on a Tuesday May 7th 1907 Seattle filmmaker William Harvick mounted a camera on the front of a BC electric streetcar and shot what is now the earliest known surviving footage of Vancouver this is what his camera recorded many things have changed since William Harbach shot his scenes of Vancouver 100 years ago the population of Vancouver has grown from 70,000 to over 600,000 in an urban region of over 2.1 million people complain of traffic congestion throughout the region there are major construction projects going on everywhere Paul blocks and neighborhoods seem to be changing almost overnight construction cranes are everywhere 100 years ago Vancouver was also seemingly changing overnight construction was everywhere slogans on banners over the main streets shouted out the benefits of growth and development the City of Vancouver had been incorporated just 21 years before this film was shot in those 21 short years the population had shot from a thousand to just over 70,000 people there were plenty of stores businesses and banks had put up substantial multi-story stone and brick buildings it's hard to believe that just a little over two decades earlier much of this area was thick forest without doubt the young city was booming it had become the financial and transportation center of the province quickly outdoing the older cities of New Westminster in Victoria with its roaring economy Vancouver was on the map it was quickly attracting investment and also visitors from around the world this was the city that William Harbach had come to shoot Harbach had been a deputy sheriff esteemed laundry operator at a newspaper editor before he turned to filmmaking here he is working for the Canadian Pacific Railway the Toledo Ohio born cameraman had made a name for himself by supposedly being one of the first to film the aftermath of the San Francisco earthquake just a year earlier in 1906 here is some footage of Market Street in that city a year later now based in Seattle the 44 year old film entrepreneur visited Vancouver to shoot film for the Selig Paulo scope company of Chicago he took his hand-cranked camera and mounted it to the front of a streetcar put at his disposal by the BC Electric Railway Company filming was set to begin the special film streetcar would start at the corner of Granville and Georgia the car would head north on Granville by 1907 this intersection had already become the young city's social entertainment and commercial hub and the Canadian Pacific Railway had a great deal to do with it looking at an early map of what would become the downtown Peninsula it's easy to see why in 1884 the CPR received a land grant including 480 acres of what would eventually become today's downtown Vancouver this land grant was to the west of the original settlement of Granville which had grown up along the edge of Hastings Mill Granville would become the City of Vancouver in April 1886 when the railroad was finally finished all the way to Vancouver the Canadian Pacific built their station well to the west of the then center of town by quickly building a hotel just four blocks up the hill from their train station the CPR hoped that businesses and other investors could be persuaded to move to the railroads land the CPR succeeded our streetcar with the camera mounted on the front is now ready to go on Granville with Georgia just ahead of us on the far left only a corner of the CPRS Hotel Vancouver is seen built on the southwest corner of Granville and Georgia the original Hotel Vancouver was a fairly modest affair when it first opened it was long after that the railroad soon began to enlarge the hotel major rebuilding and expansion continued by the time it was all finished in 1915 the hotel Vancouver had become a lavish Grand Palace this is the new Hotel Vancouver while it said unfinished for ten years until it opened in 1939 every musician in town wondered who was going to get the gig at the panorama roof nightclub I'm Dowell Richards in the meantime the old hotel closed it stood empty for a long time after World War Two soldiers and their families were housed there until 1949 when the building was finally demolished the site then sat empty for almost two decades until construction began on the Toronto Dominion tower and the Pacific Center Mall back in 1907 across the intersection from the original Hotel Vancouver stood the Hudson's Bay Company store one of the world's oldest Antep Rises the Hudson's Bay Company has its roots in the fur trade having received their Royal Charter in May 1670 by the late 19th century in the cities the company become more of a general merchant the company opened its first store in Vancouver on Cordova in 1887 three years later they joined the increasing number of businesses moving to Granville they opened this large new red brick building in 1893 just two decades later business was so good that they decided to expand the expansion went up at the corner of Seymour in Georgia just east of their first building when the second phase of the expansion continued in 1925 the old red brick building itself was torn down and a new building was built on the old stores site and this is the building that now makes up the bay as it's known in 2007 meanwhile back a hundred years ago newspapers had publicized the filming that was about to take place many residents went out to see for themselves this is how the