Vancouver is one of the youngest cities in Canada, having been incorporated in 1886, and we found some of the oldest photos of Vancouver that were ever taken.
The photos are approximately 136 years old.
The City of Vancouver Archives has a database of photos, including some in the ballpark of being among the oldest. Thanks to some collaboration with the City of Vancouver and the Vancouver Historical Society (VHS), we’ve whittled it down to two photos that are likely the oldest ever taken of Vancouver.
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The first candidate is a photo dated 1868, two years after Vancouver was officially incorporated as a city.
City of Vancouver Archives, AM54-S4-: St Pk N4/Major Matthews
A few notable street names and areas are listed in the photo, including Georgia Street, Robson Street, Burrard Inlet and the Lost Lagoon. The photo, labelled Squamish dwellings on the shore of Coal Harbour, was taken by Major James Skitt Matthews, the City of Vancouver’s first archivist.
VHS says there isn’t much background information on this photo, but if they had to choose between this and the next photo we’ve listed, they’d trust this one as the oldest of Vancouver.
The second photo was taken in the Denman Street and English Bay area. It’s dated “186-“.
City of Vancouver Archives, AM336-S3-2-: CVA 677-516/Vancouver Museums and Planetarium Association
VHS told Daily Hive there isn’t much information about this photo.
“Regrettably, there isn’t much information on that photograph that can pinpoint an exact date. There is no indication who wrote that or from whom the photo was acquired.”
VHS added that the picture doesn’t contain any identifiable Vancouver landmarks.
“In the 1860s, there was no Denman Street, no Granville Street, no Hastings Street. The Hastings Mill (to the east) timber lease was from 1865. Who knows how long it took to clear as far as Denman when they started with the Granville Townsite, our present Gastown. We know of a panorama photo from Fairview taken around 1888 that shows [the] forest still solid at about Nicola Street, and the Matthews maps of the Great Fire of 1886 show the West End still heavily forested.”
Other notable and historic photos of Vancouver
Thanks to the City of Vancouver archives, we can find many historic photos of Vancouver, some of which resemble the city we live in today.
We can’t guarantee that the dates listed on the archives are the actual dates the photos were taken.
The following photo is named Vancouver from Hotel Vancouver, dated 1890. The description of the picture suggests the POV is looking north from the hotel, but this is likely taken from the original Hotel Vancouver, not the one located on Burrard and Georgia streets today.
Vancouver from Hotel Vancouver (City of Vancouver Archives, AM54-S4-: LGN 476, Major Matthews)
This next photo is slightly further in time, taken between 1932 and 1948. The photo caption says it’s a view of Vancouver from Fairview.
Vancouver from Fairview (City of Vancouver Archives, AM54-S4-: LP 43/Major Matthews)
Notable landmarks in the photo include Hotel Georgia, the Hotel Vancouver, CPR Yards, False Creek and, of course, the North Shore Mountains.
There are hundreds of photos to choose from, but we ended this journey with a photo of what downtown Vancouver used to look like circa 1946.
City of Vancouver Archives, AM1376-: CVA 59-01/Harold G Prenter
While you may recognize a few areas, it’s a far cry from the skyscraper-filled landscape we see today.
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