The Vancouver Exhibition, 1927 - Carnival of Genealogy

It's time for the 80th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy: Family Fun!

We were to: Research an event your ancestor may have attended. How much do you know about the types of entertainment your ancestors might have enjoyed? Check into it; then write it up!

The full Edition of this Carnival of Genealogy will be hosted at the Creative Gene blog. Be sure to see all the articles.

Vancouver Exhibition being opened by D.C. Coleman, the Canadian Pacific Railway Vice President, August 1927. Stuart Thomson, photographer. City of Vancouver Archives, CVA 99-1765, Add. MSS. 1535.

For anyone living in or close to Vancouver from 1910 on, the Vancouver Exhibition, now known as the Pacific National Exhibition (usually called locally just the Fair or the Exhibition, or later the PNE) was the biggest event every summer.¹

Vancouver’s Exhibition has always been in Hastings Park in Vancouver’s east, near the Burnaby-Vancouver border, and it’s been going strong every year except during World War II.

My father and his brother grew up in the District of South Vancouver (from 1929, part of the city of Vancouver) and I know they went to the Fair at least some years. I suspect that they would have gone almost every year when they were little (from 1917-18 on), but I have no way of proving that. But then, I know I went every year myself when I was young and I have no photographs, not so much as a ticket stub, to show for all my visits to the Fair.

Dad and his family would have gone to the Exhibition on the streetcar; we went by bus, as most people I knew did. It would have been quite the excursion in the 1920s. The cars were likely packed as full as the buses were when we went as kids. Here's a map showing the BC Electric Railway lines - Exhibition Park is marked. My Dad's family lived near 33rd and Fraser St. (Click on the map to make it bigger.)

As I’ve trolled through local newspapers looking for genealogical ‘gems’, I’ve often seen articles about the summer Fair. In 1927 I know there was lots of news and, since my dad was then ten and his brother eight, I'm guessing that was a year they went.

The fair’s never been without controversy, even in its early days, when there were often concerns about the midway area and travelling carnival employees attracting the wrong ‘types’ – and the gambling.² Games of skill might be allowed, but the ‘wheels of chance’ were suspect, particularly since young children couldn’t be kept out of the midway area. But by 1927, the amusement area, then named ‘Happyland’, had several permanent attractions including a merry go round, a dance pavilion, ‘Shoot the Chutes’ and 2 roller coasters. (Not the famous heritage roller coaster that’s on the grounds now. That was built in 1958.)

I imagine that Dad’s family attended local events in South Vancouver too, like the horticultural shows ³(Grandpa ROGERS was a gardener, after all), but compared to the Exhibition, I would think Dad and David would have found those ‘so boring’. I can imagine them clamouring to go to the Fair at least once each year. Maybe they even went sometimes to see the opening parades, although I don’t remember Dad ever mentioning these to me. (We often went to the PNE parades. That’s another story.)

The Fair itself was usually presented as being educational – still is – but in the 1920s there were more retail and manufacturing displays showing British Columbia’s products, as well as local bands, groups and entertainers. In 1927, one pageant illustrated the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway, for instance. The ROGERS brothers may very well have enjoyed that. And always there were the pet shows and the agricultural and craft competitions and exhibitions. (I doubt Dad looked at the poultry exhibits though: family joke.)

One of the things I remember most from the Exhibition is lining up with Mum and Na to see through the ‘prize house’ each year, so I was interested to see that in 1927 there were 3 prize houses.

One was a playhouse valued at $1000, donated by the Vancouver Trades Council. This house had “everything modern”, a bedroom, kitchen, 12’ by 6’ living room with glass bookshelves and an electric fireplace, a dining room, bath, and electric lights, “red-seal wiring” and hardwood floors – it was “a ‘real’ little house, not a toy”. Dad would have loved this – like almost any kid! Originally Woodward’s Department Store lent furnishings to show off the playhouse, but the store soon decided to donate these. There is a nice photograph in the Vancouver Sun of 6 August, 1927 showing William Hargreaves, Business Agent of Local 452, United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, and originator of this project, standing in front of the playhouse. (There are two unidentified children with him – might they be his?)

