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John McLagan 136 years ago started the Vancouver World, early Vancouver’s most interesting newspaper.
The first issue on Sept. 29, 1888 was eight pages, and was quite grey — there were no photos, and the only illustrations were in the ads.
But McLagan had his finger on the pulse of the city. The debut issue featured a four-page story on local real estate, detailing virtually every building that had been constructed or finished in 1888, along with the price to build them.
The World continued to publish info like this from time to time, providing today’s researchers with all sorts of information.
“There were quite a few of them, usually at year-end or year-beginning,” said heritage expert Don Luxton. “They’re invaluable, and I’ve transcribed a lot of them.”
“It’s kind of weird to think they brought Bruce Price in, he was like this big architect,” said Luxton.
“Why are they hiring him to do buildings in the middle of nowhere? It’s quite extraordinary these buildings got built, they were quite sophisticated. But they didn’t last because they were too small.”
Both the Hotel Vancouver and Smith block were torn down and replaced by larger structures in 1912, the second Hotel Vancouver and the Birks Building.
That was par for the course in early Vancouver where development was concentrated in the downtown peninsula and buildings were often replaced in the 1910s or ’20s.
According to the 1889 Henderson’s Directory, there were an estimated 8,893 people in Vancouver. Bizarrely, the directory divided the population in two — one part — presumably white — had an estimated 7,893 residents, while the “estimated floating population and Chinese” population was 1,000.
The city had been burnt to a crisp in the Great Fire of June 13, 1886, but rebounded quickly. The commercial buildings were in Gastown and on Granville, most everything else was houses.
In 1888 the West End was largely undeveloped — most houses were in today’s downtown, east of Burrard Street. You can trace this through The World’s real estate list, which lists buildings by streets.
“You can see how the streets are advancing outward, building by building, street by street,” said Luxton. “You can see they’re starting to grow into little neighbourhoods.
On Howe Street, for example, a builder named Chamberlain had constructed 12 “villas,” extending from Nelson to Comox.
The World reported the villas all featured a “brick veneer” and cost an estimated $14,000, or about $1,160 each. Chamberlain constructed a dozen similar structures on the same block on Hornby.
Some of the 1888 buildings remain, such as the “elegant A.G. Ferguson block” at the southeast corner of Richards and Hastings. The three-storey structure was described as a “magnificent brick building” with a “flat stone foundation,” boasted a 16-foot ceiling on the ground floor and cost $25,000.
The busiest architect was N.S. Hoffar, who designed several buildings, including a mixed-use structure at the northwest corner of Cambie and Cordova that had five retail outlets on the ground floor, offices on the second floor, and a Masonic temple and Oddfellows Hall on the third floor.
According to The World it was built for Springer and Van Bramer and cost $22,000. It still survives, one of Gastown’s most important heritage buildings.
Many other substantial buildings were torn down, including Vancouver’s first mansions. Most were located in Blueblood Alley, by the bluff above Coal Harbour near Burrard and Hastings. But one was at Alexander and Gore Streets in what became Japantown.
