Remembering how Vancouver's Carnegie Centre was saved, 40 years later
If developers had their way forty years ago, the Carnegie Community Centre could have ended up being a restaurant or a museum for a rock collection, or completely demolished. But thanks to the efforts of activists and members of the Downtown Eastside Residents Association, the historic building on Main and Hastings has become what it is today — a living room for the neighbourhood.
Libby Davies, a long time NDP member of parliament for Vancouver-East, was one of the leading voices in the fight to save the former public library.
The building was constructed in 1903 to house the Vancouver Public Library's central branch, but it fell into disrepair after the library moved into a new building in 1957.
"Now this building had been unused for decades. It was full of cobwebs. It was dusty. It was dirty. It was musty," Davies said.
Davies said members immediately started organizing and thinking about ways to keep the building for the community. Their goal was to obtain funds to renovate the space to make sure it would remain a centre for the community.
"The pivotal change came when we convinced then-alderman Harry Rankin, who [was] the chair of the community services committee, to hold his committee meeting in the building," Davies recounted.
"They had to get civic workers in there to clean it up, spruce it up and set up the committee table in the sort of main foyer when you go in. But having that committee meeting in the building was pivotal. It changed the whole environment. It suddenly became real."
Eventually, the group succeeded in getting $650,000 to renovate the building for a community centre, and earned its nickname as the neighbourhood's living room.
"It became an anchor. You know, people did not have living rooms in this neighborhood," Davies said.
Davies is recounting the fight to save the Carnegie Community Centre in an online lecture Wednesday night for the 2020 Heart of City Festival.
The festival, which celebrates stories from the Downtown Eastside, will be taking place with live and virtual events from Oct. 28 to Nov. 8.
