Davie and Granville Street
Robert McBeath was born in Kinlochbervie in Sutherlandshire, Scotland. From the early age of nineteen, he was involved in the line infantry regiment of the British army, the Seaforth Highlanders, largely associated with Scotland. He was one of the youngest recipients who was awarded the Victoria Cross for his outstanding accomplishments and heroism. Following his achievements in the military, McBeath decided to pursue a future in Canada with his new bride, Barbara MacKay, in February 1918. His eagerness to pursue a career in law enforcement led him to immediately find a position with the British Columbia Police, which was followed by a transfer to the Vancouver Police Department.According to a report in the Vancouver Sun, in the Fall of 1922, McBeath, alongside his partner Detective R.S. Quirk, were at Granville and Davie Street when they noticed a car honking and swerving in a dangerous manner. Both officers initially failed to stop the car, but after they jumped onto the running boards the driver relented. McBeath attempted to take the driver, Fred Deal, to the patrol box, but his efforts were met with a struggle. Quirk took notice and approached the two, but quickly discovered that Deal was armed with a gun. Deal opened fire on the officers, and despite their best efforts both were shot and he managed to escape. While Quirk was able to recover from his injuries, McBeath was shot right below the heart and succumbed to his injuries shortly after arriving at St. Paul’s hospital. Hours later, Fred Deal was arrested by the police who were able to locate him and the murder weapon negligently discarded on Davie Street.Bibliography: Butts, Edward. “Constable Robert McBeath: Twice the Hero.” Line of Fire: Heroism, Tragedy, and Canada's Police. Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2002. Google Scholar. Web. 18 May 2017.
Vancouver Law Courts
The Vancouver Law Courts hold traces of a famous Scottish couple. Peter Mackay was an Ontario-born stenographer for the British Supreme Court. He got his start after Business College working for Oxford County as official court reporter in 1899. In 1908 he moved with his wife and two children to Vancouver, where he served as the deputy court reporter for seven years, later becoming the official stenographer of the province. Mackay would have been there when the courts outgrew their old residence (what is now the Vancouver art gallery and your next stop), and moved offices down the street.While Mackay’s job was important, his legacy is certainly undercut by that of his wife, Isabel Ecclestone Macpherson. She was also born in the same small Ontario town as Peter, and made her living as a writer of poetry, short stories, and novels. Macpherson would publish many works in her lifetime, from children’s poems to novels on “urban malice and sexuality,” to women’s columns in the weekly Chronicle. In her lifetime she was a founding member of the Canadian Women’s Press Club in 1910, and the president of the Canadian Authors Association in 1926.Bibliography Godard, Barbara. “Macpherson, Isabel Ecclestone (Mackay).” Dictoinary of Canadian Biogrpahy, vol.15. University of Toronto. 2005. bibliographi.ca Web. June 2017“Mackay, Peter John (1870-1953)” Retrived from: https://westendvancouver.wordpress.com/biographies-a-m/biographies-m/mackay-peter-john-1870-1953-2/
Lion Statues
The resting granodiorite lions located at the north entrance of the Vancouver Art Gallery, which was originally the entrance to the Vancouver Law Courts building, have a Scottish element to them. Modeled after the lions in London’s Trafalgar Square, these lions were sculpted in 1910 by Scottish artisan John Bruce along with the assistance of Timothy Bass. According to a section from the Vancouver Sun’s gallery preview, these lions have a troublesome history associated with them. It is to note that the lions have incomplete noses, ears and manes; this detail work was left unfinished by Bruce because the province ran out of funds.A story in The Province also mentions that during the Second World War on November 3, 1942, the lion on the west side survived an explosion that was initiated by an unknown person who took a strong dislike to the sculptures. The person had placed a few sticks of dynamite in the lion’s haunches and then set off an explosion that sent pieces of granite flying.Bibliography: Brissenden, Connie. “Vancouver Art Gallery.” Vancouver: A Pictorial Celebration Including Vancouver Island, Victoria, and Whistler. New York: Sterling Publishing Co., 2006. Google Scholar. Web. 17 May 2017.Griffin, Kevin. “Art from the Archive: In 1983, Vancouver celebrated the new VAG.” Vancouver Sun. Postmedia Network Inc.,22 April 2015. Web. 16 May 2017.
