Before Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»was founded, a different name was bandied about for the new settlement.
Granville.
And while the name didn't stick, it wasn't tossed out completely. Granville Street, which was built around the same time the city was founded, took on the name.
It quickly became a notable street, in part because there was a bridge at the southern end of it over False Creek into what would become Fairview. It was the only bridge west of Westminster Avenue (which is Main Street now) which had a bridge over the (now filled in) eastern portion of False Creek).
Over the years Granville Street has seen plenty of change as the city has grown and changed from a rugged settler town on the edge of Canada to a major centre for trade and technology, often rated one of the top places to live in the world.
1. The Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Opera House
Granville was quickly established as the place to go for entertainment in Vancouver, with several theatres built along the downtown stretch now known as the Granville Entertainment District.
One of the first places built was the Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Opera House in 1891, a grand building for the young city. It sat 1,200 audience members, and once staff and actors were taken into account, it could hold about 10 per cent of the city's population for a packed show, as only 13,000 people lived in Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»at the time.
That's akin to BC Place, which set a record with 65,000 fans for Ed Sheeran. The city of Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»has about 700,000 residents currently.
It was bought and sold several times and ended up being demolished in the 1960s.
2. The first driver over the Granville Street Bridge did it twice
Vera Annoot was the first person to drive across the Granville Street Bridge, twice.
In 1909 she was one of two women to drive across the Granville Street Bridge, the first people to do so.
And then in 1954, after a new Granville Street Bridge was opened, a local newspaper, the Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Sun, organized it so that she could do it again.
"Today the spry septuagenarian slipped behind the wheel of a brand new Caddie and piloted it over the new $16,500,000 bridge which towers like a monster centipede over the old structure."
3. The
There have been many different editions of Monopoly, but one of the first was Monopoly: Canadian edition in 1982 (as opposed to Canada-opoly).
Published in 1982, it used well-known streets in major Canadian cities for different places, and it ran from east to west.
For Vancouver's street, the makers picked Granville Street. It took the second most expensive spot on the board (the Park Place slot). Douglas Street in Victoria took the Boardwalk spot.
4.
Those who have lived in Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»since the 1970s may have a fond story of .
While he was known as a street photographer around the city, he was based around Granville Street and spent decades taking photos along the popular stretch of road, capturing thousands upon thousands of moments in Vancouver. His favourite subject matter was the people out for a good time.
Many of the photos have been collected as part of 'Foncie's Corner,' a project aimed at preserving his work. So far it has 1,601 photos indexed. Almost all of them show Vancouverites strolling down Granville Street in the fashion of the day.
5. The Granville Mall
Granville Street has taken many forms over the years.
One of the more recent, but fading from memory is the Granville Mall when it had a bit of a bend to it.
In the mid-1970s the project aimed at creating a pedestrian-friendly area at the northern end of the street in the downtown core (a familiar idea).
The street was closed off to traffic except for transit, and the street itself was given a with trees.
Drawings from the 1960s show a more robust pedestrian area, but that didn't come to fruition.
In the 2000s things changed in several ways, in part because of the 2010 Olympics and Canada Line.
