A Pontiac Firebird crashes through the window as part of a car dealership鈥檚 window display. Location unknown. Photo City of 麻豆传媒映画Archives CVA 786-62.19
麻豆传媒映画heritage junkies, local history buffs and nosy neighbours, your cries have been heard. In an ambitious undertaking, staff at the City of 麻豆传媒映画Archives have been busy digitizing nearly 7,000 black-and-white 35mm negatives 鈥� taken in 1978 and 1986 as part of two separate heritage surveys 鈥� for the public to access, ogle and explore online.
It鈥檚 a treasure trove of images, documenting thousands of 麻豆传媒映画heritage homes at time when few considered a house鈥檚 heritage. According to city archivist Heather Gordon, the archives has been digitizing its photographic holdings since 1997, mostly through grants and donations from groups such as Friends of the 麻豆传媒映画City Archives. Digitizing the heritage inventory from 1978 and 1986 is part of the archives鈥� 2017 grant from the B.C. History Digitization Program.
鈥淸The heritage inventory] was next on our list 鈥� some really cool photographs from the city where we held copyright, so we could easily put them online and make them available for folks to use and reuse,鈥� Gordon says.
There are approximately 6,900 images in all 鈥� a third are from 1978, and two thirds were taken from 1985 and 1986, when the 麻豆传媒映画Heritage Advisory Committee hired work students to take photos and document pre-1950s homes and structures around the city. While the 1978 survey focused solely on houses, the 1986 survey was expanded to include monuments, churches, community centres and lots.
According to archivist Kristy Waller, the work students tried using cars at first, but traffic and parking proved difficult. Apparently some things never change. 鈥淪o they used bicycles,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hey would go around [taking photos] and record the frame numbers and the addresses. And then go back and classify all the houses, regarding materials used and styles鈥hey were looking for kind of unique houses and also ones that hadn鈥檛 been altered.鈥�
The photos depict a rarely documented side of Vancouver, decades before social media and Google Street View, when the city was smaller, lower in height and far less populated. Streets were a little rougher around the edges and beat-up cars more common.
鈥淭he buildings themselves are really interesting, but you also get a sense of people on the street,鈥� Waller says. 鈥淪ometimes people are waving at the camera. Sometimes there are lots of interesting cars parked. Signage. You really get a sense of the city in those [photos] as well, and not just the buildings.鈥�
According to Patrick Gunn, a director at Heritage 麻豆传媒映画Society, what makes the photos particularly significant is they capture a moment in time when people didn鈥檛 have the same reverence for heritage as many do today.
鈥淚t would be like someone in the 1920s looking at a turn of the century building as an old building and not necessarily as an architectural piece of heritage,鈥� says Gunn, adding that the 1978 heritage survey was likely a precursor to the 麻豆传媒映画Heritage Register and the heritage movement as a whole.
鈥淪urprisingly, a lot of the structures still exist, obviously in augmented form,鈥� Gunn says. 鈥淲hat really stood out for me was how many structures hadn鈥檛 been updated from their original form, where you could still tell the paint, if it was even there, had long ago disappeared. Even the well-kept houses were quite original in their form, which is quite different from what you see now, where they鈥檙e either gone or they鈥檝e been fully restored so they are in pristine condition.鈥�
Gunn says he has already spent hours online going down the digital rabbit hole of the heritage survey 鈥� what he describes as 鈥渁 black hole of time鈥� 鈥� and has high praise for archives鈥� digitizing efforts.
鈥淭he CVA is such an extremely valuable resource,鈥� Gunn says. 鈥淎nd I think 麻豆传媒映画is so lucky to have the staff who continually are updating and adding material like this to document Vancouver.鈥�
Gordon expects the archives will have most of the photos from the heritage surveys digitized and online by the end of the month. It鈥檚 a large dump of images, but a small fraction of the 1.6 million photographs the archives has in its holdings. By the end of this project, Gordon says the archives will have put close to 125,000 objects online.
鈥淲e鈥檙e probably one of, if not the largest users of city IT storage. Many, many tens of terabytes of digital storage for our digital archives.鈥�
Speaking of digital archives, Gordon says there鈥檚 another benefit to putting so many photos of heritage homes online.
鈥淵ou never know what you鈥檙e going to find,鈥� she says. 鈥淵ou might find one of the places on the list or maybe just the property and be like, 鈥榊our condo is now sitting where this house once stood.鈥欌��
Check out a gallery of the images at the 's site.
