Gastown
Encyclopedia
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
, at the northeast end of Downtown adjacent to the Downtown Eastside
Downtown Eastside
The Downtown Eastside is one of the oldest neighbourhoods in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is known as "Canada's poorest postal code"....
. Its historical boundaries were the waterfront (now Water Street and the CPR
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...
tracks), Columbia Street, Hastings Street, and Cambie Street, which were the borders of the 1870 townsite
Townsite
A townsite is a legal subdivision of land for the development of a town or community. In the historical development of the United States, Canada, and other former British colonial nations, the filing of a townsite plat or plan was often the first legal act in the establishment of a new town or...
survey, the proper name and postal address of which was Granville, B.I. ("Burrard Inlet"). Today's official boundary does not include most of Hastings Street except for the Woodward's
Woodward's
Woodward's was the name of a department store chain which operated in Alberta and British Columbia, Canada for one hundred years, before its sale to the Hudson's Bay Company .-History:...
and Dominion Building
Dominion Building
The Dominion Building , is a commercial building in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Located on the edge of Gastown , it was Vancouver's first steel-framed high-rise. At 53 m , the thirteen-storey, Second Empire style building was the tallest commercial building in the British Empire upon its...
s, and stretches east past Columbia St., to the laneway running parallel to the west side of Main Street.
History
Gastown was Vancouver's first downtown core and is named after "Gassy" Jack DeightonJohn Deighton
John Deighton , generally known as "Gassy Jack", was a Canadian bar owner who was born in Hull, England. The Gastown neighborhood of Vancouver, British Columbia is named for him....
, a Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
seaman, steamboat captain and barkeep who arrived in 1867 to open the area's first saloon
Bar (establishment)
A bar is a business establishment that serves alcoholic drinks — beer, wine, liquor, and cocktails — for consumption on the premises.Bars provide stools or chairs that are placed at tables or counters for their patrons. Some bars have entertainment on a stage, such as a live band, comedians, go-go...
. The town soon prospered as the site of Hastings Mill sawmill
Sawmill
A sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards.-Sawmill process:A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of hundreds of years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end....
, seaport, and quickly became a general centre of trade and commerce on Burrard Inlet
Burrard Inlet
Burrard Inlet is a relatively shallow-sided coastal fjord in southwestern British Columbia, Canada. Formed during the last Ice Age, it separates the City of Vancouver and the rest of the low-lying Burrard Peninsula from the slopes of the North Shore Mountains, home to the communities of West...
as well as a rough-and-rowdy resort for off-work loggers and fishermen as well as the crews and captains of the many sailing ships which came to Gastown or Moodyville, on the north side of the inlet (which was a dry town) to load logs and timber. The Canadian Pacific Railway
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...
terminated on piles on the shore parallel
to Water Street in 1886. From this the area became a hive of warehouses. Part of Gastown, that of Carroll Street was particularly swampy owing to it being low ground between False Creek and
Burrard Inlet. Bridges overcame this obstacle and the low ground and beach was slowly filled in with refuse. In 1886, the town was incorporated as the City of Vancouver. It fell victim to the "Great Vancouver Fire
Great Vancouver Fire
The Great Vancouver Fire was a conflagration that destroyed most of the newly incorporated city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on 13 June 1886. The fire began as a brush fire to clear land between present-day Main and Cambie Streets that was spread out of control by a strong gale...
" that same year, losing all but two of its buildings. The area was completely rebuilt and continued to thrive. As said Hastings and Main was the traditional centre of town, and the foreshore became an important staging area with the North and West Vancouver Ferries, and Union Steamships all having docks there. Evans, Coleman, Evans a longtime merchandiser had a warehouse; also, Fleck Brothers, and Koret distributors had buildings. Department stores such as Spencer's, Hudson's Bay Company
Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company , abbreviated HBC, or "The Bay" is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world. A fur trading business for much of its existence, today Hudson's Bay Company owns and operates retail stores throughout Canada...
warehouse, Woodward's
Woodward's
Woodward's was the name of a department store chain which operated in Alberta and British Columbia, Canada for one hundred years, before its sale to the Hudson's Bay Company .-History:...
, Fairbanks Morse, Army and
Navy stores, and food retailers Malkins and Kelly Douglas traded and were based there.
Gastown found new life as the centre of the city's wholesale produce distribution until the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
in the 1930s. It also was centre of the city's drinking life (there were 300 licensed establishments the twelve-block area of the former Granville, B.I.) After the Depression Gastown was a largely forgotten neighbourhood of the larger city and fell into decline and disrepair until the 1960s. It was a continuation of the Skid Road area with cheap beer parlours, flophouse hotels, and loggers hiring halls.
