Stanley Park's Seawall

This was the entrance arch to Stanley Park a century ago, though the landscape has been reshaped. Stanley Park was established at the first meeting of Vancouver City Council on May 12, 1886. Before that it had been a military reserve, so the council voted to lease it from the federal government for a dollar a year. It was an act of inspired foresight (though it may have also been an act of real estate speculation), and today this city is so much the greater for that first meeting of City Council.

This is the old rowing club, which was located just a bit further east along Coal Harbour than the current one. A floating building subject to changes in the weather, it was replaced in 1911 by the new building you see on the left today.

A barge is dredging up the seafloor to create a causeway connecting Stanley Park to the city. Stanley Park had initially been almost an island, reachable from the downtown peninsula only at low tide. A small bridge had been built over to the park, but it was far too small to cope with all the traffic.

When the park was created in the 1880s none of the people who lived within it were actually consulted. There was two villages Squamish First Nations and another village of squatters who steadfastly refused to relocate. We can see some of the squatters homes here along the waterfront. Finally in the 1920s, the city had them legally evicted.

This rather moody photo gives Stanley Park a silent and mysterious air, the man on the bench appears to be watching someone climbing off the seawall and down into the water. The narrow dirt track has since been reshaped into a seawall and a road bringing thousands more people to the park every day.

For over a century this gun has been a landmark at Brockton Point. Forged in Woolwich Arsenal just outside of London in 1816, it was eventually dispatched to Vancouver Island in the 1850s. In 1894 it made its way over to Vancouver and installed here.

A woman identified as Mrs. H.W. Maynard sits on a tree stump near Brockton Point. There are a few other photos of her posing in the latest 1890s fashions in Stanley Park. It's hard to overstate the excitement cameras caused as they became easier to use and cheaper to acquire. It's hardly surprising that many early camera enthusiasts took to Stanley Park to have their photos taken.

An early sea bus ferrying people between across Burrard Inlet passes Brockton Point. Europeans had been settling the North Shore for as long as they'd been settling Vancouver, but it was not until the 1920s that a bridge connected the two communities. Until then people had to rely on ferries like this to cross the Burrard Inlet.

Here we see a rare photo of a Squamish family getting in their dug-out canoes. Just west of here, towards the narrows, was a Squamish village called Khwaykhway. Archaeological evidence shows the Squamish people lived in this place for at least 3,000 years. It was but one of many villages that dotted the coasts all around this region.

A woman stands by the figurehead of the Empress of Japan, an ocean liner commissioned by the Canadian Pacific Railway to run a mail service between Liverpool and Hong Kong via Vancouver. The ship was scrapped in 1926, but the Vancouver Daily Province paid to save the figurehead and mounted it for display here. The wooden figurehead began to rot and a fibreglass replica replaced it in 1960.

And here we see the Empress of Japan's sister ship, the Empress of India leaving Vancouver harbour on its way across the Pacific. A couple men at the top of the Pipeline Road have taken a moment to stop and watch its departure.

Here we can see the first section of the Lions Gate's bridge deck is being lifted into place. The iconic bridge was a technical marvel when it was completed in 1938, and caused a population boom in West and North Vancouver. The biggest investor was actually the beer-brewing Guinness family, who had purchased much of the land in West Vancouver and hoped a bridge would drive up the value of their holdings. Given the price of land in West Vancouver now (much of which they still own), it was an investment that's paid handsome returns.

A ferry can be seen passing the old Prospect Point lighthouse in the Narrows. You can see the seawall has not yet been built, though there is a walkway from the left providing access. The lighthouse was necessary because of the strong currents in the narrows that doomed many ships.

Men are standing on the SS Beaver after it has been wrecked at Prospect Point. The little paddlewheel steamer may not look like much to us, but it played a huge role in the early European settlement of British Columbia. Over its 53 years of service the Beaver was present at practically every major event in the province's history. When leaving Vancouver harbour on July 25, 1888, the crew was drunk and managed to slam steamer into Prospect Point. It was impossible to refloat the ship and it was stripped down by souvenir hunters and left on the spot until it finally slipped beneath the waves a few years later. The wreck is still down there, just below where you are standing.

This is the famous Siwash Rock, a Stanley Park landmark that was formed over 32 million years ago by a volcanic dike. The poet Pauline Johnson wrote in Legends of Vancouver that it was "like a noble-spirited, upright warrior." She recounts a Squamish legend of the rock where it symbolizes a selfless father.

Here we see crowds of people relaxing on Third Beach. This stretch of beach was once very rocky, but in the 1930s sand was trucked in to make it a more enjoyable place for people to relax.

A little boy watches a squirrel scamper up a Douglas fir. It's interesting to note his little hat and lunchbox.

This is a view of a rocky Second Beach before it was filled in with sand in the 1920s and 1930s, making it much more suitable for swimming.

Troops from the militia try out a Maxim gun at Second Beach. The Maxim Gun, the first real machine gun, was invented in 1883 and in the years afterwards gradually adopted by the great armies of the world.

Dozens of people are skating on Lost Lagoon, including some boys in the foreground playing a game of pick-up hockey. Governor General Lord Stanley, who gave his name to this park and dedicated it in the 1890s, was also a huge hockey fan and gave his name to the ultimate trophy in competitive hockey.