Description du lieu patrimonial

The McLean Grocery Store is a two storey wood frame corner building comprising of a dwelling unit above the street level shop. It is located on Main Street in the neighborhood of Riley Park-Little Mountain in the municipality of Vancouver, British Columbia. The property is situated two blocks northeast of Riley Park.

Valeur patrimoniale

Constructed in 1913 and 1914, the McLean Grocery Store is valued for its association with the early twentieth century real-estate boom in South Vancouver and the development of Main Street. The McLean Grocery Store is also valued for its Craftsman style architecture; expanded in 1923, the building is a good example of a classic dwelling unit above a shop.

The McLean Grocery Store is valued for its association with South Vancouver, an independent municipality created in 1892, built up in response to Vancouver's population explosion and increasing demand for more affordable housing. South Vancouver originally included the area between Point Grey and Boundary Road, until Point Grey broke off at Cambie Street in 1908. Main Street is a historically important commercial north-south artery and the dividing line between East and West in Vancouver, running from the Burrard Inlet to the Fraser River. The McLean Grocery Store was one of the first shops established on Main Street south of King Edward Avenue. The shop was established by Donald McLean in 1913 and operated as a grocery store for four years. It took another ten years for the Main Street 4300 block to flourish, while the blocks south of 28th Avenue did not prosper until the 1950's.

The McLean Grocery Store is valued for the dwelling unit above the store. In 1923, John Howell added a single storey dwelling unit above the 1913 shop, thus creating an archetypal house above the street. The house above the store reflects the architecture of the time, while maintaining the distinctive character of the shop below. The building is primarily of the Craftsman style due to the front gable, wood lap and shingle siding. The roof details and wood frame windows contribute greatly in the distinctive character of the McLean's Grocery Store. This type of Craftsman-style commercial/residential building was rare in this area at the time.

Éléments caractéristiques

Elements that define the heritage character of the McLean Grocery Store are:

- Street corner location on Main Street in the historic neighborhood of Riley Park-Little Mountain
- Continuous residential use above a commercial shop
- Street related shop front with corner wood frame show windows, top of shop front scalloped shingle panels, metal cornice at shop windows and shingle base
- Front gable roof with knee brackets, open soffits with exposed rafters, barge boards with extended tail, decorative triangular vent at gable end
- Wooden lap siding, belt boards; shingle siding with mitered corners and a slight bell bottom
- Wood window frames, casement wood frame double hung windows, outer and inner wood frames
- The internal chimney on the north side and the fireplace flanked by two stained glass piano windows