[3] All three Nations moved throughout their shared traditional territory, using the resources it provided for fishing, hunting, trapping and gathering.

[7] This Indian reserve land is at the foot of the Burrard Street Bridge, called Senakw (commonly spelled Snauq historically) in the Squamish language, and sənaʔqʷ in the Musqueam people's hən'q'əmin'əm' language, where August Jack Khatsahlano lived.

Inside the reserve there was a large longhouse that housed families, held potlach ceremonies, and became a central point of trade.

With the opening of the Lulu Island Railway interurban line from Granville & Pacific to Richmond via Seventh Avenue and Arbutus Street to Kerrisdale in the 1890s, more of Kitsilano was put within easy range of downtown and housing and commercial areas carved out of the forests and swamp.

The lowland area beyond Macdonald, from 4th Avenue to King Edward, was known as Malaria Flats because of its swampy air.

[12] Opened in 1908, the temple served early South Asian settlers who worked at nearby sawmills along false creek at the time.

[13] The area was an inexpensive neighbourhood to live in the 1960s and attracted many from the counterculture from across Canada and the United States and was known as one of the two hotbeds of the hippie culture in the city, the other being Gastown.

Close proximity to downtown Vancouver, walking distance to parks, beaches and popular Granville Island has made the neighbourhood a very desirable community to live.

Three of the first neighbourhood pub licenses in Vancouver are still located on 4th Avenue - Bimini's at Maple (reopened after a fire in 2007),[14] Darby D. Dawes at Macdonald, and Jerry's Cove—the original name of Jericho—near Alma.

Greenpeace - founded in the home of Dorothy Stowe at 2775 Courtney Ave. in upper Point Grey near Pacific Spirit Regional Park and UBC - originally found a home in Kitsilano in the backroom of a small office on the SE corner of Broadway at Cypress, and shortly after that at 2007 4th Ave. and Maple (now 2009 due to address change), sharing the upstairs office with SPEC.

[22] Vanier Park is another one of Kitsilano's most popular parks, and is the location of the Museum of Vancouver, the H. R. MacMillan Space Centre, the Vancouver Maritime Museum, as well as the public art installations Gate to the Northwest Passage by artist Alan Chung Hung and "Freezing Water #7" by Jun Ren.

Landmark buildings in Kitsilano include the Burrard Bridge, a five-lane, Art Deco style, steel truss bridge constructed in 1930-1932 connecting downtown Vancouver with Kitsilano via connections to Burrard Street on both ends, as well as several historic sites such as the Museum of Vancouver and H. R. MacMillan Space Centre, St. Roch National Historic Site of Canada, Kitsilano Secondary School, General Gordon Elementary School and the Bessborough Armoury.

[25] According to Exploring Vancouver, an architectural guide to the city: Kitsilano developed as a less expensive suburban alternative to the West End.

Endless rows of developer-built houses lined the grid of streets, their gabled roofs picturesque and not boring.

Many (...) resemble West End houses of preceding years, but have the wider proportions, broad verandahs, and wood brackets popularized by the newer and trendier California bungalow.Kitsilano is situated within the Canadian federal electoral districts of Vancouver Quadra[26] and Vancouver Centre,[27] currently held by Joyce Murray and Hedy Fry, respectively.

Provincially, Kitsilano lies within the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia electoral districts of Vancouver-Point Grey, Vancouver-Fairview, and Vancouver-False Creek.

Kitsilano is the current or former home of a number of notable residents including former Squamish chief August Jack Khatsahlano (whom the city is named after), environmentalist David Suzuki, writers William Gibson and Philip K. Dick, actors Ryan Reynolds, Jason Priestley, and Joshua Jackson, ice hockey players Trevor Linden and Ryan Kesler, and comedian Brent Butt.