Welcome to my Neighbourhood - Commercial Drive

Today I am starting something new. Sometimes I will take a walk through a neighbourhood, take photos then tell you a bit about that area. The first area I chose is Commercial Drive. Probably because it is close and I didn't have to walk far. Some of the information I am going to relate, I will have already told you but there will new stuff too.

We are starting our journey on the north end - at Commercial Drive and E Hastings Street. Commercial Drive does extend north past this intersection but for this feature, we aren't going to cover that.


Originally, this area was the skid road on which logs were dragged to the harbour. In 1902, its name was Park Drive because it led to Clark Park - the southern border of Vancouver.

This lot has been vacant the entire time I have lived in this area and that is almost 11 years! I wonder if they will ever build anything there? Probably housing, Vancouver needs a lot of that right now. The building in the photo below is empty and borders the lot, which leads to me guess we might see townhouses or condos built there in the near future.

Older homes along the Drive.

This street was part of the Vancouver-New Westminster Interurban Railway route, which was started by H.V. Edmonds and Mayor David Oppenheimer, among others. The rail line generated a lot of traffic so South Vancouver merged Cedar Cottage Road, Edmund Street and Norfolk Road into Commercial Street in 1910 because they were anticipating a big business boom. (Commercial Street is separate from Commercial Drive) 

Nick's Spaghetti House, reportedly the best pasta in Vancouver.

In 1911, the name of the street changed from Park Drive to Commercial Drive and even back then, it was referred to as 'The Drive', which many people still call it.

There was a proposal in 1982 to rename The Drive, Via Garibaldi in recognition of the large Italian population in this area. The name would also honour the revolutionary patriot, Giusseppe Garibaldi. That idea was quashed due to the cost involved and that fact that there is a street named Garibaldi Drive in the Champlain Heights district of Vancouver.

At one time, there were four streets in Vancouver with the name Park. Now there is only one, in Marpole.

Next door to Nick's is the York Theatre. This theatre has recently been revamped since it was an eyesore for many years before. It has a lot of history though, which I wrote about in a 2010 entry.

Before World War I, there were a group of speculators who attempted to turn the Grandview area - the district that surrounds The Drive - into a real estate area comparable with the West End or Shaughnessy. That idea crumbled with the global financial collapse of 1913.

During the 1920s, this area was a prosperous suburb and not far from the centre of town, Main and Hastings, but the Great Depression changed all that. In addition, the centre of town moved further west. But the area has been left with a large number of historical buildings and homes.

Adanac - a bike friendly street. Want to know how that name came to be?  Spell it backwards!

 Lost on The Drive? Perhaps one of these information stands will help.

 
 The number 20 bus runs along Commercial Drive.

I hope you enjoyed this little glimpse of my neighbourhood. I have lots more photos and stories to tell you.

Thanks to the book Namely Vancouver by Tom Snyders and Jennifer O'Rourke for some of the information above as well as Wikipedia for other facts.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Grand!

Built in 1913, this is 2235 Commercial Drive.


In 1902, Commercial Drive was known as Park Drive since it led to Clark Park, which at that time marked Vancouver's southern border.

H.V. Edmonds, Mayor David Oppenheimer and others started the Vancouver-New Westminster Interurban railway and this street was part of it. The rail line generated so much traffic that South Vancouver merged Cedar Cottage Road, Edmund Street and Norfolk Road into Commercial Street in 1910.

The city was anticipating a business boom in this area. In 1911, the street's name changed from Park to Commercial Drive. Yet, even then, it was known simply as "The Drive". Over the years the street has become more successfully commercialized.

In 1982, there was a proposal to rename the street Via Garibaldi in recognition of the area's Italian population and honoring the revolutionary patriot Giusseppe Garibaldi. However, due to the expense, the idea was quashed. As well, there is a Garibaldi Drive in Champlain Heights.

I live in this area and I know first had that "The Drive" is a magnet for our city's counter cultural activity, political statements, unique shops and restaurants. If you go for a walk along Commercial Drive, you will see panhandlers, artists displaying their wares, second hand merchandise spread out and being sold. There is money here and there is poverty.

Commercial Drive is in the Grandview district of Vancouver. The story of how this area got the name is that in 1892 a resident stuck a sign saying "Grand View" at the interurban stop nearest his home at Commercial and First. And there are some great views in this area.

Thanks to the extensive logging of the area's forest - beginning in 1871 - a view to False Creek, which at that time reached today's Clark Drive, could be seen. Today, the downtown core of Vancouver shines brightly on a sunny day.

This little village grew quickly when the interurban line to New Westminster was completed in 1892. Its main growth happened after Professor Edward Odlum built his home on Grant in 1904.

Other large homes were built around here and it looked like this was going to be an upscale neighborhood. But the grandiose visions for Grandview were crushed when the CPR invested $2 million in making Shaughnessy the place to be. So Grandview became a middle class area. 


In the years after World War II, Vancouver's Italian population left the area around Union Street and settled in Grandview, giving the area the nickname "Little Italy".

Thanks to Tom Snyders and Jennifer O'Rourke and the book Namely Vancouver for the information on the street names. And to Bob_2006 at Flickr.com for information on the building.

Karen Magill, Vancouver, Grandview, Commercial Drive, Park Drive, British Columbia

Park and Venables

I found a site on Flickr that shows a lot of older buildings in Vancouver. It doesn't share a lot of information sometimes but I will still show you some photos.

Like this place.

This house was built in 1907 and is located on Venables, not far off of Commercial Drive. The first tenant was a carpenter by the name of Thomas Brettistone.

It is for sale if you are interested.

There are a few older houses like this in Vancouver. The area has changed from residential to primarily commercial and these homes are sandwiched between commercial buildings.

This next home is just around the corner on Commercial Drive and it is between two commercial buildings.

In the close to nine years that I have lived in this area I have walked by this home numerous times and never thought much about it. Besides the fact that I do admire the gardens. I would never have known that the house was built in 1906.

When the first resident lived in this building, logger Charles H. Preston had the address of 928 Park Drive.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill, Venables, Vancouver, Park Drive, Commercial Drive, logger, carpenter, British Columbia