THIS WEEK IN HISTORY: One of Vancouver’s most vibrant, and notorious neighbourhoods gets stamp of approval (original) (raw)

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THIS WEEK IN HISTORY: One of Vancouver’s most vibrant, and notorious neighbourhoods gets stamp of approval

In its heyday in the 1920s and 30s, Hogan’s Alley was the most notorious place in town. “To the average citizen, Hogan’s Alley stands for three things — squalor, immorality and crime,” noted Jack Stepler in the April 21, 1939 Daily Province.

Published Feb 06, 2014 • Last updated Feb 08, 2014 • 3 minute read

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VANCOUVER -- In its heyday in the 1920s and 30s, Hogan’s Alley was the most notorious place in town.

“To the average citizen, Hogan’s Alley stands for three things — squalor, immorality and crime,” noted Jack Stepler in the April 21, 1939 Daily Province.

“Hogan’s Alley has the name which conjures up images of bootleggers, canned heaters, prostitutes and all types of criminals. Police records bear this out.”

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But it was also home to Vancouver’s black community, and an integral part of a close-knit working class neighbourhood they used to call the East End.

The East End was rebranded Strathcona in the 1960s, when the neighbourhood was targeted for urban renewal by city planners. Hogan’s Alley was knocked down for the Georgia Viaduct in the early 1970s.

But interest in the once-notorious back lane has blossomed in recent years. And this week, Canada Post issued a Hogan’s Alley stamp.

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The 63 cent stamp was released to mark Black History Month across Canada. Two hundred thousand Hogan’s Alley stamps have been printed, along with 200,000 stamps of another now-defunct black neighbourhood, Africville in Halifax.

“Our designers were looking for another way of looking at Black History month,” explains Eugene Knapik of Canada Post. “We realized there were these two communities, neither of which exists today, on opposite sides of the country. Both have very interesting histories, but both were dismantled in the name of urban renewal.”

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The stamp depicts two former Hogan’s Alley residents, Nora Hendrix and Fielding William Spotts Jr., in front of a painting of Hogan’s Alley. Not much is known about Spotts, but Hendrix is somewhat famous, because her grandson was musician Jimi Hendrix.

Nora Hendrix was interviewed in Daphne Marlatt and Carole Itter’s remarkable oral history Opening Doors: Vancouver’s East End (originally published in 1979, reissued in 2012).

She came to Vancouver in 1911 via Chicago and Seattle and wound up in the East End, where many blacks had settled because they found work as railway porters at the two nearby train stations (Great Northern and Canadian National).

Hendrix talked about “sporting” types, which is old-time slang for gamblers or pimps. There were plenty of both in Hogan’s Alley, which lifelong Strathcona resident Benny Benedetti said was a two-block lane behind the 700 and 800 blocks of Main street.

“I’m not sure who the hell Hogan was, but in my time there was this black guy, Buddy White, and he pretty well ran that alley,” recalls Bendetti, 86.

“He used to hold the odd poker game there. This one day, he’s playing cards with these guys, and he says ‘some (motherbleeper) is cheatin’ in this game.’ And he pulled out a nickel-plated pearl-handled revolver and stuck it on the table.

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“That’s a famous story. He ran a little gambling, a little prostitution. But I never did find out who Hogan was. That was more before my time.”

Bendetti said in his youth there was a red light district in the 300 block Union, a block east of Hogan’s Alley.

“I remember as a kid walking down that street, and (prostitutes) tapping on the window for me, you know? I was maybe 14, 15. Around Dunlevy there was a French (madam), her name was Jeannette. She was more or less a madam, she ran a house and had a little short Italian guy who used to look after her, cook and clean up after her.”

Randy Clark is the grandson of Vie Moore, who ran one of Hogan’s Alley’s hot spots, Vie’s Chicken and Steak House. By the time he moved to Hogan’s Alley in 1965, the name had migrated to the lane between Union and Prior.

Clark said in the 1960s Hogan’s Alley was pretty tame during the day, but “changed at night.”

“Oh, it was lively,” he laughs. “Probably because it was thought of as being kind of a seedy area at night. You can get your bootleg alcohol. You can probably get almost anything else you wanted, which included favours from women.”

Clark thinks it’s great that Canada Post recognized the vibrant community that once existed in Hogan’s Alley. But he cautions not to over-romanticize it.

“When I go to these meetings and people want to hear of the Hogan’s Alley from the 50s and 60s, the first thing I have to tell them is ‘You know what? By that time, it was a dump.’”

jmackie@vancouversun.com

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