TBTPS – Georgia Street, 1924 (broken water main edition)

VPSN — Thu, 09 Jan 2020 20:02:04 +0000

The broken water main that’s being fixed on Georgia Street was originally installed in 1924. Today’s #TBTPS features a couple of pictures of Georgia from that same year.

Our headline image is of a police parade on Georgia at Hornby. Chief Anderson is leading the march, and you can see the the Law Courts (now Art Gallery) and former Hotel Vancouver in the background.

There’s also this great view down Georgia Street, looking west from Seymour. The Hotel Georgia is in the background, along with the Vancouver Block. The noble looking building at the corner of Granville is the original Birks Building (now London Drugs), and the Strand building next to it is the current location of the Scotia Tower.

Georgia St., looking west from Seymour

The above imagesare courtesy of the Vancouver Archives. More recently, this 2019 City of Vancouver photo shows the broken water main – in pretty much the same spot that the police were having their parade, some 95 years earlier.

Georgia water main break. 2019.

pics via @VanArchives #TBT #publicspace

TBTPS: Polar Bear Swim in 1930 & 1968

VPSN — Thu, 02 Jan 2020 21:48:33 +0000

In honour of yesterday’s 100th annual Polar Bear Swim, today’s #TBTPS shows the scene on New Year’s Day in 1930 (lead image) and again in 1968.

Annual New Year’s Day Polar Bear Swim – 1968

Check out the English Bay Pier – not to mention the fantastic swim trunks – in the first image!

For more on the Polar Bear Swim you can check out the Park Board’s webpage here, as well as a VPSN article (and cool word-of-the-day) here.

Images courtesy of the Vancouver Archives.

Vancouver Public Space Network » TBTPS

TBTPS – Georgia Street, 1924 (broken water main edition)

TBTPS: Polar Bear Swim in 1930 & 1968