Before it became 'Vancouver's first suburb', Mount Pleasant was once "a dense forest, diagonally bisected by an ancient trail travelled by First Nations peoples and wildlife such as deer, bear and elk," according to the authors of the Greater Vancouver Book.
The neighborhood was named Mount Pleasant in 1888, after the Irish hometown of H.V. Edmonds' wife - a New Westminster council clerk who, in 1869, had bought land in the area, based on his speculation that the transcontinental railway would eventually end somewhere nearby.
In the 1880's, the trail connecting the former capital of New Westminster with the smaller sawmill town of Vancouver was upgraded and named the Westminster Road (today's Kingsway). At the time, there were only a few stagecoach roadhouses located along the old trail.
As Vancouver started to grow in the late 1880's, people believed that Mount Pleasant "would develop as Vancouver's fashionable 'uptown'." Although the neighborhood did experience significant residential growth over the next 20 years, industry came to the area as well.
According to the City of Vancouver, by 1904, Mount Pleasant was home to "a tannery, two slaughter houses, four breweries, and a train station." Eight years later, Vancouver's first skyscraper, the Lee Building (pictured below) was built at 175 East Broadway, which was followed in 1915 by what is today known as Heritage Hall.
In subsequent years, much of the False Creek tidal flats and the mouth of Brewery Creek were filled in, stripping Mount Pleasant of its waterfront land. More industry arrived in the neighborhood during the 1930's, which resulted in the destruction of several homes and a decline in the area's prestige.
After struggling for several years with problems related to prostitution and drug abuse, the neighborhood is presently undergoing a renewal, with park and transit improvement projects planned by the city. Over the next few years, the area is also expected to benefit from the re-development of the Southeast False Creek community.
Click here to see more pictures of Mount Pleasant as it is today.
