Scroll on to see some of the ways the city changed in the 1950s. <\/span><\/p>\n West Vancouver\u2019s Park Royal Shopping Centre opened in 1950 as an open-air mall, with a Woodward\u2019s department store as its anchor. The popular destination has seen many changes over the years, including a <\/span>1962 conversion<\/span><\/a> that made it Canada\u2019s first covered shopping centre. <\/span>Today it\u2019s billed as<\/span><\/a> \u201cMetro Vancouver\u2019s premiere shopping experience.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will soon be visiting Canada, and fans of the monarchy are getting excited \u2014\u00a0though probably not as excited as Canadians were for Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip\u2019s month-long cross-country trip in 1951. <\/span>According to the CBC<\/span><\/a>, \u201ccities strove to be the most enthusiastic,\u201d with Toronto vastly outdoing Quebec and Ottawa combined.<\/span><\/p>\n The west coast leg of the couple\u2019s tour included a stop in Victoria to <\/span>watch First Nations dances<\/span><\/a>, as well as an excursion to see a university football game in Vancouver. Prince Philip reportedly signed a football at the game, but not before security had deflated and reinflated it to check for threats.<\/span><\/p>\n The intersection of Seymour Street and Georgia Street is right in Vancouver\u2019s downtown core, and is much busier today than it is in this photo, taken in 1952. On the right are a parking garage and the Ambassador Hotel. Originally opened in 1913 as a set of furnished rooms, the hotel <\/span>closed in the 1980s<\/span><\/a> \u2014\u00a0it\u2019s not to be confused with the current <\/span>Hotel Ambassador<\/span><\/a>, located elsewhere downtown. <\/span><\/p>\n The Pacific National Exhibition, or PNE, has been a central part of summertime in Vancouver for a century, but its attractions have definitely changed over the years. While fried delicacies and agricultural exhibits are still mainstays, parades like the one shown in this 1953 photo are no longer part of the experience. Playland, now a popular amusement park adjacent to the PNE, was also not in the picture at the time \u2014\u00a0it didn\u2019t open until 1958. <\/span><\/p>\n Interestingly, the parade was held on Burrard Street near Pender Street, not particularly close to the PNE grounds at Hastings Park. <\/span><\/p>\n The Hotel Vancouver, located in the heart of downtown and now branded as the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, is the <\/span>third hotel in the city<\/span><\/a> to go by that name. Completed in 1939 at a final cost of $12 million, it took a lengthy 11 years to build as construction was halted during the Great Depression. <\/span><\/p>\n Above, a throng of people celebrate in the street after a <\/span>Grey Cup game<\/span><\/a> between the Edmonton Eskimos and the Montreal Alouettes. The cup had never been held in Vancouver, and had only been held outside Ontario once, so we think the excitement is understandable. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Located at the intersection of Burrard Street and Nelson Street, St. Andrew\u2019s Wesley United Church still exists today. Now a <\/span>designated heritage building<\/span><\/a>, it was designed by Twizel and Twizel and built between 1927 and 1933 using Nelson Island granite and Haddington Island stone. Interesting building features include a 14th-century-style Gothic tower, a high, vaulted nave and deep transepts. <\/span><\/p>\n The funeral procession shown above was for Alderman Birt Showler.<\/p>\n Shown above is an interior shot of St. Andrew\u2019s Wesley United Church, also taken at Alderman Showler\u2019s funeral. The church\u2019s stained glass windows include both traditional leaded glass and more recent dalle de verre. If you want to see what they look like in colour, the <\/span>church\u2019s website<\/span><\/a> offers a glimpse.<\/span><\/p>\n Vancouver\u2019s main post office was held in the building shown above from 1910 until 1958, when it was <\/span>relocated to a new building<\/span><\/a> a few blocks away. It was built in the Edwardian Baroque style, which combines French and English influences, and underwent a restoration in the mid-1980s. Part of the work involved connecting the building with four other buildings via an atrium space \u2014 called Sinclair Centre, the complex is now an upscale shopping centre.