A new city hall and a statue of Captain George Vancouver were commissioned to commemorate Vancouver's Golden Jubilee in 1936. The architect of the new City Hall at Strathcona Park on West 12th Avenue, Fred Townley, proposed the sculpture, commissioned by the Vancouver Canadian Club, be placed on the plaza on the north side of the building. Noted BC sculptor, Charles Marega, was commissioned (for about $5500) to create a life-size sculpture of the man who mapped the harbour in 1792 and after whom the city is named.
Marega began by setting up 500 pounds of clay on a turntable in his Hornby Street Studio. From the clay model, he made a plaster cast which was then used to cast the finished work in "Roman bronze". It was cast at Ornamental Bronze, a foundry in Vancouver. The work was installed on August 20, 1936.The bronze figure standing atop the granite plinth is said to bear little physical resemblance to Captain George. The sculpture was copied from a maquette, which had been fashioned after a painting that was in turn, a copy from an original painting.
An interesting conversation is recorded between Major Matthews, the City Archivist, and Townley.
Matthews: "Mr. Townley, the "Sun" newspaper wants to know how much the Vancouver statue cost and who paid for it."
Townley: "What do they want to bring that up for? Leave sleeping dogs lie. I've been afraid that matter would come up, but it has not...why bring it up now? It was all in the contract; everything was above board; there's nothing to hide; but if it gets out what it cost, then some fool will start writing to the newspapers, or something, and complain of the waste of money; say it ought to have been given towards the support of some fool scheme of his own, the "home for incurable dogs", or some other idiotic thing".
Matthews: "Alright; drop it, I don't want to know; the "Sun" is publishing a story on the statue, and I suppose they want to put the cost in."
Townley: "Well, Charles Marega made it, and baby bonds paid for it...I don't know exactly what it cost; it would be hard to find out; part of it was in the stone work cost. Marega for $5000, and then there was the base; so much per square foot for the base, perhaps $500 for that..."
The statue was cleaned in 2001, 65 years after its installation and in time for the city's 115th birthday. The bill for cost of cleaning was $5800, almost the same amount as the original statue cost. This sculpture is on the City of Vancouver's Heritage Inventory list and, as a proud homage to a great explorer, has stood the test of time.