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Gastown is a national historic site in Vancouver, British Columbia, at the northeast end of Downtown adjacent to the Downtown Eastside.〔Map link from the City of Vancouver showing (Gastown as one of five neighbourhoods in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside )〕〔Map link showing (Gastown as north of Downtown )〕 Its historical boundaries were the waterfront (now Water Street and the CPR tracks), Columbia Street, Hastings Street, and Cambie Street, which were the borders of the 1870 townsite survey, the proper name and postal address of which was Granville, B.I. ("Burrard Inlet"). The official boundary does not include most of Hastings Street except for the Woodward's and Dominion Buildings, and stretches east past Columbia St., to the laneway running parallel to the west side of Main Street. ==History== Gastown was Vancouver's first downtown core and is named after "Gassy" Jack Deighton, a Yorkshire seaman, steamboat captain and barkeep who arrived in 1867 to open the area's first saloon. The town soon prospered as the site of Hastings Mill sawmill, seaport, and quickly became a general centre of trade and commerce on Burrard Inlet as well as a rough-and-rowdy resort for off-work loggers and fishermen as well as the crews and captains of the many sailing ships which came to Gastown or Moodyville, on the north side of the inlet (which was a dry town) to load logs and timber. The Canadian Pacific Railway terminated on piles on the shore parallel to Water Street in 1886. From this the area became a hive of warehouses. Carrall Street was particularly swampy owing to it being low ground between False Creek and Burrard Inlet. Bridges overcame this obstacle, and the low ground and beach was slowly filled in with refuse. In 1886 the town was incorporated as the City of Vancouver. It fell victim to the Great Vancouver Fire that same year, losing all but two of its buildings, but the area was completely rebuilt and continued to thrive. Hastings and Main was the traditional centre of town, and the foreshore became an important staging area with the North and West Vancouver Ferries, and Union Steamships all having docks there. Evans, Coleman, Evans, a longtime merchandiser, had a warehouse; Fleck Brothers, and Koret distributors also had buildings. Department stores such as Spencer's, Hudson's Bay Company warehouse, Woodward's, Fairbanks Morse, Army and Navy stores, and food retailers Malkins and Kelly Douglas traded and were based there. Gastown found new life as the centre of the city's wholesale produce distribution until the Great Depression in the 1930s. It was also the centre of the city's drinking life: there were 300 licensed establishments the twelve-block area of the former Granville. After the Depression Gastown was a largely forgotten neighbourhood of the larger city and fell into decline and disrepair as a continuation of the Skid Row area with cheap beer parlours, flophouse hotels, and loggers' hiring halls. In the 1960s, citizens became concerned with preserving Gastown's distinctive and historic architecture, which like the nearby Chinatown and Strathcona was scheduled to be demolished to build a major freeway into the city's downtown. A campaign led by businessmen and property owners, as well as the counterculture and associated political protestors, pressured the provincial government to declare the area a historical site in 1971, protecting its heritage buildings to this day. A riot between the hippies and the police in 1971 over marijuana has gone into legend, the incident now made public on the Woodwards building, a throwback to the more serious Post office riot of 1938. Gastown was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 2009. ==Today== Gastown is a mix of "hip" contemporary fashion and interior furnishing boutiques, tourist-oriented businesses (generally restricted to Water Street), restaurants, nightclubs, poverty and newly upscale housing. In addition, there are law firms, architects and other professional offices, as well as computer and internet businesses, art galleries, music and art studios, and acting and film schools. In February 2013 The Gastown Gazette began publishing local news and stories about the ongoing protests against gentrification in the Downtown Eastside and Gastown area of Vancouver. The community paper has since gathered provincial and national attention for its uncompromising and hard-hitting reports on the neighborhood. Gastown has become a hub for technology and new media. It has attracted companies such as Zaui Software, Idea Rebel, MetroQuest, BootUp Labs Entrepreneurial Society, SEOinVancouver and MarketR. Popular annual events that take place on the cobblestone streets of Gastown include the Vancouver International Jazz Festival and the Global Relay Gastown Grand Prix international bicycle race. In June 2004, Storyeum opened in Gastown. It was a lively theatrical 65-minute show that re-enacted the history of BC using eight sets that were all located below street level. Unfortunately, due to mounting debt, the attraction closed its doors in October 2006. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Gastown」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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