Sunday. June 28, 1998 - Nomh Shore News - 3 .._| The North Na Graphic courtesy North Vancouver Museum and Archives Areal estate advertisement (above) from 1908 depicts the visionary design of Grand Boulevard. Fifty foot lots sold for $2,600. N. Vi Andrew McCredie . Editor andrew@nsnews.com T has nine lus stops, four tennis courts, a soccer pitch, covers the area of 30 football fields and turns 90 years old this year? Onlv one of the North Shore’s most valuable tracts of public Jand. Thousands commute past Grand Boulevard every day, hundreds use it every weekend for play and leisure but few know the history of North Vancouver’s grande dante of green space. Fewer still know its origin is tied to a bold real estate venture created ro attract the well-heeled to invest in “The Ambitious City” (as Norch Vancouver called itself at the turn of the century). - In light of recent bateles over wooded areas — the Cove Forest case in the Seymour area one of the fat- est — it’s ironic that the 45 acres cleared to make the boulevard, adjoining playing field and residential lots 90 years ago is today one of the most treasured pieces of public property on the North Shore. Can you imagine the reception developers would receive in the 1990s if they approached city council with plans that called for the clearing of a 1.5 kilo- metre by 100 metre swath of woods? Yer that is what occurred nine decades ago, and the legacy it created, far from destroying the character of the area, improved it to the point that few could imagine life without the green belt today. “Everyone across the Lower Mainland knows about Grand Boulevard because it is just such a won- derful asset,” said North Van City parks manager Bill Granger. Not as well known, he added, is that the Jasr exposed section of Moodyville Creek is located in the southeast corner of the park. “We're lerting it go back to its original state, and while ic may just Jaok like a bunch of overgrown blackberry bushes it is really the creck bed.” The well-tended gardens are a centrepiece for the community, and the garden bed at the south end (at Keith Road) is used for special flower displays (i.c. the Commonwealth Games logo was reere- ated with flowers in 1994). Well-placed benches offer park-goers a place to rest, and the vast array of trees, bushes and shrubs provide ample shade dur- ‘ing the summer months. On a recent sunny afternoon, joggers, women with strollers and a boy with a frisbee-catching dog were taking in all that Grand Boulevard has to offer. The original design of the park took into consideration the clevated height of the area, and how the -ightline from rhe park down Queensbury Avenue to the waterfront would give Grand Boulevard a commanding view NEWS photo Cindy Goodman AT just under one-mile in length, Grand Boulevard makes for an ideal place for a jog or walk. n’s grande dame of Burrard Inlet and Vancouver. According to Granger, who recently Ied a tour of the park, Grand Boulevard consists of two distinct sections: the hor- ticultural garden, which is what we consider rhe boulevard strip; and the playing field and tennis courts of Boulevard Park. Though not the biggest park in the city (that honor goes to Mahon Park), Grand Boulevard is the biggest manicured park in the municipality. The North Vancouver Land and Improvement Company cleared the 37 acres to create the boulevard in 1908 (the eight acre Boulevard Park was added a few years later). And in typical real estate fashion, the company put together a number of sales brochures sdvertising the lots that surround Grand Boulevard (a tew of which are in the North Vancouver Archives). Read one: “Should present operations be contin- ued until completion of this great public way, with supporting open spaces, the central city will be encompassed by a great artificial lung, receiving air from every point of the compass and circulating it Unough the residential district; health areas and plea- sure grounds will be perpetuated within about a quar- ter of a mile of every resident of the present city, opportunities will exist for prominent: architectural features, and the Boulevard will be unparalleled even in Paris ... Bathing, boating, fishing and shooting are easily accessible.” The brochure also stated, in what today we'd skeptically view as sales: speak: “It is believed to be the largest boulevard within any city on this continent.” To be sure, they were simpler times, when the public, while not naive, was more willing to take at face value the promotion and marketing of real estate ventures (see sidebar at right). At the time of development, prospective buyers were protected by a number of building restrictions. Private residential structures were the only buildings allowed, and these had to cost more than $4,000 ro build. The 20-year restrictions were renewed in 1928, and thanks to thar foresight the boulevard retained its original concept long after its designers had found their own bit of green space (of the six feet under- ground variery). According to information at the North Vancouver Museum and Archives, the carly development of the Grand Boulevard residential lots went slowly, but following World War {[ a building boom saw all the remaining lots developed. Granger said plans are also being discussed to turn a section of the park into a pond. Thirty or so years ago some of the streets that crossed through the park were blocked off and turned into park land. Since then, drainage has been a problem due to the packed carth below the former roadway. In particular is the patch on 10th Street, which is the spot Granger said is being considered for the pand. “| Shore’s own hamps lysees ome would have you believe that slick real estate promotion ful} of platitudes lke “the choicest resi- dential location.” “the premier avenuc of the West” and “the mast prominent feature of the new city” is of che same age as pagers, cell phones and real estate websites. The following text, from a back page ad that appeared in 3 1908 booklet promoting North Vancouver City, proves the are of the deal was alive and well ar the turn of the century: ANNOUNCEMENT The Grand Boulevard Dimensions Present Length About — 1550 vards Width — 346 feet Arca About — 37 acres Area of Adjoining Park — 8.5 acres Total area — 45.5 acres THE BOULEVARD, with its adjoining Park, now nears completion, " and is assured to the City of North Vancouver under seal of the Townsite Company. THIS BOULEVARD will become the most prominent feature of the new city. It will be to North Vancouver WHAT THE CHAMPS ELYSEES IS TO PARIS WHAT UNTER DEN LINDEN IS TO BERLIN, AND MORE THAN ROTTEN ROW IS TO LONDON, because it will not only be the prin- cipal promenade and drive, but also the finest residential avenue in the Province. Its width exceeds that of the largest European boulevards with the exception of the Champs Elysees and Rois de Boulogne, which are perhaps the most prized features of Paris, and it is unequalled in any American town. Vo convert Georgia Street, which is the widest residential street in Vancouver, into an equal boulevard, would cost far over $1,000,000. As the expense of duplicating this boulevard in any large city would be prohibitive, North Vancouver is likely to retain the distinction of having the greatest residential boulevard on the continent. It will net only remain the premicr avenue of the West, but, in a city which is already a health resort, as a reservoir of constant renewed air, it will perpetuate through later time in the city’s midst the salubrity of the surrounding country. IT FLAS ANOTHER CARDINAL CHARACTERISTIC Property fronting on the Boulevard sells on the condition that for a period of 20 years no building other than res- idential and of $4,000 minimum cost can be built facing the Boulevard, unless a definite majority of the own- ers of the land fronting on the Boulevard register their signed consent to change this condition. This Bouievard is thus protected as an avenue, on which good residences can be built without fear that stares or depreciative structures will be erected next to, or near, them. Further, the permanence of the Boulevard as the choicest residential location is assured by the fact thar it will later prove utterly beyond the financial power of the city to purchase any similar area out of which to con- struct an avenue with equal residential amcnities. The location was the choice of the whole townsite, high, dry, with midway park and commanding view. The North Vancouver Land and Improvement Company, Ltd.