Carnegie Centre
In the Victorian Age, charity was chief among the virtues. Religion dictated that philanthropy secured one’s reward in heaven, and for Imperialists it was a way of strengthening the empire by ensuring its citizens were healthy and content. There were few philanthropists better known than the Scottish-American industrialist Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919). In “The Gospel of Wealth”, an essay published in 1889, Carnegie argued that the wealthy had a duty to give to the poor. In his case, this duty was exercised in the building of libraries throughout North America, a cause to which he gave almost ninety per cent of the wealth he accumulated in his lifetime. Growing towns and cities across the continent would benefit from his donations.
At the turn of the twentieth century, the city of Vancouver was booming. Its population expanded rapidly as European immigrants and people from eastern Canada flocked west, eager to make their fortunes. As Vancouver grew into a centre of business and industry, its citizens ensured that the city matured culturally as well, building schools and creating opportunities for the education of the labouring classes. A more egalitarian approach to literacy reflected a growing trend throughout North America. Through the 1870s the Hastings Literary Institute catered to employees of the Hastings Mill. In the late 1880s the Vancouver Free Reading Room opened to the public.
By the turn of the century, however, the Reading Room was too small and crowded to meet the needs of the city’s growing population. Vancouver’s citizens wanted a real library. In 1901, the city made a formal request to Carnegie for the funding to build one. Carnegie agreed to provide $50,000 if the city would supply the site and pay for the building’s future maintenance. A site next to City Hall, at the corner of Hastings Street and Westminster Avenue (now Main Street), was selected for the erection of the library. The building was designed by George William Grant.
After opening its doors to the public in 1903, the library served the city until 1958. In 1927 the Vancouver Museum moved into the top floor of the Carnegie building, and in 1929 the growing library annexed the neighbouring City Hall, which was no longer in use. By 1957, the expansion of the library’s collection had necessitated another major change: a move out of the Carnegie building to a more spacious location at 750 Burrard St. The Vancouver Museum relocated in 1968, leaving the Carnegie building closed up and empty.
It was not until 1980 that the towering structure at Hastings and Main became the Carnegie Community Centre that Vancouverites know today. During the building’s unoccupied years it fell into disrepair, while the Downtown Eastside neighbourhood in which it stood grew into a diverse multicultural community. The area was one of Vancouver’s most impoverished neighbourhoods, but it was also a lively and close-knit community. Dedicated activists worked to help its homeless population and other troubled residents, some of whom were addicted to drugs and others who suffered from mental illness. Churches, shelters and other charitable organizations provided both material and psychological support to those in need in the community.
In 1974, the City of Vancouver put the Carnegie building up for sale. The Downtown Eastside Residents’ Association (DERA) believed that the attractive and spacious building could fulfill an important need in the neighbourhood. A government survey had recently discovered that reading was the city’s second most popular cultural activity (the first was television viewing), but the Eastside had no library, and many of its residents, if they had had any books, had nowhere to go to read. Many also needed a place to gather which was free of drugs and alcohol. Activists like Bruce Eriksen and Libby Davies campaigned to have the building made into a community centre. Following a $2 million renovation, the Carnegie Community Centre officially opened on January 20, 1980.
The new Community Centre housed a child-care facility, a gym, a kitchen and cafeteria, lounges, a theatre, and a gallery which displayed the work of local artists. On the first floor, a new branch of the Vancouver Public Library was opened. Hundreds of volunteers and a small staff worked to make the Carnegie Centre a safe and welcoming place for the residents of the Downtown Eastside. It was not long before the Centre was affectionately known as the neighbourhood’s “living room.”
The Carnegie Centre was also a place where people could go to tell their stories. Between 1980 and 1985 an extensive oral history project was undertaken by the Carnegie Community Centre Association. The Association interviewed forty-two men and twelve women, all patrons of the Centre. The interviewees not only represented the diversity of their community, but also its roots in history. Many worked in the neighbourhood’s traditional logging, mining, and shipping industries, while others were part of the area’s active labour organizations and religious groups. Their recollections were compiled in a book entitled Hastings and Main, published in 1987.
Carnegie Centre patrons had many opportunities to express themselves and to share their experiences. After several years of publishing the small Carnegie Crescent, the Carnegie Newsletter was born in 1986 under the leadership of Al Mettrick, formerly of the Toronto Star. Contributors drew pictures, took photos, and penned poems, stories and essays for the twice-monthly newsletter. Everything but the printing itself was the work of volunteers. Today each printing of the Carnegie Newsletter produces over 1200 copies which are distributed throughout the community and Vancouver at large.
The Carnegie Newsletter began a tradition of encouraging artistic expression which has remained strong through the years. The building’s gallery and theatre provide space for displays of visual art and for lively dramatic productions. In 1996, patrons and neighbourhood residents even began writing and performing operas which drew audiences from across the city and throughout the province. The performances, which continue today, address issues facing the Downtown Eastside. Some dramatize the problems of drug addiction, poverty, and mental illness, while others like “Condemned: A Work in Progress” make pointed statements about the harm that developers could do to the community.
Since its opening, the Carnegie Centre has had to fight to keep the Downtown Eastside’s living room thriving. In the early 1990s, neighbourhood activists successfully stopped the building of a waterfront casino with protests, petitions and rallies. In 2000, a strike by the Canadian Union of Public Employees forced the Centre to close its doors for ten days. Carnegie volunteers succeeded in getting the Centre designated an essential service which must remain open, a victory both for patrons and for volunteers who are given food tickets for their work. Throughout 2008 activists have taken advantage of interest in the 2010 Olympics, to be held in Vancouver, to highlight the need for affordable housing. The “Poverty Olympics”, a mix of street theatre and satirical sporting events, draws on the Carnegie Centre’s tradition of using art to demand social justice.
Today, the Carnegie Community Centre continues to be a haven for Downtown Eastside residents, and its volunteers remain staunch campaigners against poverty and inequality. In this neighbourhood living room, people gather to share triumphs and challenges, to express themselves creatively, to learn essential job skills, and sometimes simply to fill their stomachs with a warm meal. The historic building stands as a testament to the community’s heritage of activism and outreach.
Contributed by Helen Button
— 2008 University of Western Ontario Practicum Student with The History Group Inc.
