Secret Vancouver: Return to Hogan's Alley 

I was born in Vancouver General Hospital in 1946 - goood historical vid! I thoroughly enjoyed it!!..used to party with Jimmy Hendrix, but @ the time had NOOOO IDEA WHO HE WAS!! He was just another partier & musician. As partiers we all went often to the Cave, Ritz etc....& oh yeah, in much later yrs, Basidas.

Happened to visit Vancouver and stay in the neighborhood...a newer building on Main Street. Outside of the building there was a historical sign attached to the streetlight that outlined Strathcona's black(African-canadian) roots. As an African American from the US this was a great discovery. This film has built on that initial discovery that was left out of all Canadian tourist related information I came across. Kudos to the film creators...great historical perspective.

What makes Vancouver great still, are the caring people, like John and others who tirelessly continue to champion our heritage. The efforts to reinstate this area are highly noble. Kudos to everyone for keeping the memories alive.

A great post & tribute to the Hogans Alley history& one that was all gone by the time I arrived on the Vancouver scene. I wonder how many others have had the pleasure of meeting & knowing " Portland Al " who was one of Vancouver's first night club owners. Even in the 90's Portland had a shop on Main St I think around 5th or 6th Ave, that just looked like any corner store. He sold records & tapes even bootleg copies of what some of the most famous entertainers in the world gave to him. Every inch of wall space was covered with autographed photos of himself with every famous entertainer U could ever think of whose very first stop in Vancouver was to see & catch up with Portland. He was an amazing & generous man with his time & I had the pleasure of meeting & getting to know a bit about the man for which I am ever grateful. Having brought in so many of the world's top entertainers into Vancouver he was very well known.

:) WOW! KUDOS for sharing this! My 1st house was a row house on Jackson, right across the street from the end of Hogan;s Alley! REMEMBER the JONES Family well and the diversity of the neighbourhood, GREAT times and place to grow up indeed! Sad to see the urbanization and Colonist destruction of what was there :( ALL the BEST, and again, THANK YOU MUCH! Cheers! :)

Thank you so much for making this! Deeply fascinating. As a black man in Seattle I’ve always wondered about how things were up North in Vancouver. Well done, thanks.

An amazing short film! It is such an important part of Vancouver's history that gets ignored in many ways. I applaud Melinda for linking history with a cautionary tale for Vancouver's future. Proud to have this talented friend!

This is brilliant. I've lived in strathcona for over a years now and recently been finding out more and lore about Hogans alley and The forgotten history of Vancouver. I find it all incredibly captivating.

This video is amazing and really brought the history of my city to life for me. My heart breaks understanding what was truly lost.

I live at the corner of Main and Prior and I never truly knew this history! I'm feeling very upset for the loss of this community and culture, and wish we could have it back. This space is mainly wasted at the moment, sparing a few corners where homeless people stay. Thank you for the education!

I love this doc. Thanks for making Vancouver's history so accessible.

Thank you Mr Clark for taking me to this excellent documentary.

I love learning about history. I’m happy I watched this. Thank you

Wonderful... part of Vancouver that I never knew as a suburban Anglo boy :)

Never knew that area had such a strong connection to the black community here in Vancouver, it is a shame that it was lost. When speaking of other ethnic communities there are always locations like Chinatown, Richmond, Surrey etc that you could point towards when speaking of other groups and although Ive befriended many individuals I always wonder where the Canadian black neighbourhoods where I just assumed dispersed or the majority lived in Toronto. I think we missed out on a lot of culture.

i was born in 69, i didnt see much of that part of vancouver, but i do remember false creek stink. I do remember the CAVE, beautiful place, look just like a cave inside. i seen randy ELVIS frisky in 70's

I'm glad I ran into this, gives a better perspective, thanks so much for making this!

Man oh man, wouldn't a time machine be a great thing to have?

I’m happy I watched this, thank you for the history.

Fascinating. Very unfortunate that Hogan's Alley was wiped out by the via duct, lucky that the whole freeway was stopped.

Excellent stuff, needs to be shared more!

Excellent!

Hogan's Alley is also the title of a record by Gertrude 'Ma' Rainey who is celebrated in the new film 'Ma Rainey's Back Bottom', directed by George C. Wolfe and starring Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman. But where Ma Rainey's Hogan's Alley may have been is anybody's guess -- probably not in Vancouver though!

A great video, thank you. Vie's Chick and Steak sounds like it made a mountain of money, and there ought to have been enough to move to another location. People who are being asked to move from lucrative business locations to make way for city infrastructure projects usually sue for compensation. Did the owners of homes and businesses of Hogan's Alley not get the market price for their properties as compensation? We know in WWII the Japanese in Vancouver had their properties confiscated by the state, and they were sent off to the Rocky Mountains to do slave labour. (Later they got an apology and a a few dollars compo. But what of the people of Hogan's Alley? Who were they and where did they go?

Ahh, my first beer and Ho at the Stratcona Hotel.

Wonderful video and very educational. So glad the people protested and changed the direction of Vancouver for the better. Too bad Telus could not be a little more gracious and avoided the large logo in the corner throughout the whole video. I found it disrespectful. Did others?

another thing that is funny, a lot (not all) of western Canadian entertainers came from 1 of 2 places. Vancouver or Edmonton.

Spent 1/2 an hr trying to find Hogans Alley film. Finally gave up looking. I'm wondering why I'm spending money to subject myself to this disgusting system

I was here

The Trans Canada Hwy #1 bypasses Vancouver City and heads over the Second Narrows Bridge to North Van, Squamish and Whistler etc. The traffic problem is ridiculous due to lack of foresight and planning. Soon enough there will be 5 million people living in Greater Vancouver. Basically the same highway system that served 200,000 people in 1969. Total joke. And don't get me going on the Skytrain. Another disaster. 99.5% of the track empty at all times and no commercial application whatsoever. Complete joke also.

There’s more history about this neighborhood: check out several videos from Black Strathcona ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-_khoX5h2FkQ.html

FREE HAR FREE HOGANS ALLEY

Was that the first London Drugs? 9:45

Keep producing videos telus, i guess you need to do something with all that money you make overcharging. New buildings, video productions, mobile health clinics.. ill stick with shaw where my bill isnt inflated to fund side projects

A response to the last note in the video- I’ve found myself so irritated and irked with the lack of shared awareness of black history in Vancouver. I heard of Blood alley being a black community at one point of time, but never learned about these in school. It should be taught in school, and furthermore OUTSIDE the month of February! This history should always be taught, it is embarrassing for the city but we all know that’s what Canada is made from.

More stories of Black Strathcona ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-x5qdc_aMMJc.html

It's good to record Black people's Vancouver history, but not a contrived 'history'! There was no Black district in Vancouver's history because unlike the USA Black people lived anywhere landlords would rent to them in Vancouver! Jimi Hendrix's relatives actually lived in the West End!