Navigating Vancouver Streets

City Map

Vancouver is 52.45 square miles, located along the northern banks of the Columbia River and is longer in area than wide. It resembles a “V” shape laid on its side or for the more imaginative a lazy rabbit lying on its side with ears extended.

Major transport in the 1800s was using the Columbia River which explains why the town grew along the river first before expanding north.

Historic Vancouver was built around the Hudson Bay Company in 1825 and the U.S. Army arriving in 1849 and taking over the HBC area.

Most of the early street names in this section of town pay tribute to HBC: Mill Plain, 4th Plain, McLoughlin Blvd, or the U.S. Army: Macarthur Blvd, Andresen Rd, Grand Blvd (which used to be Grant Blvd after Ulysses S. Grant).

In the old section of town the streets run sometimes north and south and sometimes east and west. In early days a road was called a street no matter what direction it took.

Basically all numbered “streets” such as 5th St, 15th St, etc. run east and west and “named streets” and alphabet “a, b, c …” streets run north and south.

In the historic section of town all boulevards mostly run east and west. Evergreen Blvd, Mill Plain Blvd, McLoughlin Blvd and 4th Plain Blvd except for St. John’s Blvd and Macarthur Blvd which runs north and south.

When Clark County took over the assigning of roadways the historic streets were allowed to remain but going forward they followed state and federal guidelines for naming streets.

Thus if a main roadway goes east and west it is a street and if a main road goes north and south it is an avenue.