Victoria–Fraserview is a

neighbourhood A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural are ...

in the City of

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

, set on the south slope of the rise that runs north from the

Fraser River The Fraser River is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Blackrock Mountain in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia just south of the City of Vancouver. The river's annual d ...

and encompassing a large area of residential and commercial development. Surrounding the culturally eclectic Victoria Drive corridor, Victoria–Fraserview is an ethnically diverse area that was one of the earliest areas of settlement in the region.

Geography

Stretching north from the Fraser River to East 41st Avenue, Victoria–Fraserview is bordered on the west by Knight Street, one of Vancouver's busiest north-south corridors and on the east by a line including Elliott Street and Vivian Drive. It is on a south-facing slope that looks over the Fraser River and Mitchell Island towards

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

and

Delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), a letter of the Greek alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * D ( NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta") * Delta Air Lines, US * Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 Delta may also ...

. Much of the commercial development in the neighbourhood is focused along Victoria Drive, which features a range of ethnic shops and services. The neighbourhood is dominated by single-family residences, but some

townhomes In architecture and city planning, a terrace or terraced house ( UK) or townhouse ( US) is a form of medium-density housing that originated in Europe in the 16th century, whereby a row of attached dwellings share side walls. In the United State ...

can be found throughout the area. Along the Fraser River, a portion of the development known as the Fraserlands has brought condominia and other residential construction to former industrial lands.

History

Musqueam The Musqueam Indian Band ( ; hur, xʷməθkʷəy̓əm ) is a First Nations in Canada, First Nations band government in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is the only First Nations band whose reserve community lies within the boundari ...

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

tradition is indicating that the flats along the Fraser River in the southwestern portion of Victoria–Fraserview was the site of an important village and a number of east-west trails leading towards settlements in what is now

New Westminster New Westminster (colloquially known as New West) is a city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada, and a member municipality of the Metro Vancouver Regional District. It was founded by Major-General Richard Moody as the capita ...

. The first European settlers arrived in the 1860s, and a wagon road constructed in 1875 to the west of Knight Street on what is now Fraser Street opened the vast acres of virgin forest to

homesteaders The Homestead Acts were several laws in the United States by which an applicant could acquire ownership of government land or the public domain, typically called a homestead. In all, more than of public land, or nearly 10 percent of th ...

. As part of the Municipality of South Vancouver, Victoria–Fraserview began to receive more attention from farmers who cleared land in the region. It became part of the city of Vancouver in 1929. Much of the existing development in the neighbourhood came in the 1940s, when land was needed for returning veterans of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. 1,100 new homes were built in the area (and its neighbour to the west,

Sunset Sunset, also known as sundown, is the daily disappearance of the Sun below the horizon due to Earth's rotation. As viewed from everywhere on Earth (except the North and South poles), the equinox Sun sets due west at the moment of both the spring ...

) for these veterans, on land expropriated by the

Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) (french: Société canadienne d'hypothèques et de logement) (SCHL) is Canada's national housing agency, and state-owned mortgage insurer. It was originally established after World War II, to help re ...

despite protestations of neighbours. In the early days of settlement, the

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

along the Fraser River was popular with small vegetable farmers, but later was taken over by industrial development along the working river. Since the 1980s, industrial land has slowly transformed to residential properties.

Demographics

Features

While Victoria–Fraserview was populated early in the city's development, it does not have many existing heritage buildings, but one remains as a unique site in a metropolitan city, the Avalon Dairy. Started in 1906 by Jeremiah Crowley, the Avalon Dairy started with six cows and grew into the longest-running dairy operation in British Columbia and is still run by the Crowley family. In 2011, Lee Crowley, the current owner of Avalonian Dairy and grandson of founder Jeremiah Crowley, moved the business to a new bottling facility in nearby Burnaby and sold the 1.25-acre farm property to a local Killarney-area development company. Avalonna Homes has applied to the City of Vancouver for rezoning permits to allow them to build around 60 townhouse units on the site and renovate the heritage house. Victoria–Fraserview contains eight parks and a number of walking trails along the Fraser River. The Fraserview branch of

Vancouver Public Library Vancouver Public Library (VPL) is the public library system for the city of Vancouver, British Columbia. In 2013, VPL had more than 6.9 million visits with patrons borrowing nearly 9.5 million items including: books, ebooks, CDs, DVDs, video game ...

is located on Argyle Drive, within walking distance of David Thompson Secondary School and Humm Park.

References

*http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/community_profiles/victoria-fraserview/index.htm *http://www.discovervancouver.com/gvb/sunset-victoria-fraserview.asp *http://www.avalondairy.com/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Victoria-Frasierview Neighbourhoods in Vancouver