Victoria-Fraserview

Victoria–Fraserview
Neighbourhood
Location of Victoria–Fraserview in Vancouver.
Country	Canada
Province	British Columbia
City	Vancouver

Victoria–Fraserview is a neighbourhood in the City of Vancouver, set on the south slope of the rise that runs north from the Fraser River and encompassing a large area of residential and commercial development. Surrounding the culturally eclectic Victoria Drive corridor, Victoria–Fraserview is an ethnically diverse area that was one of the earliest areas of settlement in the region.

Stretching north from the Fraser River to East 41st Avenue, Victoria–Fraserview is bordered on the west by Knight Street, one of Vancouver's busiest north-south corridors - and on the east by a line including Elliott Street and Vivian Drive. It lies on a south-facing slope that looks over the Fraser River and Mitchell Island towards Richmond and Delta. Much of the commercial development in the neighbourhood is focused along Victoria Drive, which features a range of ethnic shops and services. The neighbourhood is dominated by single-family residences, though some townhomes can be found throughout the area. Along the Fraser River, a portion of the development known as the Fraserlands has brought condominia and other residential construction to former industrial lands.

Musqueam First Nations tradition is indicating that the flats along the Fraser River in the southwestern portion of Victoria–Fraserview was the site of an important village and a number of east-west trails leading towards settlements in what is now New Westminster. The first European settlers arrived in the 1860s, and a wagon road constructed in 1875 to the west of Knight Street on what is now Fraser Street opened the vast acres of virgin forest to homesteaders. As part of the Municipality of South Vancouver, Victoria–Fraserview began to receive more attention from farmers who cleared land in the region. It became part of the city of Vancouver in 1929.

Much of the existing development in the neighbourhood came in the 1940s, when land was needed for returning veterans of World War II. 1,100 new homes were built in the area (and its neighbour to the west, Sunset) for these veterans, on land expropriated by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation despite protestations of neighbours.