History & Heritage
History
The Downtown Eastside (DTES) encompassed two distinct areas within its
boundaries. The original civic centre, centered around Main and Hastings
with City Hall, the City Market, the Carnegie Public Library and numerous
theatres, while farther east it was home to much of the original industry
of the new city including the Hastings Mill. Along the waterfront of Burrard
Inlet was, as today, the port.
With the construction of the new courthouse on Georgia Street in 1906
the focus for the downtown shifted west. The DTES was still the transportation
hub for the city with the B.C. Electric interurban station at Hastings
and Carrall, the North Shore Ferries at the foot of Columbia and the coastal
steamship piers between Carrall and Main Street. All of this activity
put thousands of people per day onto the streets of the DTES, they in
turn supported a vibrant shopping district along Hastings Street.
The numerous hotels that remain in the area were originally built for
commercial travellers and tourists brought in by the coastal steamship
fleets. Later they would become the permanent home to the many single
men who had worked as loggers and miners. Along Powell Street the Japanese
community settled close to the port and fish processing plants. At one
time they made up the majority of the school population at the nearby
Strathcona Elementary School. In 1942, Vancouver's residents of Japanese
ancestry were forcibly removed to the interior of B.C. following the bombing
of Pearl Harbour.
In 1958 street car service was discontinued and the interurban station
was closed, the following year the North Shore ferries ceased operation.
These two events took the thousands of people per day away from the streets
and the area never fully recovered. The cycle of closures was completed
when the Woodward's department store closed its doors in 1992 leading
the area into further decline. By the early 1970s the Downtown Eastside
was home to a disproportionate number of single, middle-aged men living
on fixed incomes. The DTES experienced further change when a lack of public
funding led to the de-institutionalization of thousands of psychiatric
patients, many of whom found the Downtown Eastside an affordable and welcoming
community.
On the positive side, a number of new housing projects funded by the
province and the city have substantially improved the rental housing situation,
while the various initiatives of the Downtown Eastside Residents Association
(DERA) have done much to make life better for low income people.
DTES Revitalization Program website also features a Community History section, as well as an overview of the neighbourhoods within the DTES: Chinatown; Gastown; Victory Square; Strathcona; Oppenheimer.
Heritage
Industry has made up a significant portion of the DTES and the eastern
portion of the area has small scale industrial uses mixed in with the
remaining homes and rooming houses along Alexander, Powell and Cordova
Streets. These houses are some of the oldest in the city.
There are some noteworthy industrial buildings such as the 1925 American
Can Company building, one of the largest reinforced concrete factories
built in the city. In 1988 it was renovated into offices and a large steel
and glass elevator tower added to the outside.
The Flying Angel Seaman's Club at the foot of Dunlevy is the former head
office of the B.C. Mills Timber and Trading Company, informally known
as the Hastings Mill. This large 1905 prefabricated building was built
by the mill to promote its prefabricated building system produced by the
mill from 1904 until 1911.
On the west side of Oppenheimer Park is the 1913 New World Hotel at 396
Powell Street. Originally named the "Tamura Building" by its
owner, a Japanese banker and importer, this brick building features extensive
use of sheet metal ornamentation and granite block foundation stones.
It was restored in 1991. Across the street and facing the park is the
Marr Hotel which opened its doors in 1890 as the Stanley Hotel.
For detailed information on heritage buildings in this area, and in Vancouver
generally, visit City
of Vancouver Heritage.
Additional information is available through the City
of Vancouver Archives.
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