Vancouver / Names / O / Olsen / Main Street

A family name on Main Street, Riley Park, Strathcona, Downtown, Mount Pleasant and Sunset

The Olsens

In the city directories 1940 · five people at two addresses

The directories print five people named Olsen at two addresses in 1940, all on Main Street, with the close spelling Olesen. No first name or initials tie one address to the other: we can't tell if they're one family. The most under one roof: four Olsens at 3516 Main in 1940. The directories print the name on 48 other streets too, all listed on the Olsen 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 Olsens 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

    700 Main Street

    Strathcona, 1940

    • N H Olsen 1940

    Next door in 1940: Service Tobacco Stand at 714. The block, door by door

  2. 2

    3516 Main Street

    Riley Park, 1940

    • Mrs J Olsen 1940
    • Dagmar O Olsen, a ward assistant at the Vancouver General Hospital 1940
    • Esther A Olsen, a ward assistant at the Vancouver General Hospital 1940
    • Harold Olsen 1940

    Next door in 1940: J E Fuller at 3518. The block, door by door

What they did

The name section prints a trade for two of the five: a ward assistant (2). Two of them worked for Vancouver General Hospital.

Their neighbourhoods

The addresses are in Riley Park and Strathcona. 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 N H Olsen at 700 Main Street. Mrs J Olsen is listed at 3516 Main Street in 1940. The 1940 name section lists Mrs Jenny Olsen there as the householder, with Dagmar O Olsen, a ward assistant at the Vancouver General Hospital, Esther A Olsen, a ward assistant at the Vancouver General Hospital, and Harold Olsen.

Today

The City no longer lists 700 Main and 3516 Main, so those buildings are probably gone (inferred).

Streetcars on Main Street, past a row of billboards
March 1940 Streetcars on Main Street, past a row of billboards. Not at the house at 3516 Main: no archive photo of the 3500 block is known that we can show. City of Vancouver Archives, CVA 136-513. Public domain.

Every line as printed

All 6 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 Olsens

Every directory, as one book

The family book reads the Olsen 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.

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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 O. Want a name removed? Tell us.