Marpole Museum & Historical Society
8743 Marine Drive SW V6P 6A5 Vancouver, BC, Canada

The Grand Central Hotel was built in 1912 and was operated by George and Gustav Grauer until the year 1915. In 1916 the building became the Vancouver General Hospital annex and was renamed the Provincial Infirmary in 1939. The staff and patients were transferred to Pearson Hospital in 1964. The building became vacant in 1965/66, and was torn down in 1967. No further listing for 1283 South West Marine Drive.... Interesting to note that in the 1928 picture below, it looks like the Marpole Bridge was open!!

Thank you for sharing, Caren.

The Delmar was a dine and dance place on the sw corner of Granville & 70th. It became a Mr. Mikes, then VanCity was built on the lot, which is still there today. Interesting fact: The Colbourne's son, Neil, lived in the first house next to it on 70th.

One of our viewers asked for pictures of Marine Drive and Hudson before the bridge. Here's a snapshot of SW Marine in 1971. We have more pictures, but they are back at the Museum. When we are able, we will scan more pictures and post them here on our page. We truly appreciate your comments/feedback! <3

The Steeves brothers, childhood friends of Joy Kogawa, share their stories of what it was like growing up in Marpole before the war. Tales include raiding chicken coups, attending the Baptist Meeting Hall (now Ragnar’s) on Sunday evenings, and target practice in the basement of their home on West 64th Avenue.

Construction of the Oak Street Bridge in 1955, and toll booths in 1957. The Oak Street Bridge was originally going to be called the New Marpole Bridge in the pl...anning stages. Once completed on Canada Day in 1957, it operated as a toll bridge until 1964. The primary objective of building this bridge was to create a fast route to the U.S. border. See more

David Lloyd George elementary school in 1921 - 100 years ago.

May you find health, happiness, and peace during the holiday season and through the coming year!

marpole firehall - we used to stop by there on the way to and from school and bug the firemen and ask them questions about everything, the pic was taken in 1971

This #throwbackthursday we are reminiscing on the December 2006 interview with Michael Kluckner at The Tyee. (Search for "Don’t Forget the Country" on thetyee.c...a) "The grassroots desire to save the Kogawa house this is not something that was seen by the Liberal or Conservative governments federally as being important. But there were obviously people all over the country who said ‘This is important.’ The people are ahead of the government on that. The city is somehow way more accessible to people. What’s missing is the idea of heritage that is more holistic. Going back to the walk-up apartments on South Granville somehow these buildings have to be recognized holistically as being part of the city’s future as much as they are a part of the past." An award-winning Canadian writer and artist/illustrator, president of Vancouver Historical Society, Michael Kluckner (Graphic Novels by Michael Kluckner), is releasing a new book & : (Midtown Press), containing images of old Vancouver, legacy businesses and legacy streetscapes, abandoned homes of the rich, a road trip through part of the BC Interior, and much more. The book's official launch and signing have been postponed due to the COVID restrictions, but you can order it at your independent bookstore! If you are in Vancouver, we recommend Massy Books, Iron Dog Books, our local Hager Books LTD, or Book Warehouse Main Street. Or order a signed copy from Michael's website at www.michaelkluckner.com #tbt #supportkogawahouse See more

"...a broader understanding of heritage fits in good urban planning. When we grow the city and when we develop, at least from my perspective, we don’t start from a blank slate...

