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West End / Downtown

First Vancouver City Council Meeting after the fire - photograph by H. T. Devine
First Vancouver City Council Meeting after the fire - photograph by H. T. Devine (VPL # 508)

Related Guides

The peninsula that contains the West End and Downtown is the most densely populated area of Vancouver and also contains Stanley Park, its largest green space. Mole Hill, Yaletown, Coal Harbour, the Central Business District, Davie Village, Robson, and Granville Streets are all areas within these neighbourhoods.

Useful Websites

Restored West End Victorian house built in 1893.

Gathers together oral stories from individuals who grew up in Vancouver’s West End.

Walking tour highlighting buildings on Hastings from Victory Square to Bute Street.

Walking tour of this well-preserved part of the West End.

A list of book titles set in Vancouver's West End.

History of the West End starting in the late 1800s and running to about 1920. Information about buildings, streets, people and businesses.

Digital Library Resources
Culture and History Subject Icon

British Columbia city directories from 1860 to 1955. Directories include detailed historical information about British Columbian communities.

Access:
Everywhere for everyone
Newspapers and Magazines Subject Icon

Digitized newspaper archives covering The Province (1898 - present), The Vancouver Sun (1912 - present) and The Times Colonist (1884 - present).

Issues from most recent 3 months not available in this collection. See Canadian Newsstream for current issues.

Access:
Everywhere for Vancouver residents
Newspapers and Magazines Subject Icon

Search and view community newspapers from around BC published between 1865 and 1994. This collection makes many of BC's earliest newspapers freely available in digital format

Access:
Everywhere for everyone
Culture and History Subject Icon

Finding tool for historical information about BC in books, magazines and newspapers in the Vancouver Public Library collection.

Access:
Everywhere for everyone
Culture and History Subject Icon

A selection of historical images of Vancouver and British Columbia from the 1880s to the 1980s.

Access:
Everywhere for everyone
Culture and History Subject Icon

The Vancouver Public Library created This Vancouver to share the stories of Vancouverites and the history of Vancouver communities through images, audio clips, and videos. 

Access:
Everywhere for everyone

Recommended Titles

Cover Image for Buddy's: Meditations on Desire

Buddy's: Meditations on Desire

Stan Persky

306.7662 P46b

1989

Chronicles the lives of gay men in the West End in the 1980s.

Cover Image for Coal Harbour Recollections

Coal Harbour Recollections

Martin J. Wells

971.133 W45c

2007

History of this area from white settlement, through its era as a working waterfront to its transition to a residential community.

Downtown Vancouver, 1955-1976

G. Sutton Brown and Vancouver City Council (Technical Planning Board)

710.09 V22d

1956

Planning document provides a detailed picture of the downtown area in the middle of the last century and ideas about how it could change.

Cover Image for Inventing Stanley Park: An Environmental History

Inventing Stanley Park: An Environmental History

Sean Kheraj

971.133 K45i

2013

A look back at the ecological and urban history of Vancouver's landmark park.

Cover Image for Mole Hill Living Heritage: An Early History of Vancouver's Oldest Intact Block of Housing

Mole Hill Living Heritage: An Early History of Vancouver's Oldest Intact Block of Housing

Blair Petrie

720.9711 P49m

1995

A history of this heritage area that has become a community housing society with 170 rental units.

Cover Image for Stanley Park's Secret: The Forgotten Families of Whoi Whoi, Kanaka Ranch and Brockton Point

Stanley Park's Secret: The Forgotten Families of Whoi Whoi, Kanaka Ranch and Brockton Point

Jean Barman

971.133 B25s

2005

An eye-opening glimpse into the history of Stanley Park. Before becoming the landmark tourist attraction it is today, the park housed families of Hawaiian immigrants and a thriving First Nations settlement.

Yaletown

Vancouver Planning Department, British Columbia Heritage Trust, Heritage Vancouver Society and Vancouver Museum

720.9711 V224y

1997

Walking tour of historic buildings in Yaletown.

Contact Us

Northwest History Index

This card index in Special Collection provides access to the Northwest History Collection, a heritage collection covering the early history and exploration of British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest.

The collection includes:

  • magazine and newspaper articles
  • pamphlets
  • books
  • chapters in books
  • many other resources

As of August 1998, no new material has been added to the Northwest History Index. It is continued by the British Columbia Index.