Some of Vancouver’s most interesting but lesser-known historic events and the location in which they took place are now available through a new iPhone application.
The app gives the user tidbits of the city’s history by sharing tales such as Howard Hughes’ legendary stay at the Bayshore Hotel in the early 1970s, the Babes in the Woods murders, the Bloody Sunday clash during the Great Depression, and the resident ghost at the Vancouver Art Gallery.
Called Vancouver In Time, the app was designed in part by Simon Fraser University’s 7th Floor Media, the Canadian Encyclopedia, and the Historica-Dominion Institute.
“We wanted stories that pulled the public in and were a fast read—the most intriguing stories that weren’t necessarily going to be in a guide book or on a walking tour,” says Noni Maté, director of 7th Floor Media.
“Our team did the research on the stories and conducted the design and programming. This is the first real mobile app they’ve created and it has received a fantastic response.”
The app has a “then and now” feature which, when tapped, allows the user to watch the present-day photograph dissolve into what the site looked like at the time the story happened.
Vancouver In Time is the first in a series of applications. Toronto is the next city to be covered, with Ottawa and Montreal soon to follow. There are also plans to expand the project to include an iPad version of the app, as well as to adapt it to the Android platform.
“We have started to rethink how we approach projects for our clients,” explains Maté. “While in the past we mostly have designed websites, now we ask the question ‘will this work as an app?’”
The Babes in the Woods murder was one of the most shocking in Vancouver’s history. In 1953, the skeletal remains of two young boys were found in a brush-filled part of Stanley Park. The children were placed in a straight line, with feet meeting and heads at opposite directions. The remains were covered by a raincape and beside them lay a hatchet, its handle broken in two, and a woman’s shoe.
It was determined that the bodies had been there since the fall of 1947, and that the hatchet was the murder weapon. The case remains unsolved.
Other stories shared through the new app include the squatters who settled in Stanley Park in 1860, “Gassy” Jack Deighton’s arrival on the Burrard Shore in 1867, and the fire that razed Gastown in 1886.
