This Week In History, 1949 Frank Harris Lived In Stanley Park For 60 Years

Most civic workers toil in obscurity. But not Frank Harris, whose death on Feb. 2, 1949, earned obituaries in both The Vancouver Sun and Province.

“A hardy pioneer who slung a hammock in Stanley Park back in 1889 as his first B.C. residence died in St. Vincent’s Hospital Wednesday,” The Sun reported.

“He is Frank Alfred Harris, 87, who lived in the white frame cottage in the park near Lion’s Gate Bridge.”

Born in Teignmouth, Devon, England, on June 13, 1861, Harris moved to Canada in 1884. After working as a carpenter in Manitoba, he moved to Vancouver in 1889.

He landed a job with the fledgling Vancouver Waterworks Company, and helped pull the first submerged water mains across the First Narrows, bringing water from the North Shore to Vancouver.

bit.ly/2Ebmo4E via @VancouverSun