Vancouver Natural Historical Society
John Davidson was a famous Scottish-born Vancouver botanist who, just five years after arriving in British Columbia, founded the Vancouver Natural History Society. Davidson got his education through what the University of British Columbia classified as the “the back door.” His parents were working class and couldn’t afford a proper education. However, Davidson made his way by starting as boy attendant in the botany department at the University of Aberdeen at the age of fifteen. He spent eighteen years at the U of Aberdeen, slowly rising up to botanical museum curator and eventually assistant professor. The astounding fact that Davidson managed to get so far in academia without a formal degree would eventually cause him some grief. With the professionalization of European universities near the turn of the century, Davidson needed to find employment elsewhere.That elsewhere was of course Vancouver. In 1911 he moved and was appointed British Columbia’s first provincial botanist. Davidson would establish the first botanical garden in British Columbia, a massive operation with over 25,000 plants. He also would find employment as a full time professor at the University of British Columbia, as one of the only professors without “formal training.” He would hold the post as president of the Vancouver Natural History Society, now located at the Vancouver Public Library, for over twenty years after. Bibliography Brownstien, David. “John Davidson” Retrieved from: https://www.botany.ubc.ca/people/john-davidson“The Founding of The Botanical Office” Retrived from: http://botanyjohn.blogspot.ca/
Beaty street Drill Hall
Currently the headquarters for the “the Duke of Connaught’s Own,” an elite British Columbian military regiment, the Beaty Street Drill Hall once shared its headquarters with the Seaforth Highlanders. The Seaforth Highlanders established themselves in 1910 out of support from local Scottish communities. Although a reserve unit, the Seaforth Highlanders have been deployed around the world in major military conflicts including both world wars, and more recently, Egypt, Bosnia, and Afghanistan.Some notable Seaforth highlanders include the young James Cleland Richardson, and war commander Roderick Ogle Bell-Irving. Richardson was a bagpiper with the Seaforth Highalnders during their creation. The highlanders weren’t permitted to go to war until 1916, so, ever eager to support the troops, Richardson left with the 16th infantry battalion (the Canadian Scottish) in 1914. Although he wouldn’t make it back from the war, Richardson’s inspirational piping would be crucial to the morale of his comrades. Posthumously he would be awarded the Victoria Cross for bravery.Bibliography Roy, Reginald H. “Bell – Irving, Roderick Ogle” Dictonary of Canadian Biography, vol. 14. University of Toronto. 1998. Bibliogrpahi.ca Web. June 2017.Roy, Reginald H. 1998. “Richardson, James-Cleland” Dictonary of Canadian Biography, vol. 14. University of Toronto. Bibliogrpahi.ca Web. June 2017.“About: The Seaforth Highlanders” Retrived from: http://www.seaforthhighlanders.ca/organization/
Sun Tower
Born to Irish and Scottish parents in 1856, Sara Anne Maclure is one of only a handful of Scottish female trailblazers to grace the shores of Vancouver. Her father had moved to Vancouver to become a surveyor for a massive telegraph project that sought to connect British Columbia all the way to Siberia. With a repeater station in their house, Sara learnt quickly. She would utilize this knowledge when, at the age of fifteen, Sara started work at her father’s company. Within a year’s time she would be promoted to “tester and manager of repairs from New Westminster to Yale.” She would hold this position, one rather unusual for a woman of her times, until she married in 1884.In 1888, Sara's husband John Campbell McLagan began the Vancouver Daily World, an operation Sara would be a part of from the very start (it was Sara who managed to get a loan from famous industrialist James Dunsmuir). Her roles would be minor, telegraphing occasionally, and convincing her brother to design a new office in 1892. However, her work load would grow exponentially when her husband died in 1901, making operator of the entire newspaper. The first thing she did when she gained control of the company was to introduce a women’s page every Saturday with articles on health, childcare, and women’s clubs. For five years she would run the company as the first Canadian female publisher (although her duties also included being a managing editor, an editorial writer, and an occasional reporter) until selling it for the large sum of $65,000.While The Vancouver World wouldn’t move its offices to The Sun Tower until 1912, the Tower provides a wonderful trace of Sara Maclure’s legacy. Upon its completion it was the tallest building in the British Empire, a worthy monument for an extraordinary woman.Bibliography Mackie, John “This Week in History: Vancouver World Launches in 1888” Retrieved from: http://www.vancouversun.com/business/this+week+history+vancouver+world+launches+1888/11390943/story.htmlHale, Linda L. “Maclure, Sara Anne.” Dictoinary of Canadian Biogrpahy, vol.15. University of Toronto. 2005. bibliographi.ca Web. June 2017
