31.03.18

Along the No. 20 Line: "We're entering the heart of the industrial zone. There are small iron and brass casting foundries, a factory making wire cable, and shops making pumps, mining equipment and logging gear. They're scattered in old buildings made of wood and brick and in more recent ones os concrete and rusty tin sheeting." (p.20-21)

"Mainland Foundry at the foot of Commercial Drive is a hulking shed of blackened wood and corrugated iron. Stacks of moulding forms and charred carrying trays spill out over the sidewalk. On the way home from school you can peep into the dark cavernous interior." (p.21)

30.03.18

Along the No.20 Line: "At Salsbury Drive we're right beside the rail line, a sprawl of shunting tracks open out. A yard locomotive us shunting a string of grain cars, and lumber piles lie stacked on wasteland margins while awaiting shipment. Rows of colossal grain silos march back to the waterside... The road leading to the pier runs through a man-made canyon of concrete." (p.20)

29.03.18

Along the No.20 Line: "Nobody is at that stop today, so we roll on to Powell and Victoria Drive. This is Cedar Grove, the main portal to the eastern dockside. Forty years earlier it was the terminus of the Powell Street Line... The center of Cedar Grove is the Princeton Hotel. It's a small beer parlour crammed with people from opening to neon-lite closing. It's the sole oasis providing a glass of beer in Vancouver East. A stream of longshoremen, grain handlers, foundry-men and others from a host of waterfront industries pass through the doors of the Princeton Hotel (CVA). (p.18)

"This is a pretty busy corner, Victoria and Powell. They've just installed the first traffic light east of the downtown core here. On the corner across the street is a large billboard which hides a pensioner's row cabin." (p.19)

A view of the rail yards looking east, perhaps from the roof of the Princeton Hotel, back towards what has now been renamed Hastings Sunrise. (CVA)

28.03.18

Along the No.20 Line: "The No.20 stops at Templeton and Dundas and waits to make up its schedule. There's a clutch of old wooden commercial buildings here. Outside staircases lead to the apartments above, and the ground floors are a stew of small corner stores, junk shops and even a vacant office bearing the faded gilt lettering of a long-departed lawyer." (p.17)

"The motor speeds up, we slew around the corner, heading down the hill on Dundas. The engine hums and the car shivers as we pick up speed... At the base of the hill, Dundas turns into Powell Street. It's the boundary of the industrial East End... The lot across the street is spreckled ith ripening salmon berry brush. In that tangle somewhere are underground dugouts and fallen-down tree forts where we used to play. (p.17)

27.03.18

Along the No. 20 Line: "At Templeton Drive two middle-aged women come aboard. They're dressed in faded white coveralls so they must be bound for shift work at Rogers', or Burns or Swift's or somewhere." (p. 15)

"The car turns here, and the trolley arm may come off the power line overhead... The two blocks along Templeton are an oppressive stretch of not-so-old but nonetheless decaying wooden apartment buildings mixed with dilapidated and jammed-together row houses. But from the vantage point of the No. 20 window you can look west- out over Wall Street a block below, out along the C.P.R. mainline curving around the base of the hill, down the tracks to the heart of the industrial waterfront." (p.15-16)

26.03.18

Along The No. 20 Line: Rolf Knight offers a terrific dérive along the ghost line of the old no. 20 streetcar line, based on his memories as a young lad in 1949. In Vancouver most modern trolley bus routes follow former streetcar lines on account of the elevated electric cable grid. At present the no. 4 bus approximates the route of Knight's waterfront journey, at least portion east of Main St.

"We are waiting for the No.20 streetcar in the Highland district of Vancouver East on a late May morning in 1949... A half-dozen cars and trucks have gone by in the ten minutes we've been waiting at Kamloops and McGill...You lean against the telephone pole at the corner or you kick pebbles from the gravelled roadside, glancing up the track for the tenth time to see if the streetcar is coming." (p.13)

"There are only a handful of passengers on board so far because we're only four blocks from the line's eastern terminus. The No. 20 approaches the eastern wharves and runs by almost every dock on the Vancouver waterfront... There's a sharp turn onto Nanaimo..." (p.14)

"We creep down the broad brick boulevard of Eton Street and begin to switchback down the hill; four ninety-degree turns in six blocks. Streetcars aren't so good on steep grades. On frosty mornings they almost slide down the hills, braking all the way." (p.15)

Looking up Eton the pavement buckles, splits and blisters atop the layered cobbles. We take note of the width of the formerly trammed street.

