Gastown, Vancouver, BC

My photo of the 'Gassy Jack' sculpture was too dark!

 Gastown was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 2009. Gastown is named after "Gassy" Jack Deighton, a Yorkshire seaman, steamboat capitan and barkeep who arrived in 1867 to open the area's first saloon.  The town soon prospered with the sawmill, seaport and a general center of trade; popular place for the rough-and-rowdy off-work loggers, fisherman and crews of the many sailing ships.

Gastown retains few vestiges of it's 1970s role as "Haight-Ashbury North", with the area now mostly coffee shops, galleries, native art and import stores, restaurants and nightclubs.

Gastown is a mix of "hip" contemporary fashion and interior furnishings boutiques, tourist-oriented businesses, restaurants, nightclubs and newly, upscale housing.  Gastown has become a hub for technology and new media.  It has attracted companies such as Zaui Software, Idea Rebel, Bootup Labs Entrepreneurial Society, and Market.  Popular annual events that take place on the cobblestone streets of Gastown include the Vancouver International Jazz Festival and the Tour de Gastown international bicycle race.

Gastown is one of the five neighborhoods in Vancouver's downtown Eastside.  You can spend hours here with the trendy shops and many restaurants.  The cruise ships offer passengers a trip here.

Gastown's most famous landmark is the steam-powered clock on the corner of Cambie and Water Street.  Built to cover a steam grate, part of Vancouver's distributed steam-heating system, the clock was built as a way to harness the steam and to prevent street people from sleeping on the spot in cold weather. The conventional pendulum clock's hands are geared to the four faces.  The steam also powers the clock's sound, whistles are used instead of bells to produce the Westminster "chime" and to signal the time. 

This is a short one but sweet, can't leave Gastown out!