REMNANTS OF CITY PAST ARE RIGHT UNDER OUR FEET
Manhole covers and wood blocks among old gems hiding in plain sight
Christine Hagemoen jokes that she used to trip a lot as a child. So she got into the habit of looking down, checking out the sidewalks for cracks.
She began to notice that some street corners had street names written into them, along with the dates they were put in.
“I found it interesting,” she said. “Wow, this sidewalk has been there since 1908. How many people have walked over it? And what history has passed by?”
She started taking photos of the sidewalk stamps, eventually turning them into a story for her superb history blog, Vanalogue, and then for Scout magazine.
The oldest stamp she’s been able to find is located at the northeast corner of Robson and Bidwell streets, which is dated 1906. The most unusual is at the southeast corner of Burrard Street and 11th Avenue, which is stamped Cedar St. and 1931.
Cedar Street went out of existence in September of 1938, when council decided to rename it Burrard Street. Burrard Street originally ran from Coal Harbour to English Bay, but after the Burrard Bridge was built in 1932, it was linked to the south side of False Creek. Six years later, council decided to extend Burrard Street and nix Cedar, but the street stamp remains.
“There’s another one like that,” said Hagemoen, an archivist and historical researcher. “Penticton Street used to be called Clinton, and there’s still a Clinton stamp somewhere in Hastings-Sunrise.”
So now you know. And the next time you head out for a walk, look down, you may find some interesting civic history.
Vancouver has some fascinating manhole covers, too. Honest.
At the southeast corner of East Georgia and Glen Drive, there is a giant manhole cover that reads BCER. This stands for the British Columbia Electric Railway, which used to operate Vancouver’s streetcar and interurban systems.
The streetcar system was part of the B.C. Electric Company that provided most of B.C.’s electricity until it was nationalized by Socred premier W.A.C. Bennett in 1961 and renamed B.C. Hydro. There is a BCE (for B.C. Electric) manhole cover on Glen Drive a block north of the BCER one, at Keefer Street. It’s difficult to determine when they date to, but the BCER cover is probably from the 1920s, the BCE one from the 1930s or 1940s.
Visually, the most interesting street grates are for the Vancouver
The road bricks and granite (were used) so that horses could have some traction coming up and down hills.
Water Works, which started providing water to the city in 1888.
In older neighbourhoods like Strathcona, you get several versions of the waterworks covers. They’re small and rectangular, with patterns cut into the grates, giving them a sort of art deco look.
The basic design features the letters VWW stacked on top of each other, beside a pattern with a round bit where the foundry that cast them made its mark. One type reads McLean & Powell, another says TC (for Terminal City Iron Works), and a third reads Associated Foundry.
There are some old manhole covers out there. Civic historian John Atkin said there are a couple of “CPR” — which stands for the Canadian Pacific Railway — manhole covers at Cambie and Cordova streets in Gastown.
But in terms of old, the streets take the cake. Underneath many of Vancouver’s older streets are brick, granite or wood blocks.
“The road bricks and granite (were used) so that horses could have some traction coming up and down hills,” Atkin explains.
“Wood blocks were one of the best road surfaces, but only worked on flat surfaces. There would be no grip on those for horses if they were going down a slope, so they used bricks and stone on sloped streets and wood blocks on the flat streets.”
Sometimes the modern asphalt covering wears through to expose the old streets. You can spot granite pavers on Hamilton, Seymour and Homer streets in Gastown, while Victoria Drive north of Hastings Street has some old red bricks showing through.
On Dunlevy Avenue between Powell and Alexander streets, you can spot the wooden blocks, which were made from cedar or Douglas fir.
“Contrary to popular belief, you never saw the wood. The specifications had them covered in a very thin layer of asphalt,” said Atkin.
Ironically, the brick streets and sidewalks in Gastown are a 1970s idea of the early streets, not what they were actually like.
Gastown’s earliest streets and sidewalks were covered with planks of wood, which were laid down on top of the muddy ground.
Concrete sidewalks started coming in around 1903.
“On all the early sidewalks they would generally stamp (the date) at the corners, just in from the curb,” said Atkin.
“Also they would stamp the street name. Prior to putting street signs in, they would stamp the name in.”
Over the years many of the stamped sidewalks have been replaced.
But if you look, you’ll still find a few, here and there.