Another set of images from Diana Sampson discovered in the Vancouver City Archives. They are unusual in that they are photographed in the winter and in the summer from roughly the same location.
But there is something different in the photos~look at the number of women walking on the wide sidewalks. They are wearing fur collared coats in the winter, sun hats and white gloves in the summer.
In the top photo there appears to be some kind of festive lighting atop the old post office (now part of Sinclair Centre). Campbell Studios in the left of the photo is advertising that they will take your portrait and produce an 8 inch by 10 inch photo for $1.00. You can also see the James Inglis Meat Store at 559 Granville street that started business in that location in 1915 and ran until 1986.
There is a YouTube video below that has some footage of Vancouver’s commercial areas in 1934. Look how differently pedestrians use the street with the street cars in the middle of it.
Watch for the police officer in the intersection with the “stop and go” sign, and see if you can spot the one lone cyclist.
That was the busy end of Granville. That same year, my grandfather was taking my 19 year old father out on the other end of Granville to practice driving because, as he put it, there was literally no one to hit. They were driving a “touring car”, the kind often driven by chauffeurs, but it was old and the front wheel had a habit of falling off going around corners. They would hop out and chase the wheel into somebody’s garden and put it on again.
The flags and banners are fun … can we get those back also?