Sinclair Centre: The Post Office Building

 The Sinclair Centre is a grouping of four building that where constructed in the early 1900’s. The four building include the original Post office building, the Federal Building, the Winch Building, and the customs Examining Warehouse.

The Post Office Building is the oldest of the four and is designed from Edwardian Baroque style. Edwardian Baroque style is a English and French style of building, and became popular in the Edwardian era from 1901-1910. The Post office is the only Notable Edwardian Baroque building in Canada.

The notable feature of the Post Office is the atrium clock. The clock is twelve feet in diameter, and is the largest clock in western Canada. The clock tower is designed and mimics many of the features of English Edwardian Baroque building.

Queen Elizabeth Theatre

 The Queen Elizabeth Theatre was opened on July 5^th 1959,  with a performance by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. A few weeks later Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II came to formally open the theatre and give it its name.

The Queen Elizabeth Theatre had a large impact on Vancouver’s live arts scene. It made it possible for touring plays, musicals, and music events to come to Vancouver and have a prober theatre to show in. With Vancouver’s close proximity to Vancouver many American shows now traveled to Vancouver to give shows. 

The Queen Elizabeth theatre is the current home of the Vancouver Opera and Ballet BC, and former home of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. It is the largest theatre in Vancouver, seating 2, 765 patrons.

Vancouver Art Gallery

The Vancouver Art Gallery is the fifth largest art gallery in Canada. The gallery was founded in 1931 and designed by British architect Francis Rattenbury. Mr. Rattenbury spend most of his career in British Columbia and is also known for the Parliament Buildings and The Empress Hotel in Victoria. Thirty years ago the gallery went through a $20 million dollar renovation and which spans three city blocks, known as Robson Square. The gallery is connect to the rest of the complex via an underground passage below Robson Street. 

The gallery has a permanent collection of approximately 10,000 artworks including pieces by Emily Carr. The building was assigned a National Historic Site of Canada in 1980.  

Kingsway

Kingsway is a major road that passes though Vancouver and Burnaby. It starts at Main Street just south of 7^th Avenue and terminates at the Burnaby–New Westminster boarder where it becomes 12^th street.

Kingsway cira 1900 looking east at Boundary Road. 

The Royal Engineers built Kingsway as a wagon road, connecting Gastown and the former Capitol New Westminster. It was created to fulfill the wishes of Colonel Richard Moody to help with the movement of troops between Gastown and the capitol. The road was cut to follow the least incline between the two points; therefore it lies on a diagonal to the current Vancouver road network.

In the late 1800’s the road was widen and continually improved, making it a very desirable place to settle. In 1912 the road was paved through the help of the provincial government, and in 1913 it was reopened as Kingsway.

Hasting's Mill

In 1865 Captain Edward Stump formed a English company and revived English capitol to produce lumber in British Columbia. In 1867 he opened the doors to Stump’s Mill, located on the Burrard Inlet at the foot of the current Dunlevy street.

Stump only worked in the lumbar business for two years. After his retirement the doors of Stump’s Mill soon closed and was liquidated. After its closer the mill was bought by an Americans company, and renamed to Hasting’s Mill.

The Hasting's Mill Store relocated to Point Grey where
it currently stands as a museum. 

Hastings Mill had a large effect on the development of Vancouver. The early settlement was made to be a company town. People shopped in Hasting’s Mill store, and kids went to Hasting’s mill school. This was changed when the Canadian Pacific Railway choose Vancouver to be it’s terminus. The lumbar industry very important to BC and Vancouver, and was the backbone of the early development of Vancouver.

Hasting’s Mill “ was the nucleus around which the city of Vancouver grew in the 1820’s” (Davis, C., A Brief history of Greater Vancouver).  It remained the hub of the Vancouver economy until the 1920’s. The location of the Hastings Mill is no longer a mill today, but remains a shipping port for containers.

Burrard Inlet

1900's Map of Burrard Inlet

The Burrard Inlet is a fjord that separates Vancouver, Burnaby and the Tri-Cities from the North Shore. The Burrard Inlet was first entered by European explores in 1791.  In 1972 Captain George Vancouver, named the islet after friend and shipmate Sir Harry Burrard.

Burrard inlet is very important to the history of Vancouver and the British influence on Vancouver.  It is very easy to access by ships of any size or class, something that no all of Vancouver waterways allow. Due to this, the size of the inlet, and the protection from the open ocean, allowed the major ports of Vancouver to be developed on the Burrard Inlet. Due to the Burrard Inlet and easy access to a port, Vancouver was chosen as the terminus for the Canadian Pacific Railway. Starting Vancouver as a terminus city and a major area for shipping in the late 19^th and early 20^th century.

From the discovery of the Inlet and the development of Vancouver to today the Burrard Inlet still serves as a major port in Vancouver. Today Burrard inlet houses, terminals for container and bulk cargo ships, grain elevators, oil refineries, recreational use for ships, and residential and commercial sites.

Empire Stadium & Empire Fields

Empire Stadium  was originally built for the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games. It was well known for track and field events, Canadian football as well the venue for both Elvis Presley and The Beatles in 1974. From 1954-1982 is was the home of the BC lions and it hosted the first Grey Cup in west of Ontario in 1955. 

In 1983 the stadium no longer became the home of the Lions or Whitecaps when they moved to BC Place Stadium. The stadium was demolished in the early 1900s and it served as a parking lot of the Pacific National Exhibition as well as Playland for many years before it was transformed to a soccer field and track on the site of the old field. 

During the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games the most famous event of the games was the One Mile Race in which John Landy and Roger Bannister ran the distance in under four minutes. A statue was created of the two men in memory of the event and currently stands at the entrance of the Pacific National Exhibition.

