Friday, April 2, 2010
Canary Yellow
The canary yellow home at 332 East 4th Street was built by H. Earland in 1928. In 1931 a laborer, William E. Phillips owned the house. In 1945 the owners were Richard and Ellen McMoran. Richard was a guard for the Canadian government. By 1950 another couple, Ron and Lillian V. Stewart were the owners. Ron was employed as a truck salesman. Two families are reported as residents in 1960: Mrs. I. Ellison and Ernest and Mary Guy. Ernest worked as a clerk for the Pacific Great Eastern Railway in North Vancouver. In 1971 Jamurat and Fatima Begg were the owners at 302 East 4th Street. Jamurat was employed as a carpenter benchman at Custom Mill. C. Varney was the owner by 1980. And in 1991 the new owner was Helen C. Donnelly. Helen continued to live there in 1996 and continued in her position of food and beverage supervisor at Grouse Mountain.
The PGE was completed in 1956 and affectionately known by locals as the "Please Go Easy". The railway wove its way north along the coast of B.C., dropping passengers off at remote locations by request. (See Link.)
During the Christmas season in 1968, Alan and Suzanne Wilson and their nine year old daughter Amy took the PGE from North Vancouver to Lillooet for an over night holiday excursion. It was a picture postcard winter in the Vancouver area with thick clean snow covering the ground and hanging from the trees. As they looked out the windows from the train's wooden benches they were entranced by the old world feel of the rocking of the train car and the storybook views of the ocean and forest. About an hour into the trip, in the middle of no where, the train stopped and a couple got off and trudged into the trees. In Lillooet the Wilson family found that in this one of the coldest winters on record the electricity for the town had been cut off by a winter snow storm. They sought warmth by staying in a restaurant as long as possible, then taking a hot bath in their frigid hotel room. The next day on their return to North Vancouver the train again stopped in the middle of no where. The couple that had been dropped off the day before got back on. Overnight the temperature in their remote cabin had not risen over 45 degrees.
Demolition"Permit applied for in the year 2007.
Photo: Taken in the year 2000 by SW. See Y2K Project at the North Vancouver Archives.
