Eve Lazarus rises
June 29th, 2014
It’s common knowledge that Canuck Place in Shaughnessy was previously a mansion that served as the headquarters for a Vancouver chapter of the Ku Klux Klan, but there are many other addresses in the Lower Mainland with skeletons in their closets, and few people know more about them than Australian-born Eve Lazarus of North Vancouver. She recently examined the social histories of heritage houses in Greater Vancouver for At Home with History: The Untold Secrets of Heritage Homes (Anvil 2007), followed by Sensational Victoria: Bright Lights, Red Lights, Murders, Ghosts & Gardens: Tales from the CapitalCity (Anvil 2012). Now Lazarus has risen, again. She’s back in print with Sensational Vancouver (Anvil $24). Including a walking tour map of Strathcona and Chinatown, Lazarus highlights the famous and the infamous, particular the latter from the first half of the 20th century when ‘Terminal City’ was a hotbed for bookies, brothels and bootleggers. And there were lots of unsolved murders. We learn that Canada’s first female cop was Lurancy Harris who patrolled the houses of ill repute on Alexander Street. Opium dens and gambling joints were the purview of Detective Joe Ricci. Sensational Vancouver also celebrates remarkable women such as Elsie MacGill, Phyllis Munday, Nellie Yip Quong and Joy Kogawa—along with entertainers, artists and controversial characters. According to her publisher, Lazarus blogs obsessively about houses and their genealogies at www.evelazarus.com/blog/
978-1-927380-98-7
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