<\/span><\/p>\n Some Vancouver landmarks are recognizable in this 1956 aerial view of downtown and Coal Harbour, but by and large the area is much less developed than it is today. Photos of the region taken <\/span>just a decade later<\/span><\/a> look a little more familiar. <\/span><\/p>\n Vancouver\u2019s West End is also looking significantly less built up in this photo than it is today, but the calm wasn\u2019t to last. The 1950s saw major zoning changes and technological advances, and as a result cheaper and better multi-storey buildings began to be constructed. From 1962 to 1975 <\/span>over 220 high-rises<\/span><\/a> were built in the area. <\/span><\/p>\n The Vancouver General Hospital has come a long way since its <\/span>first iteration as a CPR tent hospital<\/span><\/a> in 1886. Not long after that it became a nine-bed wooden structure on Powell Street between Hawkes Avenue and Heatley Avenue, and by 1906 it had been moved to its current location on Broadway. <\/span><\/p>\n In 1959, the hospital\u2019s new Centennial Pavilion was opened. Named to commemorate the centennial of the founding of BC as a British colony, the development was the largest part of the hospital at the time it was built. Shown under construction above is the pavilion\u2019s acute block. <\/span><\/p>\n The Second Narrows Bridge, which spans the Burrard Inlet and connects Vancouver to the North Shore, was also under construction in the 1950s. Built to replace an existing \u2014 but problematic \u2014\u00a0bridge across the inlet, the new bridge quickly had issues of its own. In June 1958, when construction was still taking place, two spans of the bridge collapsed into the water, killing 19 men. Today the accident remains the <\/span>worst industrial disaster<\/span><\/a> in the history of Vancouver <\/span><\/p>\nPark Royal Shopping Centre, 1950<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"vancouver](\"https:\/\/www.livabl.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/vancouver-1950s-park-royal.jpg\")
<\/a>Photo: <\/span><\/i>Grocerymania: \u00c9piceries et centres commerciaux\/Flickr<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\nPrincess Elizabeth and Prince Philip arriving at City Hall, 1951<\/strong><\/h2>\n
<\/a>Photo: <\/span><\/i>City of Vancouver Archives<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\nSeymour Street and Georgia Street, 1952<\/strong><\/h2>\n
<\/a>Photo: <\/span><\/i>City of Vancouver Archives<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\nPNE parade on Burrard Street near Pender Street, 1953<\/strong><\/h2>\n
<\/a>Photo: <\/span><\/i>City of Vancouver Archives<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\nCelebration outside the Hotel Vancouver, 1955<\/strong><\/h2>\n
<\/a>Photo: <\/span><\/i>City of Vancouver Archives<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\nFuneral procession outside St. Andrew\u2019s Wesley United Church, 1955<\/strong><\/h2>\n
<\/a>Photo: <\/span><\/i>City of Vancouver Archives<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\nInterior of St. Andrew\u2019s Wesley United Church, 1955<\/strong><\/h2>\n
<\/a>Photo: <\/span><\/i>City of Vancouver Archives<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\nPost office on West Hastings, 1956<\/strong><\/h2>\n
<\/a>Photo: <\/span><\/i>City of Vancouver Archives<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\nAerial view of downtown Vancouver and Coal Harbour, 1956<\/strong><\/h2>\n
<\/a>Photo: <\/span><\/i>City of Vancouver Archives<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\nAerial view of the West End, 1957<\/strong><\/h2>\n
<\/a>Photo: <\/span><\/i>City of Vancouver Archives<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\nVancouver General Hospital under construction, 1956<\/strong><\/h2>\n
<\/a>Photo: <\/span><\/i>City of Vancouver Archives<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\nSecond Narrows Bridge under construction, 1956 or 1957<\/strong><\/h2>\n
<\/a>Photo: <\/span><\/i>City of Vancouver Archives<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\nVancouver International Airport, 1957<\/strong><\/h2>\n
<\/a>Photo: <\/span><\/i>City of Vancouver Archives<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n