BY LORETTA HOUBEN
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.)
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.
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?