We’re at West 6th Ave. and Arbutus St. outside the Arbutus Coffee café. It’s at the centre of Kitsilano’s oldest neighbourhood. The park named Delamont is located at West 7th Ave. and Arbutus St. and runs behind Arbutus Coffee and several other houses.

On August 19th, 2012, Arbutus Coffee received Vancouver’s Places That Matter plaque that commemorates people, places and events that play a role in shaping Vancouver’s history. The café is in one of about 22 heritage houses in the area, most of them on West 5th and 6th Ave. on the east side of Arbutus St. They date back to the early 1900s.

Development in Kitsilano began to take off with the advent of the Canadian Pacific Railroad (CPR). The Arbutus Corridor line was built in 1902 after the province granted the land to Canadian Pacific. There was also a new electric streetcar service which had a route along 4th Ave. around the time the heritage houses were being built. Both rail lines provided increased accessibility. CPR developed a lot of the property it owned in the area for residential use and sold it at great profit. It is still in control of the Arbutus Corridor which runs through part of Delamont Park, and this leaves the park’s future uncertain.

The Delamont area, being on a hill, had a superb view, and was originally known as West Fairview. The Arbutus Coffee building was constructed in 1907 by Thomas Fraser who lived in a bungalow next door, built around 1901. Fraser’s house remains on West 6th Ave. Arbutus Coffee is in a two-storey wooden building with a square “boomtown front.” This is a typical style of building in the North American West constructed in the early 20th century when growth was booming. It features a high decorative false front which covers a gabled building behind it. The building retains its original windows and has a unique corner entryway that was common at the time for a small family grocery store. The main level remained a grocery store in one form or another into the 1990s.

The Arbutus Coffee building, along with the 22 heritage houses in the area are intact, sustainable and have provided affordable housing for decades. They were purchased by the city beginning in the 60s with the intention of demolition to build a six-lane connector along the Arbutus Corridor to facilitate the movement of commuter traffic in and out of the downtown core. There was great opposition to this plan as well as to expanding Delamont Park itself at the expense of the heritage homes.

Of note is that the 60s were famous for counter culture. Kitsilano and especially what we now know as the trendy part of West 4th Ave. were a magnet for people of an alternative persuasion. Many artists lived in Kits and some were purported to be tenants on the second floor of the Arbutus Coffee building above the former grocery store. I’m sure they felt threatened by the city’s plan to change the character of the neighbourhood and fought against this as well as the loss of affordable housing.

Today the fight continues; the city seems to be on side with the preservation of the heritage houses they own and encourages other owners of similar houses in the immediate area to maintain their original character. Heritage Vancouver is strongly supportive of heritage preservation in the form of a Mole Hill type of development model. This would include heritage building rehabilitation, affordable housing, community gardens and legal protection of these heritage assets. A commitment by the city to this purpose would strongly support its repeated mantra of wanting to do something about affordable housing, sustainability and livable neighbourhoods.

A visit to this area and especially Arbutus Coffee would make an interesting outing. It’s about equidistant between the West 4th Ave. shopping area and Broadway St. Notice the little wooden book exchange structure on the left side of the picture, which adds to the charm of the neighbourhood. Perhaps the man reading a book that we see in the Arbutus Coffee window obtained it at the book exchange.