next day's paper described it many prominent citizens were suddenly stricken with Kinetoscope itis yesterday the attacks became epidemic just after noon but their results so far have not proved serious we are finally underway the streetcar is moving it's 12:00 noon Harvick wanted to start at this time so there would be many people on the streets people notice the camera right away some just stare but others give a friendly wave in 2007 global warming and various kinds of pollution there big concerns in 1907 there was a different kind of pollution on the streets if you had been a visitor to Vancouver in 1907 you may have stopped in at the Vancouver tourist association between Georgia and Dunsmuir mr. W if Loomer felt of the Association who was riding with William Harvick on the streetcar probably pointed this out that turreted structure is the impressive Bank of Montreal building at the corner of Granville and Duns Muir in the 1970s it was torn down for a modern branch of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce which itself was converted to a drugstore in 2007 I'm Chuck Davis we continue our journey still on Granville and approaching Dunn's Muir could someone be watching our streetcar from one of these windows a 1907 city directory lists 1e car artists as a resident at 570 Granville Street could a 35 year old Emily car have been at the window watching our streetcar most of the buildings on the left side of Granville between Dunsmuir and Pender disappeared as the Pacific center mall expanded in the 1980s as you can see bicycling is a popular way of getting around in 1907 the development of the pneumatic bicycle tire 20 years earlier makes for a much more comfortable ride bicycling gave everyone more freedom they didn't have to depend on streetcar routes or schedules and it was cheaper than a horse or car as we get to Pender we see the main post office in 1907 it was from this building that the first home delivery of the mail began in 1895 just past the intersection on the right in the low buildings an early Purdy's chocolate store would open in 1911 Richard Purdy opened his first store in 1907 the Rogers building took up this corner by 1912 streetcar tracks were laid on Granville Street in 1890 the streetcar would then be the backbone of public transit in Vancouver until the late 1940s when buses started replacing them streetcar service ended on this section of Granville in 1955 I'm Vicky gabbro and I was nine in 1974 this section of Granville was turned into a mall to be used by pedestrians and public transit only in 2007 Granville is torn up in sections as underground stations are being built for the new Canada Line rapid transit route to Richmond in the airport the line will open in 2009 a hundred years ago we're about to cross Pender notice how traffic keeps to the left BC is one of three provinces following British practice we will change the rest of North America standard on January 1st 1922 but that's still almost 15 years into the future just ahead on the left at the corner of Hastings and Granville another new building is going up when finished this building would become Vancouver's next main post office in 1910 it would be the main post office for 47 years until a new building is built on the corner of Georgia and Homer after renovations the old post office along with three other adjacent buildings now make up the Sinclair center of shopping an office complex the building dominating the view at the end of the street is the Canadian Pacific railways terminal building it was opened in 1899 it's a beautiful looking chateau style building this is the second station to serve Vancouver it replaced this earlier station which wasn't much more than a shelter against the elements the second CPR station the Chateau style building only lasted sadly for 15 years by 1914 a news station just to the east of it was already open and the old station was being torn down by the 1970s this third station was also in danger of being demolished although passenger trains stopped using it in 1979 it was already on its way to becoming a new transportation center in 1977 it became the Vancouver terminal of the new C bus passenger ferry service running to North Vancouver in 2007 the C bus service averages about 17 thousand passengers every weekday in 1986 another transportation mode started using the station the automated Sky train system began using the station that had now been renamed Waterfront station passenger trains returned to the station when the West Coast Express commuter trains began running to mission in 1995 the site of the old shadow style station is now a Plaza beside the Granville Square office towers of the Vancouver's Sun and province newspapers in 1907 were nearing the corner of Granville and Hastings with its landmark clock this northeast corner was known as Troy's corner because of the well-known jewel big sidewalk clock montreal-based henry bertson's sons came to Vancouver in February of 1907 and bought George trolley shop they kept him on his manager and they also kept his famous sidewalk lock when Bert's his new building in store opened in 1912 at Granville in Georgia the clock was also moved and everyone knew what meet me at the clock meant the old Burke's building was torn down in 1974 by 1994 Berks was back at Brambleton Hastings but this time on the southeast corner in what had been built as