CVA Photo SGN 295 - 414 Alexander Street ca. 1890
Most people wouldn't make the connection, but she still stands, and this is how she looks today.
This house is not on the Heritage Register. Vancouver's Heritage Register, created in the 1980s, has not been properly updated since then. This is what is on their now. http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/Guidelines/V001.pdf
Year by year, Vancouver loses dozens of its historic buildings because no one has bothered to check into their history. If they are not on the register, they are therefore deemed expendable, worthless... This is how the Heatley Block ended up in danger.
It is time that someone does something to remedy this issue. And this someone may end up being you and me, the concerned public. We cannot depend on City Hall, with all its budget and staffing restraints, to do this job alone, let alone in time. If the heritage register is going to be updated in a way that is timely and truly reflects the interests of the general public and local neighbourhoods, it is going to take the efforts of a broad spectrum of volunteers, including photographers, architects, and historians, to comb through their neighbourhoods street by street to locate and flag houses of architectural and local historical significance, and then do the basic research necessary for the limited staff at City Hall to do the rest. In my neighbourhood, the East End, steps are being taken so this can be done.
This is a call to all like-minded, history, heritage, and neighbourhood-loving people in Vancouver to start to do the same.
Year by year, Vancouver loses dozens of its historic buildings because no one has bothered to check into their history. If they are not on the register, they are therefore deemed expendable, worthless... This is how the Heatley Block ended up in danger.
It is time that someone does something to remedy this issue. And this someone may end up being you and me, the concerned public. We cannot depend on City Hall, with all its budget and staffing restraints, to do this job alone, let alone in time. If the heritage register is going to be updated in a way that is timely and truly reflects the interests of the general public and local neighbourhoods, it is going to take the efforts of a broad spectrum of volunteers, including photographers, architects, and historians, to comb through their neighbourhoods street by street to locate and flag houses of architectural and local historical significance, and then do the basic research necessary for the limited staff at City Hall to do the rest. In my neighbourhood, the East End, steps are being taken so this can be done.
This is a call to all like-minded, history, heritage, and neighbourhood-loving people in Vancouver to start to do the same.
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