexed by the city.
February 24 The first Vancouver Automobile,
Motor Boat and Accessory Exhibition opened. Also February 24 Bill
Miner, the “Grey Fox,” who had pulled off Canada’s
first train robbery near Silverdale in the Fraser Valley in 1907,
was captured in Georgia today and sent to the state pen. He would
die there two years later.
February 27 North Vancouver Ferry No. 3 was
launched from Wallace Shipyards, the first self-propelled boat of
any size to be built in North Vancouver.
Also in February George Cunningham, aged 21,
opened his first drug store at Denman and Nelson.
March 13 Actor and pianist John Emerson was
born in Vancouver.
March Construction began on the World Building,
what we know today as the Old Sun Tower.
April 11 Mandrake the Magician (Leon Mandrake),
entertainer, was born in New Westminster.
April 28 William Templeton, who would later
become the first manager of the Vancouver Airport, built and flew
a home-made biplane at Minoru Park race-track today. This was the
first plane built and flown in Greater Vancouver.
May 8 Fred Karno’s entertainment troupe
from England began a week-long engagement at the Orpheum Theatre
(not the present one) at Pender and Howe Streets. Among the performers,
a 22-year-old not-yet-famous Charlie Chaplin. Our thanks to site
visitor Robert Ingves for this item.
June 12 Real estate developers expected to
get a boost in sales when the Burnaby Lake interurban line was activated
by the B.C. Electric Railway.
June 24 The first nine holes of the Vancouver
Golf Club in Coquitlam were opened for play. The club house was
the old Austin farm house, with a dormitory for golfers who miss
the last tram back to Vancouver or New Westminster.
June 29 Actress Katherine DeMille was born
in Vancouver.
Also in June The Sea Foam was added
to the West Vancouver Transportation Company's ferry fleet with
a capacity of 60 passengers. Sometimes it towed freight barges hauling
West Vancouver residents' furniture and effects.
July 1 The first full “peal” of
the bells of Holy Rosary Cathedral. They are the only English-hung
(that is, free-swinging) church bells in the city. There are eight
bells, called into use for ceremonial occasions including weddings,
funerals and ordinations. This first full peal commemorated the
coronation of King George V. A full peal, in which the bells ring
through more than 5,000 changes without a break, takes three hours.
July 11 Wallace Shipyards, the major employer
in North Vancouver, was destroyed by fire. It was rebuilt almost
immediately.
July 27 The Province reported that
one third of Vancouver’s population had passed through the
gates of Stanley Park during the week of July 10-16, making it “one
of the most popular pleasure resorts the Terminal City possesses.”
During the week mentioned “a census of every person entering
the park was taken. A count was also taken of every auto, saddle
horse, bicycle, dog, hack, and in fact every rig or conveyance .
. . Sunday, the final day of the count, was of course the heaviest
day of the week. On that day 21,738 pedestrians, 191 autos, 52 hacks,
367 rigs, 58 saddle horses, 148 bicycles and 173 dogs passed through
the gates.”
Also in July North Vancouver Tennis Club held
its opening tournament on its courts at 23rd and Lonsdale, the site
of the present Recreation Centre.
September 15 North America’s biggest
bank-vault robbery to date happened right in little old New Westminster.
Five men—or was it three? accounts differ—bound and gagged
a janitor at the city’s sole Bank of Montreal branch and got
away with more than a quarter of a million dollars. Multiply that
by about a hundred to gauge the impact today. The men “probably
escaped down the Fraser River by a launch or else by automobile
towards Vancouver, but of how they got away there is no direct evidence.”
The Province cartoonist had a field day with
the heist. One of his drawings showed two cops interviewing an elderly
neighbour. “Have you seen any suspicious persons?” they
ask. “Yes,” she says, “there was two reporters here
this morning.”
September 25 The name of Park Drive in East
End Vancouver—so named because it ended at the time at Clark
Park—is changed to Commercial Drive. The name was changed thanks
to real estate promoters who wanted to bring into prominence what
they predicted would be a great commercial thoroughfare.
October 10 The provincial courthouse opened
on Georgia Street in a handsome building designed by Francis Rattenbury.
Today the building houses the Vancouver Art Gallery.
October 18 The first elementary school in
West Vancouver opened for classes in, says one source, the Presbyterian
tent. There were 14 pupils.
