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'Gastown' is an area of Vancouver, British Columbia, located between Downtown and the Downtown Eastside. Its historical boundaries were the waterfront (now Water Street and the CPR tracks), Columbia Street, Hastings Street, and Cambie Street, which were the borders of the first townsite survey, the proper name and postal address of which was Granville, B.I. ("Burrard Inlet"). Today's official boundary does not include most of Hastings Street except for the Woodward's and Dominion Buildings.

Contents

History

Today

External links

Archival photos

History

Gastown was Vancouver's first downtown core and is named after "Gassy" Jack Deighton, a British seaman, steamboat captain and barkeep who arrived in 1867 to open the area's first saloon. The town soon prospered as the site of a sawmill, seaport, and quickly became a general centre of trade and commerce on Burrard Inlet as well as a rough-and-rowdy resort for off-work loggers and fishermen as well as the crews and captains of the many sailing ships which came to Gastown or Moodyville, on the north side of the inlet (which was a dry town) to load logs and timber.
In 1886, the town was incorporated as the City of Vancouver. It fell victim to the "Great Vancouver Fire" that same year, losing all but two of its buildings. The area was completely rebuilt and continued to thrive, finding new life as the centre of the city's wholesale produce distribution until the Great Depression in the 1930s and, until the instigation of Prohibition, the centre of the city's drinking life (there were 300 licensed establishments the twelve-block area of the former Granville, B.I.) After the Depression Gastown was a largely-forgotten neighbourhood of the larger city and fell into decline and disrepair until the 1960s.
In the 1960s, citizens concerned with preserving Gastown's distinctive and historic architecture, which like the nearby Chinatown and Strathcona were scheduled to be demolished to build a major freeway into the city's downtown. A campaign led by businessmen and property owners as well as the counterculture and associated political protestors, some of them American draft dodgers, pressured the provincial government to declare the area a historical site in 1971, protecting its heritage buildings to this day.
Also in 1971, the Gastown Riots broke out when a marijuana 'smoke in' became violent when the Vancouver police broke it up.

Today

Gastown is a mix of tourist-oriented business (generally restricted to Water Street), restaurants, nightclubs, poverty and newly-upscale housing. In addition, there are law firms, architects and other professional offices, as well as computer and internet businesses, art galleries, music and art studios, and acting and film schools.
Gastown's most famous (though nowhere near oldest) landmark is its steam-powered clock, located on the corner of Cambie and Water Street. Long powered by electricity after its previous breakdown the steam mechanism has been completely restored with the financial support of local businesses. The steam used is low pressure district heating steam that powers a miniature steam engine in its base, in turn driving a chain lift. The chain lift moves steel balls upward, where they are unloaded and roll to a descending chain. The weight of the balls on the descending chain drives a conventional pendulum clock escapement, geared to the hands on the four faces. The steam also powers the clock's sound production as whistles are used instead of bells to produce the Westminster "chime" and to signal the time.

Gastown retains few vestiges of its 1970s role as "Haight-Ashbury North"., with the area now mostly coffee shops, galleries, native art and import stores, restaurants and nightclubs. Hippie and stoner types are rarely found in this neighbourhood however, favouring Commercial Drive instead.
Popular annual events that take place on the cobblestone streets of Gastown include the Vancouver International Jazz Festival and the Tour de Gastown international bicycle race.

External links

★ Official Gastown Community Website

★ Gastown at Virtual Vancouver

★ Vancouver International Jazz Festival

★ Tour de Gastown

Archival photos

★ View of Gastown from offshore, 1884, prior to announcement of CPR terminus

★ View of Gastown from offshore, 1886

★ View of Alexander Street, Gastown c.1911 (caption says Water Street, but it is behind buildings at right)

★ View of Water Street from jct. Cordova Street, c.1890

★ View of Water Street from Maple Tree Square, 1887 (Sunnyside Hotel at right)

★ View of Cordova Street from above intersection of Carrall; July 1, 1890 Dominion Day celebrations

★ View of Cordova Street from above intersection of Cambie; c.1900 when this was still the city's principal shopping district