CREATIVE STRATEGY | a COCKTAIL BAR
OPEN OUTCRY
From the book Vancouver Confidential by John Douglas Belshaw, he draws a very colourful image of what Vancouver used to be, right on the corner of Pender and Howe where this cocktail bar now stands. “From the urban culture of a port city in the mid-twentieth century - Vancouver in the years when Pender and Howe was a dynamic theatre mainstay, when streetcars hummed through the city, and when ‘theatre’ meant vaudeville and burlesque. Street gambling and illegal booze cans peppered the map, brothels and bootleggers served loggers and shore-workers, and politicians were almost always larger than life.”
We can witness the passing of history at this site - through prohibition and the invention of the cocktail to the stock exchange where it was later known as the “scam capital of the world.” We take inspiration from this edgier part of Vancouver’s history as we pay homage to the colourful past of this city and the characters of the time.
A PROJECT THAT IS RICH IN HISTORY
HISTORICAL PRECEDENTS
PENDER & HOWE STREET
• Vancouver’s population boomed in 1906 — from 24,000 to 51,000 in five years.
• The Alhambra Theatre occupied the corner of Pender and Howe to entertain the masses.
• Vancouver’s first Orpheum opened in 1906 on the same site and was operated as part of the Sullivan and Considine vaudeville circuit out of Seattle, which once owned 20 theatres in the Pacific Northwest.
• Votaries of Vaudeville filled every available seat and box in the remodelled theatre within ten minutes of the time the doors first opened to the public.” (bottom right image).
• Tickets were 15 to 25 cents, and there were afternoon and evening performances.
VANCOUVER STOCK EXCHANGE
The Vancouver Stock Exchange was first incorporated in 1906 and opened on Aug. 1, 1907, at 849 West Pender St.
By 1929, a new eleven-storey neo-gothic building stood on the corner of Pender and Howe. The address changes to Howe and it became the home of the Vancouver Stock Exchange until 1947.
The VSE was the third major stock exchange in Canada, after the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) and Montreal Stock Exchange (MSE).
In 1989, Forbes magazine labelled the VSE the “scam capital of the world.” This was ironic since the VSE was established as a made-in-B.C. solution to frontier fraud.
PROHIBITION
Prohibition in British Columbia 1917-1921
• The term “speakeasy” derives from the need for these illegal establishments to remain under the radar of law enforcement. Patrons were expected to remain quiet - to “speakeasy” when on the streets, and to remain at least somewhat less raucous when in the speakeasy itself, so as not to draw the attention of the police.
• Top right image: Federal agents pose with the haul after a raid on a speakeasy in Washington, DC, in 1923.
• Bottom left image: Before and after photos of two federal agents who donned disguises before cracking down on a speakeasy.
• Bottom right images: Examples of Kennedy’s cocktail labels and vintage bottles.
the concept document
ACTUALIZATIONS & EXTRAS
CREDITS
During my time as Concept & Strategy Lead at Ste. Marie Studio
Concept + Vision Document by Evelyn Sum
Interior Design by Ste. Marie
Branding & Graphic Design by Glasfurd & Walker
Site photography by Scout Magazine