I can’t believe I’ve been looking at the front page of the BC historical directories for a few years and never noticed that it has a link to an electronic version Elizabeth Walker’s Street Names of Vancouver.

Photo by Professor Bob McDonald
both deceased 2019
Elizabeth Walker, who was the head of the Northwest History Room at the Vancouver Public Library was motivated to write this reference book because so many people asked her about how their street was named or who it was named after.
So after she retired she took on this project, spending hours at the Vancouver city archives and the Special Collections Divison of the main Vancouver Library.
Street Names of Vancouver is an immensely valuable resource that I consult at least once a week.
As well as notes on street names, arranged in alphabetical order, the book includes:
- information on the street numbering system in Vancouver
- notes on numbered streets and name changes
- map of street names 1870-1899
- map of street names 1900-1929 #
- map of street names 1930-1999
- bibliography including maps consulted
- additions, omissions, and revisions since publication in 1999
# The separate municipalities of South Vancouver, Point Grey, and Vancouver amalgamated in 1929 precipitating a number of street name amalgamations and changes.
The online version is simply a pdf so to search, do “control F”.
Elizabeth Walker died earlier this year but her work lives on.
