Wednesday, May 5, 2010
East 5th on Queensbury

This well windowed home sitting behind the hedge flanking its front walk has the address of 701 East 5th Street in the Queenbury area of the City of North Vancouver. Although the address is East 5th Street, the house actually faces west on Queensbury Avenue.  Queensbury Avenue runs from East 3rd Street on the south and into Grand Boulevard at Keith Road, which is between 7th and 8th Street.  In the early 1900's it was thought by some that this Queensbury, Grand Boulevard corridor would become the main drag of  the City of North Vancouver.  This main drag would run north from the Moodyville Mill on Burrard Inlet. 

The west facing stucco house with its address of 701 East 5th Street was built in 1947  by C. E. and  Snyder.  In 1950 Chase and Anne. M. Snyder continued to own the house.  By 1960 Edgar J. and Ivy E. Porter had bought the house. Edgar was a salesman at Black, Gevin and Co.   At this time 701 is also listed as the home of Hide-Away Trailer Hitch.  There was no return in 1971 to inquiries by the City Directory staff.  In 1980 the owner was listed as Ernest W. Sarsfield.  Ernest was employed as a maintenance supervisor at Canadian Occidental.  By 1991 B. Thurstow owned the home and continued to live there in 1995.

When the house was originally built its lot's northern border was East 5th Street and its southern border was the lane between East 4th Street and East 5th Street. The original house ran the whole length of the lot. In approximately 1988 part of the southern end of the lot was sold to facilitate another home to be built. (The roof of this 1988 house can be seen in the far right of the photo above.) To do this it was necessary to cut off the southern part of the house.  So the house planned for demolition today is smaller than the house that was originally built at 701 East 5th Street, which actually faces Queensbury Avenue. (Kallie Biln)  City Directory research seems to indicate that the owner at the time of the demolition of the south part of the house was Ernest Sarsfield.

Thank you: To Kallie Biln for information on the approximately 1988 sale and demolition of part of the house at 701 East 5th Street to facilitate building of another home. She lived in the new home after it was built.
Demolition: Permit applied for April 2010.
Photo: Taken in April 2010 by SW.