I lived at three different addresses along West 3rd in Kitsilano between 1984 and 1995. And, while I loved the beach, the restaurants, West 4th Avenue, and Granville Island, I would have liked to have known Kits in the 1970s.
An essay in photos by Bruce Stewart
Kits Pool:
Fortunately, Bruce Stewart spent half of that decade living in a $280 a month (heat and hot water included) apartment at 2340 Cornwall Avenue, just across from Kits pool. “Today, that apartment rents for $3800/month! The fancy one out front goes for $5000/month. One bedroom, one bath, tiny kitchen,” he tells me.
Says Bruce: “I remember waking up on Sunday mornings to the plaintive wail of a ‘smooth jazz’ sax player who sat near where this picture was taken, serenading residents along Cornwall throughout the seventies. I would chat with my neighbour, Mary Pack about how wonderful it was to be living there! We all enjoyed the music. As well as the mournful, creepy wail of the old Point Atkinson foghorn on winter nights. Man, that thing bellowed loud!”
Natural Foods:
Lifestream Natural Foods was at 4th and Burrard. Doug Bird says it was “an early local leader in organics, it became a bit of a community hub. There was a big bulletin board out front where folks travelling around would leave messages for each other.”
Adds Bruce: “My friend and fellow shooter, Howard Parks used to grow ‘organic’ vegetables in an empty lot just in the alley behind CFUN (now long gone as well) using broken oyster shells and chicken manure which I transported for him from the chicken coops at the old Aggie lands at UBC – this would be around 1971. Parks would take his produce to the Natural Foods Store to sell to the owners.”
Dickie Dee:
The Dickie Dee Ice Cream bike was a familiar sight all over Vancouver in the ’70s. “Bar, Sundae and Fudgsicle all 15 cents each,” notes Bruce. “And, check those prices on produce!”
Related: Kits Point and the Summer of 1923
Related: The Kitsilano Laneway House
Related: The Nanaimo to Kitsilano Bathtub Race
Okay, not Kits beach, but these two were too gorgeous not to include.
Related: The Royal Hudson in Kitsilano
With huge thanks to Bruce Stewart for allowing me to run his fabulous photos on my blog! If you have your own memories of Kitsilano in the ’70s and/or photos, please share them with us and I’ll do up a Part 2.
© All rights reserved. Unless otherwise indicated, all blog content copyright Eve Lazarus.
38 comments on “Kitsilano in the ’70s: a photo essay”
Oh, does this ever stir up the nostalgic mud! But thank you, anyway!=.
It certainly does Dan! In 1969-70 I lived at 2nd/Arbutus in an old wooden, 3 storey house basement suite! I was 16 yrs old. The landlords were 2 ‘eccentric’ brothers Percy and Wes! They were retired, and Wes had worked for the CPR. They were hoarders, and there was canned food stacked everywhere! The house was full of valuable antiques! Percy gave me a WW2 German Navy flag with the swaztika on it. I gave it to a collector neighbour in East Van whose son was a friend of mine.
Do you remember that HUGE rock that sat on the S.E. corner of 4th/Arbutus? The hippies used to sit on it. I also lived at Alma House on the N.E. corner of 2nd/Alma st. for a short time. It’s still there and is probably a heritage house now? I actually grew up by Trout Lake, but I moved around a lot back then. I LOVED living in Kits though!
What a wonderful trip back in time. I lived in Kits in the 90’s Some of the best years of my life.
I remember the fog horn. It had a defect and it sort of shuddered at the end of the blast. I see a phone booth at the Lifestream Natural Foods. For many years there was a large orange carrot sidewalk sign in front of the store. I think the Dickie Dee ice cream bicycle had bells that jingled as it came down the street. Stewart’s photos really capture a time before sun block lotions.
The fog horn wasn’t defective, the “grunt” at the end of the second note was a “feature” of the diaphone style fog horn, invented in Canada BTW.
Thanks for these wonderful photos. I visited Vancouver for the first time in August 1972, for my sister’s wedding. A friend drove me across the country from Montreal in his VW Westphalia, stopping at campuses to sell his book of poetry along the way.
My sister had arranged for me and my parents to stay in a top floor apartment at Melton Court, right across from Kits Pool. Mum and Dad got the bedroom and I slept on an air mattress in the living room, which overlooked Kits Beach, English Bay and a backdrop of the North Shore mountains.