In the 1960s, citizens became concerned with preserving Gastown's distinctive and historic architecture, which like the nearby Chinatown and Strathcona
Strathcona (Vancouver)
Strathcona is Vancouver, British Columbia's oldest residential neighbourhood. It is bordered by Chinatown to the west, Clark Drive to the east, Burrard Inlet on the north, and Canadian National Railway and Great Northern Railway classification yards to the south.-History:Over 8,000 people now live...
were scheduled to be demolished to build a major freeway into the city's downtown. A campaign led by businessmen and property owners as well as the counterculture
Counterculture
Counterculture is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, or subculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition. Counterculture can also be described as a group whose behavior...
and associated political protestors, pressured the provincial government to declare the area a historical site in 1971, protecting its heritage buildings to this day. A riot between the
hippies and the police in 1971 over marijuana has gone into legend, a throw back to the more serious Post office riot of 1938.
The Gastown was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 2009.
Today
Gastown has become a hub for technology and new media. It has attracted companies such as Zaui Software, Idea Rebel
Idea Rebel
Idea Rebel is a Canadian privately held company, specializing in many areas of digital marketing, including mobile experiences, social media strategies, search and analytics, interface design, usability, and branding....
, BootUp Labs Entrepreneurial Society, and MarketR.
Popular annual events that take place on the cobblestone
Cobblestone
Cobblestones are stones that were frequently used in the pavement of early streets. "Cobblestone" is derived from the very old English word "cob", which had a wide range of meanings, one of which was "rounded lump" with overtones of large size...
streets of Gastown include the Vancouver International Jazz Festival
Vancouver International Jazz Festival
The Vancouver International Jazz Festival is an annual summer event in Vancouver, Canada.The festival grew out of a local jazz scene that centred around Vancouver Co-op Radio , a community radio station, in the early 1980s...
and the Tour de Gastown international bicycle race.
In June 2004, Storyeum
Storyeum
Storyeum was a short-lived tourist attraction, located at 142 Water Street, Vancouver. Storyeum was located in the largely touristy area of the Gastown neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada...
opened in Gastown. It was a lively theatrical 65-minute show that re-enacted the history of BC using eight sets that were all located below street level. Unfortunately, due to mounting debt, the attraction closed its doors in October 2006.
The Gastown Steam Clock
Steam clock
A steam clock is a clock which is fully or partially powered by a steam engine. Only a few functioning steam clocks exist, most designed and built by Canadian horologist Raymond Saunders for display in urban public spaces...
on the corner of Cambie and Water Street. Built to cover a steam grate, part of Vancouver's distributed steam-heating system, the clock was built as a way to harness the steam and to prevent street people from sleeping on the spot in cold weather. Its original design was faulty and it had to be powered by electricity after a breakdown. The steam mechanism was completely restored with the financial support of local businesses as it had become a major tourist attraction, and is promoted as a heritage feature although it is of modern invention. The steam used is low pressure downtown-wide steam heating network (from a plant adjacent to the Georgia Viaduct
Georgia Viaduct
The Georgia Viaduct is a twinned bridge that acts as a flyover-like overpass in Vancouver, British Columbia. It passes between Rogers Arena and BC Place Stadium and connects Downtown Vancouver with Strathcona.-History:...
) that powers a miniature steam engine in its base, in turn driving a chain lift. The chain lift moves steel balls upward, where they are unloaded and roll to a descending chain. The weight of the balls on the descending chain drives a conventional pendulum clock escapement, geared to the hands on the four faces. The steam also powers the clock's sound production as whistle
Whistle
A whistle or call is a simple aerophone, an instrument which produces sound from a stream of forced air. It may be mouth-operated, or powered by air pressure, steam, or other means...
s are used instead of bell
Bell (instrument)
A bell is a simple sound-making device. The bell is a percussion instrument and an idiophone. Its form is usually a hollow, cup-shaped object, which resonates upon being struck...
s to produce the Westminster "chime" and to signal the time.
Gastown retains few vestiges of its 1970s role as "Haight-Ashbury North"., with the area now mostly coffee shops, galleries, native art and import stores, restaurants and nightclubs.
Nightlife
Among Gastown's clubs are Canvas, Modern, Fabric and Shine. Bars (a different licensings category in Vancouver) include 19 Below, The Cambie, Chill Winston, Columbia Club, Lamplighter Public House, Mao Mao Bistro, One Lounge, Revel, The Annex, and The Columbia. The Town Pump, now renamedExternal links
- Official Gastown Community Website
- Gastown at Virtual Vancouver
- Tour de Gastown
- Club Zone.com "Gastown Bars" page
Archival photos
- View of Gastown from offshore, 1884, prior to announcement of CPR terminus
- View of Gastown from offshore, 1886
- View of Alexander Street, Gastown c.1911 (caption says Water Street, but it is behind buildings at right)
- View of Water Street from jct. Cordova Street, c.1890
- View of Water Street from Maple Tree Square, 1887 (Sunnyside Hotel at right)
- View of Cordova Street from above intersection of Carrall; July 1, 1890 Dominion Day celebrations
- View of Cordova Street from above intersection of Cambie; c.1900 when this was still the city's principal shopping district
