Vancouver / Names / G / Gray / West Hastings Street

A family name on West Hastings Street, Downtown

The Grays

In the city directories 1940 · three people at three addresses

The directories print three people named Gray at three addresses in 1940, all on West Hastings Street. No first name or initials tie one address to another: we can't tell if they're one family. The directories print the name on 107 other streets too, all listed on the Gray name's own page.

Reserve this family's book, freeThe name in every directory we hold from 1901 to 1945, at every address, each line with its page, to read here or save as a PDF. About $29 when orders open.

Where the Grays lived

Each pin is on its own block, numbered as the households below. Today's land, parks, main roads and local areas: City of Vancouver Open Data (Open Government Licence – Vancouver).
  1. 1

    53 West Hastings Street

    Downtown, 1940

    • Eric Gray 1940

    Next door in 1940: Pierre Paris at 51 and Standard Electric & Radio Ltd at 55. The block, door by door

  2. 2

    207 West Hastings Street

    Downtown, 1940

    • Dr A A Gray, a physician 1940

    Next door in 1940: Clothes Shops Natl at 217. The block, door by door

  3. 3

    850 West Hastings Street

    Downtown, 1940

    • G Gray, an insurance agent 1940

    Next door in 1940: Rounsefell Ceperley at 846. The block, door by door

Their neighbourhoods

The addresses are in Downtown (3). Each neighbourhood's page shows its trades, its people and every street in it, the way the directory printed them.

The story, address by address

The 1940 name section, where each person's work is printed, lists Eric Gray at 53 West Hastings Street. Dr A A Gray, a physician, is listed at 207 West Hastings Street in 1940. In 1940 the directory lists G Gray, an insurance agent, at 850 West Hastings Street.

Today

53 West Hastings, 207 West Hastings and 850 West Hastings still have their buildings from before 1946, 850 West Hastings on the Vancouver Heritage Register.

Hastings Street looking east from Granville on 1 July 1888, with flags strung across it and the Alfred Bunker building on the corner
1 July 1888 Hastings Street looking east from Granville on 1 July 1888, with flags strung across it and the Alfred Bunker building on the corner. Not at the house at 53 West Hastings: no archive photo of the first block is known that we can show. City of Vancouver Archives, Str P127. Public domain.

Every line as printed

All 3 lines printed under the name through 1945, each with its page at the Vancouver Public Library.
1940

British Columbia and Yukon Directory, name section, where each person's work is printed

The book of the Grays

Every directory, as one book

The family book reads the Gray name in each Vancouver directory we hold from 1901 to 1945: everyone printed under it at every address, their work from the name sections, who lived next door, and the page behind every line, to read here or save as a PDF to print or give.

We're opening orders soon. Join the list to be first in line; we expect about $29 a family.

One email, when it's ready. We use your email for nothing else and never share it. Privacy

Another name, or a house

Sources

Henderson's and successor city directories for Vancouver, read by us line by line: the street sections for 1905, 1915, 1925, 1935, 1940 and 1945, and the name section for 1930 and 1940 where we've read it (Vancouver Public Library, BC City Directories). Names are shown through 1945, as printed. Close spellings are grouped, as on the house pages, since a family's name was often spelled differently from one year to the next; one name can still be several families, and we join lines only where the first names or initials agree. Many Chinese, Japanese and other residents weren't named by the canvassers, so they can't be listed by name: their houses' pages say where. More family names under G. Want a name removed? Tell us.