a Canadian Bank of Commerce in 1908 the clock will be put back on that corner when Canada Line construction is finished the large sheds scene at various times in the street are storage sheds for construction projects that are going on and there seem to be construction projects going on at every block of Vancouver in 1907 we make our big sweeping turn turning east onto Hastings Street the carriage crossing the street ahead of us is on Seymour on the left on the northeast corner of Seymour in Hastings is the Molson's Bank founded by the Montreal brewing family its assets were bought by the Bank of Montreal in the 1920s just beyond the bank is the light-colored building of the Victoria based Spencer's department store in fact my mum worked there in the China Department David Spencer had put his 38 year old son Chris in charge of the vancouver store still further east beyond Spencer's as the Bank of British North America at the corner of Richards founded in 1835 in London England the bank had offices in several Canadian cities including Montreal Toronto and Vancouver the Bank of British North America was taken over by the Bank of Montreal in 1918 the building itself was torn down in the early 20s to make way for a new Spencer's building in 1923 as the ever-expanding store eventually took up most of the block spencer's was bought by the Toronto based T Eaton company department store in the 40s they eventually moved their store up to Granville and Robson and the old Spencer building after renovations became the downtown satellite campus of Simon Fraser University in 1989 on the right on the southeast corner of Richardson Hastings is the one-time Bank of British Columbia which merged with the Canadian Bank of Commerce in 1901 the building was later occupied by the Pittman Business College before the college moved to another location the building is still there a hundred years later the waves coffee shop is now on the ground floor we are approaching Richards Street farther along on the left are the fit right star and ei Morris the tobacconist although there have been exterior changes most of these buildings on the left or north side of Hastings between Richards and Homer are still there 100 years later this is Grace McCarthy reflecting on 100 years of history watch the little boy on the left his mother just pulls him out of the way of the streetcar he's in his little lord fauntleroy outfit the suit had been a fad since 1885 on the right at the end of the block at the corner of homers a branch of the Royal Bank of Canada 100 years later the building really doesn't look much different there's no banking there however today it's the film production campus of the Vancouver Film School in the downtown area of Vancouver a hundred years ago most of the faces are white and the city has a very British feel 100 years later immigration has changed the face of Vancouver large group of Asian and South Asian immigrants especially in the 1990s have made the city of far more cosmopolitan place as we approached Hamilton just above and to the left of the horse-drawn wagon is the arcade building it's a single-story shopping Emporium it would be demolished later in the year to be replaced with a wonderful bows are a Dominion trust billing you can just see the girders in the back opened in 1910 this cloud scraper as it was called became an instant landmark and a popular postcard subject it was for a brief time the tallest building in the British Empire on the far side of Camby is the flak block built with proceeds from the klondike the flak block has been designed in the Romanesque style which was popularized in Chicago a renovation in the 1940s removed much of the building's architectural details but a restoration underway in 2007 will return the building close to its 1898 look what looks to be an empty area ahead on the right is the future victory square in 1907 it's still known as government square part of the grounds of the courthouse was just out of view we'll get another view of the square when our streetcar returns Camby was the boundary between the old town of Granville in the CPR property to the west it's where the two Street servings met which is why Hastings changes course here watch the young lads running across the street in front of us perhaps they're on their lunch break from the nearby Central School just up the block on Pender in 1907 this was the newspaper district you can see the daily provinces office ahead on the right the news advertiser was just around the block in the Vancouver world and Sun would also soon be in the neighborhood all the lads have managed to hitch a ride on the passing wagon all except the slow one in the group and you'll try again some other day sitting on the right side of Hastings near Abbott's is the only car seen in this film in 1907 there were only a hundred and seventy five cars registered in the whole province just ten years later there were over 11,000 [Music] in 1907 Vancouver's fire chief was teased for wanting to buy motorised fire trucks but he ordered three the police department got their first car in September hi I'm Dave Aukerman in 1907 motoring was really starting to take off in Vancouver and Canada's first gas station opened at Smyth and Camby increasing traffic soon meant that police officers had to be assigned to major intersections to control the traffic and by the late 1920s