Originally known as Capilano Estates, the British Properties is a residential area in

West Vancouver West Vancouver is a district municipality in the province of British Columbia, Canada. A member municipality of the Metro Vancouver Regional District, West Vancouver is to the northwest of the city of Vancouver on the northern side of English Ba ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. The 4,000 acre area was sold by the municipality of West Vancouver to the British Pacific Properties Corporation in 1931, which continues to develop the land to the present day. The development is credited with starting West Vancouver's slow transformation from a ferry-access only, resort-style beachside enclave into a leafy suburban community with roads, parks, and shopping centres.

History

In 1931, the British Pacific Properties, a corporation consisting of a group of investors led by the Guinness brewing company, acquired 4,000 acres of land from the municipality of West Vancouver stretching from the

Capilano River The Capilano River flows from north to south through the Coast Mountains on Vancouver's North Shore between West Vancouver and North Vancouver (district municipality) and empties into Burrard Inlet, opposite Stanley Park. The river is one of three ...

to Horseshoe Bay. The land was purchased during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, when the municipality was nearing bankruptcy due to residents being unable to pay property taxes. The Guinness family, led by Walter Guinness committed to funding $1 million in local improvements over a five-year period and constructing the

Lions Gate Bridge The Lions Gate Bridge, opened in 1938 and officially known as the First Narrows Bridge, is a suspension bridge that crosses the first narrows of Burrard Inlet and connects the City of Vancouver, British Columbia, to the North Shore municipali ...

. The corporation ended up paying $75,000 to the municipality for the land with the agreement of $1 million in improvements. West Vancouver 1942 15th Ottawa William Mcphee

West Vancouver 1942 15th Ottawa William Mcphee

The original landscaping was designed by the prestigious Olmsted Brothers landscape architecture firm from

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

. Olmsted Brothers was founded by

Frederick Law Olmsted Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822August 28, 1903) was an American landscape architect, journalist, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the USA. Olmsted was famous for co- ...

—the father of North American landscape architecture and the creator of Central Park in Manhattan, Mount Royal in Montreal, and the innovative Riverside suburb in West Chicago.

Ethnic restrictions

The neighbourhood was known for its strict

whites White is a racialized classification of people and a skin color specifier, generally used for people of European origin, although the definition can vary depending on context, nationality, and point of view. Description of populations as " ...

-only policy. Property titles including covenants such as barring sales to "any person or persons of African or Asiatic race or of African or Asiatic descent." Jewish people were also excluded, although, eventually, the first

synagogue A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...

in West Vancouver was built opposite the entrance to the British Properties. In modern times, the resident population is diverse due to the property values and other factors attracting Asian and other international investors. It is said that residents are just as likely to speak

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

as they are to speak English.

References

External links

* {{coord, 49, 21, 00, N, 123, 08, 00, W, display=title Neighbourhoods in West Vancouver