When I woke up on the sunny first morning I looked out the window and immediately thought “What on earth am I doing living in Montreal and not here?” It took me three more years—but eventually I managed to make the move I’ve never regretted! (Although, Montreal was, and still is, a great city.)
On the May long weekend of 1979 I hitchhiked to and from Vancouver to secure a place to live. I found that place (shared accommodation, $125/mth) on W.7 Ave between Balsam and Vine. My source was the Lifestream bulletin board.
After a few months I moved into a better shared accommodation situation upstairs in the same house, then into a housekeeping room in the house next door three years later ($200/mth), the modest cost allowed me to afford a studio at Alexander and Main above Jack Harman’s sculpture foundry (started at $55/mth), which I had for 10 years.
In 1990 I moved with my partner into a heritage apartment building at York & Trafalgar where we have been ever since, so 45 years living in one of the most desirable neighborhoods in N. America.
My point is that none of this would be possible today for somebody eking out a living as a freelance photographer (at the wheel of a taxi for 17 years to stay afloat).
When I came to Kits it was at the tail end of the hippy era and the hood was a much more interesting–and far more affordable–place. Sad to say, this wonderful city is having the mojo crushed out of it, and the Broadway and Vancouver plans will be the coup de grace. I’m glad I won’t live long enough to see the worst of it…
Oh my gosh , Gord …I remember those low low rents . I lived a bit further West from Lifestream , tho I had a close girlfriend in one of the apartments above , so I shopped there a lot . Everyone in Kits did . Chloe worked for many years at Topanga when we lived on Bayswater , hired by the lovely Tom . That was certainly a Kits ‘Mainstay’ too . I think , like everyone else , I will always hold those Memories dear , in a most nostalgic way – of an Era gone by .
I lived in one of the apartments above Lifestream for awhile. Who was the friend you knew there? Maybe I know her…. Bruce
I lived on West 4th for a few months in early 1970…a flat, maybe in the 2200 or 2300 block atop a commercial district…She had 2 or 3 kittens and I discovered for the first time in my life a cat allergy (thankfully it went away) Kits Pool was a few blocks away, and for those brief few months, winterish, mind you, even though I was living off savings, planning more university time, getting my life somewhat orderly, it was a great place to be…so thanks for the great post, the photos, the lost time…
Any photos of Wreck Beach in the 1970’s. I’ve got some, hee, hee.
I would love to do a piece on Wreck Beach in the 1970s!
Oh, how I remember the good life in Kitsilano. I used to live in Kits Point at 2080 Creelman Ave., a duplex with view of Kits Beach with all the beautiful people depicted in Bruce Stewart’s photographs. The bakery on Yew and Cornwall (the name escaped me) with all the wonderful breads and pastry and all the great restaurants along Yew and Cornwall. Lifestream was the melting point where you always met someone you knew when you went shopping and to read all the little paper clips pinned on the wall across the entrance. Saturdays we went to the only liquor store up on West Broadway to buy a gallon bottle of Calona wine (tasted horrible) and to find out where the parties were happening….
Life was truly beautiful.
Thomas Meyer, thanks for your note! That bakery was called Elsie’s Bakery with a great meat market next door – Paul’s Meats. Elsie was a real fixture on the beach scene in Kits and her daughter worked alongside her. Got to know them all well.
Great bakery-made mint and chocolate brownies on offer! Life in Kits
WAS magical then!
As a new immigrant from the UK I was very impressed that she pinned up on the board any nsf cheques that people had paid with!!
I grew up right across the street. 2081 Creelman was my family home till my mom sold the place in the early 80s. She got a good price for it, but of course in 2024 it would be worth much more than what she sold it for back when.
Wow, this takes me back. I grew up in West Point Grey, but Kits was my hangout, especially lower 4th, when I was a teen in the late 70s, up until the late 80s. I guess we all wax sentimental over our youth, but it really was a beautiful, laid-back, safe, fun, vibrant, creative place to be. Excellent photos. A lot of work went into them. Thanks for sharing, Bruce!
