Historic Norway Pine cobblestones of Chinatown

mcminsen · #1 Posted **May 19, 2015, 9:36 AM**

Lurking under some of the asphalt pavement of the streets of Chinatown in Vancouver are very old (100+ years) wooden cobblestones made of Norway Pine.

I first saw them a few years ago on Union Street when on a walking tour with James Johnstone (the House Whisperer). That exposed patch was covered up with new asphalt since then so I was really pleased to find more of them recently. They are in front of the Fresh Egg Mart at 269 East Georgia. Worth a look if you're in the area and want to see some historic street surfaces before they get covered up again.

May 17 '15, my pics

quobobo · #2 Posted **May 19, 2015, 2:34 PM**

Very neat, thanks for posting!

Hourglass · #3 Posted **May 19, 2015, 2:56 PM**

Love cobblestone streets. Seems a shame to cover them up with asphalt.

officedweller · #4 Posted **May 19, 2015, 6:56 PM**

Nice find!

Conrad Yablonski · #5 Posted **May 19, 2015, 8:19 PM**

There are some on Dunlevy Ave beside the Patricia Hotel as well.

I always though they were made of Douglas Fir-end grain Fir being much tougher than Red Pine-which isn't found west of Manitoba.

mcminsen · #6 Posted **May 20, 2015, 6:07 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Conrad Yablonski

There are some on Dunlevy Ave beside the Patricia Hotel as well.

I always though they were made of Douglas Fir-end grain Fir being much tougher than Red Pine-which isn't found west of Manitoba.

Thanks, I will look for them next time I'm in that area on Dunlevy. They're easy to see on Google Streetview here.

Re: the type of wood, I'm just going on what James Johnstone said and what was reported in the Vancitybuzz article that I linked to. Perhaps there was more than one type of wood used over the years.