many officers at intersections were using a type of traffic semaphore which they would turn to show stop or go according to city of Vancouver sources the first automated traffic lights went into service in 1930 about a dozen went into operation on January 23rd north of Georgia between Granville and Maine today 765 intersections and crossings are controlled by traffic lights and there are now almost 1.4 million vehicles in Metro Vancouver alone back in 1907 across the street from the parked car is Woodward's the local department store at Abbott and Hastings it's just been four years since Charles Woodward opened his new store here from a small three-story brick and timber building his store would expand in a haphazard way to eventually take over almost the entire block unfortunately the enterprise went out of business just after celebrating its 100th birthday in 1992 in 2007 all that survives as the original 1903 1908 building seen here from Cordova the rest of the site is being redeveloped into a mix of housing and educational uses in 1907 this section of hastings was an important business street by 2007 the larger neighborhood is known as the Downtown Eastside and it has its share of social problems from inadequate housing poverty and a visible drug problem in 1907 Hastings between Abbot and Carol is a busy section of the street the construction shed on the left just ahead is in front of Fred Boston's new store busken's was a popular glass in China store Frederick Boscombe was Vancouver's 11th mayor the building that housed buskin survives in 2007 as the tallest part of the army and navy store complex on this part of hastings we continue our trip down Hastings here's the construction Shack on the left in front of buskins and we're getting closer to Carroll let this wagon get out of our way here those crossing gates guarded the CPR tracks that ran between the harbor and the railways yards on the north side of Falls Creek the number of trains increased and this will often tie up traffic on five busy downtown streets simultaneously the city demanded a solution in 1931 the railway started building a tunnel from west of their Cordova Street station to their False Creek yards this became known as the Dunsmuir tunnel because it ran mostly under that Street trains used the tunnel for more than 50 years until 1982 after moving the East Portal and extensive rebuilding the tunnel found a new use in 1986 as part of the sky trains route under downtown meanwhile back at Hastings and Carroll the old railway right-of-way has been preserved as part of a future Greenway in 1907 Carolyn Hastings was a busy corner the BC Electric Railway company opened their terminal here in the 1890s on the southwest corner it's the low two-story building on the far right the companies enter a bond cars left from here for New s Minster and eventually to Langley in Chilliwack these cars look like streetcars but they were larger faster and more comfortable for the longer trips five years after our streetcar passed this way BC electric replaced their small building with a new head office in terminal in 1912 the building still stands today a bank branch used to occupy the space formerly used by the Interurban x' various companies now have offices in the building on the right on the far side of Carroll with what looks like a witch's hat on top is the woods hotel the woods on the southeast corner of Carroll and Hastings welcome travelers to the city with a choice of European or American plans in 2007 the old Woods hotel building is undergoing extensive renovations and they're even going to put the witches hat turret back on top as we get closer to the railway crossing gates and Carroll Street we can see a large advertising sign painted on the side of the building straight ahead of us in the curve it advertises one of the oldest pharmacies in Vancouver knowlton drugs Nolton drugs is seen on the left corner of Carroll and Hastings 100 years later Nolton drugs is still there they're almost in the same location although now just a few doors around the corner on Hastings we continue our journey were almost over the tracks at Carroll Street nearby Chinatown is now a growing and prominent part of Vancouver the anti Asian riots of 1907 took place near here on September the 7th after speeches in a rally and excited crowd of men marched to attack Chinatown and then the Japanese community resulting in some broken windows the dome tower in the upper left is part of the Carnegie Library on what is today Main Street the library the city's first was built in 1903 funded by Andrew Carnegie a u.s. steel magnate and philanthropist Carnegie funded over 2,500 libraries around the world it remained the city's main branch until the opening of the new building at Robson and Burrard in 1957 and replaced in 1996 with Marsha safety's spectacular new building at Robson and Homer in the meantime back on Main Street the old Carnegie building serves the Downtown Eastside as a community center the city's busiest although our streetcar continues east on Hastings the film cuts before we can see the newly completed Pantages Theatre on the right side of Hastings at this point the filming ends while new rolls of film were being placed in the camera the car returned by way of Powell Street and more pictures of Karol Cordova and Camby streets were taken daily province may 8th 1907 our journey