Mission Central – Residential

Area description

The Mission Central district can be broadly defined as the hillside area above downtown Mission as far north as Seventh Avenue.  It would include the extensive residential neighbourhood on the west side as far as Cedar Street, but not so much of the eastern side between Welton and Murray, which is occupied by school and fire protection centres.  It was a natural area for early residents to select for their homes − convenient to downtown, but also offering some excellent views of the Fraser River and beyond.

Many homes were built here in the days before WW1 and soon after, and some of these still exist, giving a mature and gracious character to the district. The most striking are the two Ontario-style brick-faced houses on Third Avenue, built in 1911 and 1912, but there are also several charming cottage-style homes dating to the 1930s.

This area was also the location for Mission’s first hospital, opened in 1924 and still standing on Fifth Avenue today. A long, low building, it was architect-designed, and was built with the quality red bricks produced by the historic Clayburn kilns. After the new hospital opened in 1965, the original one stood empty, but was eventually occupied by health-related organizations. It was given official heritage status in 1987. Below the hospital and connected to it by a sort of bridge is the former nurses’ residence, built in 1928. This gabled building is still there too, though leased by the Fraser House Society for its clinics since 1968.