1 photograph : b&w ; 11 x 16 cm mounted on cardboard
Scope and Content
Photograph shows shoppers walking down the 4100 Block of Hastings Street. The Helen's "swinging girl" sign can be seen in the background, along with numerous other signs advertising the businesses in the area.
1 photograph : b&w ; 11 x 16 cm mounted on cardboard
Description Level
Item
Record No.
556-541
Access Restriction
No restrictions
Reproduction Restriction
Reproduce for fair dealing purposes only
Accession Number
2013-13
Scope and Content
Photograph shows shoppers walking down the 4100 Block of Hastings Street. The Helen's "swinging girl" sign can be seen in the background, along with numerous other signs advertising the businesses in the area.
While the building here is of some importance as the former North Burnaby municipal office, its primary importance is its delightful neon sign that has become a North Burnaby landmark. Helen Arnold opened Helen’s Childrens Wear shop in the building next door to the old Municipal offices in 1948. In 1955, when North Burnaby moved out, she moved into the vacated building. As part of the renovations, Helen enlisted the assistance of her good friend Jimmy Wallace, owner of Vancouver’s Wallace Neon Company, to create a new sign for her expanded business. One of the company’s designers, Reeve Lehman, created the swinging neon girl that was installed in 1956. Designed in two parts, one section of the sign is cloud shaped and reads ‘Helen’s’ while the other section is a moving representation of a little girl on a swing. The sign is nine feet six inches high and nine feet wide, and the lower section is animated with an internal motor and gears. It immediately became a landmark on Hastings Street, and recently the sign’s design fame has spread far and wide as one of the best surviving examples of kinetic neon art in North America.
Photograph of Mrs. Hideko Shimotakahara in front of family home at 4055 Keefer Street (later changed to 4055 Frances Street), North Burnaby. Note the honeysuckle arbor in front. Cherry trees were planted along the boulevard in front of the house.
Photograph of Mrs. Hideko Shimotakahara in front of family home at 4055 Keefer Street (later changed to 4055 Frances Street), North Burnaby. Note the honeysuckle arbor in front. Cherry trees were planted along the boulevard in front of the house.
Photograph of the Knight-Roberts family home located at 931 Gilmore Avenue in Burnaby. The house was moved from the location of the forty hundred block of Georgia Street in the mid 1920s.
Photograph of the Knight-Roberts family home located at 931 Gilmore Avenue in Burnaby. The house was moved from the location of the forty hundred block of Georgia Street in the mid 1920s.
Photograph of a row of houses being built along a road lined with electric posts. Catalogue information from 1976 indicates that it is a street scene from Burnaby, ca. 1948. This may be the site of the Willingdon Heights subdivision.
Photograph of a row of houses being built along a road lined with electric posts. Catalogue information from 1976 indicates that it is a street scene from Burnaby, ca. 1948. This may be the site of the Willingdon Heights subdivision.
This portion of the recording pertains to the Brown-Johns first settling in Burnaby. Elsie (Brown-John) Ansdell discusses land clearing for the family home, each of her parents and her brothers.
This portion of the recording pertains to the Brown-Johns first settling in Burnaby. Elsie (Brown-John) Ansdell discusses land clearing for the family home, each of her parents and her brothers.
Date Range
1910-1946
Photo Info
Elsie Brown-John (bottom, far right) with her class at Kitchener Street School, [1936]. Item no. 549-001.
Recording is an interview with early Burnaby resident Elsie (Brown-John) Ansdell conducted by Burnaby Village Museum employee Eric Damer, September 18, 2012. Major themes discussed are: settling in Burnaby and the early years of the Brown-John family.
Biographical Notes
Elsie (Brown-John) Ansdell’s father, a trained carpenter and cabinet maker, Victor Brown-John came to Canada from Wales in 1910. He cleared three lots at Napier and Gilmore Streets and built a two-roomed house. In 1912, he was joined by his wife and two eldest sons, Victor and Archie. Twin boys, Frank and Roy, were born in 1914 in the Burnaby home and their fifth son, Clive, was born in 1915.
From 1916 to 1919 Victor John-Brown left Burnaby to serve overseas. Elsie Brown-John (later Ansdell) was born in 1921. Her younger brother, Gwyn "Jerry" was born in 1923.
In 1925 Victor Brown-John suffered a fatal accident while working as a longshoreman in Northern British Columbia.
Elsie attended Kitchener Elementary and North Burnaby High School. She married during the Second World War and moved to South Burnaby to raise her family whilst continuing to work in various department stores both in Vancouver and Burnaby.
Eric Damer is a lifelong British Columbian born in Victoria, raised in Kamloops, and currently residing in Burnaby. After studying philosophy at the University of Victoria, he became interested in the educational forces that had shaped his own life. He completed master’s and doctoral degrees in educational studies at the University of British Columbia with a particular interest in the history of adult and higher education in the province. In 2012, Eric worked for the City of Burnaby as a field researcher and writer, conducting interviews for the City Archives and Museum Oral History Program.
1 photograph : b&w ; 4.3 x 2.6 cm print on contact sheet 20.4 x 26.5 cm
Scope and Content
Photograph of Mrs. I.R. King (nee Spraggon) as a young girl, taking a baby for a walk on the 4000 block of Georgia Street (formerly named Harris Street).
1 photograph : b&w ; 4.3 x 2.6 cm print on contact sheet 20.4 x 26.5 cm
Description Level
Item
Record No.
370-775
Access Restriction
No restrictions
Reproduction Restriction
No known restrictions
Accession Number
BHS1999-03
Scope and Content
Photograph of Mrs. I.R. King (nee Spraggon) as a young girl, taking a baby for a walk on the 4000 block of Georgia Street (formerly named Harris Street).
Photograph of Joan Warren (right) and an unidentified friend. The photograph was taken looking east on Union Street. In the background, part of the Warren garage is visible.
Photograph of Joan Warren (right) and an unidentified friend. The photograph was taken looking east on Union Street. In the background, part of the Warren garage is visible.
Photograph of Joseph "Joe" Wright and wife Wilhelmina "Mina" Wright (nee Williams) in front of the family home at 3935 Pender Street in Vancouver Heights.
Photograph of Joseph "Joe" Wright and wife Wilhelmina "Mina" Wright (nee Williams) in front of the family home at 3935 Pender Street in Vancouver Heights.
Photograph of a sign perched on a decorative tree trunk in the foyer of Joey Burnaby. The sign contains information for patrons on food delivery and pickup.
Photograph of a sign perched on a decorative tree trunk in the foyer of Joey Burnaby. The sign contains information for patrons on food delivery and pickup.
This landmark school was designed by the architectural firm of Bowman & Cullerne, specialists in the design of educational facilities. After Harold Cullerne (1890-1976) returned from service during the First World War, he joined J.H. Bowman (1864-1943) in a partnership that lasted from 1919 to 1934. The firm’s projects include the Seaforth School (1922, now relocated to Burnaby Village Museum), Burnaby North High School (1923), and the Nelson Avenue School (1927). This was originally designed as a two-storey, four-room building in 1925, with two-storey four-room wings added two years later. The building has been altered with the addition of stucco cladding over the original siding and replacement windows, but has retained its original form and massing, as well as its domed roof ventilator.
Collected by editorial for use in a December 2002 issue of the Burnaby NewsLeader
Caption from metadata: "Anna Hoang, a Grade 7 student at Kitchener School, installs the "stained glass" window she created as a class Christmas project."