Mount Pleasant’s Heritage Open House – February 19, 2008

Mount Pleasant Historic Context, Statement, Set of Themes, Historica Places, and Management Tools

Theme One: Brewery Creek

Is this important and why?

This creek is important. It explains the development of this site. Should be known by another name?
  • Yes, early Mount Pleasant was built around Brewery Creek and used its water, fish and power
  • Yes, We have to reconnect with the natural world we are building on top of.
  • Gender balance
  • Did Julius Voight live alone?
  • Women’s stories form the Brewery Creek area
  • Update and maintain signage – map often worn away
  • Interpretive signs at all point where Brewery Creek is “visible” – especially at 5th behind Artiste building. People have no idea this little park is important
  • Bring back SALMON to Brewery Creek (if Renfrew can do it..)

Theme Two: Foundation of City

Do we need a memorial plaque/sculpture at this “pioneer junction”?


  • Expand this theme to address neighbourhood character areas.
  • Where are the animals now? (“Kingsway followed an ancient animal trail”)
  • Great Northern Way Escarpment – is this the last extant escarpment in Vancouver? Signifies our old shoreline and Front Street.
  • Does “the wife” have a name? Give at least some voice to her history.
  • DL Boundaries
  • Lot widths, residential and commercial
  • Corner grocers, tightly packed houses on N/S streets, narrow row mature large trees
  • Irregular lot sizes and set backs really add richness with varied form
  • Sometimes the story is what isn’t there and why? Why so few streets named after women?
  • 7th – 8th – 2400 block Westside, the essence of the old village. Main and 7th has excellent view of the city.

    • Is this important and why?

  • Yes, because it gives a sense of meaning and story in time and place of how the area was developed.
  • Yes, because it helps people to understand the underpinnings of Mount Pleasant: Main Street (Westminster Ave), Kingsway, Great Northern Way (old shoreline of False Creek).

    • Would you like to add anything?

    • Include the streetcar history as part of this “foundation” especially since this ties to the city’s modern plan for Main St. as a transit showcase.
    • Bring back the Liveable Region Strategy and add density at junctions and along trunk roads.
    • Church hill spirits as landmarks
    • The separated points Main Street curve.
    • First community outside the downtown core. Some of the original DL boundaries still discernable. Influence of the street car pattern still evident i.e. Commercial streets evidence of the original lot width gives Main St. its character relationship with industry still tight
    • Walk-up apartment buildings, 6 story masonry apartment blocks, early townhouses on side streets, on corners pre 1907+
    • Create a zero traffic car free zone in the triangle, Main, Kingsway, 12th
      Views of the city and the port
    • Make Main Street more pedestrian and cyclist friendly. Reduce the car lanes, widen the sidewalks, create cycling lanes. What about some sort of public square where Main and Kingsway meet.
    • “after his wife’s birthplace” include her name, “wife” make her invisible
    • Make major intersections more of a focus of the neighbourhood ( e.g. storefronts face intersection to make it more welcoming to pedestrians – currently, Kingsway and Main for example, feels only like a place for cars to drive through and not welcoming for pedestrians.
    • Add more interpretive signs and public art to draw attention to the history
      Show us where the waterfront was
    • If animals followed this path, how did the Salish people use it?
    • Is there a way to give a sense of “place” to Pioneer Junction. It doesn’t feel significant in any way today unlike some main junctions in Gastown

    Theme Three: Old Mount Pleasant Village

    • Confusion re: what you are asking

    Would you like to add anything?

    • “Bone Collector” – a kid’s novel by Paul Yee about a Chinese kid working for a British family in Mt. Pleasant 100 years old
    • Any info from schools? It may show the changes in composition in families here
    • Create public space south of “the foundation” restaurant (in parking lot) across from Mt. Pleasant Community Centre
    • How about the spiritual life of people in Mt. Pleasant? Are the Church/organizations active here? What did these organizations do to the community? Their role?
    • I know that some churches here also serve as a gathering place for specific ethnic groups
    • It would be interesting to also capture the period up to about 10-15 years ago when Mt. Pleasant was still a mostly mid to low income neighbourhood. This had a lot of bearing on the transformation of the neighbourhood currently undergoing and the stresses placed on the parts of the neighbourhood that are still lower income
    • Stories form inside the homes of the “Old Mt. Pleasant Village”
    • Any info on the services provided by social services agencies? It reflects the life of Mt. Pleasant in different stages
    • I would like to see more accessibility – as in how accessible is the information/design reference to heritage priorities to the general public?
    • I would love to see a history of some of the significant homes in the area that tell a story (i.e. Mt. Pleasant Walking Tour)
    • Expand this “PLACES” theme to include HUMAN

    Examples of Historic Places

    • HISTORY

    Theme Four: Cultural Life

    Examples of Historic Places

    • The Legion hall, the churches, the schools

    Mount Pleasant has a history of arts and entertainment such as jazz clubs

    • The fringe festival, Grunt Gallery (1984), Portland Als, Hot Jazz Club

    Is this important & why?