October 30 Sports writer Jim Coleman was born
in Winnipeg. He became the dean of Canadian sports reporters, moved
to Vancouver. A newspaperman for 70 years, he died January 14, 2001.
December 12 A new Municipal Hall opened in
Burnaby.
December 20 Lester and Frank Patrick opened
the world’s largest artificial ice rink in Vancouver. Known
as the Denman Arena, it burned down in 1936. For an excellent look
at the Patricks, go to
this website.
Also in December
Charles Marega’s bust of David Oppenheimer, Vancouver’s
second mayor, was installed in Stanley Park.
Also in 1911
BOMA, the Building Owners and Managers Association
of British Columbia, was formed. Today, the association has more
than 300 member firms and represents more than $7 billion in commercial
real estate in the province, making it the largest commercial real
estate industry association in British Columbia.
Vancouver's population reached 120,847, double what
it had been five years earlier.
The Journal of Commerce, Vancouver’s
oldest magazine, began publishing.
Streetcar man Teddy Lyons became a “spieler”
aboard BC Electric’s car #124. This was an open-air streetcar,
and Teddy would describe the town to visitors. He pointed out interesting
sights, told corny jokes and passed along local history. He did
this for 39 years. Someone calculated he had travelled 930,000 kilometres
through the city during his tour-guide career.
A company called Harbour Navigation began operating
small ferry boats on the Fraser River. The company is still around
under the name Harbour Cruises Ltd.
Dominion Construction was incorporated under the
leadership of Charles Bentall.
Sun Yat-Sen made his third visit to Vancouver.
Construction began on St. George's School at 3851
West 29th Avenue . . .
and on the Vancouver Rowing Club in Stanley Park
. . .
and on the Point Atkinson Lighthouse . .
and the Stanley Park Dining Pavilion . . .
and the heritage building at 900 West Hastings that
originally housed the Hudson’s Bay Insurance Co. . . .
and on Brock House at 3875 Point Grey . . .
and the First Baptist Church at 969 Burrard . . .
and B'Nai Yehudah (Sons of Israel), Vancouver's first
synagogue, at Pender and Heatley . . .
and the Canada Permanent building at 432 Richards
. . .
and the Sylvia Hotel, 1154 Gilford . . .
and the Rogers Building at the northeast corner of
Granville and Pender . . .
and North Vancouver’s new municipal hall . .
.
and a tea house at the Capilano Suspension Bridge.
The Holden Building was built on Hastings Street,
would serve as
Vancouver's city hall from 1929 to 1936.
The CPR built Piers A and B.
London-born Helena Gutteridge arrived in Vancouver.
She would go on to organize the B.C. Women’s Suffrage League,
and fought for (and won) passage of B.C.'s first minimum wage act.
(It varied by industry, but $13 to $15 a week was the range.) She
would become Vancouver’s first woman alderman.
The first suffrage convention was held in Vancouver
at O'Brien Hall, with Mayor Louis Taylor as chairman.
Twelve more stalls were added to the CPR roundhouse
in Yaletown.
A 1,200-hectare tract called the University Endowment
Lands was created out of the District Municipality of Point Grey’s
western tip.
Early in 1911 South Vancouver ratepayers voted 1,914
to 200 in favor of annexation by Vancouver. The provincial government
refused to permit it, said Vancouver was already over-burdened with
administration problems.
The Canada Post Publishing Company Limited was established.
Not long after, it became Broadway Printers.
Sculptor Charles Marega began teaching art for night
school students.
A company called the Grouse Mountain Scenic Incline
Railway was formed. It was created to build a 2.5-kilometre-long
rail line that would carry its passengers up the mountain to a lavish
resort hotel. But the scheme collapsed as the First World War loomed
and steel became impossible to obtain.
Vancouver increased the number of wards to eight.
With two per ward, there were now 16 aldermen.
A study found that 34 per cent of Vancouver’s
population was British.
The Pacific Coast Hockey Association was founded.
It would fold in 1924.
The Lonsdale Theatre opened in North Vancouver.
The first Vancouver Girl Guide Troop was started
by Miss P. James.
Essondale Hospital's Colony Farm was considered the
best in the West, yielding 700 tons of crops and 20,000 gallons
of milk. The farm provided therapy as well as food for its patients.