Mom & John lived on the top floor of 1872 W. 3rd (3rd & Cypress) They had the Hippogryff Store beside the Stuart Building on W. Georgia & Stanley Park at the time. I moved down to live with Mom in 1967, I was about 10 at the time. I have many a fond memory of the people & those times back in the day & all of the goings on at the time. 4th Avenue and all its goings on. Being only 10 and all the freedom I could wish for, it was a pretty magical time for me at the time. I couldn’t have asked for a better time or memories . If my memory serves me right, that picture of the building & the Lifestream at 4th & Burrard used to be Doug Hawthorn’s (The Blind Owl) The Psychedelic Shop during the later 60’s. At the right hand corner of the building was the wooden board walk between the buildings to the back alley. On the other side of that was a Chinese grocery store. My mom would always laugh when she told me stories about early Kits back in those times, that would have been more of the 60’s Folk era. Especially that little store, as soon as you walked into the store the first thing the elderly man would say out loudly was 2% or Homo. Well just about everyone would always Smile. He hee ,Well I guess you would have had to have been their. Lol Mom was going to write a book about all of her experiences of the Time’s, The 60’s, Kitsilano, 4th Ave. All of the Great Friends along the way. It’s title may have been 2% or Homo. Sadly Mom passed away in March at the age of 87 years. Mom moved to Kits in 1963. Once again Thank-you Eve, and Thank-you Bruce for your memories.
Billy 1872 west 3rd is a story all by itself we all had a great time there and many memories. The rest of the street was your typical working parents and kids who got to watch the circus everyday that 1872 was.
Thank you for your mention Phyllis, Yes it was a typical street scene with the working parents, so you can imagine how out of place I was at Henry Hudson. lol There was an abandoned gas station on the corner of W.3rd & Burrard and for some reason I was always fascinated by it, probably because of the 40’s or so architecture & how it probably was a very busy place back in it’s day on Burrard. After a very long search through Vancouver archives I finally found the closest picture that I think was the original service station. Now I just have to find it in my archives .. lol I remember Mom telling me when Janis Joplin & The Grateful Dead came to town and after their shows they ended up in our neighborhood and down at the Peace House. Although that was before my time, Although I do remember various Orange & Purple substances from the days, if you know what I mean 😎 lol I wish I could remember his name, Mom used to babysit for his kids when they lived at the Peace House, he was one of the founders of Addle Chromish (Light Show) I think the name was & unfortunately his tragic story in the end ..
I love these photos – what a fun collection. I never lived in Kits but in English Bay in the 80’s and the vibe was similar. Life seemed so simple back then. Nostalgic, indeed.
A much simpler and safer time in so many ways. Even the city police kept their sidearms semi concealed in the old flap holsters, it’s funny what I would notice as a kid. Victoria was much the same, but with a decidedly English atmosphere.
I spent a lot of time in Kitsilano in the late 60s and through much of the 70s. I grew up in North Van and in 1967 came over to hang out every Saturday on 4th Ave at the height of the hippie thing (I was only 15). I was there the July day when the Grateful Dead, who were in town for a three-day gig at Dante’s Inferno (later the Retinal Circus) on Davie, were about to play a free concert near Engine 374 at Cornwall and Yew. A couple of bands played first, then the neighbours complained about the noise, the cops showed up and the Dead, who’d been hanging around for an hour waiting to play (I stood next to Jerry Garcia, watching as, seated on a picnic table, he give guitar tips to a number of aspiring players), took off along with the rest of us, disappointed. I continued trying to grow my hair as long as I could before my dad noticed.
In 1973 my parents sold our house and in July that year I moved to what was then called a “housekeeping room” (hot plate, fridge, shared bathroom) for $65 a month in an old house near 8th & Vine (the house is, miraculously, still there… for now, until the Broadway Plan continues its tsunami of destruction west of Vine). At 21, I revelled in finally being on my own. I shopped at the 4th Ave Safeway and various shops along 4th, including a great Greek bakery that used to be located about where Maria’s Taverna is now. I used to have baklava and bougatsa pig-outs every week. In the fall my two best friends, who were married to each other, asked me to move in with them in a house they’d rented near the Drive and on which they couldn’t aford the rent. Against my better judgement I agreed. I hated the East End, missing the beach and the sweet Kitsilano summer. Then they broke up and we all had to move out by the New Year. I floated through several temporary domiciles in North Van before returning to my old Kits digs, after the landlord (very nice guy, actually) had knocked a hole between my old room and a smaller one. So now I had a larger space, for $95 a month. Then an old friend, who with his wife was managing a 1960s three-storey walkup on York just west of Balsam, told me they had a studio coming up, in January. So again I moved, for the sixth time in a year and half, and I was very glad I did; it was $125 a month (initially) but at last I had my own bathroom (and a balcony!). That summer of ’75 was blissful; the lot next door had an abandoned house and a huge cottonwood tree outside my window– and on summer evenings, late at night, it was often so quiet I could hear the breeze rustling the leaves. Some nights I could even hear the waves washing onto nearby Kits Beach. I used to “borrow”a bike that was kept in the building’s storage room and go for long late-night rides through the empty, quiet Kitsilano streets, out to Jericho and back (I was a very nervous rider, afraid of traffic, and never did get a bike of my own).
