Victoria-Fraserview

Victoria-Fraserview is a neighbourhood in the City of Vancouver, set on the south slope of the rise that runs north from the Fraser River and encompassing a large area of residential and commercial development. Surrounding the culturally eclectic Victoria Drive corridor, Victoria-Fraserview is an ethnically diverse area that was one of the earliest areas of settlement in the region.

Geography

Stretching north from the Fraser River to East 41st Avenue, Victoria-Fraserview is bordered on the west by Knight Street - one of Vancouver's busiest north-south corridors - and on the east by a line including Elliott Street and Vivian Drive. It lies on a south-facing slope that looks over the Fraser River and Mitchell Island towards Richmond and Delta. Much of the commercial development in the neighbourhood is focused along Victoria Drive, which features a range of ethnic shops and services. The neighbourhood is dominated by single-family residential residences, though some townhomes can be found throughout the area. Along the Fraser River, a portion of the development known as the Fraserlands has brought condominiums and other residential construction to former industrial lands.

History

Musqueam First Nations tradition indicates that the flats along the Fraser River in the southeastern portion of Victoria-Fraserview was the site of an important village and a number of east-west trails leading to settlements in what is now New Westminster. The first European settlers arrived in the 1860s, and a wagon road constructed in 1875 to the west of Knight Street on what is now Fraser Street opened the vast acres of virgin forest to homesteaders. As part of the Municipality of South Vancouver, Victoria-Fraserview began to receive more attention from farmers who cleared land in the region. It became part of the city of Vancouver in 1929.

Much of the existing development in the neighbourhood came in the 1940s, when land was needed for returning veterans of World War II. 1,100 new homes were built in the area (and its neighbour to the west, Sunset) for these veterans, on land expropriated by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation despite protestations of neighbours.

In the early days of settlement, the floodplain along the Fraser River was popular with small vegetable farmers, but later was taken over by industrial development along the working river. Since the 1980s, industrial land has slowly transformed to residential properties.

Features

While Victoria-Fraserview was populated early in the city's development, it does not have many existing heritage buildings, but one remains as a unique site in a metropolitan city - the Avalon Dairy. Started in 1906 by Jeremiah Crowley, the Avalon Dairy started with six cows and was built up to be a successful dairy operation that continues to produce to this day. The farm, the longest continuous dairy operation in British Columbia, operates out of the farmhouse built in 1908, and is still operated by the Crowley family.

Victoria-Fraserview contains eight parks, including the Fraserview Golf Course (shared with its eastern neighbour, Killarney), and a number of walking trails along the Fraser River.

References

*http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/community_profiles/victoria-fraserview/index.htm
*http://www.discovervancouver.com/gvb/sunset-victoria-fraserview.asp
*http://www.avalondairy.com/