Vancouver / Names / M / Murphy / Main Street

A family name on Main Street, Riley Park, Strathcona, Downtown, Mount Pleasant and Sunset

The Murphys

In the city directories 1940 · three people at three addresses

The directories print three people named Murphy at three addresses in 1940, all on Main Street. No first name or initials tie one address to another: we can't tell if they're one family. The directories print the name on 84 other streets too, all listed on the Murphy name's own page.

Reserve this family's book, freeThe name in every directory we hold from 1901 to 1945, at every address, each line with its page, to read here or save as a PDF. About $29 when orders open.

Where the Murphys lived

Each pin is on its own block, numbered as the households below. Today's land, parks, main roads and local areas: City of Vancouver Open Data (Open Government Licence – Vancouver).
  1. 1

    700 Main Street

    Strathcona, 1940

    • Bud Murphy, a dispatcher at Service Taxi 1940

    Next door in 1940: Service Tobacco Stand at 714. The block, door by door

  2. 2

    917 Main Street

    Strathcona, 1940

    • John Murphy, a clerk at the Cobalt Hotel 1940

    Next door in 1940: Better 'Ole (The) at 915 and Machinery Jobbing & Junk Co at 925. The block, door by door

  3. 3

    1038 Main Street

    Strathcona, 1940

    • T G Murphy, a locomotive fireman at the CNR 1940

    Next door in 1940: Main Sheet Metal Works at 1024. The block, door by door

What they did

The name section prints a trade for all three: a clerk, a dispatcher and a locomotive fireman.

Their neighbourhoods

The addresses are in Strathcona (3). Each neighbourhood's page shows its trades, its people and every street in it, the way the directory printed them.

The story, address by address

The 1940 name section, where each person's work is printed, lists Bud Murphy at 700 Main Street, a dispatcher at Service Taxi. The 1940 name section lists John Murphy at 917 Main Street, a clerk at the Cobalt Hotel. The 1940 name section lists T G Murphy at 1038 Main Street, a locomotive fireman at the CNR.

Today

917 Main and 1038 Main still have their buildings from before 1946, 1038 Main on the Vancouver Heritage Register; the City no longer lists 700 Main, so that building is probably gone (inferred).

Streetcars on Main Street, past a row of billboards
March 1940 Streetcars on Main Street, past a row of billboards. Not at the house at 700 Main: no archive photo of the 700 block is known that we can show. City of Vancouver Archives, CVA 136-513. Public domain.

Every line as printed

All 3 lines printed under the name through 1945, each with its page at the Vancouver Public Library.
1940

British Columbia and Yukon Directory, name section, where each person's work is printed

The book of the Murphys

Every directory, as one book

The family book reads the Murphy name in each Vancouver directory we hold from 1901 to 1945: everyone printed under it at every address, their work from the name sections, who lived next door, and the page behind every line, to read here or save as a PDF to print or give.

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Another name, or a house

Sources

Henderson's and successor city directories for Vancouver, read by us line by line: the street sections for 1905, 1915, 1925, 1935, 1940 and 1945, and the name section for 1930 and 1940 where we've read it (Vancouver Public Library, BC City Directories). Names are shown through 1945, as printed. Close spellings are grouped, as on the house pages, since a family's name was often spelled differently from one year to the next; one name can still be several families, and we join lines only where the first names or initials agree. Many Chinese, Japanese and other residents weren't named by the canvassers, so they can't be listed by name: their houses' pages say where. More family names under M. Want a name removed? Tell us.