Granville Island’s Red Barn started out as a warehouse for National Machinery Company Ltd. Inside the barn, the company manufactured important machinery for local industry. The Red Barn is now part of the Granville Island Maritime Market and Boatyard.
Canada Chain and Forge occupied a number of buildings on Granville Island and their sign can still be seen on Anderson Street above the parkade entrance. Granville Island employees discovered a massive chain link left behind by the company in 2009, which can still be found inside the parkade today.
The industrial boom of the 20th century required Vancouver to make room for the forest, mining, construction and shipping industries. Once the second Granville Street Bridge was complete, the Vancouver Harbour Commission approved a 35-acre reclamation project, which would ultimately result in the creation of Granville Island.
Granville Island was initially named Industrial Island, but “Granville”, named after the bridge that runs directly overhead, was the name that stuck.
Granville Island ceased being an island in the 1950s. The city intended to make room for more industrial space by filling in False Creek. They started by filling in the Granville Island back-channel and created the area that Sutcliffe Park and the Waterpark now occupy.
Granville Island was completed in 1916 using material dredged from False Creek. Once a mud flat, the man-made island became home to the warehouses, mills, factories and shops that serviced local industries.
Granville Island didn’t have any green space until the 1970s. The “Mound” in Ron Basford Park was actually a large pile of fill and concrete that was cleaned up from the rest of the Island during redevelopment. The area was then covered with topsoil and grass, resulting in the green oasis we know today.
Granville Island’s first business opened in 1917. BC Equipment Ltd repaired and assembled equipment for the mining and forestry industries. Their wood-framed machine shop now houses part of the Public Market.
The Kids Market’s 25 shops, services and activities are located next to the pond at the entrance to Granville Island. The Market was created in 1984 and is housed in a train caboose, two annex buildings and a 100-year old factory.
The six buildings that make up the Public Market once housed companies that manufactured and sold equipment for the logging, mining and shipping industries.
George Henry Richards named False Creek during his survey of the coast in the mid-19th century. He thought he was going up a creek while traveling the south side of the Burrard Inlet, but soon discovered his mistake, hence the name ‘False’. Some of the best views of False Creek can be seen from the Granville Island Hotel patio.
CMHC-Granville Island would like to acknowledge that we are located on the traditional territory of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) First Nations.
