Minutes from the SkyTrain, PNI Media’s offices are in a century-old building in the oldest part of Vancouver. With Gastown to our north and Chinatown to our south, the office is right in the middle of the city’s history where new developments continue to reinvigorate the area.
LIVING IN B.C. ELECTRIC RAILWAY DREAMS
PNI’s offices take up the whole of the first floor, and much of the fourth floor, of 425 Carrall Street—the former headquarters of the B.C. Electric Railway, which was constructed in 1910. The extra-large ground-floor window looking on to Hastings used to be an opening that tramlines ran in and out of. The tramlines stretched as far as Chilliwack and New Westminster, so they’d still come in handy for some of our commuters!
The building housed trams until the 1950s, when the Rails to Rubber programme moved to replace them with electric trolleys and motor coaches. The programme finished in 1955, and the B.C. Electric Railway Building converted its openings to windows. Tenants have come and gone, but PNI has been in the building since 2002. The ground floor currently houses LightForm and HiFi Centre, with Iktsuarpok Coffee Stand operating out a window in the middle. Try their oat milk lattes— they’re one of Gastown’s best-kept secrets.
If you want to see an original 1904 streetcar, head to the Old Spaghetti Factory on Water Street for dinner to see the #53. Further afield, there’s a replica of the #21 at Broadway and Kingsway in Mount Pleasant.
MEET GASSY JACK
Vancouver, as we now know it, is often traced back to Gassy Jack. John Deighton, as he’s more properly known, was a British sailor and bar owner who founded a tavern in Gastown in 1867 to hydrate employees of the local Hastings sawmill. His nickname came from his talkative nature and his bar eventually spawned a whole neighbourhood, and later city, with the area named Gastown after him.
Follow Carrall Street north from PNI to the end of the street—on your left, you’ll see the statue of this famous man in the spot where his tavern used to be. Take a moment to think about how this street might have looked 140 years ago, with his bar on it.
BLOW OFF SOME STEAM AT THE STEAM CLOCK
Though it looks like something from the Victorian era, the Gastown steam clock was only installed in 1977. It’s believed to be the second steam clock ever constructed—the first was created by British inventor John Inshaw in 1859 and was notoriously unreliable.
The Gastown steam clock has a steam engine inside, which raises a series of weights to keep the clock wound. The whistles on the top of the clock also produce steam regularly. But since 1986, the clock’s been powered by an electric motor to help it stay accurate. More recently, the clock featured on the cover art for Nickelback’s 2011 album, Here and Now.
The Steam Clock can be found a short walk from the PNI offices on Water Street: try to time your visit to the top of the hour, to see steam shoot from its five whistles.
Stay tuned for more blog posts exploring PNI’s stomping ground. In Part 2, we’ll look to the south of our office in Vancouver and dig into some of the history of Chinatown.