Hastings Mill

Founded in 1865 by Edward Stamp on Burrard Inlet, Hastings Mill became the first commercial enterprise around which Vancouver developed and remained central to the local economy for decades. Built after plans for Brockton Point were abandoned, it began exporting lumber in June 1867, changed ownership after financial troubles, and reopened in 1870 as the Hastings Sawmill Company. The surrounding settlement functioned as a company town, and even after Vancouver became the Canadian Pacific Railway terminus, the mill remained the city’s economic backbone in the 1880s. Its surviving 1865 store building, now preserved as a museum, is Vancouver’s oldest building and a rare survivor of the Great Vancouver Fire of 1886.

British Columbia · Canada