1960s Canada Vancouver BC Georgia Street Hotel Vancouver Centennial Postcard

1960s Canada Vancouver BC Georgia Street Aerial Hotel Vancouver Centennial Postcard

Front

A colour photographic bird’s-eye view over downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, looking north-west along Georgia Street towards Burrard Inlet and the North Shore Mountains.

At the left of the middle ground stands the Hotel Vancouver, a massive Château-style building of grey stone with a steeply pitched green copper roof crowned by pinnacled dormers, turrets and finials, its bulk dominating that side of the street. Beside it rises a tall modern slab-sided office tower with vertical window banding in pale concrete and glass.

The centre foreground is occupied by the Vancouver Courthouse grounds and Centennial Fountain plaza: a broad paved square laid out with rectangular lawn panels, low planting beds, young trees and flagpoles, with an ornamental circular fountain at its heart throwing up a plume of white water. Slender ornamental lamp standards with red and yellow decorative masts stand around the plaza. At the lower left is the classical stone courthouse with its columned portico and green domed roof.

To the right of the plaza, across the wide multi-lane Georgia Street, stand the Hotel Georgia — a tall dark brick block with regular window bays — and the Devonshire Hotel, a lighter stone-faced building beside it. The street below is busy with parked and moving cars of late 1950s and 1960s North American styling in cream, red, blue and grey, together with a trolley bus, and small groups of pedestrians on the pavements.

At the lower right a large red billboard mounted above a white-fronted building reads “du MAURIER — Symbol of Quality”, with further advertising hoardings alongside. Construction cranes stand among the buildings to the right, marking work in progress.

Beyond the downtown blocks the ground falls away to the blue water of Burrard Inlet, with the wooded peninsula of Stanley Park at the centre right and shipping visible in the harbour. Across the water the North Shore Mountains rise in blue-grey ranges under a hazy sky, with patches of snow on the higher peaks.

Condition: surface creasing and scuffing to the corners and edges, small stains at the upper edge.

Back

Divided back, cream stock, printed in blue.

Upper left, beside a standing Royal Canadian Mounted Police figure device:
“V-49”
“Vancouver, B.C., Canada”
“Birdseye View of Georgia Street”
“Hotels — Vancouver – Georgia and Devonshire face the Courthouse Centennial Fountain grounds. In the distance is Stanley Park and Burrard Inlet, with North Shore Mountains in the background.”

Lower left:
“Photo by George Weinhaupl”
“S-2810”

Centre, printed vertically:
“PUB. BY NATURAL COLOR PRODUCTIONS, LTD., VANCOUVER, B.C.”
with a circular printer’s device beneath and:
“MADE IN CANADA”
“GRANT-MANN”

Upper right, beside a mounted RCMP officer device:
“POST CARD”
“ADDRESS”
and within a ruled box:
“USE CANADIAN POSTAGE”

Handwritten message in blue ballpoint, beginning on the left half and continuing on the right:

“Dear Mum, Dad & Vicki,
Well, at the moment we are travelling across to Toronto by train (as you can probably tell by the writing). The train left Vancouver Thursday night at 8.00 p.m. and stopped at Jasper National Park for 5 hrs, so we ended up by taking a bus tour around there.
It’s supposed to be summer here, but I’ve been wearing my white coat everywhere as I’ve felt pretty chilly.
As soon as we get to Hamilton, I shall write a proper letter, so until then,
love from, Loraine & John.”

There is no stamp or postmark; the card appears to have been enclosed or delivered by hand.

Estimated Era

Circa 1966–1971. The Centennial Fountain in the Courthouse grounds was installed in 1966 to mark the centenary of the union of the colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia, and it appears here newly completed with immature planting and freshly laid paving, giving a firm terminus post quem. The modern tower beside the Hotel Vancouver and the construction cranes visible to the right reflect the downtown building boom of the later 1960s, while the skyline lacks the larger towers erected from the mid-1970s. The trolley bus and the ranks of parked cars are North American models of the late 1950s and 1960s. The du Maurier billboard belongs to a tobacco advertising campaign of that period, before Canadian restrictions tightened. The publisher’s imprint of Natural Color Productions Ltd. of Vancouver, printed by Grant-Mann, and the “USE CANADIAN POSTAGE” instruction are characteristic of Canadian tourist cards of the 1960s. The message describes a transcontinental rail journey from Vancouver to Toronto with a stop at Jasper, consistent with Canadian National or Canadian Pacific transcontinental services of that era.

• Please
  closely inspect the photos to understand the condition of the coins or
  banknotes before proceeding with your purchase, as grading can be
  subjective and varies from person to person.
• Please do not place too much hope on grading companies to grade the notes accurately, as they can be notoriously inconsistent.
• Different graders have different opinions, eye factors, and knowledge that influence the final grading.
• Even grading companies do not guarantee that you will get the outcome of your desired grading.
• If
  you have any questions or require additional information, I am more
  than happy to assist. Please feel free to contact me anytime.

Shipping Information

• Combined Shipping:
  We offer combined shipping for all banknotes. To take advantage of this
  offer, please add the items to your cart together and only proceed to
  checkout once you are ready to pay. The combined shipping is calculated
  at the checkout page. Please do not pay for items individually, as the
  shipping costs will not be combined that way.
• Customs, Duty, Tariff Fees: Buyers are responsible for any applicable customs, duty or tariff fees.
• International Shipping:
  Shipping duration can vary, typically ranging from 14 to 60 business
  days for standard delivery. Please be aware that these shipping times
  are estimates and depend on the operational efficiencies of the shipping
  companies, which we cannot control.
• Postage Costs:
  Please note that international shipping via Australia Post is not
  cheap. We strive to keep the shipping costs as low as possible,
  sometimes even absorbing a portion of the costs. All orders are sent
  with end-to-end tracking for safety and reliability.
• Untracked Shipping Requests:
  If a buyer insists on requesting an untracked, cheaper shipping option,
  we reserve the right to grant or refuse the request. If untracked
  shipping is granted, please be aware that we have no way of tracking the
  mail, and the buyer is strictly responsible for any losses in transit.
• Tracking and Logistics:
  Please check Australia Post for tracking status. Since we do not own
  Australia Post, we have absolutely no control over their handling times
  and methods. Australia is a huge continent, and logistics are
  challenging, coupled with one of the highest minimum wages in the world,
  making costs and operations tough. Please check with your postal
  service or local post offices if any unattended mail notes are left, as
  we absolutely can’t control that remotely.

Customer Conduct

• Please be respectful when communicating with us. We do not tolerate abusive behaviour from buyers.
• If you do not agree with the postage cost or any other terms, please refrain from making a purchase.