The Burnaby Lake interurban line started operation.
A Japanese school was established in Steveston by
the Japanese Fishermen's Benevolent Society. It had instruction
in Japanese and a Japanese curriculum.
The Cloverdale telephone exchange opened with 209
subscribers.
Japanese settlers began growing strawberries in Surrey.
The nearby community hall came to be called “Strawberry Hill.”
The berries were sent to canneries in New Westminster and Vancouver.
A resolution was passed by Surrey Council to close
the Serpentine and Nicomekl Rivers to navigation in order to construct
dams for land reclamation. The era of steam boats and log booms
on these rivers comes to an end.
A one-room school opened in White Rock. Another source
says 1910.
A real estate boom in what will become West Vancouver
sees waterfront lots advertised for as much as $4,500.
The western stretch of Dundas Street in Vancouver
was renamed Powell Street, to honor Dr. Israel Wood Powell who,
among other good works, donated the site of Vancouver’s first
city hall.
Donald Mann, of the Canadian Northern Railway, was
knighted. Port Mann was originally intended to be the road's Pacific
terminus. The Canadian Northern would become part of the Canadian
National Railway in 1923.
It had been the old North Arm Trail, then it became
River Road. In 1911 its name was changed again to Marine Drive,
when Point Grey municipal council straightened and blacktopped it.
The road was planned as a scenic loop around the Point Grey peninsula.
It still is.
Henry Hudson School opened at Cornwall and Cypress.
The C.P.R., prompted by the imminent opening of the
Panama Canal, announced plans to create a major shipyard at Westminster
Junction (Port Coquitlam) complete with railway marshalling yards
and an industrial complex.
Burnaby hired two mounted policemen and set aside
$250 for the purchase of two horses.
The 2nd Cambie Street Bridge is completed. It will
be in use for more than 70 years.
The Vancouver Fire Department is deemed by an international
committee to be “one of the world's finest . . . as regards
equipment and efficiency” behind only London, England, and
Leipzig, Germany. The city had 11 firehalls and 191 fire fighters.
Squamish chief Simon Baker was born on the Capilano
Reserve.
Vancouver's first Italian newspaper, L'Italia
nel Canada, appeared.
Collingwood Heights School in South Vancouver was
renamed for Sir Guy Carleton.
Walter Moberly School was built in Vancouver.
The Bank of Toronto and The Dominion Bank—which
eventually merged—each opened second branches in Vancouver.
H.H. “Harry” Stevens became a Conservative
MP for Vancouver. He would prove to be very influential.
The Vancouver Park Board, realizing the importance
of playgrounds, established MacLean Park as the city’s first
supervised playground.
First power produced from a concrete dam and 52.5
megawatt powerhouse located at the outlet of Stave Lake.
Nine-year-old Nat Bailey arrived in Vancouver with
his family from Seattle. He would eventually launch the White Spot
restaurant chain.
Wisconsin-born Julius Harold Bloedel began logging
in BC.
Samuel Brighouse, one of the “Three Greenhorns,”
left Vancouver for England, where he died in 1913.
Pauline Johnson published Legends of Vancouver.
1911 Lorraine Dietrich
[Photo: www.dyna.co.za]
Continued...
[1757
- 1884] [1885 - 1891] [1892
- 1899]
[1900 - 1905] [1906
- 1908] [1909] [1910]
[1911] [1912] [1913]
[1914] [1915]
[1916]
[1917] [1918]
[1919] [1920]
[1921] [1922]
[1923] [1924]
[1925] [1926]
[1927] [1928]
[1929] [1930]
[1931] [1932]
[1933] [1934]
[1935] [1936]
[1937] [1938]
[1939] [1940]
[1941] [1942]
[1943] [1944]
[1945] [1946]
[1947] [1948]
[1949] [1950]
[1951] [1952]
[1953] [1954]
[1955] [1956]
[1957] [1958]
[1959] [1960]
[1961] [1962]
[1963] [1964]
[1965]
[1966] [1967]
[1968]
[1969] [1970]
[1971] [1972]
[1973] [1974]
[1975] [1976]
[1977] [1978]
[1979] [1980]
[1981] [1982]
[1983] [1984]
[1985] [1986]
[1987] [1988]
[1989] [1990]
[1991] [1992]
[1993] [1994]
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