Created during grunt gallery’s 2018 Mount Pleasant Community Art Screen Digital Storytelling workshops with Mount Pleasant residents. Mount Pleasant Heritage Group’s video highlights our popular and historic area of Vancouver, also known as the “Heritage Heart.” Please enjoy! and share with friends and lovers of heritage.
https://digitalstories.ca/video/vancouvers-treasured-old-mount-pleasant-village/
Main Street and 8th Avenue looking north 1922 VPL 5279 Philip Timms
Mount Pleasant is the oldest neighbourhood in Vancouver outside of the downtown peninsula and the city’s first suburb. The hub from which the historic Old Mount Pleasant Village developed in the late 1880s and early 1900s occupies the area on Main Street (between 6th and 12th Avenues) and the Triangle Block – formed by Kingsway, Main Street and Broadway. Many of the buildings from that era still exist and have consistently provided affordable housing and commercial spaces.
1897-1901 Goad Fire Insurance Map showing Old Mount Pleasant Village/Heritage Heart when Main Street was named Westminster Avenue, Kingsway was Westminster Road and Broadway was 9th Avenue – map courtesy of Library and Archives Canada Online MIKAN no. 3807867
The Mount Pleasant Community Plan (MPCP) was adopted in November of 2010 after an extensive public planning process which began in March 2007. The subsequent Implementation Package (IP), which built upon the Plan, was adopted in October of 2013. Both documents contain principles and policies to address issues and guide development over 30 years. During the planning process the Triangle Block came to be affectionately referred to as the Heritage Heart.
So what do the Plan and Implementation Package say about this section of Mount Pleasant?
Calladines Grocery Trucks on Main Street Between 7th and 8th 1918 CVA 99-5163 Stuart Thomson
In 2015 the city put out a call for public nominations as part of its Heritage Register upgrade. In keeping with the principles and policies of the Plan and Implementation Package, the Mount Pleasant Heritage Group (MPHG) put forth a nomination to create a Main Street Heritage Precinct in the Old Mount Pleasant Village/Heritage Heart area of the neighbourhood. The city is in the process of developing themes for the Heritage Register and reviewing nominations. A report is due later in the year.
Heritage has come to be defined more broadly and to include intangible heritage assets, assets that contribute to the cultural and social fabric of a healthy community. It is important that the city recognizes that this unique area – with its human scale heritage and older, modest buildings providing relatively affordable housing and spaces for the neighbourhood’s treasured small and independent businesses – is a distinctive neighbourhood high street cherished not only by the local community, but also by the entire city. The MPHG believes that this historic hub and vibrant shopping and gathering spot is worthy of preservation as it meets our collective needs for local identity, sense of place, and connection to our neighbourhood.
NW Corner of Main Street and 10th Avenue looking north 1920 VPL 7434 Philip Timms
You can access the Mount Pleasant Community Plan and Implementation Package documents here.
We had a good turnout for Michael’s presentation, there was lively discussion along the way and lots of questions at the end.
Michael touched on the development of heritage policy with its beginnings in 1974, when the Barrett provincial government enacted legislation amending the Vancouver Charter and allowing the city council to designate heritage buildings. This was in response to the outcry over the demolition of the Birks Building and is when buildings like the Hotel Vancouver, Marine Building and HBC Store were designated. He mentioned how the Bennett provincial government that followed enacted new legislation that suggested owners of buildings might be entitled to compensation if a heritage designation reduced the value of their properties. It has been under this constraint that the city’s Heritage Management Plan (first adopted in 1986) has needed to operate and develop its system of incentives and protective measures.
Michael explained the scoring system that is used to give buildings an A, B or C on the Vancouver Heritage Register and that being on the register is not a guarantee of protection. But it is the first step to becoming eligible to receiving a designation and he detailed the process of creating a Statement of Significance which is needed to get on the register.
He referred to the city’s current Heritage Action Plan, which is a review of how heritage conservation is managed and its recent public nomination process for new additions to the Vancouver Heritage Register. Anyone can nominate a site and the deadline is Monday, September 14, 2015. For more information about the Heritage Action Plan check out the Vancouver Heritage Foundation and for a more detailed but immensely readable discussion of heritage policy see the Introduction of Michael’s 2012 book Vanishing Vancouver: The Last 25 Years.
A big thank you to Michael for volunteering his time to make this presentation at our June 1st monthly meeting; everyone found it very interesting and informative.
Please join us for a special presentation at our next monthly meeting Monday, June 1st, 2015 at 7 pm.
Michael Kluckner, writer, artist/illustrator and author of a number of books on Vancouver’s history and heritage and planning issues will give A Brief Overview of Heritage Policy . Michael was the founding president of the Heritage Vancouver Society and is the current president of the Vancouver Historical Society. He is a member of the Vancouver Heritage Commission and Grandview Heritage Group. His most recent book is Vanishing Vancouver: The Last 25 Years (2012).
With the City of Vancouver’s Heritage Action Plan in full swing Michael’s talk is very timely.
Check out Michael’s blog here.
We meet at grunt gallery – 350 East 2nd Avenue/Unit 116.
Mount Pleasant Heritage Group 