History & Heritage
Strathcona History
Known as the`East End' - the original East End School which gave the
area its name was at the corner of Powell and Jackson - well into the
1950s, Vancouver's first neighbourhood grew up around the Hastings Milland expanded southward from Burrard Inlet. It has always been a diverse
neighbourhood where a succession of immigrants including the British,
Irish, Russian, Croatian, Greeks, and Scandinavians, Japanese and Chinese
have lived before moving on to other parts of the city.
In the 1950s, City planners earmarked the neighbourhood (now calling
it Strathcona because of the 1897 elementary school at Jackson and Keefer)
for a massive redevelopment scheme of public housing. The project would
have featured block upon block of identical apartments buildings and townhouses.
Combined with this proposal were plans for an inner city freeway which
would have included the destruction of Gastown and Chinatown.
Strathcona residents mobilized in opposition. They argued for the retention
and renovation of the area's eclectic mix of housing but by the time the
redevelopment proposals were shelved 15 blocks of the neighbourhood had
already been demolished. In 1968, the community convinced federal, provincial
and municipal governments to support a $5 million rehabilitation project
that included homes, street and sidewalk repairs, and the creation of
new parks.
Strathcona Heritage
Strathcona has one of the largest concentrations of 19th and early 20th
century buildings in Vancouver. The area bounded by Pender and Prior Streets,
Campbell and Jackson Avenues, and two blocks south of Prior Street, was
identified as a character area in the 1986 City of Vancouver Heritage
Inventory because of its unique mix of building styles. Styles range from small cottages and modest vernacular houses to large
"Queen Anne" homes decorated with elaborate brackets and shingle
work.
Some significant heritage buildings include:
- Lord Strathcona School: built in 1897 is one of the oldest standing
school building in Vancouver
- The Seymour School No. 1: Built in 1900, the school is the oldest
wooden school building in Vancouver.
- Seymour School No. 2: built in 1907 to the designs of W.T. Whiteway
- St. Francis Xavier Church, at 579 E. Pender Street, was built
in 1919. Once the home of Swedish, Greek and Ukrainian congregations,
the church now serves the Chinese-Canadian Catholic community.
- The Principal's House, at Princess and Keefer opposite Strathcona
School was built by the school's principal, Gregory Tom in 1900.
Downtown Eastside 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/Japantown.
Downtown Eastside 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 elsewhere in Vancouver, please visit the City of Vancouver's Heritage Conservation Program website. And additional information is also available on the City of Vancouver's Archives website as well.
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