picks up again on Carroll we're looking towards Hastings and Falls Creek just visible at the end of the street is the Royal City planing mill the mill would burn down the following year the Rainier Hotel is on the right side of Carroll at the corner of Cordova built in the year this film was shot the Rainier replaced an earlier wooden building that was used as a gambling resort during the Klondike Gold Rush we're rolling and we make our turn westbound on to Cordova Street Cordova was the Main Street of the young city before the businesses started moving further west and closer to the new center of the city near Granville Cordova was the Street where important parades and celebrations were traditionally held it was also part of the route of the city's first streetcar line which opened in 1890 the architecture on the street also reflects its importance the prominent building on the left is the dun Miller block of 1889 an impressive example of the Italianate style it was the home to many fraternal organizations and also where the small Jewish population met before they constructed their own synagogue in 1911 the dun Miller building remains very much a part of the fabric of Cordova Street in 2007 [Music] notice the sign on the left for P Barnes and Company P burns and company was a butcher company they are one of several businesses on this street using electric light bulbs on their signs today this part of Cordova is one way and we would be going against the traffic you we are slowly making our way to Abbott Street Abbott Street is where the two kids are running across the street the Hotel Metropole sign advertises the hotel on the left side of the street right at the corner the Edison Grand Theatre is a little building on the right a very young Al Jolson had played the theater in the previous year the ization larger building is the Savoy Hotel in this earlier photograph of the hotel and the theater the theater has yet to be renamed across the street the building with the twin peaked roof used to house the first Hudson's Bay store in Vancouver before it moved to Granville where the Savoy Hotel and Edison Grande used to be the Woodward's parkade was built in the 1940s at the time called the largest in the British Commonwealth across the street Woodward's had expanded from hastings to cordova in 2007 very little is left the Woodward's expansions have been demolished and new development is taking place as we continue further west on cordova we get a better look at the building with the twin peak roof where the Hudson's Bay was just beyond on the same side of the street a large sign advertises James Dix and Williams amusement parlor the exhibit the exhibit included a Hale scenes of the world facility advertised as the Pullman flyer the idea according to newspapers of the day was to give the illusion of a railway journey the room in which the cinematography works is fitted up like a railway car noise rocking and all and as the panorama unfolded the passing scenes are explained to the audience this is the type of facility where our streetcar film would have been shown James Starks Glasgow house dry goods stores on the left at the corner of Camby later the building would be the Carleton and then the can be hotel in 2007 as we get closer to can be just take a look at the signs there's a pee roll company and then there's a painted sign on the building just above it advertising cascade beer the beer without a pier the two-story building directly ahead of us no longer exists in 2007 now we make our turn up can be as we head towards Hastings the Dominion trust building would be built in another few years behind the passing streetcar we can just see a corner of the Old Courthouse on government square on the right this building served as the provincial courthouse until being replaced by a newer courthouse on Georgia Street the Georgia courthouse became the home of the Vancouver Art Gallery in 1983 back on government square the Old Courthouse at cambian Hastings was demolished in 1912 the sites at empty for a few years before being used as a tabernacle and then a recruiting station during World War one in the 1920s the southern family of newspaper Fame donated money to landscape the site a Cenotaph was built to honor the war dead and the park was renamed victory square on the left side of Camby across the street of Hastings is the Herman house real estate company they probably knew about the many real estate deals in the city like a well-designed 3-bedroom cottage for $5,000 or Kitsilano on Fairview Lots for $2,800 a house in those neighborhoods today might be worth well over a million dollars just beyond the real estate company the small white building is the office of Vancouver news advertisement in 1912 the paper was bought by Robert Cromie who then also owned the Vancouver Sun again the film is changed it's hard to believe this quiet tree-lined scene will become the very busy Robson Street of 2007 we've just crossed Burrard we're heading west towards Stanley Park in 1907 Vancouver's business section was really quite small much of the peninsula would develop as a residential district known as the West End Robson like other streets in the West End was popular with home owners in many fine houses were built in the neighborhood [Music] streetcars came to Robson in 1895 and they really changed the street and the neighborhood the