For the adults there were two prize bungalows, one with 7 rooms valued at $6,000, the other with 6 rooms valued at $5000. The first was complete with furnishings by the Hudson’s Bay Company, the second was furnished by David Spencer Ltd. And a Pontiac Six coach was offered as a prize too. To win any of these, you had to purchase advance tickets for the Fair.⁴

Even though they didn’t win any of the big prizes, I imagine Dad and David had a lot of fun at the Fair, same as we always did. People and new sights and sounds on every side, colourful displays, often with samples or little prizes for children. And usually there was a 'childrens' day' as the Fair's Elks Day was in the 1920s.

Exhibition opening, 1930, Stuart Thomson, photographer. City of Vancover Archives CVA 99-1541, Add. MSS. 1535.

A brass band performing in arena at Vancouver Exhibition, August 31 to September 6, 1933. Stuart Thomson, photographer. City of Vancouver Archives CVA 99-4540, Add. MSS. 1535.

There’d be bands playing and marching throughout the day inside and outside and Dad must have wanted to listen to every one, I’m sure. He was a musician and even had a jazz band, the Rhythm Aces, when he was a teenager.

And, of course, there were the rides, and ‘junk’ food and ‘pop’ which I doubt they saw much of otherwise. David and Dad would have enjoyed every drop as these these young boys did.

Flag day at Exhibition, 1929. Stuart Thomson, photographer.

City of Vancouver Archives CVA 99-1943, Add. MSS. 1535.

And in 1927 the rides in Happyland were advertised as ‘family fun’, so Grandma and Grandpa ROGERS probably thought going to the Fair was an all round good day out for all of them.

I wonder did they all go on the ‘Shoot the Chutes’ and the roller coasters? (Don’t tell but I’ve never been on a roller coaster yet.)

Did they go to the Fair in a group with neighbourhood friends as we did or perhaps with some of the SAGGERS cousins, aunts and uncles?

I hope Dad and David and Grandma and Grandpa did all attend the 1927 Fair together, as later that year, young David died unexpectedly. Happy memories like days at the Exhibition would have been cherished. I'm pretty sure Grandma and Grandpa must have gone with Dad in later years, as Dad was playing in the BC Electric Power and Gas Company band in 1934 when the Band won the Class A trophy at the Vancouver Exhibition.

References –

1. For the history of Vancouver's Exhibitions, see The Pacific National Exhibition: An Illustrated History by David Breen and Kenneth Coates (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1982) and Vancouver’s Fair: An Administrative and Political History of the Pacific National Exhibition, also by David Breen and Kenneth Coates, (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1982). For more about Hastings Park, especially since the 1980s, see the Hastings Park Conservatory website.
2. Vancouver Sun, ‘Wheel Games At Fair May Be Banned’ Wednesday Evening, 24 August, 1927 p. 2.
3. Vancouver Sun, ‘S. Vancouver Stages Fine Floral Show’, Monday evening, 29 August, 1927, p. 4.
4. Vancouver Sun, ‘Building Trades Council Donates $1000 Playhouse’, Saturday evening, 6 August 1927, p. 2. and ‘Lady Luck Awaits Both Grownups and Kiddies At The Fair’, Saturday evening, 6 August, 1927, p. 9 and ‘2 Bungalows Are Claimed By Winners’, 22 August, 1927, p. 1.

The lucky winners of the prize houses in 1927 were:

1st Prize - A Dunn of 65th Avenue & Boundary Rd., Central Park
2nd Prize - R.W. Falkins, 1739 Comox St.
Playhouse winner – Leone Atkinson, age 3, of Georgia St. East.

All the Vancouver Exhibition photographs shown here are courtesy of the City of Vancouver Archives.

