Eve Lazarus's Blog: Every Place has a Story

North Vancouver’s Maplewood Flats is a wildlife sanctuary about one-third the size of Stanley Park. In the 1970s, it was home to a group of artists and environmentalists, and for a couple of weeks, it hosted the Dollarton Pleasure Faire.
Warning: some of Bruce Stewart’s photos contain nudity (and maybe your grandparents)

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How does a house with a view and a West Vancouver postal code for under a million bucks sound? How about a third of an acre for under $250,000, minutes from the beach? Welcome to Passage Island, a 32-acre paradise sitting at the entrance to Howe Sound.

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I was thrilled to receive an email from Paul Fletcher last week. He wrote to tell me that he had read Beneath Dark Waters: The Legacy of the Empress of Ireland Shipwreck and that his maternal grandfather was Tracey Harley Archer. Lost wife and son: In May 1914, 33-year-old Tracey Harley Archer was travelling on… Continue reading Remembrance Day: Honouring Tracey Archer

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In 1965, George Klippert was arrested and charged with four counts of gross indecency. He admitted to having consensual sex with four different adult males. A psychiatrist assessed him as “incurably homosexual.” Klippert was labeled a dangerous offender and sentenced to life in prison.

The post Broken Laws: Uncovering Queer Stories appeared first on Eve Lazarus.

When Sharilyn Kuehnel worked at Opus Art Supplies on the ground floor of the Dominion Building, she had a couple of ghostly encounters. The store had occupied what was once a bank. The manager’s former office had been repurposed into the store’s community classroom, while the bank’s vault became the inventory room.

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When the Grays bought the house on Heritage Lane in Saanich in 1990, they didn’t know that it came with a few ghosts.  

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Between 1869 and 1948, Britain shipped more than 100,000 boys and girls, some as young as four to Canada to work on farms and as household servants. These kids were either orphans or from poverty-stricken families, and the thought was that they’d be better off in countries like Canada, Australia and South Africa. They weren't.

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Bruce Stewart sent me an email a couple of weeks ago, saying that he had come across some photos of store windows that he’d taken in the 1970s, was I interested in seeing them. Of course I was, and I think you’ll love them as well. Where most of us will see a jumbled store… Continue reading Vancouver’s Store Windows – an Essay in Photos

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October 3, 1975, marks the 50th anniversary of the fire at Burrard Terminals which killed five men, severely burned twelve others, caused $8 million in damages, and destroyed the workhouse, track shed and a large part of the shipping gallery in the former Moodyville area.

The post Fire at the Grain Elevators appeared first on Eve Lazarus.

September 25 is World Maritime Day, and this year’s theme is “Our Ocean, Our Obligation, Our Opportunity.” It’s a theme that could easily apply in 1914 when the Empress of Ireland sank, killing four more passengers than the Titanic. Oliver Mardall: One of those passengers was 31-year-old Ensign Oliver Mardall of Vancouver. Mardall was a… Continue reading The Empress of Ireland and Oliver Mardall

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