hint of the future can be seen to the right just above the trees the Manhattan apartments are under construction in 1907 it was one of the earliest multiple family dwellings in the West End it was almost torn down in the 1970s but was saved and even refurbished today they are still very much a part of Robson with the coming of the Manhattan other changes were coming to by the beginning of the first world war in 1914 residential Robson was quickly starting to become more and more a commercial street in the 1950s post-war immigration saw a number of European delis and restaurants open on the street enough that Robson Street was soon nicknamed Robson Strasse Robson's character again started changing in the 1980s from a homey neighborhood shopping street Robson has turned into a busy high-end shopping district featuring the flagship stores of internationally known brand names parts of the West End including Robson were enjoying newly laid concrete sidewalks wooden planks at the intersections protected the ladies long skirts from the mud of the unpaved Street horse-drawn delivery wagon still stir up the dust and you can see them just ahead on the right horse-drawn deliveries would continue into the 1950s in Vancouver none of the original houses remain on the street the last one was torn down in the 1980s away from Robson the West End today is still a residential neighborhood an eclectic mix of houses small apartments and towers are home to almost 45,000 people our backs film continues until Nicola because the only copy of his films incomplete we missed the rest of Robson and Denman we are now on day via Bidwell looking east up the hill on the left is Gabriella the home of sugar magnate Benjamin tingly Rodgers completed in 1901 the mansion is named for the Gulf Island from which the exterior stone was quarried BTW rogers was 24 when he moved to Vancouver in 1889 he opened BC sugar refinery with $80,000 in loans the small sugar refinery was the first industry in British Columbia not related to timber or fisheries Gabriel ax was sold just 18 years later in 1925 and subdivided into apartments since 1975 it has been the home to several restaurants we continue our journey heading up the hill eastbound on Davie the Provident home with the corner turret and wraparound porch at Nicola and Davy belongs to Robert Kelly one of the founding partners in the wholesale company of Kelly Douglas the company is perhaps best known for their knee bob coffee brand introduced in 1896 there were many impressive homes on the slope south of Davie with its views over English Bay it was a popular area with prominent people such as the Bell Irving's lumber man John Henry and William Salas berry the CPR treasurer on much of Davie the house building was more speculative with home builders hoping to capitalize on the grand homes nearby years earlier in 1862 this entire area was part of a 540 acre lot that was sold for all of five hundred and fifty dollars and seventy-five cents to john morton samuel Brighouse and william hailstone although they eventually tried to develop it the real development only started after the streetcar lines on Robson Denman and Davy were built in 1895 and 1900 at the crest of the hill three of the homes at the corner of Gervais are still standing in 2007 after 1907 storefronts started being added to the homes on Davie filling in the front yard as the years passed many of the buildings would be torn down for larger commercial buildings the streetcar which came to Davie in 1900 was gone by 1948 all streetcar service in the city ended in April 1955 with the last run on Hastings Street to Kootenay loop for many of the people in this neighborhood excursions to the beach on English bay behind us were very popular especially after sand was added to the shore in last year's of the 1800s our film continues until Bute Street our streetcar would continue on to Granville although there's no film of that the changes on these streets over a span of 100 years are remarkable sometimes it's almost impossible to even tell where we are in the city when we watch the 1907 film maybe it would be easier if we saw both films a hundred years apart [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] while the scenes from 2007 may seem very ordinary to us today they won't be in a few years some of the buildings will be torn down new ones will go up fashions will change hairstyles will change perhaps even modes of transportation to change think of it 10 25 50 or even a hundred years from now these scenes from 2007 will be as fascinating to future viewers as William Harvick's 1907 footage is to us as such we invite some future viewer to record these scenes again 100 years later in 2107 [Music] you I you you you you you you you you you you you you you [Music]
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In some of the old footage of the old streetcars, it looks like they had a switch man at switches who used a lining bar or similar tool to drag the switch back and forth. I wonder if they stood there all day or followed the trains in autos
I watched it 2000 times! Th'fuck ya want from me????
Did you just recently discover this video? It's been around on other sites since 2008. It was only posted on this site a year ago. Most people that are interested in this type of thing (myself included) have probably already seen this video many times.