Century House
The Century House, also known as the Canada Permanent Building, was designed by Scottish architect John Smith Davidson Taylor in 1911-12 for the Canada Permanent Mortgage Corporation. After completing a five-year apprenticeship in the office of the City Architect of Aberdeen, Scotland, Taylor immigrated to Canada in 1901. Prior to the Great Depression, Taylor was well-known for designing apartment buildings, commercial buildings, and residences, but when he opened an office in Vancouver and designed this heritage building, it became one of his most significant designs. Today, Taylor’s work is valued as a prime example of Beaux-Arts style architecture. Taylor wanted to ensure that the building conveyed a sense of conservatism, permanence, and security, so he made the facade of the building in temple form with architectural elements such as Tuscan order detailing and Neoclassical-influenced features. The central triangular pediment sculpture on top of the building incorporates the corporate crest of the Canada Permanent Mortgage Corporation. This carved stone crest is in the form of beavers flanking a lighthouse.The Canada Permanent Mortgage Corporation, which commissioned the building, played a key role in housing the nation by offering mortgages. Mortgages were given to newly arriving fruit growers and miners, cattle ranchers, farmers, and fishermen, giving migrants the opportunity to own property. In anticipation of continued economic growth, Taylor designed the Canada Permanent Building with the intention that it could be expanded in the future with two additional stories.Bibliography: Kalman, Harold and Robin Ward. “Century House.” Exploring Vancouver: The Architectural Guide. Ed. Iva Cheung. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2012. Google Scholar. Web. 19 May 2017.“Canada Permanent Building.” Canada’s Historic Places. Retrieved from http://www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=6841&pid=13794&h=Canada,Permanent,Building
J Leckie and Co. Factory and Warehouse
This building is named after its owner John Leckie, a Scottish immigrant, who came to Vancouver around 1886. Occasionally Leckie designed commercial buildings, but he worked primarily as a contractor and founded the Leckie Boot and Shoe company. It was housed in this building, the J Leckie and Co. Factory and Warehouse, a seven-storey Edwardian era building located on Cambie Street in the heart of the historic district of Gastown. Leckie supplied industrial footwear aimed at logging, fishing, and mining workers throughout Canada, as well as the Canadian Armed forces. His business quickly prospered and was considered “The Best in the West” for producing high quality boots. The J Leckie and Co. Factory and Warehouse was designed by local architects, S.M. Eveleigh and W.T. Dalton, who were well-known for the quality of their institutional and commercial buildings. The building design has an intricate brick pattern and elaborate carved granite that surrounds the two main entries, making this design more sophisticated than merely practical for commercial needs. It was constructed in two parts: the first was completed in 1908; then an addition to the east side was built in 1913 in response to the business boom that occurred during Gastown’s peak growth. The building’s prominent location is symbolic of the significance of Gastown as a trans-shipment area between the end of the Canadian Pacific Railway and shipping routes. When Vancouver overtook Victoria as B.C’s central trading centre around 1900, the J Leckie and Co. Factory and Warehouse became an important symbol of that commerce. Canneries, logging operations, and mineral strikes were supplied from and manufactured here. The building’s notable height, high density, large clear-span floor-plate, and cubic form makes it a landmark in the area and one of the biggest warehouses in Gastown.Bibliography: Kalman, Harold and Robin Ward. “Leckie Building.” Exploring Vancouver: The Architectural Guide. Ed. Iva Cheung. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2012. Google Scholar. Web. 19 May 2017.“Leckie Building.” Canada’s Historic Places. Retrieved from http://www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=2509
Greenshields Building
