BO-48-3305 : Keith Road, North Vancouver

 This is Keith Road West in North Vancouver from 1948. The two cross streets are Forbes Avenue and Jones Avenue. You can see the St. Thomas Aquinas Regional Secondary School in the lower-left corner and Mahon Park in the background.

57-69 : CN Thornton Rail Yard

 I’m fairly certain this photo is the CN Thornton Rail Yard in the Port Mann Bridge area of Surrey. The quality of the photo certainly isn’t the best (there’s lots of motion blur), but I love the content : both diesel and steam locomotives and a beautiful roundhouse.

55-49 : The End of the Interurban

 This photo from 1955 provides an amazing view of the area around the Burrard Bridge. The Interurban electric railway system had ended and many of the trams were parked under the bridge waiting to be destroyed. The Molson brewery was still the Sicks’ Capilano Brewery, the old railway bridge still goes over False Creek, and…

55-51 : Coal Harbour Shipping

 This is Coal Harbour in Vancouver from 1955. A cool view of the shipping and rail activity going on in the area. The only tall building in the area is the Marine Building on Burrard Street.

1-9 : The Pattullo Bridge

 This is a great view of the outskirts of New Westminster looking north from the Pattullo Bridge. You can see the old B.C. Penitentiary in the background and beside it the old Provincial Mental Hospital.

BO-47-2544 : Dunbar Street

 This is a view up Dunbar Street in the Dunbar-Southlands area of Vancouver from 1947. The cross-street at the bottom of the image is West 28th Avenue and the street at the top of the image is West King Edward Avenue.

BO-47-2451 : Wreck of the “Gulf Stream”

 During a heavy storm in October 1947, the passenger ship Gulf Stream ran aground on Dinner Rock, approximately 18km north-west of Powell River. Five of the 36 people on-board were killed. The ship sat on the rock for three weeks until it slipped into deeper waters.

BO-54-161 : Langley Prairie

 This is Langley Prairie, part of the Township of Langley, from 1954. A year later the city incorporated as a separate municipality and it became known as the City of Langley.

BO-47-2585 : Vancouver Airport / Boeing Plant

 This the Vancouver Airport from 1947 looking south-east towards the Boeing Plant. In 1939 Boeing built a huge manufacturing factory on Sea Island to build aircraft for the war effort. Following Japan’s surrender at the end of the Second World War, the plant immediately closed leaving 7,000 workers stunned and scrambling for work.