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People and organizations
Person

S.M. Eveleigh, Architect

  • Person
  • 1870-1947

Sydney Morgan Eveleigh was a prominent architect in Vancouver. Born in Bedford, England on September 24, 1870, Eveleigh came to Vancouver in 1888. He was first employed as an assistant to the architect Noble S. Hoffar, followed by a period of travel and study. Returning to Vancouver he worked for different architects from the mid to late 1890s. During this time, he completed several downtown buildings for English businessman Harvey Hadden: the Arcade (1895), Pender Chambers (ca. 1898), and the Hadden Block (1901), as well as his residence in West Vancouver, known as Hadden Hall (currently the Capilano Golf & Country Club, 1903). Eveleigh went on to partner with William Dalton and run a successful firm producing well-known buildings around the city. Projects by Dalton & Eveleigh include the City of Vancouver Police Court and Jail, Alcazar Hotel, Masonic Temple along with other commercial spaces, banks, schools, and churches. They were also the supervising architects for the Provincial Court House site in downtown Vancouver. The firm also completed projects in other parts of the lower mainland and around the province, such as the Buntzen Power House No. 1. Dalton retired in 1923 and Eveleigh continued to practice into the 1930s. He was also president of the Architectural Institute of British Columbia from 1922-1924, and, upon retiring from the council, was made a life member in 1940.

In his personal life, Eveleigh was married to Florence Mary Southcott (1877-1939) and had three children. He was a founding member of the Burrard Literary Society in the 1890s. He was also an original member of the Vancouver Library Board and helped facilitate the donated funds from Andrew Carnegie to build the public library at Main and Hastings, which opened in 1903 (now Carnegie Community Centre). Eveleigh died in Vancouver on November 29, 1947.

Max Baker

  • Person
  • 1945-1990

Maxwell Victor Woolfrey Baker (Max Baker) was born in Botwood, Newfoundland on March 23, 1945. After graduating from Mount Alison University, he worked for the federal government at the Department of Indian Affairs, first in Ottawa and later in Vancouver. Baker passed away from complications due to AIDS on June 18, 1990.

Louis, Tim

  • Person
  • 1958-

Tim Louis is a lawyer and municipal politician in Vancouver. Louis was born in 1958 and he graduated from the South Delta Secondary School (class of 1976), and went on to attend Langara College (class of 1979) and the University of British Columbia (UBC) where he graduated from law school in 1983. After he graduated from UBC, Louis founded his own law firm to provide affordable legal services to the community. In 2022, Louis was awarded the Harry Rankin QC Pro Bono Award by the Canadian Bar Association, to acknowledge his commitment to pro bono service.

Louis was elected to the Vancouver Park Board in 1990 and 1993, and later to Vancouver City Council as a member of the Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) in 1999. Louis was re-elected in 2002 and served as a councillor until 2005. During this time, he participated on various Council Standing Committees and chaired the Standing Committee on City Services and Budget.

Besides municipal politics, Louis has served on a number of community boards and civic organizations including:

• co-founder of the BC Coalition of the Disabled
• co-founder of HandyDART, a custom transit service for people who have difficulty using the public transit system
• Director of the Board of the Vancouver Public Library
• Chair of Vancouver City Community Foundation
• Director of the Board of Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD)

Lee, Don

  • Person
  • 1949 -

Don Lee was born in China and immigrated to Canada in 1949. He obtained a B.Sc. Degree from U.B.C. (1960) majoring in mathematics and physics and a Teaching Certificate from the Ontario College of Education (1962). He taught mathematics and science for 31 years, the last 26 years at Templetion Secondary School in Vancouver, and took early retirement in 1992. Don Lee was very active in community work. Before becoming City Councillor (under Non-Partisan Association - N.P.A.) in November, 1996, he served many major organizations, including the Chinese Cultural Centre, National Congress of Chinese Canadians, World Association of the Lee Family and Kensington Community Centre Association. Don Lee was re-elected as City Councillor in 2002.

Term of office: 1999-2005

Rankin, Harry

  • Person
  • 1920-2002

Harry Rankin was born in Vancouver on May 8, 1920. The son of garment worker George Rankin, Harry Rankin grew up in East Vancouver's Mount Pleasant district, and was apprenticed to be a baker at age 14 1/2. In 1939, the 19 year old Rankin enlisted with the Seaforth Highlanders Infantry and departed for England in December of the same year. He served overseas until late 1944 and participated in the invasion of Sicily. As a war veteran Rankin was able to obtain a B.A. and a law degree from the University of British Columbia. He was called to the bar and opened his own law practice in 1950. Harry Rankin's involvement with civic politics began in the early 1950s when he joined the Grandview Ratepayers' Association. The first of many unsuccessful bids for election began in 1953 when he ran as an independent candidate for the School Board. In 1957 he decided City Council was a more appropriate arena for his ambitions. He contested aldermanic elections unsuccessfully every year until 1966, when he was finally elected. Rankin attributed his early electoral failures in part to the lack of the kind of organized support that an organized party could provide. In 1968 however, on the initiative of the Vancouver & District Labour Council, the Committee of Progressive Electors (C.O.P.E.) was formed. Rankin ran on the C.O.P.E. aldermanic slate in every election thereafter, and remained on City Council until November 1986. In 1986, he stood as C.O.P.E.'s mayoral candidate and lost to Gordon Campbell of the Non-Partisan Association (N.P.A.).

