UNUSUAL CLOCK

GASTOWN

Gastown is the birthplace of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Edward Stamp took advantage of the surrounding forest and easy access to water at Burrard Inlet to established a sawmill. Growing up around the Hastings Saw Mill, Gastown, covering six square blocks, is located north-east of the downtown core and is the oldest part of the city.

An 1886 fire destroyed the original wooden city, but it was rebuilt and named for its founder Gassy Jack Deighton who with a single barrel of whiskey opened the first watering hole. Jack acquired the name Gassy because of his penchant for telling long-winded stories, not because of anything else you might think of.

Legend says that he offered free whisky during the first couple of days if the recipients would promise to fill his establishment on the weekend. That apparently was no problem, and he supposedly had lots of help erecting the first tavern in town where gold miners mingled with ship’s hands and loggers.

Boon days arrived in the 1880s after the extension of the railroad track along the waterfront. The railroad spurred the development of warehouses and wholesale traders, while passenger trains flooded the local hotels with lumberjacks, miners and speculators. Gastown became the staging point for expeditions to the Klondike during the gold rush in the 1890s.

Gastown’s prominence waned in the early 1900s as development moved westward. An extensive redevelopment project was started in the 1970s. Water Street was restored with original cobblestone paving, brick building fronts were restored and simulated gas lamps added.

In 1884 Gastown was renamed Granville, and later at the suggestion of the Canadian Pacific Railroad’s general manager renamed again---to Vancouver. Big changes came to the town with the final name change; 500 buildings sprang up in anticipation of the railroad’s arrival.

The famous antique steam clock is the first built in the world. Douglas Smith, an engineer, built the clock over a steam vent at a cost of $42,000 in 1977. Ray Saunders, a well-known inventor and clockmaker designed the 16.9-foot clock. Weighing two ton, steel weights go to the top and then drop by gravity. Every quarter hour Westminster chimes are heard, and on the hour a loud whistle belches from the clock. The steam pipes are all underground. The steam heats many of the buildings as well as running the clock.

Gastown is a neat place to visit and the steam clock is most unique.