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This page is about the neighbourhood in Burnaby, British Columbia. For the shopping mall, see Metropolis at Metrotown. For the SkyTrain station, see Metrotown Station.
Metropolis at Metrotown and Metrotowers
Metrotown skyline as seen from Vancouver Harbour

Metrotown is a town centre serving the southwest quadrant of Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. It is one of the city's four officially designated town centres,[1] as well as one of Metro Vancouver's regional town centres.[2]

The town centre is bounded on the west by Boundary Road, on the south by Imperial Street, on the east by Royal Oak Avenue, and on the north by a series of local streets, giving an area of 2.97 km2 (730 acres).[3][4] Kingsway forms the central commercial spine for the neighbourhood, and is paralleled to the south by the SkyTrain tracks running alongside Central Boulevard. The area is served by the SkyTrain's Patterson and Metrotown stations, while Royal Oak Station sits just beyond the southeastern limits of the district.

History

On the recommendation of Colonel Richard Moody, the Royal Engineers constructed a trail linking False Creek and New Westminster (the present-day Kingsway), which opened in 1860; they also allocated space for a military reserve at a plateau along the road in the area of modern-day Metrotown.[5] With the construction of a parallel interurban line connecting Vancouver and New Westminster (which opened in 1891), the provincial government established a series of holding lots out of the military reserve in the 1890s to accommodate working class residents.[5] The lots were drawn at right angles to the interurban line, which ran from the northwest to the southeast, accounting for Metrotown's street orientation.[5]

During the Great Depression, Burnaby reeve William Pritchard instituted a series of make-work programs to put the unemployed to work, using municipal funds and loans.[5] This put a strain on Burnaby's finances, and in 1932 the province stepped in by suspending the functions of Burnaby's government and appointing a commissioner to run municipal affairs.[5][6] Under the province's control, Burnaby was able to strike a deal with the Ford Motor Company to build an assembly plant in the municipality.[7] The plant, located near Kingsway and McKay Avenue, opened in 1938, and was used to produce military vehicles during World War II;[7] it eventually became an Electrolier facility after the war.[8] Wholesale grocer Kelly-Douglas Company built a manufacturing plant and warehouse to the east of the Ford/Electrolier plant in 1946, and Simpsons-Sears opened a catalogue sales and distribution facility to the east of the Kelly-Douglas plant in 1954.[7]

References

Footnotes
  1. ^ "Town Centres". City of Burnaby. Retrieved 2012-12-21.
  2. ^ "Metrotown City Centre". Metro Vancouver. Retrieved 2012-12-21.
  3. ^ Burnaby Planning Department, p.14
  4. ^ "Metrotown General Land Use Map" (PDF). City of Burnaby. Retrieved 2012-12-21.
  5. ^ a b c d e Terry Glavin (2006). "Lost Cities". Vancouver Review. Retrieved 2012-12-21.
  6. ^ "Young Burnaby: 1911-1943" (PDF). City of Burnaby. Retrieved 2012-12-21.
  7. ^ a b c "Burna-Boom 1925 - 1954". Heritage Burnaby. Retrieved 2012-12-21.
  8. ^ Burnaby Planning Department, p.18
Bibliography
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