Vancouver heritage building going back to old roots as neighbourhood grocery in Hastings-Sunrise
by Carlito Pablo on July 8th, 2019
The 2598 Eton Street property as shown on Google.
The heritage property at 2598 Eton Street went by a few names in the past.
It was known as the Woodside Apartments after its original owner.
That was Frank Woodside, a Vancouver alderman from 1911 to 1928.
According to the Vancouver Heritage Foundation (VHF), Woodside led residents of the then Hastings Townsite in a vote to join the City of Vancouver.
Built in 1911, the property contained the offices of Woodside.
The apartments were above a corner store called Beacon Hill Grocery.
The VHF noted on its website that the building represented the “beginning of a development boom in the local area”.
The development, according to the foundation, was “brought upon by the completion of the streetcar line along McGill Street out to Renfrew Street that coincided with the opening of the Vancouver Exhibition and the horse race track at Hastings Park”.
“The building's early name, Beacon Hill Grocery, is important for marking the promotion of the local area as it opened up to development, referencing its siting overlooking Vancouver's harbour and alluding to desirable neighbourhoods of the same name in other cities such as Boston and Victoria,” the VHF stated.
It later became Park Grocery.
According to the VHF, the name was given to the store in 1939 by its owners at the time, Bunzo and Misu Watanabe, who were Japanese-Canadians.
The Watanabes were going to lose it as a consequence of the Second World War.
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https://www.straight.com/news/1263856/va...s-neighbourhood-grocery-hastings-sunrise