A Vancouver time travelogue brought to you by Past Tense.
Major Matthews notations on the photo:
Hastings & Cambie Sts, summer 1896. The centre of Vancouver. On the left, out of sight, the Court House, before which, in Sept. 1901, a brilliant welcome was accorded T.R.H. The Duke & Duchess of Cornwall and York, afterwards King George and Queen Mary. Here, in the centre of the street, in the spring of 1900, we celebrated the Relief of Mafeking, with a huge bonfire which burned a great hole in the new wood block pavement.No street cars east of here; all street cars turn down Cambie St to Cordova street, the principal retail shopping street. On left, Inns of Court Building, where, at the corner of Hamilton & Hastings streets, L.A. Hamilton drove a stake, and commenced to survey the forest into streets and blocks. The first office of the “Imperial Bank of Canada” was on this corner. Buildings in the distance include O’Brien’s Hall, Post Office; the Pacific Business College was the first commercial school.
On the corner, a wooden building is the famed “Arcade,” with thirteen small shops, cutting through corner from Hastings to Cambie St. The first office of the “Great Northern Railway” is on the corner—behind the street car. Street car fares, five cents; no tickets. The “Arcade” was built about Dec. 1895. “Meet you in the Arcade” was a common expression. Wood plank side walk; think street was macadam, replaced, 1900, with wood blks. Left hand “rule of the road.” No traffic lights; jay walking permitted; the word not known. Two oxen, yoked, passing. Dog resting in middle of street. Electric arc light street lights, attended to daily by man in buggy. Eleven cross arms on telephone poles.
Photo presented, Jan. 1954, by W.B. Wellwood, Victoria, son of second lighthouse keeper at Pt Atkinson. City Archives J.S.M. See photo Str. N. 115, P. 184. Four wheels only on street[car]; open platform both ends; unheated; seats lengthwise.
Source: Major JS Matthews, Early Vancouver, Vol. 7 (City of Vancouver Archives, 1956), via the
