The Fellowship Bell |
| At some unrecorded time during the 1960s, Howard Leeming, a
long-time principal of Western Machine Works in Coal Harbour, found a large
bronze bell while dredging the foreshore property of one of his company's
long term (1938-1979) leaseholders, A.C. Benson Shipyard.
He kept the bell, the origins of which remain a mystery to this day, thinking that it would make a good commemorative symbol of the individuals who had turned Coal Harbour into a thriving community of marine-oriented industries, stretching along the south shore from Chilco Street to the foot of Broughton. During the seventies, the Coal Harbour area began to feel the pressure of urban renewal. Either because they needed more space, or because they saw the writing on the wall, the Coal Harbour businesses began to drift away. Much of the land that had once been a major centre for the construction and repair of small to medium size vessels was held by private developers who sought to maximize their investment. Their proposals, however, met with major opposition from the general public which eventually led to the City of Vancouver acquiring the waterfront land between Chilco and Denman for use as a park. On April 30, 1979 the bulldozers moved in to demolish the last remaining buildings, and the Coal Harbour industrial centre was declared dead by a gathering of the very people who had been instrumental in its 87 years of activity (the wake was documented in Harbour & Shipping, June 1979). The last of the few industrial businesses that remained in operation east of Cardero, W .R. Menchions & Co. Ltd., closed in September 1990 after 81 years in business. In the meantime, Howard Leeming had passed away. After his death, his wife, Jean, passed the bell and the concept on to another Coal Harbour veteran, Alex Windt, who formed Vancouver's Coal Harbour Fellowship, dedicated to making the dream a reality. Alex, a member of the Coal Harbour fraternity who for many years had worked in the 1800 block of West Georgia with Canadian Atlas Diesel contacted a few more people he thought might be interested, and in April, 1993 he, Charlie Bunn, Barry Walker, Bob Benson, George Walker, Bill Benson, and Bob O'Neil (who recorded the meeting with photographs) held the first meeting of the Vancouver's Coal Harbour Fellowship, dedicated to seeing the project through. Regular meetings with between 25 and 30 people in attendance were held at the Steveston Legion Hall. The bronze bell, mounted in a stainless steel frame built by Allied
Shipbuilders Ltd., stands as a lasting reminder of an important, but now
vanished, episode in Vancouver's history. Originally engraved with the names
of 300 individuals who participated in this half century' of economic
activity. As more people kept coming forward, so it was decided to provide
additional plaques to accommodate the overflow. At the dedication ceremony, Arthur McLaren of Allied Shipbuilders Ltd., himself a Coal Harbour alumnus, gave a brief history of the way the area developed from 1891, when the Union Steamship Company of British Columbia established a shipyard in Coal Harbour near the foot of Gilford Street to reassemble their new small steamers, Comox, Capilano and Coquitlam, which had been built in a Glasgow shipyard, then dismantled for shipping. Other marine-related industries moved into the area, most occupying the waterfront north of Georgia Street from Nicola Street to the entrance of Stanley Park at Chilco Street, with a few, mostly engine dealers and machines shops, on the south side of Georgia. McLaren recalled that, "Although the Coal Harbour development presented a bold facade on Georgia Street, this street front disguised a rabbit warren of small boat yards, machine shops, propeller shops, deck equipment manufacturers, that lined the waterfront." Esprit de corps was high, but the congestion discouraged the development
and modernization of the Coal Harbour industries, so by the time land
developers moved in during the 1960s and 70s, the many successful industries
that began in Coal Harbour had already relocated in newer industrial areas.
Others had closed when their owners retired. |