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Strathcona, Vancouver

Gentrification in CanadaNeighbourhoods in Vancouver
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Strathcona map

Strathcona is the oldest residential neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Officially a part of the East Side, it is bordered by Downtown Vancouver's Chinatown neighbourhood and the False Creek inlet (across Main Street) to the west, Downtown Eastside (across Hastings Street) to the north, Grandview-Woodland (across Clark Drive) to the east, and Mount Pleasant to the south of Emily Carr University and the Canadian National Railway and Great Northern Railway (now BNSF Railway) classification yards. By some definitions, Strathcona's northern border is the roads just south of Burrard Inlet, and much of the Downtown Eastside lies within Strathcona. By other definitions, Strathcona's northern boundary is just south of Hastings Street, and the Downtown Eastside is a separate neighbourhood to the north and northwest of Strathcona. The modern official demarcation puts Strathcona's northern border at Keefer Street.Strathcona has long been a hub of immigration and culture relative to Vancouver's more recently settled neighbourhoods. Chinese immigrants, Vietnamese immigrants, and various groups of European immigrants have characterized the neighbourhood's culture. Although Strathcona was historically a working-class neighbourhood, recently, more middle-class and affluent groups have come to inhabit the neighbourhood, attracted by its vibrant community. Strathcona is home to many art galleries, family-owned corner stores, and other small businesses.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Strathcona, Vancouver (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Strathcona, Vancouver
Keefer Street, Vancouver Strathcona

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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 49.279166666667 ° E -123.0875 °
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Address

Keefer & Hawks

Keefer Street
V6A Vancouver, Strathcona
British Columbia, Canada
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Fountain Chapel
Fountain Chapel

The Fountain Chapel was a church located at 823 Jackson Avenue in Vancouver, British Columbia from 1918 until 1985. It was the local chapter of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) and was co-founded by Nora Hendrix (grandmother of guitarist Jimi Hendrix) to serve Vancouver's black community. Although not officially designated a heritage structure, the building is one of a few markers of the black community that once flourished in this part of Vancouver. Prior to the establishment of the Fountain Chapel, black Christians held services in rented halls around town, and eventually a small group decided they should have a permanent church of their own. They set out to raise funds for the project and arranged for the AME to match the amount raised locally. Once financing was secured, they purchased the building on Jackson Avenue that was built in 1910 and had served as a Lutheran church for German and Scandinavian immigrants.The AME is a well-established Christian denomination that was founded in 1816 by African Americans in response to the racism they encountered in non-segregated churches. As such, the AME was an important institution for black opposition to antebellum slavery and anti-black racism generally. The AME's activist tradition continued in Vancouver. The church was the locus for organizing against racism on more than one occasion. In the 1922-1923 trial of Fred Deal, a railroad porter charged with murdering Vancouver police constable and Victoria Cross recipient Robert McBeath, the congregation of the Fountain Chapel mobilized to ensure that the likelihood Deal was racially targeted by police was accounted for in the verdict. Consequently, the case was re-tried and Deal's original death sentence was reduced to life in prison. In another case in the 1950s, the Fountain Chapel was used to voice the black community's demands for an inquiry into the police beating of Clarence Clemons, a black longshoreman, who died shortly after the incident in question.The black community that had geographically coalesced around the Fountain Chapel in the city's East End was displaced during the city's slum clearance programs of the 1950s and 1960s. In 1985, not long after Nora Hendrix's death, the AME sold the building, which housed the Basel Hakka Lutheran Church from then until 2008, when the building was officially decommissioned as a church and became a private residence. The building is situated at the eastern edge of what was once Hogan's Alley. On January 30, 2014, Canada Post issued a stamp commemorating Hogan's Alley and the Official First Day Cover depicts an illustration of the Fountain Chapel.

Hogan's Alley, Vancouver
Hogan's Alley, Vancouver

Hogan's Alley was the local, unofficial name for Park Lane, an alley that ran through the southwestern corner of Strathcona in Vancouver, British Columbia. The alley was located between Union and Prior (North-South) and ran from approximately Main Street to Jackson Avenue (West-East). The area was ethnically diverse, populated by Black, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Jewish, and Indigenous residents during the first six decades of the twentieth century. Home to a number of Black families, Black businesses, and the city's only Black church (the African Methodist Episcopal Fountain Chapel), Hogan's Alley has been referred to as the "first and last neighbourhood in Vancouver with a substantial concentrated black population". Hogan's Alley had a vibrant night life, with eateries and nightclubs that hosted local residents, railway porters, and touring musicians alike.Most of Hogan's Alley was destroyed circa 1970 by the Non-Partisan Association civic government's construction of the Georgia Viaduct, the first phase of a planned interurban freeway originally set to run through Hogan's Alley and much of Chinatown and Gastown. The subsequent freeway construction was stopped by the Strathcona Property Owners and Tenants Association, and Strathcona, Chinatown and Gastown were spared from razing, but not before Hogan's Alley was mostly demolished and the viaducts were built. The area where Hogan's Alley once was currently bears little mark of the Black community's historical presence. Since its destruction, Hogan's Alley has been referenced in several community-based cultural works and city projects. Groups such as Hogan's Alley Memorial Project, the Hogan's Alley Working Group, and the Hogan's Alley Society have worked to memorialize the area and advocate for Vancouver's Black community. In 2015, the City of Vancouver announced its plans to remove the viaducts and establish a cultural centre in the Hogan's Alley area.