Carnival of Genealogy - 78th Edition - Pony Picture! South Vancouver BC Canada

George William and David Joseph ROGERS, c. 1924,

South Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Private collection.

The theme for the 78th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is - Pony Pictures! This will be posted soon at Creative Gene. Don't miss it.


This 'pony picture' is of my dad, George Rogers, and his younger brother, David. David looks a bit doubtful, and the pony isn't interested at all, but Dad looks a bit excited. I believe this photograph was taken near the front of their house on Chester Street, then in South Vancouver. You can see part of a house, and a sidewalk which seems to end right there. The pony is standing on rough, maybe wet, ground.

The photograph is in a nice brown folder, but has no identification on it except for a shield design on the front - shown below. I think the pony must have belonged to a travelling photographer. I'd be very interested to hear if anyone else from Vancouver or South Vancouver has similar photographs.

Front of the 'pony photograph' folder. Brown, no photographer's identification.

11 by 8 cm. Private collection.

Oldest Relatives and My Genealogy Luck

Yesterday, The Genetic Genealogist posted this question:

"Who Is The Oldest Relative You Remember Meeting?

Did you know any of your great-great-great-grandparents? Great-great-grandparents? Who is the oldest relative you remember meeting?"

See his post and the comments for his answer as well as other people's answers.

I met & remember three of my grandparents - also a great aunt.

My paternal grandparents, Grandpa Rogers and Grandma Rogers, née Saggers, were born in 1877 and 1878; they died when I was five. I do remember them, but not well, I'm afraid.

My great aunt, Maggie Drummond, my 'Auntie Grandma', née Irwin, was born in 1881; she died when I was 18. My maternal grandmother, my 'Na', Amy Scott (née Irwin), was born in 1884 and died when I was in my mid 30s. Both I remember well.

As my mother told me several times, many relatives attended my christening, so I must have 'met' a few relatives who would have been born earlier than these, but I was just too little then to pay attention and it seems no one took any group photographs that day either. I do have my baby book with a list of relatives (and presents) in it.

I found the Genetic Genealogist's question very interesting. I've wondered sometimes myself if life would have been a bit different if I'd had more time with my paternal grandparents, (and not just because I could have got Grandpa Rogers to answer some thorny genealogical questions).

I never knew my Grandpa Scott as he died before I was born, but I know I was lucky that my Na lived long enough to know my children and lucky that she talked so often about family things, both to my mother and later to me. I'd never had had such a good start to my family research without the information she gave me when I was younger and it certainly seems highly unlikely that my Mum and I would have been able to identify so many family photographs without Na.

In fact, I feel very lucky that my maternal great grandmother, Janet Irwin (née Carmichael), lived so long too. In her later years, she lived a lot with my grandparents and my mother said her great grandmother talked about family history to her. Great grandmother Irwin lived from 1851 to 1927; my mother was 13 when she died.

Mum could hardly have remembered her grandfather William Irwin though as he died when mum was four.

Mum never knew her paternal grandfather, Walter Scott, as he died in 1892, but she did know her paternal grandmother, Mary Janet Scott, née Wood, who was born in 1858 and didn't die till 1944 when mum was thirty.

I don't think great grandmother Scott talked to Mum much about family or if she did perhaps it was only what she wanted known. I do know my mother overheard a family secret at Mary Janet Scott's funeral - one I didn't hear from Na - or from Mum till I started seriously researching family.

My mother knew and remembered other relatives too, especially, I think, her great aunt, Maggie Graham, née Carmichael, born in 1863.

This post is really my answer too for Randy Seaver's latest Saturday Night Genealogy Fun question too! He asked

"When have you had a dose of good genealogy luck?"

Have a look at the comments to his post to see people's answers.

And now, Randy, start scanning, photographing and writing about your 'lucky find' family treasures and don't forget to share them on Treasure Chest Thursdays!