Strathcona: Vancouver's First Neighbourhood

Ann Turner is the financial and budget manager of the University of
British Columbia Library.

Vancouver author John Atkin, a resident of Strathcona himself, is well
known for his interest in preserving Vancouver’s heritage buildings
and neighbourhoods. Strathcona has a special appeal because it was
Vancouver’s first neighbourhood, and also because of its cultural
diversity and the feisty community spirit its residents have displayed
whenever their neighbourhood was threatened. As Atkin puts it,
“Despite the best efforts in the past to destroy it, Strathcona has
survived.” It has been called the East End, a workingman’s
community, an example of urban blight in the 1950s, and a model for the
new “urban village” of the 1990s.

This chronicle of its defiant survival is a fascinating tale spanning
the effects of two world wars, political intrigues, and a series of
economic ups and downs, from the early settlement of shacks and cottages
around Hastings Mill in the 1860s to the Neighbourhood Plan now being
implemented. The narrative is heavily illustrated with historical
photographs, each with its own descriptive commentary. Both narrative
and commentaries are indexed. Atkin’s study is a significant
contribution to the preservation of Vancouver’s heritage.