Besides the role of a lawyer and politician, Rankin was a social activist. Rankin advocated for tenant rights, the working class, Indigenous, Vancouver's downtown eastside, and many disadvantaged groups and individuals.

Harry Rankin passed away in 2002. Further biographical information, particularly about Rankin's career as a lawyer, is available in his autobiography, Rankin's Law: Recollections of a Radical, published by November House, Vancouver, 1975. In 2018, a documentary film, The Rankin File: Legacy of a Radical, was produced by Teresa Alfeld, which traces the life and career of Harry Rankin.

Kennerly Bryan, Architect

  • Person

Kennerly Bryan was an architect working in Vancouver in the early years of the 20th century. As of 1913, his office was located at 710-711 North-West Trust Building, Richards Street.

B.C. Palmer, Architect

  • Person
  • 1875-1936

Bernard Cuddon Palmer was a Vancouver-based architect who designed, on his own and in conjunction with a number of firms, a number of homes in Greater Vancouver.

Palmer was born and trained in England in Southend, London and Lewes. He arrived in Vancouver in 1912 and worked for Cecil Croker Fox in the Maclure & Fox office. In April 1916, with Fox enlisted in the Army, Palmer opened his own office. In 1930, he went into partnership with William Bow to form Palmer and Bow, which continued after Palmer's death in 1936.

Allan, Oscar Bruce

  • Person
  • 1878-1966

Oscar Bruce Allan was born in 1878 in Guelph, Ontario. He moved to Vancouver in 1897, where he was employed by George E. Trorey, jeweler and watchmaker. O.B. Allan opened his first jewelry store in 1904 at the corner of Granville and Pender Streets. In 1910 or 1911 the store was moved temporarily to 581 Granville (at Dunsmuir); in 1912 it was moved back to Granville and Pender into the newly-built Rogers Building. The business manufactured and sold jewelry, especially diamonds. O.B. Allan died in 1966, leaving the business to his son, also named Oscar Bruce Allan. The latter retired in 1973.

Eben N. Harvie, Civil Engineer

  • Person
  • 1883-1979

Eben (Ebenezer) Naismith Harvie was born at Mosen-Bellshill in the county of Lanark, Scotland, on July 3, 1883. He emigrated to Vancouver in 1908. Mr. Harvie was municipal engineer of South Vancouver, involved in the design, specifications, and layout for the water distributions system. He also held an engineering position with the Harbour Commission of the North Arm of the Fraser River. He served overseas during WWI, and spent several years following the war in various jobs in London. He returned to Vancouver with his family and was active in construction contracting. Eben Harvie died in 1979.

Low-Beer, Edith

  • Person
  • 1904-1988

Edith Low-Beer was born in Brno, Czechoslovakia Dec. 1, 1904. She came to Vancouver with her husband, Max Low-Beer, 1938 as a political refugee. An avid collector of china and porcelain, she stimulated interest in a public local museum for decorative arts. This idea evolved into the Centennial Museum and Low-Beer chaired the Civic Arts Committee of the Community Arts Council during that period. She died Feb. 11, 1988.

Phair, Caspar

  • Person
  • 1848-1933

Caspar Phair emigrated from Ireland and settled in Lillooet in 1877. He was Lillooet's first Gold Commissioner. He was the husband of Cerise Phair and father of Arthur William Armit Phair and Herbert Lewis Phair of Lillooet. he built a large residence in Lilliooet that he named Longford House.

Hall, Jessie Columbia

  • Person
  • 1872-1949

Jessie Hall, daughter of Sam Greer, was born June 7, 1872 and was the first white child born in the Cariboo. In 1884 she came with her father to Skwa-yoos Beach [Kitsilano Beach]. In 1893 she married J.Z. Hall, who was a pioneer notary public in Vancouver. In 1911 they built "Killarney" at 2890 Point Grey Road, which became a centre for many community organizations; these included the Hart McHarg Auxiliary from 1914-1918, of which Jessie Hall was president. She was also president of the Victorian Order of Nurses and of Post 1, Native Daughters of B.C. She was an original member of Chirst Church and was a founding member of St. Mark's Church. She also worked for the Children's Aid Society, the Vancouver Welfare Federation, and the Local Council of Women. In 1931 she was president of Burrard Women's Conservation Club. In 1934 she received the Good Citizen award, the first Native Daughter to be chosen. Hall died June 22, 1949.

Chow, Yucho

  • Person
  • 1876-1949

Born in Hoy Ping, Kwong Tung (Kaiping, Guangdong), China in 1876, Yucho Chow (Chinese: 周耀初) arrived in Vancouver in 1902, paying the discriminatory Head Tax then imposed on Chinese immigrants to Canada as a mechanism for discouraging immigration. Little is known about his early years in Vancouver; he offered translation and interpretation services and may have worked as a house servant. Chow established his photography studio at 68 West Hastings Street in 1907, photographing families, individuals, and organizations, many of whom were recent immigrants to Canada. Chow welcomed clients from any background, and as such, his work documents diverse communities that have traditionally been excluded from dominant narratives of Vancouver’s history. Chow operated the studio with assistance from his seven children, working out of 68 West Hastings Street from 1907-08, 5 West Pender Street from 1909-1913, 23 West Pender Street from 1914-1929, and 518 Main Street from 1930 until his death in 1949, when his sons Peter and Philip took over the business. Yucho Chow was recognized in Chinatown as a community leader and philanthropist.

Schiffer, Fred S.

  • Person
  • 1917-1999

Photographer. Owned and operated Schiffer Studio on Seymour Street.

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