Renfrew-Collingwood Community News

News stories from the Renfrew-Collingwood community in East Vancouver

Tag Archives: Collingwood history


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Collingwood Corner: Demolition of Vancouver Distribution Centres, formerly McGregor Warehouses, at 3450 Wellington Avenue

BY LORETTA HOUBEN

Loretta Houben and her young son watching the demolishing of the warehouses on Wellington Avenue, 1992. Photo by John Williams

Do you remember a train whistle blowing late at night in the 1960s and 1970s when the freight train would arrive at the back of the large warehouse complex located on Wellington Avenue and Joyce Street? The train used the former interurban tracks from the east. I lived on Monmouth Avenue and the sound would comfort me in the middle of the night.

The warehouse was opened in March 1957 at 3450 Wellington Avenue and owned by Robert K. Arkley. For many years it was McGregor Warehouses Ltd., until it came under new management in 1973 and was changed to Vancouver Distribution Centres Ltd. The owner at the time was George A. Carey, and the general manager was Harvey Allen. The warehouses were a huge facility consisting of 120,000 square feet. Some of the businesses located here were Castrol Oils, Nestle Canada, DuBois Chemicals of Canada and Johnsons Wax.

1992_Warehouses_Looking_N_From_Skytrain
Looking north from behind the warehouses from the SkyTrain tracks, 1992. Photo by John Williams

It was difficult gleaning this information from online newspapers at Newspapers.com. Not much has been written about this complex, which was in the Collingwood neighbourhood from 1957 until 1992, a period of 35 years, when it was demolished to make way for townhomes and condos. The area was rezoned in 1988.

The warehouses were torn down in 1992. The apartments and townhomes were sold from 1992 to 1994, advertised in the Vancouver Sun for as low as $4,000 down payment. Apartments started at $74,500 and townhomes started at $210,000, from VLC Properties. Eventually, the area included Wellington townhomes on Wellington Avenue, with the Avalon and Connaught townhomes behind them. Also included were two high rise towers, the tallest in the neighbourhood at the time: the Regent Court and Queen’s Court.

My dad, John Williams, took the two photos included with this article. I inherited my love of old buildings and documenting neighbourhood changes from him. These are the only two photos I have seen of the warehouses on Wellington.

The one thing I remember about this area is the beautiful green lawn in the front, with picnic tables for the staff. McGreer Street was once an unnamed gravel lane, running along the west side of the property.

Do you have memories or photos of this warehouse complex? Please get in touch with the editor, Paul Reid, if you do, at rccnews-editorial@cnh.bc.ca.


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Collingwood Corner: Joyce and Vanness

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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Collingwood Corner: Tyne Apartments at 3437 Kingsway

BY LORETTA HOUBEN

A fresh new business named Zim Manufacturing Co., April 1935. Photo by Stuart Thompson, Vancouver Archives
A fresh new business named Zim Manufacturing Co., April 1935. Photo by Stuart Thompson, Vancouver Archives

I’m always on the hunt for old photos that reveal life as it was here in Collingwood in past decades. The Vancouver Archives website is a gold mine for such searches. However, it’s difficult to locate the images as the search engine is tricky to use, and sometimes the photos are incorrectly labelled.

While browsing the archives website recently, I discovered Tyne Apartments in 1978, located at 3437 Kingsway, near the current Tim Horton’s building.

Tyne Apartments, 1978. Vancouver Archives photo; CVA 1093-04480

I didn’t recognize it, so I turned to Google maps to see if it was still standing. I like to use Google maps to find out if a building has been torn down. Google maps is invaluable in my research, because sometimes the building is still standing, and then I can take a photo of it for my records. Otherwise, I save and keep a record of Google’s image in my files.

I looked up Tyne Apartments in the BC Directories, to see how far I could trace it. This part of my research takes many hours. I began with 1955, and worked my way back to 1935, when the building was owned by Isaac D. Chappell. In 1936 he was the manager of Zim Manufacturing and Soap Company.

I typed that name into Google search and found another photo of this building at 3437 Kingsway in 1935 in the Vancouver Archives! You can clearly see the Zim name on the side of the building. The building was vacant from 1930 to 1934. I’m not sure when it was built.

In 1938, the building shared another business; “Uphol (upholstery) and carpet cleaning,” owned by G. W. Henderson. By 1939, according to the directories, the Zim Company was gone.

I wonder if Zim was a good cleaning agent. Today, in 2024, I use a cleaner named “Vim,” but I don’t think there is any relation to Zim! In 1940 the building was first listed as Tyne Apartments and had eight units. It appears it lasted until the 1970s, as the second photo was taken in 1978. The building was gone by 2015, according to Google maps.

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