Dunbar Residents Association News and Events

Angus Rd. (to 1912) now West 45th Ave.
Bath Rd. (1909) survey name) now West 30th Ave. (Blenheim St. to Carnarvon St.)
Bodwell Rd. (to 1912) now West 33rd Ave.
Bruce St. (to 1919) now Wallace St.
Buckland Rd. (to 1912) now West 29th Ave. (Camosun St. to Trafalgar St.)
Cecil Rd. (1909 survey name) now West 35th Ave. (Collingwood St. to Blenheim St.)
Chaldedcott Rd. (to 1912) now King Edward Ave. (Camosun St to MacDonald St.)
Clere Rd. (to 1912) now Dunbar St. (16th Ave. to S.W. Marine Dr.)
Devon Rd. (1909 survey name) now West 30th Ave. (Blenheim St. to Balaclava St.)
Fraser Ave. (to 1919) now Celtic Ave.
Harcourt Rd. (to 1912) now West 43rd Ave. (Balaclava St. to MacDonald St.)
Johnson Rd. (to 1912) now Blenheim St.
Kerridale Ave. (to 1912) now MacKenzie St.
Leonard Rd. (to 1912) now West 35th Ave. (Crown St. to Dunbar St.)
Magee Rd. (to 1912) West 49th Ave. (Carnarvon St. to Granville St.)
Manor Rd. (to 1912) now West 42nd Ave. (Balaclava St. to MacKenzie St.)
Moncton Rd. (to 1914) now Crown St. (W. 35th Ave. to W. 37th Ave. & SW Marine Dr. to Musqueam Reserve)
Murton Rd. (to 1909) West 34th Ave. (Collingwood St. to Blenheim St.)
Stirling St. (to 1930) now Prescott St. (W. 53rd Ave. to W. 55th Ave.)
Stirling Rd. (to 1912) now Balaclava St. (W. 53rd Ave. to W. 55th Ave.)
Taber Rd. (1909 survey name) now West 36th Ave. (Crown St. to Dunbar St.)
Whitehead Rd. (to 1910) now West 37th Ave. (Camosun St. to Cambie St.)
Wilson Rd. (to 1912) now West 41st Ave.

From
Street Names of Vancouver
Elizabeth Walker. Vancouver Historical Society. Vancouver, 1999

Arts and Culture

The pioneer McCleerys brought a piano around “the Horn” and the Philomel Ladies Choir became an integral part of the Bach Choir. Dunbar has always been home to musicians, artists and authors. It was also home to grassroots groups which went on to influence the wider arts scene in Vancouver. Many gifted creative people still live in Dunbar and continue to work and teach in the community.

Churches, Schools and Social Life

Lord Kitchener School opened in 1914, while Crofton House and the St. George’s Junior School , formerly the Convent of the Sacred Heart, are on Vancouver’s register of heritage sites. Two Dunbar churches and a high school are currently celebrating 75th anniversaries. Churches often started as small congregation in private houses and in the early days, children walked to school through the bush, and streets bustled with people not cars.

History, Geography and Demographics

Dunbar’s first non-native occupants worked on Henry Stamp’s logging claims, skidding logs down to the Fraser River to be transported by water to Hastings Mill in Vancouver harbour. Settled almost 100 years ago by immigrants from the British Isles, Dunbar has become a diverse community of just over 20,000.

Neighbourhood Architecture

In 1909, American developer Charles T. Dunbar purchased 12 blocks in what is now Dunbar Heights for $50,000 and promoted the area by distributing free calendars and advertising that lots were “selling like hot cakes.” Stores, schools and churches followed. During the 20′s, the community realized there was a need for a community hall and “everyone chipped in to build one at 29th & Dunbar.

Transportation and Commercial Development

In 1913, Charles Dunbar paid the B.C. Electric Railway Company $35,000 to extend the streetcar line from 41st north along Dunbar Street, thus opening up residential and commercial development in Dunbar Heights. With the streetcar came shops and businesses like Stong’s and Blight’s, the Piggly-Wiggly, Pyatt’s confectionery shop and Harcus’ Drugstore.

