Vancouver — Gastown & Chinatown
Hogan's Alley
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Transcript
Around the lane known as Hogan's Alley developed Vancouver's most significant Black neighbourhood in the early and mid-twentieth century. Black residents, many with ties to railway work, built homes, businesses, churches and nightlife near Strathcona.
Urban renewal and road-building policies damaged the community. Construction of the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts in the late 1960s and early 1970s demolished much of the area.
The neighbourhood's disappearance was later misread as proof that Vancouver had never had a substantial Black community. Demolition can erase memory as effectively as buildings.
Today Hogan's Alley is a focus for cultural recovery and redevelopment debates.
What looks like infrastructure can therefore be a memorial, even before a plaque tells you so.