Wednesday, May 5, 2010
East 5th on Queensbury

This well windowed home sitting behind the hedge flanking its front walk has the address of 701 East 5th Street in the Queenbury area of the City of North Vancouver. Although the address is East 5th Street, the house actually faces west on Queensbury Avenue.  Queensbury Avenue runs from East 3rd Street on the south and into Grand Boulevard at Keith Road, which is between 7th and 8th Street.  In the early 1900's it was thought by some that this Queensbury, Grand Boulevard corridor would become the main drag of  the City of North Vancouver.  This main drag would run north from the Moodyville Mill on Burrard Inlet. 

The west facing stucco house with its address of 701 East 5th Street was built in 1947  by C. E. and  Snyder.  In 1950 Chase and Anne. M. Snyder continued to own the house.  By 1960 Edgar J. and Ivy E. Porter had bought the house. Edgar was a salesman at Black, Gevin and Co.   At this time 701 is also listed as the home of Hide-Away Trailer Hitch.  There was no return in 1971 to inquiries by the City Directory staff.  In 1980 the owner was listed as Ernest W. Sarsfield.  Ernest was employed as a maintenance supervisor at Canadian Occidental.  By 1991 B. Thurstow owned the home and continued to live there in 1995.

When the house was originally built its lot's northern border was East 5th Street and its southern border was the lane between East 4th Street and East 5th Street. The original house ran the whole length of the lot. In approximately 1988 part of the southern end of the lot was sold to facilitate another home to be built. (The roof of this 1988 house can be seen in the far right of the photo above.) To do this it was necessary to cut off the southern part of the house.  So the house planned for demolition today is smaller than the house that was originally built at 701 East 5th Street, which actually faces Queensbury Avenue. (Kallie Biln)  City Directory research seems to indicate that the owner at the time of the demolition of the south part of the house was Ernest Sarsfield.

Thank you: To Kallie Biln for information on the approximately 1988 sale and demolition of part of the house at 701 East 5th Street to facilitate building of another home. She lived in the new home after it was built.
Demolition: Permit applied for April 2010.
Photo: Taken in April 2010 by SW.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Moved Not Demolished


If you look at the far left on the front wall of the building, you can see an address, 111 West 22nd Street, that is in the City of North Vancouver. However, if you pull back and see where the building actually is, you will not see West 22nd Street, you will see Shavington St., also in the City of North Vancouver. How does this large portable school building happen to be somewhere other than the address mounted on its front wall?


This portable school building was originally at 111 West 22nd Street. It was a actually used to augment the space for Lonsdale Elementary School at 2151 Lonsdale Avenue and placed behind the school to the west with its long wall, and hence address, on West 22nd Street. Lonsdale Elementary was closed in 2005 and has since been demolished. Luckily, the portable didn't suffer the same fate.


In the summer of 2009 the 111 West 22nd Street portable was moved to the east, to the old playing field, of the old Cloverley Elementary School at 440 Hendry Avenue. The photo was taken soon after the move, at the beginning of the refitting of Cloverley School building to serve a new school population. And the new school was not going to be Cloverley. Cloverley Elementary School was closed in the early 1980's because of low enrollment. The students coming to the new school were actually from a very old school, Ridgeway Elementary School. The original Ridgeway Elementary School built in 1911-1912 with additions in 1926 at 420 East 8th Street was having a seismic upgrading. For the two years that the process would take, the students would attend the old Cloverley Elementary School. However, since the building was not quite large enough, the portable from the old Lonsdale Elementary School was moved to the playing field to house the additional student.


When the Ridgeway Elementary School students leave in 2011, another school population will move into the old Cloverley Elementary School building. This time it will be the students from Queen Mary Elementary School, built 1914-1915 at 230 West Keith Road in the City of North Vancouver. Again, this school will be closed for two years while it undergoes seismic upgrading. 


Photo: Taken September 11, 2009 by SW.
Book: Heritage Inventory, City of North Vancouver 1994.

Monday, January 4, 2010
The Tiny House


This tiny distinctive two story home was in the Cloverley area of the City of North Vancouver. The City of North Vancouver is approximately four square miles bounded by the Burrard Inlet on the south, and North Vancouver District on the north, east, and west. The Cloverley area covers the south east part of the City from Queensbury Avenue and Keith Road to the eastern border.


The house at 805 East 5th Street was on the south east corner of 5th and Sutherland Avenue. It was probably built before 1911 because it does not appear in the Building Permit Book at the North Vancouver Archives. (Building Permits in the City of North Vancouver were established in 1911. In the years 1907 to 1910 information can be found in the Assessment Rolls.) In 1925 Hilda Green lived in the house. And in 1926 the home owner was building contractor Robert Salkald.


By 1931 Frank Vacher had purchased the house. He previously lived on Hastings Street in Vancouver and worked as a cook at Club Lunch. In 1939 Blanch, possibly his widow by that time, gained a building permit for a $150 addition. She is definitely listed as a widow in the 1940 City Directory. The photo is the rear of the house and possibly the $150 addition which could have been the back porch area, the side punch out or perhaps the second story dormer.


By 1950 Robert Vacher, Blanch and Frank's son, a carpenter's helper at CH Cates is listed as living in the house. In 1980 Pierre Robert Vacher was working at the Lynn Valley Barber Shop. He continued to live in the house until his death in 2009.


This tiny house with bushes in the front had a large gardenless yard on the Sutherland Avenue side and a garage on the lane. From this yard is a view of Burrard Inlet, Vancouver, and Burnaby beyond. This house was a favorite of  Trick or Treaters in the 1970's. Children came from the steep stepped homes a block away on Shavington and Cloverley Street to this flatter area. They remembered this house, because most  gave out candy, popcorn or apples while Robert Vacher gave out real nickels.


The house was demolished in October 2009. The area chit chat is that a house is being built for a daughter one of  Robert Vacher's neighbors.


Photo: Taken July 18, 2009 by SW.