Renfrew-Collingwood Community News

News stories from the Renfrew-Collingwood community in East Vancouver

Collingwood Corner: Joyce and Vanness

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BY LORETTA HOUBEN

Looking south up Joyce to Westminster Road (now Kingsway),1912. The Community Credit Union was recently on the left. Photo from UBC Library, the Chinook newspaper
Looking south up Joyce to Westminster Road (now Kingsway),1912. The Community Credit Union was recently on the left. Photo from UBC Library, the Chinook newspaper

The area at Joyce and Vanness is changing dramatically. In December 2023, the Community Savings Credit Union closed, after 22 years. (They merged with the branch on Commercial Drive.)

5104 Joyce and Vanness, on the southeast corner, 1974. Vancouver Archives, CVA 1095-04418
5104 Joyce and Vanness, on the southeast corner, 1974. Vancouver Archives, CVA 1095-04418

This location has always been a thriving corner because of the British Columbia Electric Railway (BCER) interurban track, built in 1891 to connect downtown Vancouver to New Westminster. Today the Skytrain runs along the same route, built in 1985. The Joyce-Collingwood station was enlarged recently on the east side of Joyce, and it’s a very busy corner.

5103 Joyce and Vanness, on the southwest corner, 1974. Vancouver Archives, CVA 786-98.13
5103 Joyce and Vanness, on the southwest corner, 1974. Vancouver Archives, CVA 786-98.13

Back in the early 1900s, two large office buildings were built on the southeast corner of Joyce and Vanness and across Joyce on the southwest corner.

Recently I discovered photos from 1974 in the Vancouver archives that show the two buildings 60 years later. I realized that I would have passed by them frequently as a young girl, but I have no recollection of them at all. Do you remember these two buildings?

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