Join Us For Our 7th Heritage Lounge This Sunday, June 16th, 2019 At The Main Street Car Free Festival From 12 – 7

The Mount Pleasant Heritage Group is excited to again be participating in the Main Street Car Free Festival and our Heritage Lounge will be located in front of Heritage Hall.

Along with displays and maps about Mount Pleasant’s history, neighbourhood walking tour pamphlets, and a colouring station with pages created by local artists, we will have information about how the Mount Pleasant Heritage Group is advocating for Mount Pleasant’s ‘Living Heritage’.

Mount Pleasant’s heritage lives not only through its buildings but also through its village atmosphere, street vitality, distinct commercial identity with a diverse and vibrant mix of local businesses, and a long and rich tradition of being an arts and performance hub.

Following up on a letter we wrote to Mayor and Council, seven City Councillors met with us to discuss how much Mount Pleasant’s heritage, in both its tangible and intangible forms, contributes to the liveability of the City and is treasured by residents.

Come by and find out about the next steps the Mount Pleasant Heritage Group will be taking in our proposal for a heritage precinct in the ‘Heritage Heart’ area and how you can help. Mount Pleasant Heritage Lives!

Join Us For Our 5th Heritage Lounge Saturday, August 12th from 12 – 6

The Heritage Lounge will again be located in front of Rath Art Supplies at 2412 Main Street, just up from the intersection of Main, Kingsway and 7th Avenue and a part of the Vancouver Mural Festival’s street party. The street party is sponsored by the Mount Pleasant Business Improvement Area (MPBIA) and Create Vancouver Society.

Along with displays and maps about Mount Pleasant’s history, including its long and rich tradition of being home to a vibrant arts community, we will have colouring pages celebrating the neighbourhood’s built, cultural, natural and industrial heritage created by local artists.

Jennifer Chernecki created the page of the 1889 James Black Residence at 144 E 6th representing the time when it housed the Gropp’s Gallery Collective (from 2008 until 2014). James Lloyd’s illustration of the 1889 Depencier House at 151 E 8th depicts the Victorian building when it was home to the legendary Bain’s Candies and Fine Chocolates.

This year we will have several new colouring pages as well as a colouring station sponsored by Rath Art Supplies. The pages are free for the taking and if you don’t have time to sit down and do a little colouring we encourage you to take one home.

We will also have some neighbourhood walking tour pamphlets and our Heritage Heart Look and Find to take away.

We look forward to you dropping by and sharing your stories of the neighbourhood. Mount Pleasant’s Heritage Lives!

Thanks for dropping by the Heritage Lounge!

It was great to meet so many people interested in Mount Pleasant’s history and passionate about retaining our heritage.

Many thanks to Bruce Macdonald for the loan of his maps and photos, to Stan of Rath Art Supplies for the loan of easels and to the Quebec Manor Co-op for the loan of the Lounge furniture.

The Heritage Lounge crew this year was Alyssa, Anna, Danielle, Sandra, Taran and Val.

The Mount Pleasant Heritage Group extends its appreciation to the Vancouver Foundation for supporting our Heritage Lounge and Treasured Buildings Sign project with a Neighbourhood Small Grant.

You Are Invited To Our Heritage Lounge Sunday, September 13th, 2015

Tales From Main Street and Other Notes from the March 2nd Meeting

*We received an enthusiastic response to our Heritage Week project celebrating “Main Street: At the Heart of the Community”. Thirty-eight local businesses along Main Street between 3rd and 16th Avenues hung up signs in their windows. We went through photos of each of the window signs as Danielle Peacock and Jen Chernecki shared tales they heard while delivering the signs.

Here are three:

One of the servers at the Foundation Restaurant recounted that an elderly woman in her 90s had recently been in to celebrate her birthday and vowed to be back for her 100th. The building was important to her because she had worked there years before selling shoes. Clapp’s Shoe Store first opened at 2301 Main Street in 1913 and is listed in the City Directories up until 1960. This photo of its window display was taken by Leonard Frank in 1939.

Clapp’s Shoe Store, 2301 Main Street, 1939
Photo Courtesy of VPL: photo #15950
Photographer: Leonard Frank

Here is what the streetscape looked like in 1908.

Shops along the west side of Main Street between 7th & 8th Avenues, 1908
Photo Courtesy of City of Vancouver Archives: Dist P140
Major Matthews Collection

Justis Morginn, the owner of the Denman Bike Shop, is a heritage enthusiast and already knew that the Mason Block at Main and 10th was built between 1905-07. He dug up this old photo of Main Street

Main Street & 10th Avenue, 1907
Photo Courtesy of City of Vancouver Archives: Dist P142, Major Matthews Collection

and even made his own version of our Treasured Buildings Sign.

Dave Wong, who has owned the Dairy Queen at Main and 13th since 1987, has a deep connection to Mount Pleasant. He grew up in the neighbourhood and went to the Dairy Queen as a child. His parents owned Custom Cleaners & Laundry Ltd. at 2932 Main Street in the 1960s and 70s. This photo shows the strip along Main around the time Dave was going there in his younger days.

