The Chuck Davis History of Metropolitan Vancouver

The years leading up to Vancouver’s 125th birthday saw Chuck Davis buried in the city’s archives compiling his capstone work The Chuck Davis History of Metropolitan Vancouver. Sadly, he passed away in November, 2010 before his magnum opus was realized, but with the help of Harbour Publishing and the Vancouver Historical Society, the volume was published in time to mark the city’s anniversary.

The Chuck Davis History of Metropolitan Vancouver is a culmination of the author’s life as a folk historian and a Vancouver chronicler, told with the exuberance and flare for storytelling that made him one of the city’s most beloved journalists and broadcasters. Arranged chronologically, and illustrated with a trove of archival photographs, The Chuck Davis History of Metropolitan Vancouver celebrates the city’s roots, its growth and its future.

The book acknowledges those who had a hand in Vancouver’s beginnings, such as the Hallelujah Lassies—four ladies who launched what became the Salvation Army in 1887—and members of the Vancouver Fire Department who hauled their own engines until horses arrived in 1889. Here, too, are reflections on famed visitors such as Mark Twain, Teddy Roosevelt and ‘Jeff’ the Boxing Kangaroo. The Chuck Davis History of Metropolitan Vancouver also includes snippets of happenings in other areas of the province, and the world at large. Davis notes that smallpox broke out in Victoria in 1862, and that a BC premier died in London, England on June 29, 1892 from catching his finger in a cab door.

The story of how Vancouver grew from a ramshackle tumble of stumps, brush and crude wooden buildings to today’s urban metropolis will be enjoyed by all who frequent this city. At once fascinating, inspiring, complex, educational and occasionally hilarious, The Chuck Davis History of Metropolitan Vancouver is, most of all, a celebration of its urban namesake.

Chuck Davis (1953-2010) devoted his life to being the expert on Vancouver’s history. In 2010, he was awarded the George Woodcock Award for an outstanding literary career in British Columbia.

Find more information about the book at Harbour Publishing.

ISBN 10: 1-55017-533-5
ISBN 13: 978-1-55017-533-2
81/2x11, 592 pp, Cloth, $49.95
Black & White Photographs
History/Local Interest