Brent Harris

Study Abroad
10/29/18

The Racist Road:

How a City was Shaped by a Dark Path.

Most major cities have main thoroughfares, like a ventral artery, which cuts through the

heart of the city. Vancouver was to be no exception. Construction began in the late 60s to

reconstruct parts of the Georgia St Viaduct (originally built in 1912) and re-route it straight

through the town center. However, there is evidence to support the claim that the route chosen

was racially motivated. The viaduct demolished Hogan’s Alley, which was home to Vancouver’s

only black population. Among the blacks affected was the family of Jimi Hendrix. Furthermore,

the viaduct was to cut through Chinatown, home to a huge contingent of Chinese immigrants,

and then through the slums of the city center. However, due to protests and civil unrest,

construction was successfully halted just before Chinatown. Today, in Gastown, a proud Steam-

clock stands in defiance of a road never finished. However, what still stands of the viaduct,

which wiped Hogan’s Alley off the map, is a reminder of the racially charged policies of

Vancouver’s past. As the almost-destroyed Chinatown Gate says: “Remember the Past and Look

Forward to the Future.”

Hogan’s Alley:

Nora Hendrix was a feisty old lady who lived just on the edge of Hogan’s Alley,

Vancouver’s only concentrated community of blacks. She lived as a vibrant and vocal volunteer

who helped found Fountain Chapel, Vancouver’s first black church. When not spending time

organizing her community, she worked at Vie’s Chicken and Steak House, both a cultural and
culinary institution smack-dab at the forefront of Hogan’s Alley and its black community

(Foteins).

Nora Hendrix was also the grandmother of a certain musician named Jimi. The young

Jimi Hendrix would visit Vancouver often, where he would practice guitar for hours along Main

Street at Vie’s. It’s said that Vie’s hosted the likes of Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, and of

course, Hendrix himself (Lazarus).

The Jimi Hendrix/Nora Mural located at 1030 East Cordova, Vancouver

(view from Glen Drive). Created by Nelson Garcia and Xochitl in 2007.

In 1967, Hogan’s Alley was wiped off the map. Construction cut directly through the

community between Union and Prior streets, near where Vie’s stood. During the 40s,

Vancouver’s black population measured around 800 (Heritage Foundation). After its demolition,

20 years later, it’s estimated that over one-thousand people – about a third of the community, lost

their homes or places of employment (Guardian).

Gone was the neighborhood where Jimi Hendrix strummed his guitar in practice, where

he learned to make it weep. Gone was Vancouver’s black community and its culture.

It was replaced by a road.

 Hogan’s Alley was a T-shaped intersection at the edge of Strathcona
that formed the nucleus of Vancouver’s first black community, long before there was a Vancouver.

Hogan’s Alley 1958

http://www.vancouverheritagefoundation.org/place-that-matters/hogans-alley/

In our repeat photography assignment, I chose this subject because, as an historian, I am

concerned with how past social institutions have shaped the socio-economic stratifications and

inequalities we see today. As a writer, I mourn when art is lost. In this case, Vancouver’s city

development may literally have been shaped by racist policies enacted by the construction of the

Georgia St. Viaduct project. Here is Hogan’s alley today:

 Hogan’s Alley, 2018.

832 Main Street in former Hogan’s Alley 1969

832 Main Street, Oct. 2018.

 In repeat photography, the idea is to capture a moment from the past as perfectly as one

can with a picture from the present to compare changes to better engage on a cultural level with

the host city or subject. (Lemmons 86-87, Lemmons 543). Obviously, given the nature of this

topic, this ‘repeat’ picture cannot embrace the exactness of the picture from the past. It can only

serve as a haunting reminder of how our past, for good or ill, constructs our present.

As the bulldozers were still plowing pavement and erecting a raised road through

Hogan’s Alley, the city of Vancouver finally announced to its citizens where this road was

journey next: the idea was to veer sharply North, the next leg planned to bifurcate and demolish

Chinatown, then head to the water and root out the slums of what is now present day Gastown

(Steim).

Chinatown:
Vancouver is home to a large and colorful community of Chinese immigrants that once

faced racist policies and attacks, but now are considered by the city as a culturally significant and

integral part of Vancouver. The Chinese came with the roads and railways they built to

Vancouver, beginning in 1874, fourteen years before the city was founded. The cost to settle the

city was $50 for each person, where they faced mobs of violent whites, and policies designed to

subjugate them, until a ban was eventually placed against Chinese immigration altogether (A

View on Cities).

After eradicating the city’s black population, the Georgia St. Viaduct eyed Chinatown.

But, the city’s plans revealed, and the destruction wrought to the inhabitants of Hogan’s Alley in

evidence, the people of Vancouver unified in opposition to the project. Chinatown is the city’s

geographic center and perhaps its heart. Buses of protesters converged onto Chinatown streets.

Blacks, whites, and Chinese banded together. City funds for the road dried out, a more
progressive voice took over the city council, and the city’s beating heart was saved (Guardian). If

Chinatown had also gone the way of Hogan’s alley, it would have been another tragic blow to

Vancouver’s cultural heritage.

Original Chinatown Gateway, 1912

http://www.greatervancouverhotels.com/history/chinatown.htm

The original Chinatown gate was built as a showpiece for the Duke of Cornwall’s 1912

visit. It was later rebuilt in 1972 and stretches across the crossroads on Pender Street (Greater

Vancouver).