FRIENDLY REMINDER: Today and tomorrow are the pickup days for pre-ordered baked goods! Pickup your pre-ordered goodies from the Colbourne House, 8743 SW Marine Drive on Saturday, November 14 (10 am to 3 pm) Sunday, November 15 (1 pm to 3 pm)... All visitors are required to wear a mask - please remember to bring one with you. Physical distancing must be maintained at all times from those not part of your immediate household. If you are picking up your pre-ordered baked goods, but do not wish to get out of your vehicle, please call 604-261-0131 and we will bring your order to your car. Otherwise all pre-ordered food will be picked up at the Dutch Door (east side of the building). A 10 x 10 tent to cover the door will be provided. If you are interested in viewing the gift baskets that are for sale, enter the house through the front door, and please use the provided hand sanitizer before entering. Upon entry, you will have opportunity to view the gift baskets that are for sale. Please take your selected basket(s) with you down the back stairs to the table that is set up under the back porch to pay for them (cash or cheque only, please). If required, you can request for your basket to be carried downstairs for you. Thank you for your understanding and support.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Re: Picking up pre-ordered Christmas baked goods on Saturday, November 14 (10 am to 3 pm) and Sunday, November 15 (1 pm to 3 pm) Due to the new COVID-19 restrictions announced last Saturday, the following procedures will now apply:... All visitors are required to wear a mask - please remember to bring one with you. Physical distancing must be maintained at all times from those not part of your immediate household. All pre-ordered food will be picked up at the Dutch Door (east side of the building). A 10 x 10 tent to cover the door will be provided. If you are interested in viewing the gift baskets that are for sale, enter the house through the front door, and please use the provided hand sanitizer before entering. Upon entry, you will have opportunity to view the gift baskets that are for sale. Please take your selected basket(s) with you down the back stairs to the table that is set up under the back porch to pay for them (cash or cheque only, please). If required, you can request for your basket to be carried downstairs for you. If you are picking up your pre-ordered baked goods, but do not wish to get out of your vehicle, please call 604-261-0131 and we will bring your order to your car. Thank you for your understanding and support. Marpole Museum & Historical Society Located at the Colbourne House 8743 SW Marine Drive Vancouver, BC

"Those who want to conserve the character of Vancouver, even in works of art, have to move fast, Kluckner warns. The city is being turned into nondescript towers and cookie-cutter dwellings more rapidly than New York and San Francisco, which are also desired by global investors."

"November 6 was proclaimed as Joy Kogawa Day by City of Vancouver - Local Government in 2004, and a motion was passed to plant on the grounds at City Hall a young cherry tree propagated from a graft of the one growing in the back lane of the author’s former Marpole home. The original Kogawa tree has served as a source of inspiration for Joy Kogawa, both in life and in her writing, and is the subject of her children’s picture book, Naomi’s Tree. The tree planting at the City H...all symbolized hope, good will, and friendship, as is the tradition for the planting of Sakura blossom trees. The grandparents of Leslie Uyeda, musical director of the opera, Naomi’s Road, had anonymously given a thousand cherry trees to the City of Vancouver, which were planted in Stanley Park. In 1958, Japanese consul Muneo Tanabe donated 300 cherry trees as an eternal memorial of good friendship between Canada and Japan. Most of these trees were planted along Cambie Boulevard, between West 33rd and West 49th Avenues, as well as in Queen Elizabeth Park. The graft of the Marpole Kogawa tree was planted at City Hall by Joy Kogawa, alongside then City Councillor Jim Green, in a dedication ceremony on November 1, 2005. On the twentieth anniversary of Japanese Canadian Redress in September of the following year, Michiko Asami and the Japan-Canada Friendship Society presented the City with a plaque to be displayed at the base of the tree dedicating it to the preservation of peace. The Friendship Tree grew on for many years but eventually needed to be moved from its original location in a planter near the East Wing. Unfortunately the young cherry tree was discovered to have a bacterial infection and a new Yoshino cherry tree was substituted, planted in re-dedication ceremony, again with Joy Kogawa, in January 2015. The tree and plaque were moved to a more open and accessible location in City Hall’s north lawn selected with the help of Vancouver Park Board. Although this tree is not genetically related to the original Kogawa tree in Marpole, its message remains the same: the affirmation of friendship, the concept that extends beyond those we call our friends. In a 2019 interview with Ricepaper Magazine, Joy Kogawa said, "There’s a choice, you know, and we can make that choice and if your choice is to look for the friend that is inside the enemy and if you really take forgiveness seriously, then I think the whole universe is waiting for you." #ThrowbackThursday #supportkogawahouse #vanculturebc #marpole

