Grandview ("Commercial Drive") Community

Grandview stretches from Venables Street south to Broadway, and runs West to East, from Clark Drive, east to Nanaimo Street. It is characterized by a mixture of housing, from large elaborate houses to small comfortable homes.  Most of the condo buildings are locates between Commercial Drive and Clark Drive north of Broadway.  Just a few blocks west of Clark at Glen Drive and E. Broadway is the new VCC, UBC, SFU campass expansion.  This is a major catalyst for the areas economic revitalization as over 500,000 sqft of new educational buildings have been constructed.  More Details on this in the Mount Pleasant Comminity Page.

With Commercial Drive as the heart, this charismatic area offers a wide diversity of people and housing with abundance of ethnic restaurants and grocery stores. It also holds many trendy places to hang out, such as pop-culture clothing stores, cafes and the streets that bustle with entertainment. Always full of lively appeal, this area is known throughout the rest of Vancouver. It is also known as “Little Italy”.  Today the Drive is the hub of east Vancouver.

COMMUNITY FACILITIES & BUSINESS

Parks: Pandora Park, Woodland Park, Templeton park, Grandview park, Victoria park, McSpadden park, and Garden park.

High Schools: Britannia and Templeton High schools.

Elementary Schools: Grandview, Queen Alexandra, Macdonald, Secord, Nelson, and Britannia Elementary schools.

Community Centres: Britannia community Centre

Business Centres: Vancouver Public Library and the Pacific National Exhibition

Recycling / Garbage: There is a community garbage disposal and recycling centre just South of the intersection of Cambie and Marine drive.

GRANDVIEW HISTORY

If it weren’t for the “New Westminster” (Vancouver’s interurban railway that opened in 1891), Grandview would today most likely still be the mountain of log stumps that it was before. The area was logged off for the construction of the railway that opened space for more communities to grow.

In the early 1900’s, what is now known as Commercial Drive was seen to have all the potential for business activity and surely enough, shops, and stores were being built down the road. However, in 1912, construction of the area came to a stop because of a citywide recession, and a new economic focus was being centred on the Westside of Vancouver. Communities like Kitsilano, Point Grey and Shaughnessy started to gain attention. It wasn’t until the 1970’s when the Britannia Community Centre was built and the face of the community began to change. It became more multicultural and eclectic with Italian, Chinese, and East European immigrants locating to the area. They added their warmth and character to the homes and to the shops on Commercial Drive, giving this quaint area its wonderful character that remains today.