Downtown Eastside

The Downtown Eastside, centred on the junction of Main Street and Hastings Street, is one of Vancouver’s oldest neighbourhoods. As such, many historical and cultural points of interest are located here. One of these, the Carnegie Community Centre, is located in the former Carnegie Public Library built in 1903 near the Main-Hastings intersection.

The community centre opened in 1980 and provides residents with social, educational, cultural and recreational activities, and services. Its facilities include a theatre, a gymnasium, a weight room, a cafeteria, a seniors’ lounge and a pool room.

It is also home to an adult learning centre and a computer lab. In addition, the Carnegie Community Centre regularly holds events, such as the Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival.

Another cultural source of pride for Downtown Eastside comes in the Firehall Arts Centre located on East Cordova Street. This centre, housed in a circa 1906 former fire station, banners a 156-seat theatre serving as a stage for three theatre companies. A prime advocate of experimental theatre, Firehall stages dance, dramas, and new plays, as well as the yearly, two-week dance festival called “Dancing on the Edge”.

Right next to the centre is another Downtown Eastside cultural icon—the Vancouver Police and Museum Archives. The museum was established in 1986 in commemoration of the Vancouver Police Department and the City of Vancouver’s centennial. It occupies the top floor of a municipally designated class “A” heritage building constructed in 1932.

The museum is a repository of about 30,000 objects including confiscated firearms and other weapons, counterfeit money, and photographs. It conducts educational forensic investigation programs for young visitors and also maintains a bookstore.

Downtown Eastside history lives on too at Oppenheimer Park on Powell Street, which opened in 1902 and was originally called the Powell Street Grounds. It was later renamed after Vancouver Mayor David Oppenheimer who inaugurated the park. The park’s location is also notably within the area of the city’s former Japantown, where Japanese immigrants settled before World War II. The facilities of the park include a children’s playground, a basketball court, a softball field, and a community centre with meeting space, public computer access, and bathrooms.

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