Material Type

Geographic Place

Subject

Transportation - Roads

Scope and Content

A road in the Ambleside and Hollyburn neighbourhoods which runs east-west from Ambleside Park to 18th Street, then again from east of 21st Street to 22nd Street. Argyle is the 'A' avenue in West Vancouver's alphabetical naming system for east-west streets.

Also a road in Horseshoe Bay running east-west, four streets from the waterfront.

Origin Note

Named as per Naming Changing and Settling Street Names Bylaw 18, 1912.

Prior to incorporation in 1912, the District of West Vancouver was part of the District of North Vancouver (Wards 1 and 2) and was often referred to as 'West Capilano'. At incorporation, the District inherited the names of roads within its boundaries, both those that had already been built and those that had been included in planned subdivisions. One of the first acts of Council was to appoint a committee to meet with Council and decide on street names. This led to passage of the Naming, Changing and Settling Street Names Bylaw 18, 1912 which established that east-west roads would be called 'Avenue', and north-south roads would be called 'Street'. Avenues were named alphabetically from 'A' (Argyle) at the waterfront, to 'Z' (Zephyr) up the slope of Hollyburn Ridge. Streets were numbered beginning with 3rd in the east to 27th in the west. Existing names would continue in use except for those changed by the bylaw. The result was the replacement of all but a few existing street names in the Ambleside and Dundarave areas, while those in Caulfeild and Horseshoe Bay were left unchanged. There is some indication that early residents were given the opportunity of suggesting names for the avenues, though specific origins are unclear.

The new naming convention did not allow for a 1st Street or a 2nd Street, so the numbering system begins with 3rd Street.

Street names included in the 1912 bylaw include the following: 3rd Street, 6th Street, 9th Street, 11th Street, 12th Street, 13th Street, 14th Street, 15th Street, 16th Street, 17th Street, 18th Street, 19th Street, 20th Street, 21st Street, 22nd Street, 23rd Street, 24th Street, 25th Street, 26th Street, 27th Street; Argyle Avenue, Bellevue Avenue, Duchess Avenue, Esquimalt Avenue, Fulton Avenue, Gordon Avenue, Haywood Avenue, Inglewood Avenue, Jefferson Avenue, Kings Avenue, Lawson Avenue, Mathers Avenue, Nelson Avenue, Ottawa Avenue, Palmerston Avenue, Queens Avenue, Rosebery Avenue, Spencer Avenue, Thompson Avenue, Union Avenue, Wentworth Avenue, Xenophon Avenue, Yellowstone Avenue, Zephyr Avenue; plus Marine Drive, Keith Road, and Esplanade Avenue.

Clyde Avenue is not included in Bylaw 18 and may have already been in use.

Of the named avenues, Victoria, Xenophon, Yellowstone and Zephyr were never used. Thompson Place, Spencer Place and Spencer Drive were used elsewhere.

The original subdivision plan for DL775 (Plan 4595) has this as 'Argyll', named for the Duke of Argyll.

For the portion of Argyle Avenue in Horshoe Bay, the name appears on original subdivision plan for Horseshoe Bay from 1909.

Source

Naming Changing and Settling Street Names Bylaw 18, 1912

Place Names of West Vancouver: A Gazetteer (West Vancouver Historical Society, 2004)

Plan of subdivision of portion of District Lots 430 & 1493 GI, N.W.D. North Vancouver, B.C., Plan 2103, 1909.

Repository

West Vancouver Archives

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