Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Two For One

The Blog Post for 225 East 18th Street published on March 30th, 2010 tells the story of what is possibly being planned for this area. It looks like four of the five lots in this block near St. Georges Ave. have been gathered up for a large multifamily housing complex. The multifamily complex all ready built on the corner indicates the start of this change.

But the side by side stucco duplex at 219 and 221 East 18th Street has two stories to tell, one for each address. There is no listing for the brown duplex in the Building Permit book at the North Vancouver Archives. And there is no listing for either address in the 1950 or 1953 City Directories. But there are listings in 1955.

Thom is the name at 219 in 1955 but not in 1960. By then Nora M. and Cecil R. Hall lived at 219. Cecil worked at the Lux Theater at 55 East Hastings Street. By 1971 Christine and Bartello Desisto were the residents. Bartello was employed as a plumbing contractor by by P. Ciambelli at 235 East 18th Street. In 1980 the 219 side of the duplex was reported as being vacant. In 1991 Grant Richards was the resident upstairs at 219 and Dorothy Ryan had just moved in as the basement resident. In the 1995/96 City Directory Grant was reported as living at that address for five year and there is no mention of Dorothy Ryan.

As for the 221 East 18th Street address, in 1955 that resident was Mrs. Roberta Hammond. Roberta was a widow and taught in the North Vancouver School District 44. In 1960 Ann S. and Cornelius M. Neiwerth lived at 221. Cornelius worked as the proprietor of Skyline Sports Center. There were two, one at 1637 Lonsdale Avenue and a second at 3066 Edgemont Avenue. In 1971 the 221 side of the duplex was reported as being vacant. But by 1980 Harry Chan was living there. In 1991 the resident was L. Emmbach who was an employee of CIL Paint. He must have moved in by 1988 since in the 1995/96 City Directory he was reported as having lived there for 7 years. Sharole S. Emmbach also lived there and worked as a clerk at The Bay. Another resident reported as living at 221, but only for four years, was N. Sylvester, an auto body repair man.

Demolition: Permit applied for February 2010.

Photo: Taken February 2010 by SW.