Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Pink Cottage at the End of the Lane
The pink cottage at 1426 Draycott Road was built before 1926. At that time it was one of a few cottages that sat at the end of the lane off Draycott Road. A neighbour tells the story of his father-in-law who bought the cottage at 1436 Draycott Road "when you had to take a ferry to get to North Vancouver."
1426 Draycott Road backs on to Hasting's Creek. " Hastings Creek is a small urban stream that is one of the six tributaries of Lynn Creek. Considered one of the most important small fish-bearing streams in North Vancouver (Renshaw), Hastings originates on the east slope of Grouse Mountain, and flows through Princess Park, Hunter Park, the Lynn Valley commercial area, and various residential areas until it joins Lynn Creek in the Arbour Lynn area....1912 –" Walter McKay Draycott claims that every year at least fifty salmon and ‘salmon-trout (steelhead), swam up Draycot Brook and kept him awake at night with their ‘flipping and flapping’ in the stream" (Steward, 1975)." See Link 2.
The Building Permit book at the North Vancouver Archives lists a $450 house addition by owner T. Gillette in 1926. A garage was built in 1952 for $150 by then owner R. V. Lonsdale. He also built another house addition for $500 in 1954. R.V. Lonsdale continued to live there in 1960. By 1971 Leslie P. and Millicent Hetherington had bought the house. Leslie was a supervisor at Reid Crowther and Partners. Only Mrs. M. Hetherington is listed in the 1971 City Directory. Mable Hetherington is noted as being retired in the 1991 and 1995/96 City Directories. And in the year 2000 Phone Book the phone number is under M. M. Hetherington. So for at least 30 years Millicent/Mable lived in the clapboard house with the large multipained front window and the side porch on Draycott Road next to Lynn Creek.
Draycott Road, Draycott Place, Draycott Street, and Draycott Gardens are all named for Walter Draycott. He was born in England where he studied as a topographer and then used those skills as part of the 50th Rifles and Engineers in the Boar War. After that war he moved to Canada and in 1912 bought three plots of land in Lynn Valley. However, he returned to England to again work as a topographer during WWI. From 1923 to 1975 he was a Justice of the Peace in North Vancouver and became the official historian for Lynn Valley. Walter Draycott died in 1985 at the age of 100. A statue of him was erected on the corner of Lynn Valley Road and Mountain Highway. (See Link.)
Demolition Permit: Applied for in February 2010.
Photo: Taken in February 2010.
