Monday, May 17, 2010

Buchanan 744

The original house at 744 East 15th Street in the City of North Vancouver was built in 1911 by owner A. Deeming. The architect was A. E. Cline and the construction cost was $2600. It is evident from looking at the house in the year 2000 photo above that modifications had taken place over the years. But in 1931 Albert Deeming was still living in the house that he had built. Albert at that time was working in fruit and produce at 1349 Lonsdale Avenue. The house is shown in pink on the 1930 Fire Insurance Map of the 700 block of East 15th Street, in the photo below. The map is available at the North Vancouver Archives.

In 1940 John and Eleanor I. Cattanach were living in the house. John Cattanach was a millwright at Mid Pac Elevators. By 1950 John W. and Katrin M. Morgan had moved in. John Morgan was the funeral director at Center and Hanna. At that time Robert C. and Isobel C. Shields were also living in the house. Robert was employed as a mate for Costal Towing. The Buchanans were the owners by 1960. Nancy and John S. lived there at least until 1980. In 1960 John was working as a civil servant in the B. C. Government. In 1971 he was working as a sign writer. And in 1980 John is reported as being retired. But by 1991 the new owner was Gerrie Beltz. In 1995 he reported to the City Directory that he had been living there for five years and was employed by the Vancouver Sun. The year 2000 phone book reports that he was also living there then.  So although Gerrie Beltz lived at the 744 East 15th Street address for probably 10 years, he still had the "Buchanan 744" sign hanging on the front of the house. That was a thoughtful tribute to the Buchanan family that had lived there from the 1960's to the 1980's.

The photo of 744 East 15th Street was taken by Suzanne Wilson as part of her Year 2000 Photography Project, Your House/Our Home. 2000 photos of homes in the City of North Vancouver were photographed. Approximately 800 of these were accompanied by some history from the present or previous home owner sometimes including additional information. In this case it was the copy of the house on the 1930 Fire Insurance Map.



In the month of June 2007 Suzanne Wilson celebrated the City of North Vancouver's 100 birthday by distributing to their home owners copies of 1000 photos taken for the Y2K Project. At this time it was discovered that the home photographed at 744 East 15th Street had been demolished and new craftsman style home had been constructed.  The "Buchanan 744" sign was nowhere to be seen.

Photo: Taken in the year 2000 by SW.
Reference: The Year 2000 project was donated by Suzanne and Alan Wilson to the North Vancouver Archives and is available for viewing.