The Greenshields Building is located on the north side of Water Street in the progressive commercial district of Gastown, and it is constructed in sophisticated Romanesque Revival style. This historic site has left a profound mark in Vancouver’s history and is symbolic of the western expansion of corporations into western markets following the building of the transcontinental railway. John Macfarlane McLuckie was retained to construct this large four-storey structure. According to the Vancouver Archives, McLuckie came to Vancouver from Scotland around 1886 and founded a contracting company with J.B. McGhie. He mostly worked as a contractor, but he also designed commercial buildings from time to time.Although the designer of the Greenshields building is unknown, it is likely that a prominent Winnipeg architect named James H. Cadham made the plans for both halves of this building as it resembles many of his other warehouse plans. This building was designed to appear as one, but it was constructed side-by-side in two separate halves and both sections were completed around 1901-02. The eastern half of the structure, originally called the Prentice Block, operated as a wholesale grocery firm owned by the Kelly, Douglas and Company that eventually relocated. The eastern half of the building is now referred to as the second part of the Greenshields Building. As the building has never been legally consolidated, each half is under different ownership which explains the separate addresses of 341 and 345 Water Street.Bibliography: “Greenshields Building.” Canada’s Historic Places. Retrieved from http://www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=2555
Sinclair Center
The Sinclair Center, now a high-end shopping mall, is composed of a number of exquisitely designed buildings, each with their own unique history. Both the post office building and the center customs examining house were designed by David Ewart, a Scottish-born immigrant.Ewart set sail for Canada at the age of thirty in 1871. He almost immediately found work in the department of public works in Ottawa, getting paid a livable sum of sixty dollars a month. Within four years, Ewarts efforts had paid off. Ewart would stay dedicated to the Department of Public Works and would eventually make his way straight to the top. (Of course this was not without its trials and tribulations, for there was actually a brief moment where some of Ewarts peers sought to make him resign from his post). In 1896 Ewart would be the department’s chief architect. During this time Ewart would oversee the creation of 340 new buildings including the Sinclair Center. While most of his buildings were designed with a calm Tutor Gothic design, for the Sinclair buildings, Ewart used a “Scottish Baronial” style, the kind romanticized and popularized by Walter Scott in his Waverley Novels.Bibliography Fulton, Gordon W. “Ewart, David” Dictonary of Canadian Biography, vol. 15. University of Toronto. 2005. Bibliogrpahi.ca Web. June 2017.Billings, Robert Williams. The Baronial and Eclesiastical Antiquities of Scotland. vol.1. William Blackwood and Sons: Edinburgh. 1845. Google Books. Web. June 2017
Marine Building
The Marine Building is one of many reminders around the city of the Scottish Canadian duo who dominated public architecture for over two decades. J.Y. McCarter and George C. Nairne were responsible for over a hundred works in British Columbia from the 1920’s to the 1950’s. Their scope was wide ranging, from sky scrapers to apartment buildings, from industrial to ecclesiastical structures. They would work with huge figures such as the government and the Coca-Cola company, but also with little ones, making a small garage in Gastown, and a handful of houses in Kamloops.The Marine Building stands as one of the finest reminders of their works. Completed in 1930, at nearly double their budget, the marine building was the pinnacle of art deco architecture. With its stained glass sliding doors, its nautical embossments, high ceilings, and grandiose elevator doors, it’s clear to see why it was deemed “the greatest art deco building in the world” by poet laureate and architecture enthusiast John Betjeman. When it was finally complete it wowed Vancouver with doormen in crisp uniforms and women in sailor suits showing off high speed elevators. It was truly a mark of modern luxury. It is McCarter and Nairne’s most iconic work, which is why it is so appropriate that the Marine Building’s longest tenants (for over 50 years) were none other than the architectural firm of McCarter and Nairne.You may have noticed that the next two sites are rather far away. Don’t worry, the walk is scenic, and no tour of Vancouver’s Scottish Heritage would be complete without these two iconic sites.Bibliography Newton, Elizabeth. “The Marine Building” Retrieved from: http://creatorsvancouver.com/the-marine-building/“McCarter, John Young” Retrived from: http://dictionaryofarchitectsincanada.org/node/1475“The Marine Building” Retrived from: http://www.vancouverhistory.ca/archives_marine_building.htm
Seawall
