Vancouver Heights remained an important residential and commercial centre in Burnaby throughout the 1925-1954 period. The area had its own Board of Trade and the North Burnaby Library was created to serve the residents. In 1949, the Hastings streetcars stopped running, but the area retained its reputation as one of the best shopping districts in the city.
On December 13, 1912, The British Columbian Weekly described the Vancouver Heights neighbourhood as follows: "The northern portion of the municipality in the vicinity of Boundary Road has during the past three years made tremendous strides towards settlement. At that time Mr. James Herd and Mr. Peters were the only residents of the district...Soon, however, the timber was removed, streets laid out and other conveniences such as water, light and transportation provided... The school population of the district has increased so rapidly that the school has been enlarged twice this year and is at the present time inadequate. About 200 children are attending now. There are three churches in the district and one mission...At present time there are two large blocks containing six stores..."
This building was originally built in 1926 as the Vancouver Heights United Church; a Sunday School was added in 1931, which conformed to the church building’s Romanesque influenced style. This unique Burnaby building has retained its remarkable three-storey tower with buttresses and stepped parapet. It now houses the New Apostolic Church.
Letter from Mayor Donald A.S. Lanskail, Chairman, Vancouver Regional Transit Commission, c/o Municipal Hall, 750 - 17th Street, West Vancouver, BC, V7V 3T3
Structure and Organization of Transit
Letter from the Corporation of the District of North Vancouver which appeared on the agenda for the May 15 meeting of Council (Item 1) re: Amendment to North Vancouver District Official Community Plan
Up until the 1970s, this neighbourhood was known as Vancouver Heights. When a new park was created during that decade and named "Burnaby Heights Park," the name was gradually adopted by newcomers to the area. Today, you will hear residents refer to their neighbourhood as Burnaby Heights, Vancouver Heights, or just "The Heights." Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the commercial district in this neighbourhood continued to grow and a Retail Merchants Association was formed which later became known as the Heights Merchants Association. The neighbourhood still retains a residential neighbourhood characteristic with an increasing number of apartment buildings and multi-family units being built over the past 20 years.
North Burnaby's waterfront was the location of a unique squatter's community known as Crabtown. Although its origins are obscure, it is believed that the first shacks were built before 1912. When the depression of 1913-1917 began, the shacks became permanent homes for impoverished workers. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the community grew larger. Crabtown was not a slum, but a neighbourhood - the community even rallied together to build a water supply system and trails up the steep bluff with steps and banisters so children could go to school safely. In 1957, the National Harbours Board decided that Crabtown was encroaching on Federal property and evicted all 130 residents. Within a few months, residents were relocated and 114 homes were levelled.
This home was built for Francois Xavier “Frank” Comeau (1863-1943), a blacksmith who moved from Quebec to Vancouver in about 1890, and his wife Cezarie Marie (née Fortin, 1860-1950), also from Quebec, whom he married in 1903. Featuring a front gabled roof with decorative triangular eave brackets, this comfortable Craftsman bungalow displays other characteristics typical of the style such as lapped siding at the foundation, a shingle-clad main floor, casement windows and stained glass transoms on the front elevation. The most notable feature of the plan is the inset verandah with subtle segmental-arched openings and tapered square columns.
This house was built for local plumber contractor George Nuttall (1883-1970) and his wife Rose Ann Nuttall (née Clagg, 1881-1955). George continued to live in the house after Rose’s death, until his own death in 1970. Although typical of the Craftsman style and form with its side-gabled roof, triangular eave brackets and front gabled dormer, this house has a number of special details, such as its beautiful art glass transom windows. The front verandah supports are massive stucco columns that contain stained glass lanterns with the house name, Hillcrest, and address.
This cottage illustrates the traditionalism of the interwar years, when domestic ideals were expressed through modest homes displaying period revival influences. Reflecting the influence of the British Arts and Crafts movement, it features a symmetrical plan, a side jerkin-headed roof, a gabled front dormer and twin-coursed shingle siding, and retains its original wooden-sash windows with unusual multi-paned upper sash. It was built for John R. and Jessie MacLean. The house was recently restored by the owners.
This landmark school was designed by the architectural firm of Bowman & Cullerne, specialists in the design of educational facilities. After Harold Cullerne (1890-1976) returned from service during the First World War, he joined J.H. Bowman (1864-1943) in a partnership that lasted from 1919 to 1934. The firm’s projects include the Seaforth School (1922, now relocated to Burnaby Village Museum), Burnaby North High School (1923), and the Nelson Avenue School (1927). This was originally designed as a two-storey, four-room building in 1925, with two-storey four-room wings added two years later. The building has been altered with the addition of stucco cladding over the original siding and replacement windows, but has retained its original form and massing, as well as its domed roof ventilator.
Tucked into a sloping site in a zone that is now transitional between light industrial and residential uses, the Masonic Cemetery is a beautifully landscaped oasis. Two outstanding features of this cemetery are the Woodward mausoleum, constructed in 1924, and the 1930s entrance gates. These substantial gates are constructed of random-coursed granite, and mark the cemetery’s main entrance off Douglas Road. An elaborate granite mausoleum, built for the prominent Woodward family, is located on axis with the main entry, at the brow of the slope. The Egyptian Revival style of the mausoleum was inspired by the opening of Tutankamun’s tomb just two years earlier, a discovery that sparked world-wide Egyptomania. The Woodward’s department store dynasty was founded by Charles Woodward (1852-1937), who visited Vancouver in 1891 and bought two lots for a store. Woodward’s drug department opened in 1895. In 1901, he took an option on a lot at the corner of Hastings and Abbott Streets and incorporated as Woodward’s Department Stores, which opened in November 1903. The family continued to run the business until 1993, when it went bankrupt and was sold to the Hudson’s Bay Company. A number of the Woodward family are interred here.