The name of this six acre island comes from its use as a burial ground by the Salish Indians. Early settlers used it as a cemetery and as a quarantine area during the 1893 smallpox epidemic. In 1944 it became a naval station, H.M.C.S. Discovery—named after one of Captain Vancouver's ships.
The Vancouver branch of the Y.M.C.A. was organized on October 24, 1886 to provide recreation and Christian fellowship to young men. Its first building opened on this site a year later.
May 10, 1886. Mayor Malcolm MacLean and the Aldermen of the new City of Vancouver held their first meeting on this site, in what was then the jail and the courthouse. The balloting for the first election also occurred here.
On this site in 1867, Captain Edward Stamp built a sawmill, then known as Stamp’s Mill. In 1869 it was renamed Hasting's Mill and provided the initial economic base for the growth of Granville or "Gastown".
The Douglas Road from New Westminster to this site was completed in 1865. A small settlement was established, originally known as “End of the Road”, then Brighton, and in 1868 officially named Hastings. For years the Brighton Hotel was a fashionable resort for New Westminster's elite.
On this site in 1891, the C.P.R. built Vancouver's most historic theatre, adjoining their first Hotel Vancouver. The Opera House was later known as the Orpheum, the Vancouver Theatre, the Lyric and the International Cinema. It was demolished in 1969.
On this site stood the first two buildings of that name. In 1887 the C.P.R. opened the original hotel which, together with the adjoining Opera House, helped to shift the city centre away from its Gastown origins. In 1914 this was replaced by the second Hotel Vancouver, which was demolished in 1949.
In 1889, Yip Sang, merchant and labour contractor, built the western portion of the Wing Sang building. The rest of the structure, with its bay windows and third floor, was added in 1902. Among former tenants was Vancouver's oldest Chinese bakery, the Wo Fat.
A trail was blazed to this point in 1861 to link New Westminster, then the capital of the mainland colony of British Columbia, with the Royal Naval Reserve at Jericho. The trail stopped here due to government restraint.
March 1, 1923. As thousands watched, Harry Houdini performed his celebrated strait-jacket escape while hanging from a window on the second storey. He was assured of newspaper coverage for his publicity stunt because the building then housed the Vancouver Sun.
June 13, 1886. Fires, set to burn slash in this area, were fanned by sudden winds from the southwest. The flames spread quickly, reducing the dry, wooden buildings of Vancouver to ashes in less than an hour.
