DOA and Schools

This is the Simon Fraser School Annex on East 6th. Built in 1929, it currently houses a church and community center.

Remember last week when I showed you photos of the Western Front Lodge and told you a bit about its history. I have more to tell you now. Brewery Creek flowed east to the spot where the lodge is now.The creek formed a small lake at Scotia Street by the building of a dam.  From this lake, a fume was built to carry water to power the Vancouver Brewery's waterwheel at 7th and Scotia. Where is that lake today you might ask? Well, the organization of the Knights of Pithius built their lodge over the site of where that lake once was in 1922.

The Knights of Pithius were a secret society of 6,000 lodges and 800,000 members. Established during the American Civil War by Justus Rathbone, the society aimed to promote friendship, charity and benevolence. Lodge number 11 operated in Mount Pleasant for eighty years, from 1892 to 1972.

As you may have gathered, we are still in Mount Pleasant! Initially Mount Pleasant was known as 'False Creek' first and then later the 'Hill'.

 A.T. Julius Voight was the first non-native settler to establish himself in the neighbourhood in 1867. In 1888, Charles Maddams purchased land on what is now China Creek Park. (The park is named after the creek that ran through the property, which Maddams named after his Chinese neighbours.) Maddams built the first substantial farm in the area and when he died; his farm was the last in the neighbourhood as well.

On the topic of schools, the False Creek School, later known as the Mount Pleasant School, was opened in 1888. It stood in the area where Kingsgate Mall now is located.

The first white child recorded to have been born in Mount Pleasant is George Grauer. His parents lived in a cabin on the banks of Brewery Creek - what is now 10th and Main. In 1910, the Grauer family moved to 364 W 10th and that home is now the preserved Grauer residence.

Are you a punk rock fan? This next tidbit might interest you. A recent fire destroyed the last of three of the 1895 Grauer homes. In the 1990s, D.O.A. used this house as a rehearsal space and they shot a music video outside the building on Watson Street. The video debuted on Much Music in 1989.

The intersection at Main, 7th and Kingsway - where I have taken photos of the clock - served as the old Mount Pleasant village and some of the buildings retain their original western awnings. Later this area became a streetcar stop. By 1901, Victorian homes filled the blocks around this unique intersection, making this an important business hub. There were few homes built outside of the Mount Pleasant district pre-1901 (the end of the Victorian era) and therefore Mount Pleasant had Vancouver's largest collection of Victorian homes.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill, Vancouver, DOA, Grauer, Mount Pleasant, British Columbia

Important Trails

Located at 1945 Manitoba Street, this building's claim to fame is that in 1926, it had water connected.

I am back today to discuss Mount Pleasant. 

What we now call Main Street was originally Westminster Avenue and developed along the path of Brewery Creek.

This is one of the oldest streets in the city. As early as 1888, Westminster Avenue ran across False Creek so that the mill workers who lived in the new neighbourhood could get to work at the mill sites on the Burrard Inlet. Within twenty years, the Great Northern and Canadian Northern Pacific Railways filled in the eastern third of False Creek. Therefore, Westminster Avenue was no longer waterfront.

The original Westminster Road signs were made of vitreous enamel. The brittle material didn't last long under the assault of mischievous children armed with slingshots.

The upper sections of Mount Pleasant contained swampland, as is sort of remembered by the Tea Swamp Park at 16th and Sophia. This is also the former site of a swampy lake filled with labrador tea and created by beaver dams. Which flooded Brewery Creek.

An animal and First Nation's trail dissected Mount Pleasant. Originally called New Westminster Road, this pathway is now Kingsway. This trail became the first upgraded road in Mount Pleasant due to its importance as a link between early Vancouver and New Westminster.

For thousands of years this trail linked the Musqueam settlements on English Bay and the Stalo (Fraser River) at New Westminster. In 1858, during the gold rush, Colonel Moody of the Royal Engineers set up a military camp at one of the Musqueam settlements, renaming it Sapperton. 

Because Moody wanted to be able to give advance warning of an American Naval attack, he had the old trail upgraded to link his headquarters with his new British Naval Reserve on English Bay.

Moody's 'False Creek' trail was ready in 1861 and by 1875, a wooden bridge was built to cross Brewery Creek. This trail then became Westminster Road for stagecoaches and 'waggons' in 1884. With the introduction of automobiles, the once dirt trail was paved and its name changed to Kingsway. It continues with its original function of linking Vancouver and New Westminster.

For the information I have supplied here I have consulted the book Namely Vancouver by Tom Snyders and Jennifer O'Rourke,the History of Mount Pleasant webpage and Bob_2006 at Flickr.com.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill, Vancouver, Colonel Moody, Musqueam, Mount Pleasant, British Columbia

MOO Juice and stuff

I started out today on a mission. I was going to walk to the Avalon Dairy on Wales Street. The directions I got off of Google Maps got me all turned around so I asked a few people for directions. I tried following those but I still couldn't find the place. And after two and a half hours of walking and realizing I still had to walk home, I gave up on my search. But I will tell  you about the dairy.

In 1906 Jeremiah Crowley - originally from Western Bay Newfoundland - purchased a house on Wale Street which happened to come with six cows and Avalon Dairy had begun. According to the website there is a farmhouse that was built in 1908 that is still there.


I switch between cow's milk and soy but when I drink cow's milk I like Avalon. I like the taste, the price and the fact that although an extra dollar is charged for the glass bottle, I can wash out the empty bottle, return it and get my dollar back. Makes me feel like I am doing more to help the environment. The company has been around for 104 years now and here's hoping for another century plus.

Okay you may now think that I have lost my marbles. What is interesting about a street? Why would I take two photos of what looks to be an ordinary paved road? I'll tell you - this isn't just any paved road. This is Kingsway.


Kingsway is important because it follows the original Wagon Road built by the Royal Engineers. The engineers started the road at the waterfront in Gastown and then the route travelled east to British Columbia's then capital New Westminster.


As Vancouver became more established Wagon Road became Westminster Road later Westminster Street. In 1913 it was renamed Kingsway. Due to the age of this route Vancouver had not laid out its street grid when the trail was first built. Ergo the street is on a diagonal. It follows the gentlest incline up the spine of the Burrard Peninsula. During the Great Depression the government had workers widen Kingsway as a make work project. Now it has six lanes along most of it.


Interesting fact: The Canadian Poet Michael Turner based his book of poetry Kingsway on Kingsway Street and Vancouver illustrator Bambi Edlund has the illustration an Ode to Kingsway in her drawing project.

This Buddhist temple at the corner of Victoria Drive and East Broadway isn't that old. In fact the Tung Lin Kok Yuen Canada Society was established in 1994. Yet this building is as much of a fixture at this corner as the Rio Theatre on Broadway and that has been there since 1938 .

The original Tung Lin Kok Yuen is a Buddhist nunnery and educational institution located in Hong Kong. It was started by Lady Clara Ho Tung (nee Chen Lin Kok) when her husband, Sir Robert Ho Tung, gave her $100,000 for their fiftieth wedding anniversary in 1931. She wanted to put the money to good use and help those in need in her chaotic country.

Our Tung Lin Kok Yuen is a building of over twenty thousand square feet consisting of two main sections. In one section there are four seperate halls that are used for a multitude of functions, a vegetarian kitchen, a retail shop, library, offices and living quarters. The other side has two different halls, meditation rooms and a garden.

Doesn't it look gorgeous? One day I should really go in and learn more about this temple.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

TAGS:Vancouver, Karen Magill, Avalon Dairy, Tung Lin Kok Yuen,Victoria Drive,Kingsway,walk,history,