1800 Block Beach Avenue (North Side)

The triangular area surrounded by Beach Ave, Morton Ave, and Denman Street was the site of some houses, along with a roller-skating rink, a “joy wheel,” two car dealerships, and a beach club house.

Detail from Insurance plan - City of Vancouver, July 1897, revised June 1901 - Sheet 45 - Comox Street to English Bay and Bidwell Street to Stanley Park — Detail from Insurance plan – City of Vancouver, July 1897, revised June 1901 – Sheet 45 – Comox Street to English Bay and Bidwell Street to Stanley Park.

Detail from Insurance plan - City of Vancouver, July 1897, revised June 1903 - Sheet 45 - Comox Street to English Bay and Bidwell Street to Stanley Park — Detail from Insurance plan – City of Vancouver, July 1897, revised June 1903 – Sheet 45 – Comox Street to English Bay and Bidwell Street to Stanley Park.

Detail from Goad's Atlas of the city of Vancouver - 1912 - Vol 1 - Plate 8 - Barclay Street to English Bay and Cardero Street to Stanley Park — Detail from Goad’s Atlas of the city of Vancouver – 1912 – Vol 1 – Plate 8 – Barclay Street to English Bay and Cardero Street to Stanley Park.

The buildings in this block included:

Imperial Roller Skating Rink
1805 Beach Avenue
Beach House Ltd.
Almond’s Ice Cream Store

By about 1920, there was pressure for the City of Vancouver to clear away all of the buildings and to take over the property.

MAY EXPROPRIATE ENGLISH BAY PLOT

Complaining that “old shacks and undesirable types of building” were being erected at English Bay at the foot of Davie street, Mr. W.D. Burdis of the Pioneers’ Association today asked the City Council to adopt expropriation proceedings to obtain the property which is part of the Morton estate. Although booked at an assessed valuation of $45,000, the city is informed that $110,000 on terms or $100,000 cash is the purchase price.

City Engineer Fellowes is now working on the proposal for expropriation of a strip which would extend Davie street through the property to Beach avenue. His instructions are to report to the council at the earliest moment.

Vancouver Province, May 8, 1920, page 25.

By 1926, the city had decided to buy the land, and the city arranged to borrow the purchase price by issuing debentures:

CITY OF VANCOUVER

A By-Law to raise by way of Debentures the sum of $55,000.00 for the purchase and improvement of that parcel of land known as the English Bay Triangle, and more particularly described as all that parcel of land lying between Denman Street and Beach Avenue, and between the production westerly of Davie Street and Morton Avenue, being a portion of Lots Forty-two (42) to Forty-seven (47), Block Seventy-one (71), District Lot One Hundred and Eighty-five (185), in the City of Vancouver, for park purposes, and for widening Morton Avenue adjacent thereto.

Vancouver Sun, November 29, 1926, page 18.

By 1943, the Park Board was asking the city council to close Morton Avenue during summer evenings. The city council refused to agree to the request:

Street Banned As Playground

Fear of legal action prompted the City Council on Monday to refuse a request from the Park Board to close Morton avenue, English Bay, for use as a playground, from 6 to 9 p.m. from June to September 15.

City Solicitor A.E. Lord felt that any Morton avenue property owner who objected to closing of the street might have reasonable cause for action against the city, particularly if he could show the use of the street as a playground amounted to a nuisance or restricted proper access to his premises, or deteriorated the value of his property.

The solicitor pointed out one owner has voiced a definite objection already.

“Streets are intended for the passage of vehicular and pedestrian traffic and not as playgrounds,” he concluded.

Vancouver Province, June 29, 1943, page 5.

The area has continued to be a park since then.

Other individual addresses on this block:

1883 Beach Avenue (or 1883 Morton Avenue)