Friday, April 9, 2010

Shell Game

No more driving up to the pumps on the southeast corner of 13th and Lonsdale to fill up your gas tank or zip into the Shell Station convenience store for a litre of milk. The North Shore News announced the station was closing on September 9, 2009. It was empty and surrounded by fencing on September 10th. Keshvar Eidipour operated the convenience store for 14 years. Buying gum or milk always included a friendly chat. It was the only Shell station in North Vancouver City. It is estimated that the corner lot, which includes the Shell gas station and adjacent oil change shop, is assessed at close to five million dollars and will be sold for development. The City's official community plan allows for mixed-use construction.

A  reference to a building on the corner of 13th and Lonsdale can be found in the 1885 City Directory.  It is described as a "shack on 13th...15 feet square...with a capacity of 25 people."  It was referred to as Dorman's Shack.  Frank Dorman was a brick manufacturer and had a brickyard at Roche Point.  Even as late as 1910 the Fire Insurance Map shows a "shack" on 13th St. at Lonsdale.

It seems that the Anglican Church organized services here in 1891, The History of North Vancouver British Columbia Canada. They later built a frame building on West 13th Street and dedicated it to St. John the Evangelist.  In 1903, the Presbyterian Church held its first service in Dorman's Shack, St. Andrews United Church Sunday Bulletin, Feb., 26th 1978.

A permit for demolition of 1250 Lonsdale Avenue Shell Station was applied for in September 2009.

Photo: Taken October 2009 by SW.

NOTE:Thanks to Benjamin Alldritt's September 9, 2009 North Shore News article for information on the Shell station at 1250 Lonsdale Ave.

Monday, January 25, 2010
"Where did all the gas stations go?"

Three, count them 1, 2, 3. Three gas stations have been closed in North Vancouver in the last four months of the year 2009. The Shell Station on the corner of East 13th and Lonsdale Avenue in the City of North Vancouver closed first, in September 2009. The Esso Station on the corner of West 3rd Street and Chesterfield Ave. also in the City of North Vancouver and the Petro Canada Station on the corner of Queens Road and Woodbine Avenue in North Vancouver District closed soon after.


The Shell Station has all ready been demolished. And following an environmental impact study the Esso Station will also be demolished. Both City lots will be sold for development. The Esso Station will be remembered for its Car Wash facility. It was the only car wash in North Vancouver where customers could put coins in a slot and use a wand to wash the car themselves.


The Petro-Can Station at 3015 Woodbine Drive is the gas station in the photo above. The sign in the photo says "Temporarily Closed", however, Celia at the Petro-Canada office in Alberta states the gas station will be demolished and the property sold for development. That is three for three.

Photo: Taken Fall 2009 by SW.
Demolition: All three demolished in 2010.

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.