    • Maybe we need more public art. Better quality buildings needed and parks
      Cultural life is very important but is hard to encapsulate

    Would you like to add anything?

    • What cultural activities did people do in the late 1800’s, early 1900’s? Specific cultural groups?
    • What was the “cultural life of Honeymoon Hall; need to tell the story of more than 30 years
    • Will this lead to cultural events?
    • Live/work studio spaces are usually too expensive for artists to really afford; need to incorporate raw work spaces in Mt. Pleasant light commercial areas to keep a strong artistic element to the community
    • What did children do (other than schools) – games, toys, chores (both boys & girls), (working class cultural, age groups)

      • What is the history of the social gathering places of today? i.e. Slickity Jim’s, Rhizome, Soma etc.
    • The Glass Slipper
    • Should there be any funding for non-profit organization to organize any cultural function?
    • Music in the home – “Living room”, music – people played instruments for entertainment – this include all family members
    • The oval
    • Are there examples of women’s cultural life?
    • Women must have been involved in things other than brothels

      Health – what were the issues of the time and what was done about them

      Biltmore
    • Things we’ve lost – Mitchell Homes?, the hall in the Biltmore lot, the Fire hall
      Public Dreams
    • Culture life can also be seen in people’s daily life; more restaurants of Chinese food, Korean food
    • Kimount Boys & Girls Club
    • Native Education College

    Theme Five: Social Diversity

    Is this important and why?

    • Yes, it’s important because the sooner we build more social housing to reinforce that diversity (that is being killed by condos, the better)
    • Disagree. A history of “87% British” is not a description of a socially diverse historic context.

    Would you like to add anything?

    • Social issues: addictions, homeless, prostitution, gambling, violence against women, crime (other)
    • A service guide showing names of organization available in this area for new immigrants from Asia
    • How did the different groups of people in Mt Pleasant fit in to the society? Did any organization do anything to help them? From the changes of services from different social service agencies, we can also see the impact/influence of cultural diversity, e.g. translation service….
    • Why the increase in population of Japanese, Chinese, Filipino….?
    • Changes in the policies of schools & libraries, public service providers can also tell the changes in Mt Pleasant over time, e.g. when did the library start providing Chinese books?

    Is anything missing?

    • Why ‘China Creek’? Who named it?
    • What about cultural diversity? Religious diversity? etc.
    • Were there any places of worship other than Christian churches?
    • Any new developments in Mt. Pleasant area need to incorporate supportive housing community/public/green space in their development plans. As well as restoration of the existing building on the site rather than tearing it down
    • How does spiritual work supporting the stability of this area?
    • La Boussole (Broadway & Fraser, Francophone Community Service)
    • Any important cultural event here in the past and now?
    • The influence of different cultural groups in Mt. Pleasant e.g. the Neighbourhood House started Chinese New Year Celebration back a few years ago

    What themes have we missed?

