Vancouver’s beauty and mild climate were pitched as a winter resort to Canadians east of the Rockies
For locals, the term “Winter in Vancouver” conjures up visions of grey skies and endless rain.
But for many Canadians in 1919, “Winter in Vancouver” meant travel to a land of moderate weather. The city and the Canadian Pacific Railway tried to capitalize on it with a big push for winter tourism.
“The Thermometer Invites You,” said an ad in the Nov. 22, 1919 Edmonton Journal. “You don’t have to go outside of Canada for a delightful trip. Vancouver offers a mild and bracing climate — no extreme cold — throughout the winter.”
The ad was illustrated with a hand holding a thermometer that went to 51 degrees Fahrenheit … “Average temperature for the last 11 years.”
It was taken out by J.R. Davison, “publicity manager” for the Vancouver Exhibition Association, the original name of today’s Pacific National Exhibition.
Davison had started the Winter in Vancouver campaign in 1918, printing a leaflet that was “widely circulated through the prairies.” Vancouver businesses chipped in by “advertising through the press of the prairie country,” and railways offered “special excursion rates” to the west coast.
But the First World War had just ended in 1918 — the ad campaign doesn’t seem to have taken off until 1919, when papers in Winnipeg, Regina, Saskatoon, Calgary and Edmonton carried Vancouver ads.
The Saskatoon Daily Star had a full-page ad extolling Vancouver on Nov. 15, 1919. Besides the mild weather, stating that Vancouver had “all the conveniences of a great city” and “unsurpassed scenic beauties” such as “the sea, the mountains, English Bay Stanley Park, (and) Capilano Canyon.”
“Magnificent scenic motor drives generally available for traffic all winter,” it promised.
Thirty-one Vancouver businesses had small ads underneath a panorama photo of downtown, such as the Barron Hotel and Restaurant (“Music de luxe during dinner adds its note of pleasure”) and real estate firm A.E. Austin & Co. (“Homes from $1,850 up to $75,000).
Another Davison/Vancouver Exhibition ad in the Nov. 8, 1919 Regina Leader-Post showed the calendar for November through February, when visitors could spend “four delightful months in B.C.” It offered to send interested parties free sheet music for Here’s How, Vancouver, a “song and dance” by Dr. E.E. Harper.
The most attractive ads were for the railways. Canadian Pacific rans ads all over the west with illustrations of the second Hotel Vancouver and the Empress Hotel in Victoria, as well a guy golfing in winter, a gal riding a horse, and a happy family driving around in a convertible.
“Winter where the climate is moderate,” it read. “Enjoy the big outdoors and summer pastimes. Ride, Motor, Golf at Vancouver, Victoria and the Canadian Pacific Rockies.”
The ad must have been done by someone in eastern Canada — the “Canadian Pacific Rockies” in Banff and Lake Louise are freezing in the winter.
In any event, the ad for “the world’s greatest highway” (i.e., Canadian Pacific Railways and Steamships) noted travellers could “extend the trip” by continuing to California.
This is where people in Vancouver dreamed of spending the winter. The Vancouver Sun ran travel ads under a “California, Where To Winter” banner on Saturdays during the winter months.
Forget the 51 degrees F average temperature in Vancouver — Los Angeles had an average high of 74 degrees during the week ending Nov. 15, 1919. The average high in San Diego was 66, while in San Francisco it was 65.
Eleven California hotels and resorts advertised in The Sun on Nov. 26, 1919, along with an ad for the Long Beach Sanitarium, which advertised “Battle Creek Methods” after a popular Michigan resort.
Another ad was for the 800-room Rosslyn Hotel, in “the heart of Los Angeles.” It cost $1 million when it opened in 1914, and you could stay there on a budget ($1 for a room for one, $2 for two) or splurge on a “luxuriously furnished” corner suite for $4 (single) to $8 (double).
Alternatively you could stay at the Hotel and Bungalows at Beverly Hills, which not only offered winter golf, tennis and horseback riding, it offered polo and “surf bathing.”
Both the Rosslyn and Beverly Hills Hotels survive. The Rosslyn is now lofts and low-income housing, while rooms at the Beverly Hills are about $1,200 US per night and up.
