Gastown

GASTOWN was the informal name of the original settlement of VANCOUVER. It appeared in 1867 on the south shore of BURRARD INLET just west of Stamp's Mill (later HASTINGS MILL), when Gassy Jack DEIGHTON opened a saloon-hotel to cater to the millhands. The site was officially surveyed and christened GRANVILLE in 1870. As Vancouver expanded, Gastown became a commercial centre, then a warehouse district. By the late 1960s it had fallen on hard times; it was refurbished as a historic neighbourhood of brick streets, restaurants and shops catering to TOURISTS. Gastown was the scene on 7 Aug 1971 of the infamous "Gastown Riot," when police violently overreacted to a gathering of street people and hippies. In 2009 Gastown was made a National Historic District; it contains 141 designated historic buildings, most dating from the period 1886 to 1914.