Hastings Mill Store Museum, Vancouver

Located in what was a heavily forested area, Vancouver has a history of logging and lumber making. Hastings Mill was a pre-Vancouver sawmill located on the southern shore of Burrard Inlet. It's not only notable for its place in Vancouver's forestry history, it's notable for being the very first commercial enterprise in the area of Vancouver- it was around this sawmill that the rest of Vancouver would eventually develop.

Early Vancouver was essentially a company town, with children attending Hastings Mill school, and their parents shopping at the Hastings Mill company store. When Vancouver was chosen as the end of the line for Canada's transcontinental railway, things began to change. Eventually, Hastings Mill closed, but Vancouver remained. After the closing of the mill, the Hastings Mill Store's building was disassembled and moved to Alma Street to become the Hastings Mill Store Museum, a museum dedicated to artifacts from Canada's early First Nations and pioneer history.

The Hastings Mill Store Museum is Vancouver's oldest building, and one of only a few to survive the great fire of 1886. The Museum itself is run by the Native Daughters of British Columbia, and is a must-see site for anyone interested in the origins of Vancouver.