Modern Chinatown Gate, 2012

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinatown,_Vancouver#/media/File:Millennium_Gate,_Vancouver%27s_Chinatown
_National_Historic_Site_of_Canada,_WLM2012.jpg
My repeat picture of the gateway shows that not much has changed from its original

construction, as it should, as the efforts of Vancouver’s citizens saved it. I chose this picture not

just to celebrate Vancouver’s culture and diversity, but because this gateway serves as a symbol

to a community coming together to rally under one banner. Their comradery paid off. Chinatown

exists. Its grand entrance stands:

Chinatown Gate at Pender St., 2018.

Gastown:

Our journey ends at Gastown, now an artificially aged touristy center -- where dollars

disembark from cruise ships – but was once a seedy slum. After bifurcating Chinatown, the

Georgia St. Viaduct was to end there at the waterfront. On one hand, this would have cleared out

the dens of opium abusers and the homeless. On the other hand, it would have brought steel and

concrete and traffic right through the spot where ‘Gassy’ Jack Deighton set up shop for the fur

traders that began to call the wilderness home (Mackie).

 When the viaduct project was stopped, the city still had to content with issues facing

Gastown. The answer was not to destroy, but to refurbish. Now, a steam-clock stands in

Gastown’s center, a monument to a road that never was.

Maple Street Square Before Refurbishment: 1967

Maple Street Square, Oct. 2018.

 I chose these two representations of Gastown because, rather than wiping away the

historical and socio-economic ‘blights’ with a major road, instead, the city invested time, funds,

and engaged its community to turn one of the worst areas of the city into one of its most well-

known. Vancouver built places of help and hope instead of walls of concrete. Of course, these

‘safe-sites,’ needle exchanges, and shelters were put in place one block south, in between

Gastown and Chinatown on Hastings street, away from tourists and their wallets. Vancouver still

has a massive opioid problem, but it is managed and mostly contained by a plainclothes police

presence and outreach for those who seek it (Police Interview).

Gastown Steamclock. 2006.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_clock#/media/File:GastownSteamClock.jpg
 Gastown Steamclock, October, 2018.

Conclusion:

Vancouver, and its Georgia St. Viaduct project are a reminder that concrete walls or

roadways do not make the urban issues all large cities face simply disappear. Luckily, this visible

reminder of racism will -- its destruction is slated soon and, in its place, will be built reminders

of culture and people lost (CBC News).

Vancouver is now a progressive, liberal city, on whose positive values others should

emulate. But it wasn’t always so. Fifty years ago, the city took a darker path which wiped out its

only black population at Hogan’s Alley. Chinatown nearly met the same fate. And opioid
addicted denizens would have also been affected without addressing the underlying social issues

and need for help.

As bulldozers tore down homes and displaced the people and culture of Hogan’s Alley,

people pushed past their differences, banded together, and stopped the viaduct. But wounds – in

this case, literal roads that course like scars through the city – are a reminder of an uglier time.

With the forthcoming destruction of the Georgia St. Viaduct, Vancouver is embracing its people

and cultural heritage and honoring the past while focusing on forging a better future.
 Works Cited

CBC News. “City Releases First Draft of Plans for Post-Viaduct Vancouver.” CBC News, 6 June

2017, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/georgia-viaducts-development-

plan-vancouver-1.4147313. Accessed 24 October 2018.

Chinatown. “Chinatown.” A View on Cities.2018.

http://www.aviewoncities.com/vancouver/chinatown.htm Accessed 14 October 2018.

Fotoeins Fotografie. “My Vancouver: Jimi Hendrix’s grandma and Black Strathcona.” Fotoeins

Fotografie: Photograph as Worlds Between Words, 19 February 2018,

https://fotoeins.com/2018/02/19/my-vancouver-nora-hendrix-black-strathcona/. Accessed

15 October 2018.

Greater Vancouver Hotels. “The History of Chinatown in Vancouver.”

http://www.greatervancouverhotels.com/history/chinatown.htm. Accessed 14 October

2018.

Hendrix, Janie L. “The Blood of Entertainers: The Life and Times of Jimi Hendrix’s Paternal

Grandparents.” Blackpast.org, https://blackpast.org/perspectives/blood-entertainers-life-

and-times-jimi-hendrixs-paternal-grandparents. Accessed 24 October 2018.

Lazarus, Eva. “Black History Month: Jimi Hendrix and the Hogan’s Alley Connection.” Every

Story. 10 February 2013, http://evelazarus.com/black-history-month-hogans-alley-and-

the-jimi-hendrix-connection/. Accessed 24 October 2018.

Lemmons, Kelly K., et. al. “Exposing students to repeat photography: increasing cultural

understanding on a short-term study abroad.” Journal of Geography in Higher Education,

 Vol. 39, No. 4, 2015, pp. 543-553, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03098265.2015.1084607.

Accessed 15 October 2018.

--- “Short-term study abroad: culture and the path of least resistance.” Journal of Geography in

Higher Education. Vo. 38, No. 1, 2014, pp. 86-105,

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03098265.2013.836745. Accessed 15 October 2018.

Mackie, John. “This Week in History: 1867 Gassy Jack Deighton Moves to Future Vancouver.”

Vancouver Sun. 19 September 2017. https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/this-

week-in-history-1867-gassy-jack-deighton-moves-to-the-future-vancouver. Accessed on

10/26/2018.

Steim, Tyler. “Stories of Cities #38: “Vancouver Dumps its Freeway Plan for a More Beautiful

Future.” The Guardian, 9 May 2016.

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/may/09/story-cities-38-vancouver-canada-

freeway-protest-liveable-city. Accessed 15 October 2018.

Vancouver Heritage Foundation. “Hogan’s Alley.” Vancouver Heritage Foundation,

http://www.vancouverheritagefoundation.org/place-that-matters/hogans-alley/. Accessed

15 October 2018.