Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/810732
48 Vancouver 150 V ancouver's youthful vibe is celebrated year round with events ranging from music festivals to sporting spectacles. e city was once a speck of wilderness on Burrard Inlet, stretching through the traditional territory of the Squamish, Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. Here's a snapshot of how Vancouver has evolved from its early rough-and-tumble pioneering days into a culturally diverse hotspot. FORT LANGLEY NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE, KYLE PEARCE/FLICKR (DOMINION BUILDING, TVAN/NELSON MOUELLIC (GASSY JACK), TVAN, DOMINION PHOTO COMPANY (AQUARIUM), EARLY DAYS 1886 The City of Vancouver is formed. Two months later, the Great Fire reduces much of it to rubble. 1888 Stanley Park opens. At 405 hectares, Vancouver's first public park (it now has 240) is a fifth larger than New York's Central Park. How our city and country grew 1827 1860 1880 1900 1910 1930 1950 1827 The Hudson's Bay Company establishes its original trading post, now Fort Langley National Historic Site of Canada. It was the area's first non-aboriginal settlement. 1867 O Canada! The British colonies of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are united on July 1, forming the Dominion of Canada. (British Columbia joined Confederation in 1871.) 1867 John "Gassy Jack" Deighton opens his Globe Saloon in Gastown at Carrall and Water streets, where his statue now stands. AN OFFICIAL CITY 1902 The original tourism bureau (now called Tourism Vancouver) was created "for the purpose of making the attractions of Vancouver known to those in search of health and pleasure and also for the purpose of making strangers in the city feel welcome." 1867 Hastings Mill in Gastown is the future city's first commercial operation and early settlement. The sawmill's former general store (Vancouver's oldest building) is now the Old Hastings Mill Store Museum in Kitsilano. 1910 The city erects its first skyscraper, the Dominion Building, at Hastings and Cambie streets. 1956 Vancouver Aquarium, Canada's first public aquarium, opens in Stanley Park. It had seven employees; today it has more than 400. 1959 The Vancouver Maritime Museum opens to tell and preserve the maritime history of the Pacific Northwest and Arctic. 1936 Vancouver's Golden Jubilee. The new Vancouver City Hall opens on December 1, marking the city's 50th birthday. 1936/37 Grouse Mountain welcomes skiers, kicking off its first winter season. 1930 The 21-storey Marine Building is constructed. The Art Deco edifice is the tallest in the British Empire.