What is the story of the Steam Clock? Nobody really knows, that is why I want to share with you today an article by Will Woods. He is a tour guide here in Vancouver and gets a lot of questions about the Steam Clock but that question is one he has difficulty answering, that is why he investigated this story.
Let’s get our facts on the table. First of all, while Gastown is old, the clock ain’t. Built in 1977, it’s not even reached middle age yet. Secondly, while it uses steam power, it also requires three (three!) electric motors. By my reckoning any device that requires three electric motors is stretching the definition of ‘steam-powered’ to its absolute limit. Thirdly, it is styled to look like a 19th century antique rather than representing any actualdesign aesthetic of the late 70’s – further draining it of authenticity.
As I led my tour groups through Gastown, it bugged me. Why is this clock here? Aren’t there more interesting sights and relics in the city that should be more celebrated than the Gastown Clock? Are we letting down our city’s visitors by drawing them to it?
So I decided to dig a little deeper…I decided there had to be something interesting about the clock. I started by stepping back in time, to Gastown-before-the-clock. 1967 to be precise.
In the late 60’s Gastown was a much edgier place than today. Many of the buildings were derelict or provided slum accommodation for low-income people. Gastown also hosted a burgeoning counter-culture movement as hippies were drawn to the area, attracted by its cheap rents and cheaper drugs.
The mayor of the time was Tom “Terrific” Campbell. A strident pro-development mayor with an eye fixed firmly on the future. Campbell had bold plans for Vancouver. Protecting the city’s heritage buildings and its low-income Eastside communities was not in those plans. Working with urban planners, Tom developed a proposal to totally reconfigure Vancouver’s downtown. Swathes of Chinatown, Strathcona and historic Gastown were to be demolished to make way for a giant freeway.
Vancouver is notable amongst North American cities precisely because it does not have a freeway running through its centre. Cities including Toronto, Seattle and Chicago all have freeways running alongside their downtown waterfronts. Tom Campbell wanted a similar freeway system in Vancouver, including a third bridge from downtown to the North Shore. In fact right now The Museum of Vancouver has an excellent exhibit showing the plans and models of this never-built freeway system.
So what happened? Why doesn’t downtown have a 12 lane freeway? Well, it turned out the people who happily lived in Chinatown, Strathcona and Gastown in 1970 preferred not to be forcibly evicted from their homes to make way for a giant road. Surprise huh?
A concerted community campaign led by the residents of Chinatown put a stop to Tom’s terrific plans. The only stretch that got built was the Georgia St. and Dunsmuir St. viaducts, demolishing a neighhourhood known as Hogan’s Alley. In 1970 this part of town housed Vancouver’s black community and unfortunately the rearguard action by the Eastside communities came too late to save it. But Gastown, Chinatown and (most of) Strathcona were saved.
Today, the City of Vancouver is actively seeking proposals on what to do with the viaducts. My favourite suggestion is to build a park, perhaps honouring one of Hogan’s Alley’s occasional residents – Jimi Hendrix. He would visit his grandmother Nora there in the 1950’s and 60’s.
But what does all this have to do with the steam clock you might ask?? Good question. Following the saving of Gastown, the government started to invest in the area. Funds came in to refurbish the historic buildings that had fallen into disrepair. Businesses started to return and tourists started to feel welcome.
By 1977 the regeneration of Gastown was largely complete. Conscious the area needed a focal point to draw people in, store owners banded together and funded the clock. It’s steam theme a reference to the industrial past of the area, where steam pipes once ran underground powering machinery.
The inscription on the clock celebrates the restoration of Gastown. Interestingly the inscription does not make any specific reference to Tom Campbell’s unsuccessful freeway plans. I wonder if it was felt politically imprudent to embarrass a former mayor who had only been out of office for a few years, by drawing attention to his failed plans. I would be interested to hear from anyone who was part of the 1977 committee that funded, built and inscribed the clock who may know more!
So now every time I look at the clock I imagine Gastown as a bare patch of concrete, permanently in darkness, as cars thunder overhead on a giant elevated freeway. And then the clock doesn’t seem so bad after all.
When: Wednesday, June 27th, 8:30pm
INTERNeX Canada 