    • the Whip set up shop in the former home of the GRUNT Gallery – the area was already “artsy” by the time they arrived with a liquor license
    • The “Connaught” heritage apartment building at 8th & Guelph was named after the Duke of Connaught
    • Notable residents, e.g. De Pencier family lived at 7th & Quebec (SE corner), one became the Anglican Archbishop
    • The importance of the rail lands to the area?
    • Look into the balloon framed houses built prior to World War One; the type of construction technology reflects past history
    • Celebrating Aboriginal involvement, past & present
    • include a gender balance (50% female and 50% male) in all histories
    • Include women in all your themes! It may take a bit of work, but their history exists –you have to look beyond conventional history books and look to archive photographs, journals, oral history etc
    • The themes are good but the examples given echo the usual items included in heritage directions: buildings. (What about significant authors from area?) Another approach to pursue is to uncover historical events and organize them to see if new themes come up.
    • Did anything significant happen at any sites around Mt. Pleasant?
    • Daily life in Mt. Pleasant, e.g. activities, parks, any ‘informal’ gathering places? Any ‘informal’ landmark that everyone in Mt. Pleasant knows?
    • Social economic diversity: poor, working class, rich, middle class, transient
    • I think there needs to also be a focus on the areas natural history – the creeks & swamps. I find the area lacks green spaces perhaps some more could be created on the celebration of this history. Maybe there could be a walking/cycling trail made to connect the spaces – Agree, walkway programming replicating Tea Swamp path
    • Garment companies “district”, most of these are near this place
    • Past has its place, but need to direct money & space to present and future, things that are meaningful to people now. This neighbourhood is made up mostly by new immigrants and part-time artists. They are also shaping the present and future history
    • along with themes, how about adding guideline for each theme such as:
      1. Is there diversity of representative? i.e. are there any women, first Nations and ethnic groups, people of colour, people of different class, different religions etc.
      2. Are only “good stories” being collected or is there a “seedier” side that needs to be told – homelessness, addictions, gambling, drugs, alcohol, opium?
      3. Is there a history we cannot tell because there is no information – then say why there is none – i.e. silenced through policy, that kind of history not valued at that time, nothing written etc.

    • parks, community gardens, and Mt. Pleasant school
    • children encouraged in programming to ‘rediscover’ Brewery Creek through new markings
    • On space of condos not being built on Scotia & 7th, make swimming. Density of residents & kids would justify expense
    • Create rollerblading/skateboarding area for youth to hang out
    • Add more colour in architecture, murals, do not allow boring, grey & brown buildings to be built
    • Make Westside of Guelph Park officially off-leash for dogs – this is only catching up with reality and for the most part works well
    • keep mix of own/rental, old/new, single/multi-dwelling, low/high income makes diverse intensity and rich community
    • in addition to collecting stories…. Analysis on more recent changes in Mt. Pleasant can be beneficial to future plan
    • The denser and poorer the neighbourhood, the more need for spaces for community gardens. Make neighbourhood more attractive, safer, and visually pleasant
    • In shopping areas, please make it mandatory to create kid’s space where they can run free safely (e.g. like Oakridge Mall) in rainy days and parents can make friends
    • allow small corner stores in residential areas and encourage less use of cars, make friends in neighbourhood and make neighbourhood safer
    • need cheap, accessible space to foster multicultural and intergenerational exchange

    What historic places have we missed?

  • Building at 13th & St. George Street was built in 1912 in 6-unit multi-family rowhouse. Question: what’s the story behind this early densification at this location?
  • Acadian Hall
  • The Arza Club
  • The LIDO
  • What is the history of today’s gathering places: the Rhizome Café, Slickety Jim’s, The Whip?
  • Gathering places of today’s Mt. Pleasant: Rhizome Café, 317 E.Broadway(old historical building), Friends Records late 70s to early 80s, Punk/Alternative music Gigs in back
  • Were there so many people living here that needed such a huge Legion Hall on Main & 10th?
  • Skate Park: China Creek Bowls
  • China Creek Bike Track (VCC), e.g. festival on occasion of sporting events held on track decades ago
  • Current Mount Pleasant Community Centre and Pool
  • Robson Park
  • Salvation Army Chapel on 7th, now parking lot next to Quebec Manor, later chapel on 8th Avenue
  • History of change to local churches, i.e. conversions to living space on 10th Avenue
  • History of change to local churches, i.e. conversions to living space on 10th Avenue
  • the Glass Slipper (across the street from the Biltmore) beautiful music venue burned down in 2001 (?) – originally a church
  • Under theme 2: the shoreline of old False Creek: the old industry along the shoreline; the impact on urban development of the bridge across Westminster Avenue and Main Street
  • Michael Dennis public art/sculpture 1991 located at Prince Edward
  • Street car turn around 13th & Main
  • Save the cobble street between 10th & Broadway on Alberta
  • How do you plan on collecting histories of people who have moved away, i.e.?? the Japanese interned and who did not return to the area
  • The history of the Green Streets Program – Ditto, Green Streets now city-wide and emulated in other municipalities was born here
  • Have the commercial building on the corner of 12th & Cambie have heritage designs built into it when developed
  • SPCA

    • What have we missed? Your input is welcome. Register and Post your comments here.