25.03.18

Vancouver Squatting #16:

Lennie Road Dérive

sight the settler's nest pitch
just before a stump, a stolen butt,
veer the bluff trail, storm by

daniels old bike stand near
a boreal aspen-like clearing,
where sheep chew, maw, forget

a crude neighbor gate lock
trespass, piss by fir, look back,
road(s) not taken, stay left

right to grand hazel medusa nut
overhead, that one
before the pond, (y)our earnest

footsteps turn northward
down main and
so on

24.03.18

Vancouver Squatting #15: Little separates the shack from the tower. Both abandoned and ready for quiet yet meticulous demolition. The Empire Landmark Hotel on Robson is a mere 43 years old, slightly younger than Buckwheat Bob Harrison's shingled shack.

23.03.18

Vancouver Squatting #14: Some make it for the long haul in the ferned maple grove while others abandon hard fought settlement dreams to the ravages of wind, rain and rot.

22.03.18

Vancouver Squatting #13: Contemporary shed food prep station with modern lines, built upon the shell castaways of a million members of phyla mollusca- layers of refuse and re-settlement. A spoon was found under a foot of duff during the great excavation, under the old treehouse rigging. Was stamped with the name of a school in Copenhagen.

21.03.18

Vancouver Squatting #12: In the cache the detritus of a tarped hollow is unearthed. Among the fungus netted pile includes smashed pottery, a fetid shower curtain, shards of home brew bottles, faded photos  of bondage scenes, a battered trunk-lodged typewriter, bags of trash that reveal a dim and desperate archeology. No protection for this time warp.

20.03.18

Vancouver Squatting #11: Firewood stack, seasonal heat pile, a cord should get us through til the next tree fall. The generosity of a finely honed axe as we move up coast for a wander. Fish fry and clam dig, no proprietors in sight.

19.03.18

Vancouver Squatting #10: Half lot hacked out as a dead-end lane to no purpose. Near Prince Albert and 20th in Mount Pleasant near the point where the last bear was shot, within earshot. The land here is squatting. A squat lot, and grid shadow.

18.03.18

Vancouver Squatting #9: The treeplanter is another version of the "dirtbagger" typology. Coming across this very clean transporter a flash of nostalgia tore across the sky taking us back to northern BC. A crummy, the ultimate in squatter mobility, was logger vernacular for a bed roll and possessions, later used to describe the beater truck or van that loggers and treeplanters used while out on a contract. Home, storage, office, shelter, mule, and at times, friend.

17.03.18

Vancouver Squatting #8: Early elsewhere glamping squat-towners huddling, bathing in one piece cotton overalls wade in the murk off Kits beach when it was Greer's, before Japa-dogs, quad cops, beach butts. 

16.03.18

Vancouver Squatting #7: Beyond the dense urban fray there is another version of nomadic living known by some as "dirtbagging." The intrepid dirtbagger is an alpinist living off of wile and wit- sleeping on hardpan or slung up in a tree. The photo above portrays the mighty Squamish Chief in 1912. The photo was taken from the home of E.D. Reeves, the first telegrapher in town. (Squamish History Archives). Long before the itinerant climbers came through the valley it was all wild west logging and disputed land claims. Nothing has changed much but the crowds, the strip malls, the ghosts of first ascents. But the culture of rock climbing draws the bodies and minds of single minded men and women from all over. Most deserving of respect, these fellows of the school of hard rock living. (top: fred beckey in Garibaldi; bottom: kieran brownie in Squamish)

- photo: ed cooper

15.03.18

Vancouver Squatting #6: Moving momentarily from black and white, and the deep past of marginalized and unconventional housing, there are constant reminders of how challenging life in this modern era of urban existence can be, particularly when there is an extreme shortage of in-between spaces where one can imagine home.

