Explore Watson Street, part of the historic Mount Pleasant neighbourhood, in photos as you travel along the narrow street.
Interested in videos about historic Mount Pleasant? Try Vancouver’s Treasured (and Threatened) Old Mount Pleasant Village, narrated by Danielle Peacock, with research and script by the Mount Pleasant Heritage Group.
Credits
Created during grunt gallery’s 2018 Mount Pleasant Community Art Screen Digital Storytelling workshops with Mount Pleasant residents. grunt gallery was founded in 1984 in Vancouver, BC with the vision to become an internationally renowned artist-run centre and further the practice of contemporary art. Through the exploration of our diverse Canadian cultural identity, we are able to offer public programming in the form of exhibitions, performances, artist talks, publications, and other special projects in the community. Our mandate is to inspire public dialogue by creating an environment conducive to the emergence of innovative, collaborative, and provocative contemporary art.
We gratefully acknowledge that we live and work on the unceded, traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) nations.
Hey folks – really enjoyed this piece on Watson Street – in a back-handed way it is a comment on our cookie-cutter approach to urban development. This combination of street and alley is rare in western Canada although it is not unknown. Some subscribers to this site may be familiar with Herridge Lane in Nelson, B.C.; it is (for me) one of the key attractions in that attractive city.
Thank you for writing this about Mt. Pleasant history. My maternal great grandfather was Jackson T. Abray. He married Maude Abigail Martin daughter of William John Martin in Vancouver on Oct.2nd 1888. Wm. Martin owned the Burrard Hotel in Vancouver that had just opened its doors, still having furniture in packing crates when Vancouver burned to the ground June 13 1886. Afterwards three or four burned bodies were found under the Burrard. Those people had evidently crawled under the hotel to save themselves from the flames to no avail. Wm. Martin and two other men had run around warning hotel guests of the approaching fire. Then, Wm., being exhausted and overcome by the smoke could not get away so the two men dug a hole placing Wm. face down in it and ran for their lives never expecting to see Wm. Martin again. Martin survived, dying in 1892 at age 58 and is buried in Vancouver’s Mountain View Cemetery. I believe he died due to lung damage from smoke inhalation. I have quite a bit of information and pictures. Feel free to contact me.