Shaughnessy is a prime land located at the heart of Vancouver . It was part of the 6,000 acres given by the provincial government to the Canadian Pacific Railways in 1885.
The subdivision was named after CPR President Sir Thomas Shaughnessy along with the names of the Board of Directors that would later on represent the names of the streets.
In 1907, CPR officials proposed the development of a prestigious residential area in a bid to lure the city s high-heeled from the West End to build their houses at Shaughnessy. Richard Marpole, then CPR s Gen. Superintendent, hired top architects and landscape artists from Montreal to lay out the exclusive residential district.
One way of protecting Shaughnessy s exclusivity was to require would-be-homeowners to build houses valued at least $6,000, a thousand dollar more than a standard bungalow. Trees were planted along the boulevard that followed the contours of the terrain. The houses of the wealthy could be easily detected with manicured and spatial lawns.
Today, Shaughnessy Heights is Vancouver s model of a well-planned community. The place has not diminished its historical taste for high living. It has maintained its reputation as the most expensive community in the 1900s when the CPR then spent more than a million dollars to develop the site before its lots were open for sale to the public.
