Fountain Chapel (Black Strathcona)

For nearly 70 years, Fountain Chapel at 823 Jackson was once the heart of Black Strathcona. Located at the eastern end of what used to be Hogan’s Alley the church would be packed to the rafters for services.

If you wanted to meet anyone in the Black community, you came here. The chapel was also used for all kinds of meetings, bazaars and community suppers. But Blacks in Vancouver didn’t always have a church to call home. When Nora Hendrix, grandmother of musician Jimi Hendrix, came to Vancouver in 1911, she said, “there was no church.” Nora was part of the group that worked to get a church of their own.