Earliest film of Vancouver

In 1907, Seattleite William Harbeck bolted his hand-crank camera to the front of a streetcar and filmed along Granville, Hastings, Carrall, Cordova, Cambie, and Robson streets (Woodward's is on the left at 1:09) Very little is recognizable to the 21st century Vancouverite. Robson is entirely residential, for example, and 1907 landmarks like the old CPR station at the foot of Granville are long gone. This is what the city looked like when the Asiatic Exclusion League mob rampaged through Chinatown and Japantown later that year. Try and spot the only car in the video (although getting around looks familiarly perilous).

The Vancouver Historical Society has produced a DVD version entitled City Reflections, which includes a 2007 film of the same route taken by Harbeck.

His final film gig didn’t turn out so well. In 1912, Harbeck was hired to document life aboard the maiden voyage of an impressive new ocean liner, the Titanic.

Harbeck made a similar video of Victoria: http://unknownvictoria.blogspot.com/2008/01/harbecks-1907-film-complete.html

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Tags: 1907, film, harbeck, titanic, vancouver, More…william
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