The public services
In 1885, the first telephone switchboard is installed, thus pro-
viding phone service to the 35 subscribers.

A company town?

On February 13th, 1886, a contract is signed between William
Smythe’s provincial government and the CPR. The agreement is
that the CPR extends its intercontinental railway line to Vancouver
and, in return, the government gives the company the D.L. 541
(present-day Vancouver downtown core), D.L. 526 (today Trafalgar
Street West to Ontario St. East), plus the entire littoral and adjacent
properties for thoroughfare* (see map on page 3).

The company loses no time in clearing the land for the con-
struction of the new railway terminal. Furthermore, the government
grants the CPR all the unsold lots, 39 in all. with the understanding
that those will be distributed by the company to interested buyers for
the sum of $200 each.*

The first hospital

This news creates quite a stir among the real estate entrepreneurs,
contractors, settlers, etc., so much so, that Vancouver will almost
double up its population. The preparation work for the terminal also
brings in a great added number of CPR workers. The increase of its
manpower obliges the CPR to build a hospital to care for the physical
well-being of its employees. The building is completed in 1886 on
Powell Street. Its first doctor, Dr. J.M. Lefebvre is assisted, as
recalls Dr. Langis, by Dr. A.M. Robertson.

“...I went down there sometimes, there was just three of
us... . There were only six beds... . The hospital was on the
north side of Powell Street, about 150 feet from the Hastings
Sawmill... .It had a kitchen at the back. It was not a new
building, as I first remember it; perhaps it was a year old,
unpainted, and my recollection is that it had a little ver-
andah.. . .Old Mrs. Gorman was nurse; not a graduate nurse,
we had to take what we could get; and she was cook too.”!

In his book, Eric Nicol tells us that the dining room table is used
for the operations!*

Some years later, the little hospital will be torn down by the CPR
and will be replaced by the City Hospital on Beatty Street.

VANCOUVER 1886

The incorporation of the city

In the beginning of the year 1886, 125 citizens of Granville
village hold a meeting and form an “Incorporation Committee.”
Jack Boultbee, the young lawyer, is present. The group writes up a
petition which all sign, and it is agreed that Boultbee will go and
present the project of the city’s incorporation to the parliament in
Victoria. “. . . The founding fathers passed the hat in the saloons to
raise Boultbee’s boat fare to Victoria.”

On April 6th, 1886, the incorporation of Vancouver City is
being proclaimed officially by the Lieutenant Governor. And, a few

6

DR. HENRI LANGIS

weeks later, on May 3rd, the city holds its first municipal elections.
There are 527 eligible men voting. Dr. Langis does not witness this
historical event, being away in Louisiana at the time.f

The blazing mass

Another event, no less historical although less fortunate, will
come to perturb the development of the young city during Dr.
Langis’ absence: the fire of June 13th, 1886. The whole city is
destroyed. The only buildings spared by the fire are the two hotels,
Bridge (False Creek) and Regina (Abbott and Water Streets), and
the Hastings Mill buildings. ,

VANCOUVER 1887 - 1895

Social groups emerge —

So eager is Vancouver to become a big city thdt-no time is lost in
rebuilding and replacing losses of all kinds. New by-laws are passed
regarding building construction. “...Soon buildings of brick and
stone [are] rising as replacements of the wooden topsies that just
grew.” The real estate market has never been busier and again
numbers of newcomers come to augment the population ratio.
Women become more and more visible in the society. To fight
drunkenness and gambling, they found the “Women’s Christian
Temperance League.”

The first social group formed is the “Hastings Literary Institute,”
followed by the “Burrard Inlet Boat Club” (racing boats): a cricket
club (of course! ); and the “Midnight Adieu Club,” young dancers
from Vancouver and Moodyville. At the stroke of midnight, the
couples leave the dance hall and walk the beach-side boardwalk to
Hastings Mill wharf where the Moodyville residents return home
aboard the ferry.

The social Dr. Langis

Dr. Langis comes back to Vancouver in January 1887. He
reunites with his friends and becomes quickly active socially. A
newspaper reports that “. . . at one of the formal evening functions
of the Opal Harbour Bachelors there was welcomed a youthful
French Canadian, blue-eyed. . . with a distinguished Vandyke beard.”
Dr. Langis sets many hearts aflutter by singing French Canadian
songs during various parties. Major Matthews describes him: “. ..A
short stocky man...not more than 5 feet two or three, pointed
Imperial beard; iron grey hair with sandy patches and fairly luxur-

+ Most historians and journalists who wrote on the subject report
that Dr. Langis was on holidays in New Orleans from May 1886 to
January 1887. However, Mrs. Margaret Andrews writes that he
was looking for a more suitable place to set up his practice. She
notes that there is a document which attests that Dr. Langis was, in
September 1886, looking for work in the mines near Sacramento,
California.’

+ 309 Abbott Street became a Vancouver City Health Center in the
1950's.

Le chronographe Volume III no. 1-2, Printemps-Eté 1986