The setting in Vancouver: The Hollow Tree and an unknown car

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One tree, two moments. Cars have character, history and a soul of their own. And nature is no different. Some places remain timelessly relevant while everything around them evolves. This impressive tree is a perfect example: The Hollow Tree in Stanley Park.

For more than a century it has formed the backdrop of countless photographs. Around 1910, when the postcards shown here were produced, but also right up to the present day. This is the Hollow Tree, which for over a hundred years has been regarded as one of Vancouver’s best-known attractions. It is a Western Red Cedar, estimated to be between 600 and 800 years old. The tree died long ago, but left behind an enormous hollow trunk: a circumference of some 18 metres, with a strikingly spacious interior.

From the moment people owned cameras, photographs were taken in and with the tree. Not only people posed inside the hollow trunk, but also horse-drawn carriages, automobiles and, in some cases, even elephants. The tree became a natural photographic setting long before the term itself existed.

When plans were once made to run the Stanley Park ring road straight through the tree’s location, fierce opposition followed. Photographers in particular — who earned their living by taking portraits at the tree — made their voices heard. Successfully so: the road was rerouted and The Hollow Tree was spared.
In 2006, Stanley Park was struck by a severe windstorm that damaged thousands of trees. The Hollow Tree also suffered serious damage and began to lean dangerously. Vancouver’s Park Board considered felling the tree and leaving it to nature. That proposal sparked widespread public outrage. In the end, it was decided to save the tree by installing an internal metal structure to support the trunk from within. Thanks to this intervention, the tree now stands upright once more and is again accessible to visitors. Anyone visiting Vancouver really ought to have at least one photograph inside the Hollow Tree.

That said… we are not a tree website. Nor are we a tourist office. So however impressive the story of the tree may be, at PreWarCar.com we inevitably look at it from a different perspective. It is the cars in those early photographs that catch our attention. And that naturally raises the question: could both of the cars shown be Cadillacs? The proportions, the shape of the windscreen and the bonnet all point in that direction. But certainty? We gladly leave that to you.

Photo by Steve Diggins, text by Laurens Klein

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