Monday, September 20, 2010
Oliver, Smith, Forbes, Wetzler

The title says it all.  The City Directories reveal little about the ownership of the  interesting house at 761 East 12th  Street. The Building Permit book at the North Vancouver Archives starts out strong listing G. Oliver at the owner when the $5000 house was built in 1953.  He was also the owner for the building of a $400 addition and $400 garage in 1955.

After 1955 the City Directories seemed to have collected little information.  In 1960 R. C. Smith was the resident.  In 1980 Rory J. Forbes a broker at The Permanent was living in the house.  And in the 1995/1996 edition S. Wetzler reported that he had lived there  for 4 years.

In the 1955 City Directory there is no entry for the address.  In 1971 there is "No Return" listed.  And in 1991 the house at both 761 and 760 East 12th Street are  listed as "Vacant".

The 1955 addition may be the one that is on the rear of the house and prominent in both the photos in this post. It almost doubled the size of the original single storey house and added a second storey at least in the addition portion.  The large windowed rear wall and veranda both look out onto the back yard.  In September of 2010 what looked like renovations to the garage seem to be started, with a glass wall facing the back yard.

The Remax Real Estate web site listed the house for sale at $670,000

Addition on Back of House

Demolition Permit: Applied for from the District of North Vancouver in September 2010.

Photos: Taken in September of 2010 by SW.