Wednesday, May 12, 2010

They Liked to Celebrate Halloween

The house at 529 East 13th Street is in the block facing the tennis courts on Grand Boulevard in the City of North Vancouver. This home with its scalloped gable was built in 1941 by Paul Horthey Homes for owner J. Stewart. The construction price was $3,300. John and Rose Stewart were also living in the house in 1945 when John was a foreman at Burrard Dry Dock.  Another home in the area, at 535 East 12th Street (See Blog Post May 11, 2010.) has similar features to this one: the scalloped gable and the unique six sided window next to the front door.

Thomas and Thirza Ollis owned the house from approximately 1950 to sometime after 1971.  During this time Thomas was an accountant for the North Shore Medical Dental Corp. until his retirement that was reported in the City Directory in 1971. The house was reported as vacant in 1980.

In 1991 two resident families were reported in the City Directory. James and Teresa Taylor and the owner D. Port.  James Taylor worked as a piano technician. Evidently the Taylors didn't live there very long after that for in the 1995/96 City Directory David W. and Anita Powell reported that they were the owners and had lived there for four years. David Powell was employed as a computer programmer for Graphic Response Systems Inc. Anita S. Powell worked as a legal secretary at Douglas, Symes, and Brissenden.  D. Port continued to live in the house and reported in 1995 that he had lived there for 5 years. David Port's employment was as a service representative for Honda.

None of these families is listed in the year 2000 phone book. However, we do know by the decorations in the front window that who ever was living in the house at this time "liked to celebrate Halloween". (See Year 2000 photo below.)

The photo of 529 East 13th 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 of the house or a photo. This was true in the case of 529 East 13th Street.


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 529 East 13th Street had been demolished and a new house had been built.

Photos: 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.