722 replies to this topic

[aastra]

Blows my mind, what these two blocks of Broad Street used to look like. That ain't a small town, that's downtown:

 

pic from BC Archives...

 

pic from BC Archives...

 

pic from BC Archives...

Edited by aastra, 17 March 2021 - 02:01 PM.

[Icebergalley]

Aastra..

Isn't the Granby Rubber Building located on Courtney and Government...

Look at the location relative to the Custom House.. Malahat Building? is at the foot of Courtney...

Isn't that now the site of the Harbour Centre?

edit... should have said Broughton.. the street that is terminated by the old Custom House..

[aastra]

I think that's Langley Street, no? The site of Harbour Square Mall is the point from which the pic was taken, I would think. So did Langley Street go all the way through?





Anybody recall what the Eaton's buildings look like in their last days? I recall them being monotone (painted over) and really depressing looking. Did they paint right over the brick?

[Icebergalley]

^ You're right I was one street down.... but the long side appears to be on edit - Broughton .... But then Langley Street has been cut off.... and now, it ends as the entrance to the parkade at the Harbour Centre.. (good shot needed for the grid... to show views into grid h32...)

Photo was perhaps taken from top of old post office or Belmont building?

Yes, Victoria of old had an urban central place look about it...

This is fun...

[Holden West]

Anybody recall what the Eaton's buildings look like in their last days? I recall them being monotone (painted over) and really depressing looking. Did they paint right over the brick?

Eatons just weeks before demolition:

[aastra]

I was thinking of the Driard/Broad Street side.

[aastra]

Interesting tidbit in a very old Encyclopedia Britannica article about San Francisco:

The first public school was established in 1849. In 1855-1856 a disastrous commercial panic crippled the city; and in 1858, when at the height of the Fraser river gold-mine excitement it seemed as though Victoria, B.C., was to supplant San Francisco as the metropolis of the Pacific, realty values in the latter city dropped for a time fully a half in value.

http://www.zpub.com/sf/history/eb-sf.html

[Holden West]

That's interesting. I was trying to find comparable census data for San Francisco and Victoria to compare their rivalry. I found S.F. was closing in on half a million after WW I, after Victoria's boom years.

In fact, it would be really interesting if someone could create a graph tracking population by decade for Victoria and its main coastal rivals; S.F., Portland, Seattle, Tacoma and Vancouver.

[aastra]

Assuming the article is true (which isn't necessarily so, as evidenced by the error-filled listing for Vancouver in my Reader's Digest "Guide to Places of the World"), I think it offers more insight into the temporary crisis of confidence in San Francisco than it does into the real growth that was occurring in Victoria.

Victoria was hardly a town in 1860, whereas San Francisco was a little city comparable to the Victoria of the 1890s.

**

I'm always blurry on the historical populations, but I believe Vancouver and Victoria had almost identical populations just after the turn of the century, whereas by 1920 Vancouver's population was three or four times that of Victoria. I'd like to see official numbers if anybody can find them.

[aastra]

San Francisco in 1865:

[zoomer]

HW, the first google result for SF historical population states:

1980 678,974
1970 715,674
1960 740,316
1950 775,357
1940 634,536
1930 634,394
1920 506,676
1910 416,912
1900 342,782
1890 298,997
1880 233,959
1870 149,473
1860 56,802

http://www.abag.ca.g... ... nfran.html

kinda blows Victoria out of the water population wise. I also thought it was a bit closer back in the 1870s and 1880s, but not at all.

[m0nkyman]

1870 149,473

The [url=http://www.vihistory.ca/content/census/1871/census1871.php?show=y:fd269]census of 1871[/url:fd269]for Victoria gave us a population of 3,630

I'd say we were a titch smaller.

[Holden West]

Wow, even comparing the area we now call the CRD with downtown S.F. isn't even close.

Maybe the true rivalry was for the No. 2 coastal city.

That picture could easily be Victoria. Look at that architecture. Can we now safely discard the "little bit of old England" bit?

[Scaper]

When I first saw that photo I thought it was Victoria. hahaha

That hole idea of Victoria being like London etc......I just don't get, or see it. Especially the way the City has expanded out in Langford. It's a typical North American Sprawling City.

[aastra]

[Icebergalley]

Aastra...

Wonderful grand selection of heritage photo's...

Thanks..

[D.L.]

titillating!

[aastra]

 

pic from BC Archives...

Edited by aastra, 17 March 2021 - 02:03 PM.

[G-Man]

Are we sure that is not the post office building on Yates? Where would this bilding have been? Rohani Building lot?