Stanley Park’s seawall is a site of Scottish memory. Jimmy Cunningham, a stonemason who immigrated to Vancouver from Scotland in 1910, served with the WW1 Canadian Expeditionary Force before he began his work on the seawall in 1917. In the winter, Cunningham often worked by himself, cutting the granite coping stones for the next season. He was recognized for his hard work in 1931 and became the master stonemason for the Vancouver Parks Board. Although Cunningham retired in 1955, he continued to return to the site so he could supervise the crew building the seawall and examine its progress.The Daily Special column of The Vancouver Sun comments that the construction of the seawall had become one of Cunningham’s life’s obsessions and nothing could prevent him from completing his vision--not even the time that he was sick with pneumonia. Cunningham was still able to find a way to show up on the seawall wearing his pajamas and a topcoat because he did not think that any work could be done without him.The construction of the seawall was not an easy process as stormy weather and roaring waves would destroy the unfinished wall, delaying its completion. After working on and off at the job for thirty-two years, Cunningham earned himself the title the “grand old man of the seawall.” Unfortunately, Cunningham died in September 29, 1963, before the wall was finished, but he did manage to successfully complete 6.3-kilometers on the 8.8-kilometer route around Stanley Park. Cunningham’s dedication to his craft is honored by a plaque near Siwash Rock and by the burial of his ashes in an unmarked spot at the seawall.The plaque from the Board of Parks and Public Recreation on 1963 reads:“To The Memory OfJames CunninghamMaster StonemasonThe Stanley Park Seawall Is EvidenceOf His Dedicated Work of 32 Years”Bibliography: Brissenden, Constance, and Larry Loyie. “The History of Metropolitan Vancouver’s Hall of Fame.” The History of Metropolitan Vancouver.Web. 16 May 2017.Griffin, Kevin, and Terri Clark. ‘Grand old man of the seawall’: For 32 years, a crusty Scot worked on and off at the job of building the seawall but didn’t see it completed.” Vancouver Sun. 4 Feb. 2015. Web. 14 May 2017.
Robert Burns Monument
Overlooking downtown Vancouver and Coal Harbour, the Robert Burns monument was the very first statue installed in the city. The figure of Scotland’s National Bard is the first structure that you will come across upon entering Stanley Park by turning east off Georgia Street. According to the Vancouver Archives, the Vancouver Burns Fellowship, which was formed to encourage the study of Burns’ life and works, played a large role in ensuring that the statue was erected in a prominent location.The Fellowship, along with the help of the Scottish Orchestra and the Vancouver Scottish Choir, fundraised money towards the statue. Their fundraising efforts included a wide variety of actives, such as whist drives, dances, teas, and a music festival held in Stanley Park. The organization attempted to commission an original statue, but decided not to select any of the designs that were submitted because they did not resemble Robert Burns. Instead, the organization decided to purchase a replica of George Lawson’s original Robert Burns statue that can be seen in Ayr, Scotland. The statue had a long journey as it was shipped from England to Vancouver through the Panama Canal. The cost of the statue was $5,000 and an additional $2,000 was raised to build a granite pedestal on which to situate the nine foot bronze figure.In 1928, the statue was unveiled by the Rt. Hon. J Ramsay MacDonald, former British Prime Minister, who was coincidentally on vacation in Canada. The unveiling ceremony attracted an extensive crowd estimated at 10-12,000 people and featured music by the Vancouver Scottish Choir and by the pipe band of the 72nd Seaforth Highlanders.The inscription on the top of the statue’s front plaque reads:“Robert Burns1759-1796”Below this inscription, the bottom plaque says:“This statue of Robert Burns, Scotland’s National Bard, was unveiled by J. Ramsay MacDonald, a Prime Minister of Britain, on 25th August 1923This memorial was rededicated on the 200th anniversary of the bard’s death by the Burns Club of Vancouver.21 July, 1996.Then let us pray that come it may (as come it will for a’that)...that man to man, the world o’er shall brithers be for a’ that.”Excerpts and reliefs of scenes from Robert Burns’ poems, Tam O'Shanter (1790), The Cotter's Saturday Night (1785), and To A Mountain Daisy (1786), are also included around the statue.In 2009, the statue was the site of a Burns Day celebration organized by SFU's Centre for Scottish Studies that linked Burns Clubs around the world using wireless phones (in the days before smart phones). Bibliography: Vancouver’s Tribute to Burns, published to commemorate the unveiling of a statue to Scotland’s immortal bard in Stanley Park (Vancouver, 1928). Retrieved from http://www.electricscotland.com/burns/vancouver_burns.pdf