14.03.18

Vancouver Squatting #5: Well before Crabtown in Burnaby. The original Vancouver squatters settled in what is now Stanley Park before these images were taken in 1915. Scottish and Portuguese sailors jumped ship or turned away from the sea for a different life, one of sowing, netting, trapping.

"Here we were met by about fifty Indians, in their canoes, who conducted themselves with the greatest decorum and civility, presenting us with several fish cooked, and undressed, of the sort already mentioned as resembling the smelt. These good people, finding we were inclined to make some return for their hospitality, shewed much understanding in preferring iron to copper."

- George Vancouver, A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean and Round the World, 1791-1795

 

13.03.18

Vancouver Squatting #4: Looking west, along the tracks, towards the second narrows bridging, a Crabtown shack that is more a house, in the lower right. Oral history shares that many of the residents were of north-European origin and wanted for nothing. Many homes had a second story, warm throughout the winter months, with copper boilers, even goats and hens. For amusement many would walk to north Vancouver across the bridge or take a boat. Some would scavenge cargo that had fallen overboard from one of the many freighters, including cases of grapefruits, in one case. (Burnaby Archives)

12.03.18

Vancouver Squatting #3: Crabtown was centered around a sliver of coastline along the south edge of Burrard Inlet in Burnaby. 117 structures were demolished once the National Harbours Board evicted all 130 residents from the diverse, well-organized community. The site is now marked as a stop along the Trans-Canada trail just east of the Ironworker's Memorial Bridge although no remnants of the stilted village remain, and access is difficult without crossing the rail line. Canoe or kayak would be advisable for a water side approach.

These tiny thumbnails are made available (with gratitude) by the Burnaby City Archives at super low resolution. Roy Kivisto, Aili Rintanen, and Trudi Rintanen are featured along the edge of Crabtown between 1937-45.

The image below is captioned: "Photograph of Trudi Rintanen (later Tuomi) sweeping of the stairway at the Burrard Inlet squatters' site known as Crabtown, where she and her family lived. Her cat is sitting at her feet as she sweeps. The Burrard Inlet is visible in the background."

11.03.18

Vancouver Squatting #2: False Creek water front slums between 1956-1960 (VPL). No electricity, sanitation, sewer, fresh water hook-ups, and yet there were enough trades to construct these modest homes, many of which would rise and fall with the tides. Such tenuous moorage was this.

From the 1930's to 1950's the City of Vancouver issued numerous eviction orders to clear the floating slums out, with mixed success.  Some of these itinerant drifters abandoned waterside for dry land housing while others simply pushed off and resettled around the bend. Vancouver's Dickensian past in full gloom below. (see Sheryl Salloum in Raincoast Chronicles No. 19)

10.03.18

Vancouver Squatting #1: The City Archives offers the following caption for this image- "Aerial view of Hastings Park, looking north east, with squatters shacks on shore of Burrard Inlet," (1936). Along the foreshore were dozens of inter-tidal dwellings, beach wood scavenged, hand built and sculpted, bridged on the lee side of the track. The tradition of squatting along the coast in British Columbia has a long history, dating of course back to the mid-19th century. Below a squatter cuts driftwood with a long saw.

The False Creek Shacks, 1934

“For fifty years or more, the shores of False Creek were dotted with floating cabin habitations, of bachelors.. sometimes wives too. From Westminster Ave (Main St.) both sides westwards to the Indian reserve. The occupants were sometimes resident, at others transients. The first floating habitation was that of the C.P.R. Roundhouse.. see photo.. at the foot of Drake Street. The last shacks disappeared when the R.C.A.F. occupied the Indian Reserve, west of the Burrard Bridge, and a fish dock was built east of the bridge.Firewood cost nothing save the labour of sawing; fish for the catching; fresh water from the nearby watertap. It was a free cheap way of living. Gradually they were crowded out. First when the head of False Creek was filled in; then came sawmills and other industries. By 1936, they had almost completely disappeared; a large number moved up Burrard Inlet beyond the Second Narrows Bridge.”

- from Major Matthews, Early Vancouver, Volume I