East side of Main St at 13th Ave, c 1965-1980
Photo Courtesy of City of Vancouver Archives:
CVA – 780-231

Dairy Queen is changing their look and this photo was taken just a couple of days before the red awning was removed.

*Alyssa Myshok showed photos of potential nominations for our Treasured Buildings 2015 Sign Project from the southwest quadrant of the neighbourhood.

Due to Easter our next meeting is slated for Monday, April 13th, 7 pm at grunt gallery – 350 East 2nd Avenue/Unit 116.

Our Treasured Building Sign That Disappeared

On March 12th we tweeted STOP THIEF!! Treasured Building Sign taken from Mt. Pleasant Optometry

:(Who knew our signs would be so popular:)

Well, the sign has been located along with a story. We now consider the sign to have been borrowed, rather than stolen, to further the cause of heritage and affordability. It seems the sign was used to draw attention to two treasured old houses which currently provide rental accommodation and which sit on a possible development site. The sign has been returned.

Upcoming MPHG Meeting Monday, February 2nd, 2015

Please join us tonight at 7 pm for our next regular meeting, which will take place at grunt gallery – 350 East 2nd Avenue/Unit 116

The agenda is open and will include:

*New information gathered on our Treasured Buildings since the profiles were posted on the website. We will discuss how to do more in-depth investigations. One of the group’s questions – who was Mrs. Jessie Pierce? She is listed in 1910 as the Owner/Architect on the building permits of not only 2350 Prince Albert Street, one of our sign recipients, but also of the three houses beside it. She appears to be one of Vancouver’s early developers.

*Heritage Week in BC occurs from February 16th – 22nd. This year’s theme is “Celebrating Main Street: At the Heart of the Community”. How can the Main Street Business in Mount Pleasant join in on this Heritage Celebration?

*Project List:

-MP Treasured Buildings – getting this year’s process underway.

-Heritage Lounge – women of Mount Pleasant’s past as a feature board.

-Short Video profiling Mr. Bob Butler, an employee of the Mount Pleasant Optometry Centre who has been there since it opened in 1950.

*Update on our website development.

*Update on the Mount Pleasant Community Heritage Project (144 East 6th Avenue).

Notes from the December 1st, 2014 Meeting

Bruce Macdonald spoke about the need for a separate Heritage Building Code. He also discussed the way the current RT-5 (duplex) zoning in Grandview diminishes the diversity of who can afford to live there. That is because an old heritage house, that often has two, three or four suites of varying sizes which are more affordable, is replaced with a new, much more expensive duplex. Alyssa Myshok mentioned that the Vancouver Heritage Foundation is posting information about the New Vancouver Building Code (2015) on its website. To read Bruce’s in depth discussion click here >> Saving Grandview’s Character & Its Affordable Suites & Green Heritage Homes

Jen Chernecki of the Gropps Collective gave an update on the 1889 Victorian house at 144 East 6th Avenue that has been the meeting and exhibition space of Gropps Gallery for the last 6 years. Joanna Karczmarek, also of the Collective, researched the building and created the Mount Pleasant Community Heritage Project in 2013. The long term goal of the project is to protect the building and its historical character. It was sold a few months ago and talks about its redevelopment are underway. A Statement of Significance is being prepared and part of the process is getting feedback from the community on what it would like to see happen to the house. Laura Lamb offered to put together a letter on behalf of the MPHG that we can send out to people on our list and anyone else who might be interested pointing them to the Community Feedback Form. Jen spoke about its history as a live/work and gallery space and mentioned attending a meeting with a City Representative where there was discussion of a zoning specifically for live/work artist run centres.

We have received much positive feedback about the Treasured Buildings Sign Project and with 12 recipients we exceeded our original goal of 10. We plan to apply for a NSG again this year and want to start the process earlier. Judging by the numbers of people who dropped by the Heritage Lounge, the enthusiasm expressed for it and the number of pamphlets picked up it is something that there is interest in continuing as well. But both projects require a big volunteer effort. Anna Rallings suggested we create a Project List that would break things down and make it easier for volunteers to commit to some specific project and task. A suggestion for a future project is Women in Mount Pleasant.

Danielle Peacock announced that grunt gallery has offered their space as our ongoing monthly meeting location. Many thanks to grunt!

Informal organizational meeting slated for Monday, January 5th, 7 pm at grunt gallery – 350 East 2nd Avenue/Unit 116

Map of Treasured Buildings

We have recently revised the dates on the map based on further research.

If you picked up a Treasured Buildings Walking Tour pamphlet at our Heritage Lounge you will notice that some of the dates have changed. We have done further research and have used dates based on building permit or water service records when possible instead of the Vancouver Directories dates, which are later and reflect when buildings were first occupied.

Building profiles and printable map coming soon!

Heritage Lounge Snapshots!

A big thanks to our 2 photographers:

Merle Addison & Erin Pasternak

To see photos of the Heritage Transportation Jamboree and Flying Ballerinas at the Autumn Shift Festival visit our Gallery