L.A. HamiltonLauchlan Alexander Hamilton was born 20 September 1852 in Penetanguishene, Ontario. When he was 28 years old, he was given authority from the CPR (Canadian Pacific Railway) to select the 25 million acres the railway had been given from parliament and he was authorized to survey the land for places to build cities. In 1885, when he was 33 years old, he came to Vancouver as a surveyor and he named many of the streets. One of the streets he named was Hamilton street, which he named after himself. He proposed the idea of Stanley Park and laid out the perimeter and if he had his way, Vancouver would look slightly different. A property owner named Pratt refused to let Hamilton replot his land so the streets going from east to west didn’t match up. Hamilton had to reconfigure the streets to fit the premade plan for West End streets so many of the streets in the West End are weirdly shaped. He got the idea to name streets after trees after a Scottish guy wrote heather on a map because he had seen heather trees growing there. Heather was the first street named after a tree. Hamilton married Constance Eaton Boddington in 1888 and had a daughter named Isobel O Hamilton. All in all, Hamilton only stayed in Vancouver for less than five years and when he was 36 years old, he was called to Winnipeg to become the CPR senior land commissioner. He died February 11, 1941 in Toronto, when he was 88 years old.
Written By: K.J. |
Hannah Tupper/Mrs. Henry James TupperHannah Tupper was born in Hull and was a Vancouver Pioneer. She was also an ardent worker for Christ Church Cathedral. Hannah came out of Greerswille in Grey County, Ontario and took residence in 1888 on Seymour Street. She died at the age of 93 and this greatly affected the tie with old Yaletown - a little village set up on the suburb of Vancouver in the late 80's.
She is the fifth person from the right in the photo. Written By: M.N. Henry James TupperThe husband of Hannah Tupper, Henry James Tupper worked for a bit as a blacksmith for the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). He eventually set up his own blacksmith shop on 1300 block, Seymour Street. Henry Tupper died in 1909 and is the fifth person from the left in the photo.
Written By: M.N. |