Parks, Gardens and Natural Environment

Coho once spawned where the Dunbar Theatre now stands. Early residents recall playing in the vacant lots on every block in Dunbar, as well as in the bogs, marshes. streams and forest where Dunbar’s parks are now located. “Amalgamation” with the City of Vancouver in January 1929, the Depression of the 1930′s, and World War II each brought about surprising changes to the appearance of parks, boulevards and gardens in Dunbar Heights area.

Archaeological evidence indicates that Native Indians inhabited the Southlands area by the North Arm of the Fraser River 3,000 years ago. The mouth of the Fraser provided abundant hunting, fishing and gathering areas for Coast Salish people who settled in at least two locations: the present-day Angus lands and the Musqueam area, where there were several family groupings over time.

The first white settlers came with the allocation of land to potential farmers following the gold rush in 1862.The McCleery brothers, Henry Mole and Hugh Magee were bachelors, but quickly established dairy and cattle farms along the river’s edge raising families, starting schools and supplying logging camps and new settlers with meat and milk.

Although logged, burned and left with fallen trees and brush, the Dunbar area was settled on the southern end of Johnson Road (now Blenheim St.) starting in 1902. In Dunbar Heights north of there, housing starts were made as early as 1910. Water came from wells and people were using septic tanks until Point Grey Municipality took over the governance of the area and began water connections in 1912.

By 1925 a streetcar was serving Dunbar from the north, while already in 1911 there was streetcar service west on 41st Ave. to Clere Road. (now Dunbar St.) Dunbar/Southlands became part of Vancouver in 1929 when the Municipality of Point Grey amalgamated with the City of Vancouver.

The first significant land development in Dunbar-Southlands occurred in the mid-1920s and some of the homes built during this period still stand today. Because West Point Grey’s 1922 zoning by-laws dictated that these early homes be situated well back on their lots, those that remain standout as neighbourhood landmarks. Subsequent development took place in the years following World War II and then again in the early 1970s when King Edward Place and Salish Park were developed.

Heritage

Dunbar-Southlands has a rich architectural heritage and, fortunately, a number of significant homes and buildings still remain from the area’s early settlement days. As of June 1992, there were 21 structures listed on the Vancouver Heritage Register.

Lord Kitchener School located on Blenheim at King Edward was built in 1914. This building features a refined combination of wood surfaces and textures, and is a very good example of the sophisticated use of wood that could be seen in Vancouver prior to the First World War.

Some of the earliest homes in this area are designed in the English Arts and Crafts and the Edwardian Building styles. Many of the homes were built before 1920 and remain as single family homes to this day. The Haigler House at 3537 W. 30th Avenue is a good example of such a building. Community support prompted its preservation.

For detailed information on heritage buildings in this area, and in Vancouver generally, visit City of Vancouver Heritage. Additional information is available through the City of Vancouver Archives.

I went to the river and waited, but they did not come. My eyes recognised everyone, for they were watching and waiting like me, but they did not come. My friend the great Blue heron, the local seal and the gulls, are watching and waiting with great hope they might come. The two river otters near my boat have again appeared from nowhere; they seem to be patrolling back and forth across Mitchell Channel, watching for them to pass by. My old sea lion visitor from the channel islands in southern California is again missing this year; he seems to know they are not coming. I know the Great White Fraser Sturgeon are making their annual down river trip, for they have been making it for thousands of years to meet them; I wonder what they will think when they do not come? It is so sad to think that all these species that have passed on this seasonal fish hunt from one generation to the next are now finding that the Eulacheon of the Fraser are no more. As I walk the banks of the North Arm of the Fraser today, EARTH DAY, I watch and wait and wonder if these saviour fish, the Eulachon, will return this year, for so many others are also watching and waiting.

Terry Slack