Vancouver Police Museum launches NEW 'Sins of the City' tour: RED LIGHT RENDEZVOUS

Local historians like to claim that city was founded on the barrel of whiskey that a “Gassy” Jack Deighton brought to this very neighbourhood in 1867, and while Gassy Jack and the sawmill workers were the cornerstone of the future City of Vancouver, it was the brothels that helped it grow.

Vancouver's salacious history is the focus of the latest addition to the Vancouver Police Museum's 'Sins of the City Walking Tours' launching this summer. This two-hour guided tour takes participants through the oldest parts of Vancouver— Strathcona —exploring the early history of the city's sex trade from the 1880s to the late 1920s. 

Learn the stories of the entrepreneurial women who ran the bawdy houses from Birdie Stewart, notorious Frankie E. Russell and the infamous Kiyoko.  Even through the many attempts to 'clean up' the city even politician and police knew that these women were a major contribution the thriving economy of our early city.

Covering over ten city blocks, the tour highlights  the transitions of neighborhoods and the evolution of the city's growth through immigration, the building of the railway and how the ladies skirted the laws and adapted to each new change forced upon them.

In the middle all this history sits the Vancouver Police Museum, home to the historic Vancouver Coroner's Court, Morgue and Autopsy facility, and City Analyst Lab which provides a unique perspective on Vancouver's history like no other museum in the city. The Sins of the City walking tours provide a peak into the fascinating shared history of Vancouver citizens and our police department.

Join local historians, Catherine Rose and Jesse Donaldson for a walk back in time through Vancouver's shadier history. Red Light Rendezvous and the original Chinatown tour: Vice, Dice and Opium Pipes take place, rain or shine, on Thursdays at 5 p.m. and Fridays and Saturdays at 3 p.m. from June to October. The fee is $20 for adults, $16 for students and seniors; Reservations are required 24 hours in advance by purchasing your ticket online at http://vancouverpolicemuseum.ca/sins-of-the-city/ . Participants are also invited to visit the Police Museum on the day of their walking tour at no additional charge.