I was socially and culturally active, hanging with friends, spending days at Wreck Beach, studying T’ai Chi, and I loved my new home. Until… in mid-1976 a developer bought the lot next door, demolished the old house, cut down the cottonwood and slapped up a “luxury” townhouse/condo development. For months I had a construction site 20 feet from my windows. I took to leaving the blinds closed in daytime.
The end came in the fall of ’77 when I was persuaded to move in with an on again/off again girlfriend, back in North Van. Again I had misgivings and they were justified when in January she abruptly traded me in for a new guy as if I was a secondhand car. She was looking for a White Knight and I wasn’t it. I hurriedly moved to the West End with the intention of springboarding from there back to Kits. Never made it. Instead I got involved in a bunch of West End activities— running on the seawall, Karate, working out at the Aquatic Center— and finally I met the love of my life (who also lived in the West End), with whom I would spent the next 39 years– until she passed away four years ago, leaving me utterly shattered. We moved in together “officially’ in mid-1985, in a newly-opened housing co-op near Granville Island— only three blocks from my dear old Kitsilano, now changed so much from the days when I knew her— and there I was, back shopping on 4th, going to restaurants like Sophie’s, Maria’s, Connie’s and others— and doing pretty well over all, until the darkness descended and I lost my love. I miss the old Kits, I really do— all those wonderful shops, before the chain stores and the money and the glitz arrived– but even the current Kitsilano still seems like a good place to live, and will likely continue to be, until it’s destroyed by the coming juggernaut that is the Broadway Plan. Sic Transit Gloria.
Really enjoyed reading your story Mark! I am sorry about your wife though. Eve
Thank you, Eve. As you can probably imagine, I have many more stories… over 72 years, a lot can happen!
Lovely read , Mark . Yes , thank you . I share many of your experiences in Kits , right above Lifestream where a close girlfriend lived in one of the apartments – and also , across the street at another girlfriend’s above the honey place , next to the Shell Station . I ended up living tho for many years further West in Kits , across from the Topanga where my daughter worked – hired by the lovely Tom – on Bayswater @ 4th . Co-incidentally like yourself , I moved into a Co-op near Granville Island when my daughter grew up and flew the Nest . I am sorry for your Loss , but very Happy for your Memories which like mine , are long , varied and very treasured . Best –
I miss the old Kits too. Remember when Sophie’s was just an old diner? It doesn’t seem that long ago. And Black Swan Records? And the Bagel Shop? And, and and…. All those big name boutiques there now are so dull in comparison. And I think I know that rooming house at 8th and Vine—my friend Steve lived there!
That photo of Lifestream at 4th & Burrard isn’t Lifestream. It is the NAAM, when it was both a restaurant and a natural food store. Not Lifestream. This is at 4th & Stevens, not 4th & Burrard. This building is still standing, The NAAM is still in business. The old building that Lifestream was in is long gone.
See here for another image of the NAAM when it was a restaurant / Natural Food Store.
https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/food-and-drink/naam-restaurant-closing-business-for-sale-rumours-5967328
Nice catch Michael, correction noted!
Sorry, Michael! My goof. I remember photographing those two places on or around the same day in the mid-Seventies and when pulling the negatives last month, the two places got switched in a ‘senior’s moment’!
The light-splashed sidewalk and the shadows in my shot caused me to think it was late afternoon and that it would be on the north side of Fourth. I now realize it was early morning when I photographed the Naam (on the shadow side of the street). Late afternoon sun would have the shadows going in the opposite direction!
Loved those Naam ‘sunshine’ hot cakes, with the chopped nuts, yummy honey ringed by a corona of sliced peaches. A wonderful time to be living in Kits. Cheers! bruce
I’d love to see the old Lifestream photos, Bruce. I know I went in there a lot, but my memory if its layout is so vague now. I’d love to see any other photos, for that matter. They’re really good, and so evocative of that era!
Yes, you’re right—I knew something was a bit off. Some of those businesses like Lifestream, and Banyen Books, did have several locations, but this is certainly the good old Naam. I heard it was for sale, though!
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