Captain George Vancouver (1757-1798)

Born in 1757, George Vancouver was an English officer of the British Royal Navy. He is best known for his expedition (1791-1795) which lead him to explore North America’s northwestern Pacific Coast regions, including contemporary British Columbia, Alaska, Washington and Oregon. He was also the first European to enter the Burrard Inlet in 1792.

Robin Fisher, Vice President of Mount Royal University in Calgary states:

“He [Vancouver] put the northwest coast on the map...He drew up a map of the north-west coast that was accurate to the 9th degree, ‘to the point it was still being used into the modern day as a navigational aid. That’s unusual for a map from that early of a time.”

What we know as Vancouver Island, Vancouver, British Columbia, Washington, US were all named after him. Vancouver died in 1798 at the age of 40. His grave lies in St. Peters churchyard in Surrey, England.

St. Andrew's Wesley Church

St. Andrew's Wesley Church is located right in the heart of downtown Vancouver, and is part of the United Church of Canada. Built in 1927, it was formed by a number of other Union churches, and receives its' name from two congregations; Saint Andrew's Presbyterian and Wesley Methodist. These two churches were united together in the early 1920's, and still stands in the same place with its' stunning stained glass windows at Nelson and Burrard today.

The Church believes early events, stories, and services back in the 1860's are a significant part of the Church's history. The Methodist Church and denomination is one of the largest in Great Britain, which contains approximately 300,000 Christian members and over 6000 churches. St. Andrew's Wesley Church had a significant impact on the British legacy in Vancouver, as its' views and beliefs were established early on.

False Creek

False Creek separates downtown Vancouver from the rest of the city, and extends from Science World at its' Eastern end, all the way to Burrard Bridge/Inlet at its' Western end. Famous Granville Island is also situated right between, where numerous tourists and Vancouverites go for market fresh produce and food, and to explore live music, art stores, other vendors, and breweries. There are also three aquabus ferries that provide service between Granville Island and Bowen Island that operate through False Creek. Many individuals seek homes in False Creek, for its' beauty and appealing neighbourhoods. BC Place, a historical (newly renovated) stadium also runs along False Creek, where numerous concerts and sports games occur in Vancouver today.

False Creek was actually first missed by European explorers in 1791, including George Vancouver and British explorer William Broughton, and actually extended much longer than it does today. The reason for this, was during WWI large warehouses and platforms were constructed to be used for industry and railway purposes. The Great Northern Railway was one that took over a large diameter of False Creek. Much of the creek became extremely polluted and was unfortunately being used as a dumping ground, so it was filled and turned into land.

False Creek was not officially discovered until many years later in 1859 by Captain George Richards, when he was looking for areas to deposit coal near Burrard Inlet. False Creek got its' name, when Captain Richards initially thought he was travelling through an inlet, but which was actually a creek; hence why it was named 'False Creek'. Back in the 1800's, False Creek became an area for lumber and saw mills, and was significant to the development of the Vancouver economy.

British Columbia Parliament Buildings

Where the Parliament Buildings are not situated in Vancouver, BC, they do reside close by on Vancouver Island, in beautiful Victoria, BC. The British Columbia Parliament Buildings are an integral part of the British Legacy, and for this reason should not be left out! They were built after the wooden Legislative Hall, termed the "Birdcages" were no longer structurally safe to house legislative representatives.

The Parliament Buildings are where members of the BC Government gather to make crucial decisions and pass laws for the province. Construction began of the buildings in 1893 by a British architect/immigrant named Francis Rattenbury, and completed in 1897. The Parliament Buildings run along Belleville Street in Victoria's downtown Inner Harbour, and are particularly unique due to the means in which they were built. All local materials and resources were used to construct the buildings, as it was important to the government to support local businesses during this critical time in BC. Where structural upkeep has been conducted in the last several decades, very little detail has been changed in the design of these buildings

The Parliament Buildings are 500 ft tall, composed of two tiers, waterfront walkways, garden sculptures, a marble dome, and have become a necessary tourist attraction when travellers visit the beautiful city. The buildings also light up with thousands of lights during nightfall. The success and beauty of the buildings led to more innovations and designs by Rattenbury, including the Legislative Library and Crystal Gardens in Victoria, as well as the Vancouver Art Gallery, a stunning building residing in downtown Vancouver.

The British Properties

Europian immigrants first settled on the properties in the 1870's. When West Vancouver became a municipality in 1912 and passed the Town Planning Act in 1926, the area was determined to be for residential growth. The British Properties are made up of three prestigious neighborhoods referred to as Ambleside, Hollyburn Ridge, and Dundarave. During the Depression, the British Properties became impossible to afford, and in 1932 a Victorian engineer convinced the Guinness Family to purchase all 4700 acres, which were frequently visited by the King and Queen. Between 1931 and 1950, the Properties saw further changes that helped establish West Vancouver, including the construction of Lions Gate Bridge, which provided easier access into and out of the city. 

                                       

Today the real estate situated on the British Properties are worth millions, and have been established as a peaceful haven from the city of West Vancouver. The views overlook the entire city, Mount Baker, as well as the Gulf Islands. Many of the original 1930's chalets still remain on the Properties today, but most of the homes have been drastically restored and are occupied by families, with square footage ranging from 15,000 to 40,000 per home. The British Properties have earned quite the reputation in the last few decades. Situated on the North Shore of Burrard Inlet in West Vancouver, the wealthy real estate available to purchase provides panoramic views, stunning architecture, and what has become a place for progressive urban development.