Vancouver History

By The Vancouver Board of Trade (October 24, 2008)

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Interesting Vancouver facts and anecdotes:

The Sam Kee Building in Vancouver’s Chinatown hold’s the world record for the narrowest commercial building at just six feet.

A network of tunnels exists under Vancouver’s Chinatown, including one extending under Carrall Street and accessed by a winding stairway beneath the Sam Kee Building that once held baths, toilets and barbers.

Central Heat Distribution runs a network of underground steam pipes in Vancouver, heating more than 100 buildings in the Downtown core, including B.C. Place, General Motors Place, the library, major hotels and the Centre.

Vancouver has Canada’s largest Chinatown, second in all of North America only to San Francisco’s.

Vancouver’s art deco masterpiece the Marine building opened in 1930 and was the tallest building in the British Empire for over a decade.

Before cocktail bars were allowed in Vancouver, the only place to get a drink was one of many euphemistically named drinking clubs, such as the Arctic and Pacific Athletic Clubs.

The Dr. Sun Yat Sen garden in Vancouver’s Chinatown is the world’s only full-sized classical Chinese garden outside of China.

There are immensely long, knot-free beams in the Imperial Palace in Beijing, China, cut from Burrard Inlet lumber by famed Jerry Rogers and his men.

On June 13, 1886 a swift and furious fire destroyed Vancouver in a time recalled as anywhere from 20 to 45 minutes, leaving a pitiful scattering of buildings.  Rebuilding began within hours, this time with brick, and while the fire's embers were still smoking.

Vancouver’s first cocktail bar opened in the bottom of the Sylvia Hotel in English Bay where it still operates today.

On January 31, 1979 The Clash hit Vancouver’s famous Commodore Ballroom to play their first ever gig in North America.

George Best, one of England’s most famous (and notorious) footballers, came to play for the Whitecaps in Vancouver.  When asked why, he replied that he had seen a ginger ale advert telling him to ‘drink Canada Dry’.

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