This #throwbackthursday we would like to acknowledge The Vancouver Heritage Foundation for all their help during the Save Kogawa House Campaign, for creating a ...webpage on their site through which people could donate; adding us to their list of endangered heritage sites; and advocating for us at City Council. The Vancouver Heritage Foundation also built our connection with The Land Conservancy of British Columbia, who initiated a 20052006 fundraising campaign to become early owners of the house before transfer to the City of Vancouver in 2017. Did you know that within 1 km of the Historic Joy Kogawa House, you can find two more 100-year old buildings? One of them is Marpole Museum & Historical Society at Colbourne House (https://www.marpolehistorical.ca/), run by volunteers brought together by a common interest in the heritage of the Marpole community and a desire to foster and preserve memories and memorabilia of local interest. You can join them almost every Wednesday, 101pm. The other century house is Abbeyfield Vancouver (https://abbeyfieldvancouver.com/), currently a retirement home, built in 1912 as a private residence and serving at one time as the first children’s hospital in Vancouver. In the early 1990s the house had been slated for demolition to make way for an apartment building, until Marpole residents stepped forward to ensure an important part of neighbourhood history did not disappear. Using the Heritage Site Finder Interactive Map available on www.vancouverheritagefoundation.org you can search more than 2,200 Vancouver locations by address or site name, to find images and information for each site. #supportkogawahouse #historicalplaces #vancouverbc #vancouverisawesome See more

Let us help with your Christmas shopping! We are excited to announce that we will have some lovely gift baskets for sale at the Colbourne House on Saturday, November 14 and on Sunday, November 15 (the same days pre-ordered baked goods are ready for pickup). Baskets can be purchased from: The Colbourne House... 8743 SW Marine Dr Available for sale: Saturday, November 14 (10 am to 3 pm) Sunday, November 15 (1 pm to 3 pm) Basket prices range from $20 to $100+ Cash or Cheque Only We look forward to seeing you! For those who have difficulty using stairs, please go around to the back of the house where there is a ground-floor entrance to our office. To all our visitors, we kindly ask that you wear a mask and be mindful of maintaining physical distancing.

Thank you to everyone who sent in orders for our bake sale! Today is the deadline for sending orders in. Your orders will be ready for pickup from the Colbourne House, 8743 SW Marine Dr, on Saturday, November 14 and on Sunday, November 15.

OCTOBER 3 UPDATE: Just under two weeks remaining to get your orders in! We still have the following items available: - blackberry, blueberry, raspberry, or strawberry jam - mango salsa - zucchini salsa - butter tarts... - raspberry coconut tarts - vegetarian chili - birds nests - chocolate chip cookies - ginger coconut macaroons - ginger snowflakes - peanut butter cookies - brownies - mincemeat - matrimonial cake - chocolate zucchini loaf All delicious items are home-made and order deadline is Thursday, October 15. Thank you to all of you who have already placed your orders! All orders will be ready for pickup from the Colbourne House (8743 SW Marine Dr) on Saturday, November 14 and on Sunday, November 15. Further information including where to send your order form and payment is mentioned below. Our annual Christmas Fair is an event that our community looks forward to every year. Due to COVID-19, we regret to announce that we will not be holding our Christmas Fair this year, but we are excited to announce that we have found a way for everyone to still access the best part of the fair the baked goodies! Attached to this post is an order form from which you can order favourite Christmas Fair baked goodies. Simply print out the form, which can also be found as a PDF document on our website here: https://www.marpolehistorical.ca/.../christmas_baking... We do have some restrictions on the amount of items that you can purchase, but there is a place on the order form to request more of something if it is available. Please make cheques payable to the Marpole Museum & Historical Society. Send the form together with your cheque for payment to: Marpole Museum & Historical Society 8743 SW Marine Drive Vancouver, BC V6P 6A5 Your order will be ready for pickup from the Colbourne House (8743 SW Marine Dr) on Saturday, November 14 and on Sunday, November 15. We are also excited to offer First Aid Kits and Car Emergency Kits as part of our fundraising items for sale. These make great stocking stuffers! The order form for the kits is also linked below and can be sent in with your baking order. We truly appreciate your support! We miss seeing you all in person and hope that you are all keeping well! We look forward to the time when we can all meet in person once again! Yours truly, Marpole Museum & Historical Society See more

Curator and author Catherine Clement describes her quest to discover the legacy of the Chinatown-based portrait photographer Yucho Chow, whose lens captured the racial and cultural diversity of Vancouver in the decades before 1950, and how her search for the story of one man became a portrait of the city's minorities during a racist era.

