Thursday, May 6, 2010

Typical 1950's

This home at 264 East 11th Street on the corner with St. Andrew's Avenue was typical of the homes built in the 1950's in North Vancouver.  The street facing side was often sheathed in white stucco on the top and and wide horizontal shiplap on the bottom.  A large window on one side of the front door let light into the living room, while the smaller windows on the other side of the front door were in one of the bedrooms.  The kitchen was located at the back of the house. The house next door to the west was similar and built in 1954. It was demolished in 2009.( See Blog Post January 14, 2010.)

This  house at 264 East 11th Street was not listed in the Building Permit book at the North Vancouver Archives. Since the 1950 City Directory reports it as a "New House" we can assume 1950 was the year it was built.  In 1960 the owner was listed as J. W. Thompson, personnel manager at Burrard Dry Dock.  In 1971 both John an Sophie J. were listed as owners and John had retired.  There was no return to inquiries by the City Directory in 1980.  By 1991 Hazra Begg had become the owner.  In 1995 he reported that he had been owner for 5 years.  He was reported as living there until at least 2006, so by then he had been living there for 16 years.  The total street is now occupied by all multifamily housing.

The photo of 264 East 11th 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 personal photographs.


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 264 East 11th Street was slated to be demolished.


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.