Demolition Mama
By Greg Hoekstra - North Shore Outlook
Published: February 23, 2011 2:00 PM
Updated: February 24, 2011 8:39 PM
Updated: February 24, 2011 8:39 PM
Some people collect stamps. Others gather coins, trading cards, comic books, or antiques.
North Vancouver’s Suzanne Wilson, however, prefers collecting something a little more unique —demolished houses.
Throughout the past decade, the local history buff has photographed more than 3,000 buildings slated for destruction across the city and district.
As a volunteer at the North Vancouver Museum and Archives, Wilson says she believes every building holds a story about our past. And those tales, she adds, are too important to be lost forever in a pile of dust and rubble.
So, in 2001, Wilson and her camera got to work. Any time a building in North Vancouver was slated for demolition, municipal staff would notify Wilson.
With a small allowance to cover the cost of film, Wilson captured snapshots of the buildings, then developed black-and-white prints in a makeshift darkroom in her home. (When the lights are on, it’s called the laundry room).
The resulting images became part of the museum’s permanent collection, accessible to anyone who visited the archives.
Wilson continued on that path until sometime in 2009, when she saw the film Julie and Julia and was struck with a new idea.
In the movie the lead character, Julie Powell, attempts to cook all of the 524 recipes in Julia Child’s famous book “Master the Art of French Cooking” over the course of a year.
Each day, Powell records her experiences in an online journal.
The idea of keeping a blog excited Wilson, a former freelance writer and unpublished novelist, who retired from her job as a teacher in the 1990s.
“I like things that are for a limited period of time and are really a challenge,” she says. “So in 2010 I started my blog and called it ‘Demolition Mama.’”
Beginning Jan. 1, 2010, Wilson set to work on a project that would keep her busy for the next 365 days.
From Monday to Friday she wrote daily about a building that had been torn down. On the weekends, meanwhile, she would blog about travel (on Saturdays) and churches (on Sundays).
Using building permit records and city directories, Wilson was often able to piece together the stories of homes in North Van — watching many balloon in value from $2,000 to $600,000 in only a few generations.
“It was fascinating. You’d see people’s lives develop,” says Wilson.
“It would mention someone as a student, then as a labourer, then as a president of a construction company, and then you’d just see their wife’s name,” she adds. “You’d follow their whole lives. You’d get to know this person, and then they’d die.”
The project, she says, took a great deal of effort and work, but in the end it was worth it, because it’s led to something that will be of use to the museum for years to come.
“I like doing things that are permanent. Things that are going to stick around when I’m done,” says Wilson with a smile. “This project is my tribute to the people who lived in those houses.”
This is not the first time that Wilson — who is originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin — has embarked on such an ambitious project for the museum.
In the year 2000, she set about photographing 2,000 homes in the city to celebrate the new millennium, culminating with an art show at the Presentation House gallery.
“It was my way of celebrating,” she recalls fondly.
Seven years later, Wilson used 1,000 of her doubles to make decorative cards, which she then bundled in small gift bags and hung from doorknobs.
“That was a huge feat,” she laughs. “It was sort of like leaving a present, then running away and hiding behind a tree.”
When asked what motivates her to invest so much time in such projects, Wilson says it’s simple: she wants to give something back to the community where she’s raised her family.
“This entire community is our home,” she says. “This is our history, and it needs to be shared.”
On Monday, Feb. 21, the District of North Vancouver presented a heritage advocacy award to Suzanne Wilson for her various projects for the North Vancouver Museum and Archives, including the blog ‘Demolition Mama.’ To view Wilson’s work, visit www.demolitionmama.blogspot.com.ghoekstra@gmail.com
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When I heard they were tearing down the Deseret Towers, the very same dorms Justin inhabited his freshmen year at BYU, I nodded to myself and agreed it was inevitable.
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