St. Francis Xavier Church (Strathcona Church), Princess Ave

The twin spires of Strathcona Church read as a clear neighbourhood marker above the low-rise grid east of downtown Vancouver. The building sits at 431 Princess Ave and is tied closely to the area’s shifting cultural geography, moving between congregations as the city changed around it. Strathcona Church’s own history notes that the site at the corner of Princess and Pender was built in 1910 as a Lutheran church serving Vancouver’s Swedish community, later becoming St. Francis Xavier Church for the Chinese Catholic community, and later the Foursquare Korean Church before the building was purchased and renamed Strathcona Church.

In the photograph, the steep rooflines and spires rise above newer mid-rise forms, placing a century-old church silhouette in direct conversation with the present-day cityscape of Strathcona, Chinatown, and the Downtown Eastside.