33rd Avenue and Mackenzie Street (Mackenzie Heights)
In many respects, I’m an urban geography geek (not surprising given that my doctoral dissertation was majorly an environmental economic geography treatise on the transformation of urban and industrial structures). I’m thoroughly fascinated by the underlying reasons why we find small pockets of businesses/malls/markets within a primarily residential area.
The area around the crossing of 33rd Avenue and Mackenzie Street in Vancouver (Mackenzie Heights) is one such complex and interesting area. You will find a half a block chock-full with businesses dedicated to various things (including a pretty nice market). But if you continue walking or driving past 33rd Avenue and Mackenzie Street, you will find yourself again in a completely residential (and wealthy) area.
I find this kind of shifts (residential and then a bit of commercial then residential) extremely intriguing. You may recall a post I wrote about the economic geography of the Lower West End, which also showcases this type of mixed business/commercial and residential uses.
Related posts:
- Car Free Day Vancouver 2011 (Main Street) is today
- Neighbourhood corner stores: Cardero Grocery
- Cardero Bottega (West End)
- Thinking about the economic geography of the lower West End
- Restaurant review: Splitz (Main Street)
This would have be before your time in Canada, but a concept that seems really strange these days is that neighbourhoods used to have their own gas station(s), in the residential area, not on main streets. Some of the buildings can still be seen, I believe there is one in that area somewhere!
If you know where I can find an abandoned gas station in a residential neighbourhood, I’d LOVE to know so I can take photos!
Sorry for not being more specific, the building in this case isn’t abandoned, it became another business, a tire shop fittingly.
I found out about this particular building a year ago and in my memory I had thought it was more residential but in fact it turned out to be on 33rd. On Google street view, it looks as though the pumps have been taken out but the island left in place. The address is 4898 MacKenzie St.
I did a quick web search on the phenomenon of gas stations in residential areas and saw two references. One referred to them as pre-WWI buildings (I’m not that old!) and another made a reference to pre-1980′s structures (I could buy that). An interesting marketing shift with the times, I thought.
I grew up just around the corner from there, from 1973-1984. There was definitely a gas station there where the tire shop is now; I think it was an Esso but I’m not sure. Right across Mackenzie was a small Chinese grocery store called Ella’s; I was in there a LOT. It’s gone and replaced by condos. Where that upscale food market is was a Red and White store (grocery store) and next to it on the corner was a drugstore. I’d take my film in there for processing and it would take two weeks to get it back. Next to the Tinker’s Hatch bakery (which was something different back then) was my friend’s dad’s butcher shop, Doug’s Fine Meats. He was known all around for his high quality meats. He retired and sold his shop but he’s still around. Where the barber shop is now, was some kind of bottle depot. I think there was a hardware store too, on the west side of the street next to Red and White, but that’s just a vague memory. I guess when the area was developed around the 1910′s-1920′s, it was too expensive and time-consuming to go downtown, and people (women, who did most of the household upkeep) needed somewhere close to walk to, to get their daily supplies, and neighbourhood businesses opened to meet that demand. According to the book “The Story of Dunbar” this meant a little walk through the woods to get to the Dunbar or Mackenzie shops.