Thursday, April 29, 2010
State of Grace

A graceful pink dogwood tree greets visitors to the one storey white clapboard house at 4106 Grace Crescent.  The house sitting at a bend in the road is south of Edgewood Road and Handsworth Secondary School and west of the Mac Kay Creek area near the base of the North Shore mountains which can be seen in the the photo above. Here it is nestled with other street that are crescents, roads, drives, places and lanes. The house is built on a cement slab and similar to other homes in this area.

Although there is no listing of the original construction of 4106 Grace Crescent in the Building Permit book at the North Vancouver Archives the present owner states the age of the home is 56 years. That would make the date it was built as 1954. There is no listing of even the street name Grace Crescent in either the 1948 or in 1950 City Directories. However in 1955 the owners are listed as Eric H. and M. Patricia DeWitt. Eric worked as a salesman at Reliance Imports. And in 1958 a building permit for a $1000 addition was applied for by the then owner G. Aylward. Also the April 28th Blog Post lists a similar house in the general area being built in 1953. So 1954 does seem like it would be in the ball park of when the house was originally built. The 1958 addition was possibly the extra room that appears at the end of the house on the left hand side, outside the area in the photo.

In 1960 the owners were Marjorie E. and George T. Ayward, the builders of the 1958 addition. George was a branch manager at Western Assurance at 980 Pender St. But by 1971 there were new owners, Elizabeth J. and A. Stewart McKenzie. Stewart was a branch manager at the Royal Bank. After that, in 1980, 1991, and 1995/96 the City Directory inquiries were not returned or not verified. However, the present owner states that he has lived in the house at 4106 for 21 years. So it seems he must have moved in about 1979. The present owner has not only lived on Grace Crescent for 21 years but has fond memories of his home there.

Thank you: To the present owner of 4106 Grace Crescent for information about his home.  We wish this gracious man well in his new endeavour.
Demolition: Permit applied for in April 2010.
Photo: Taken in April 2010 by SW.