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| Be sure to click on this map to enlarge it for a better viewing. Better still, right click and download it. |
Given the beautifully restored state of so many of Vancouver's East End heritage houses these days, it is hard to believe just how poorly so many of the homes we live in today were rated by the city in 1962.
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| CVA 780-362 |
Sure, there were houses in disrepair, some in a very severe state of disrepair, as these City Planning Department photos attest.
CVA 780-309 - Dilapidated house in Strathcona in 1966.
The 1931 zoning by-laws designating the East End from Main Street to Clark Drive 6-storey industrial made it almost impossible for East End residents money from banks for mortgages and home improvements became virtually unobtainable...
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| 780-310 Dilapidated house in Strathcona in the 1960s |
...But I wonder if the City, in an attempt to justify their scheme to expropriate and demolish all houses in the East End and replace everything with project housing, may have focussed on the very worst cases for their photographic study..
Whatever the case, the map is very interesting. Our 1908 seven unit rowhouse on the 700 block of Hawks Avenue is rated fair to poor it seems, including the corner store that was once located at 701 Hawks Avenue... I know that at one point before the rowhouse was bought and renovated in the 1980s that at least three of the seven units had been actually condemned.
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| 701-725 Hawks Avenue in 1960 |
How did your East End house rate?
If you thought the map was interesting, check out this aerial shot taken around the same time!
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| MAP 1004 - City of Vancouver Redevelopment Project 2, part of area "A" aerial photograph |
