Grandview-Woodland

Grandview-Woodland is a neighbourhood in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada to the east of the downtown area, stretching south from the shores of Burrard Inlet and encompassing portions of the popular Commercial Drive area. It is a mature neighbourhood in Vancouver that is a vibrant mixture of commercial, industrial, single-family and multi-family residential with a rich ethnic history and features.

Geography

A central part of the Vancouver area, Grandview-Woodland runs from the south shore of busy Burrard Inlet south to Broadway, one of the city's major east-west roads. The western border of the neighbourhood is Clark Drive, the eastern Nanaimo Street. It is a busy area for transportation, with Hastings Street and First Avenue both cutting through the neighbourhood, while Victoria Drive and Commercial Drive both run north-south through the area.

Much of the neighbourhood is built on the rise that stretches east-west through the eastern portion of Vancouver, making for views across the city proper and the inlet.

History

Local First Nations members have been aware of the Grandview-Woodland area for many years, and referred to the area along Burrard Inlet by the word for cedar trees in their language. A small cove created by a stream running into the inlet became a focal point for early development; the first building was a brewery, followed by sawmills using the forests of the area. The land along Burrard Inlet was valued by speculators after the Gold Rush, and was the location of the Canadian Pacific Railway when it was built in the 1880s. Around that time, the sawmill owners clearcut the entire Grandview-Woodland area, and the construction of the Interurban train line to New Westminster in 1891 spurred the construction of a new community in the area. One legend indicates that the name Grand View was first expressed on a sign hung by a homeowner next to the Interurban stop near the Commercial Drive-1st Avenue intersection.

In 1906, construction started to boom, with homes being built through the neighbourhood, and the railway influencing industrial development along the waterfront. Park Drive became a major commercial route that eventually became Commercial Drive, and people of many ethnic backgrounds made the neighbourhood their home over the years.

Features

Commercial Drive is perhaps the single most popular part of Grandview-Woodland. A street packed with small shops, it has been a key part of the commercial landscape in Vancouver for nearly a century for its ethnic diversity and the uniqueness of shops that populate it. Known locally as The Drive, visitors find everything from trendy coffee shops to hangouts for many ethnicities (celebrations during the FIFA World Cup can bring out soccer fans of many nationalities, for example) to sex toys to hemp shops. Little Italy focuses on the Drive, though many of its residents have moved to other neighbourhoods over the years.

References

*http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/community_profiles/grandview_woodland/
*http://www.discovervancouver.com/GVB/grandview.asp
*http://www.thedrive.ca/