Introduction to West Point Grey

This neighourhood at the western end of the peninsula was named in 1792 after Captain George Vancouver's friend Captain George Grey. This area is an upscale community that is bounded from the University Endowment Lands to Alma Street and from the English Bay Waterfront to 16th Avenue. This area has a great view of Vancouver's skyline and the North Shore Mountains. It has beach-front living and a strong sense of community. It is home to the Museum of Anthropology, the huge Pacific Spirit Park and the University of British Columbia, BC's largest university. Along 10th Avenue, there is shopping area and antique and collectible shops at the bottom of the 10th Avenue hill at Alma Street.

Jericho received its name from Jeremiah Rogers, who had set up Vancouver's first logging camp. He named the place "Jericho," after the Biblical Jeremiah, who lived in Jericho. In 1892, the Vancouver Golf Club was set up on the driftwood-strewn sand dunes of Jericho Beach. It was the first golf course west of Mississippi. The course used tomato cans for holes. Canada's first zoning bylaw was passed by the Municipality of Point Grey in 1922. The bylaw restricted the area to only allow development of homes and their related outbuildings.

History & Heritage

The first people that lived here were the local Musqueam people in the ancient village of Ee'yullmough and the earliest modern immigrants were the Spaniards. In 1791, Spaniard Jose Narvaez and his crew discovered this place and named it Langara Point. The following year, Captains Galiano and Valdez ran into Captain Vancouver off the same shore. This led to the names of two areas, Spanish Banks and English Bay. In 1865, the first logging camp was made by Jeremiah Rogers and had cut down giant fir trees for spars, a very long pole used on the sails of ships. He claimed them as the best spars in the world. In the 1870s, a whaling station was set up.

In 1897, Government Reserves saw the area's strategic location and set up a post at Langara Point, which is UBC now, and along Jericho, which is Jericho Park. In 1908, the Municipality of Point Grey formed after breaking away from the Municipality of South Vancouver. The are began to see changes. The construction of the scenic Northwest Marine Drive began, water service reached West Point Grey and the Jericho Golf and Country club opened. A year later, a one-room schoolhouse was built for the 24 children living in the area. The wooden school still stands on the bluffs overlooking Spanish Banks. In 1921, the Pacific Coast Station of the Royal Canadian Air Force was built at Jericho Beach. In 1967, it moved and the area became a park after arguments between citizens and politicians.

The heritage of West Point Grey is present among its retained homes and features some older mansions such two 1913 Tudor revival mansions, Rear House, now the Aberthau cultural centre, and Brock House, on Jericho beach, now a senior's activity center and a restaurant. The Hastings Mill Store, built in 1865, is the oldest building in Vancouver. It was the general store for the Hastings Mill, the first industrial building in Vancouver. In 1930, it was moved to its present site in Pionneer Park, at the foot of Alma Street. The wooden building was Vancouver's first post office, first library and the first community centre. It is now a museum that is operated by the Native Daughters of BC.