The residential district of Strathcona in Vancouver is considered one of Vancouver's oldest neighbourhood. The area is surrounded by the BNSF Railway (the Canadian National Railway and the Great Northern Railway) towards the south, the Burrard Inlet to the north, Clark Drive to the east, and Chinatown to the west.
Within Strathcona, there are currently about 8,000 people. Throughout the boom years after the founding of the city, the neighborhood actually began to bloom. This population growth was partially due from the choice of early Vancouver as a railway terminus. The district emerged from the original settlement that grew around Hastings Mill.
The area of Strathcona has traditionally been a working class neighbourhood, with many of its people being from various ethnic backgrounds. Where 61 percent of the people report Chinese as their first language, it is the only neighborhood where English is not the most normally spoken language, and just 24% report English as their mother tongue.
During the last few years, there has been a significant gentrification process in Strathcona, that has reinforced the economic disparity of the district. Rather a few Strathcona houses have been designated as heritage residences, as their late 19th and early 20th century architecture is fairly rare within the city. Specifically, the housing stock is being rejuvenated and renovated. Hence, there has been an increase in property value and wealthier home owners are being drawn into the region. A lot of homeowners have restored their residences in the original Edwardian or Victorian styles, like paying particular attention to the time period's "true colors".