Shared from Historic Joy Kogawa House: "A rare chance to see familiar photos in a new light! These are photos of the house at the time when Joy Kogawa lived there, carefully restored and colourized by Marija Stefanovic (https://myretrophoto.wordpress.com/). Joy is with some of the neighbourhood kids in the first photo and with her brother, Timothy, in the other one. Did you know that seventeen years ago, on August 27, 2003, Joy Kogawa returned to Vancouver, and on a chance d...rive-by found that the house was for sale? The Kogawa Homestead Committee (later known as the Save Kogawa House Committee) was formed with the goal of preserving this historic place and began to fundraise to turn the house into a writers’ residence. Two years later, the house was sold before the group managed to get funds together. New owners renovated, building partition walls to create many small rental rooms and the beautiful wooden windows at the front of the house were replaced with vinyl. By 2005, the new owners began to inquire at City Hall about demolishing the house in order to rebuild. Stay with us for more history from the Historic Joy Kogawa House every Thursday." #throwbackthursday #supportkogawahouse See more

SEPTEMBER 19 UPDATE: Thank you everyone for your orders! We are nearly sold-out on all items. A deadline of October 15 has now been set for getting your orders in!

UPDATE on September 12: Thank you all for your orders! We are now out of apricot jam, beef pies, chicken pies, pickled beets, and, scones. We are also very low on lemon curd and shortbread.

A sad loss. Vancouver Courier was originally known as Eburne News and published their first paper back in March 1908.

A Virtual Stroll in Marpole Wed 16 Sep 2020 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm PDT Join the Vancouver Heritage Foundation to explore local history and heritage from home on a virtual walking tour with local historian, author and seasoned walking tour guide, John Atkin.... Many of us know Marpole as the strip of commercial activity at the southern end of Granville Street or for the blocks of three-storey apartment buildings from the 1950s. But the community is also the site of significant cultural and archaeological resources, and was the site of some of the earliest non-native settlement in what would become Vancouver. Situated on the north shore of the Fraser River which has sustained Musqueam for thousands of years, the original small settlement grew into a substantial centre of industry and commerce with canneries and sawmills that employed a multi-cultural workforce including Musqueam, Japanese and Chinese among others. On this virtual walk, John Atkin will lead you on an exploration of the area's fascinating architecture, cultural and transportation history. Throughout and after the pre-recorded virtual stroll, there will be opportunities to ask John questions live. Details of how to join this webinar will be provided to registered participants. If you have not received the connection email two days before the webinar, please let us know at [email protected]. If you are unable to attend at the time of the webinar, you can still register and a recording of the event will be sent to you within 2 weeks. This event is presented as part of the Heritage House Tour 2020 Online. Presenting Sponsor: Stonehouse Team

Our page just reached 100 likes! Thank you all for your support! We sure appreciate you!

"During the past months under lockdown, many of us have found ourselves more often on the phone or on Zoom with family members. Stories from the past have emerged to help us interpret events today. If you have a family story you would like to research, then this webinar with poet and novelist Sally Ito is for you. Sally Ito’s spring 2020 author residency at Historic Joy Kogawa Historic House went virtual when due to Covid-19 she was unable to travel from her home in Winni...peg to Joy Kogawa’s childhood home in Vancouver. Sally Ito had planned to host this family research workshop while in Vancouver. Now we’re online and Kogawa House is pleased to partner with Nikkei National Museum to present this webinar, which we hope will motivate some people to discover your own family history. Listen to Sally Ito read from her novel, The Emperor’s Children, and then share how she researched her family history to write the book. Linda Kawamoto Reid, research archivist, will talk about how she can help you research your family history."