Friday Special Feature
Olympic Special Feature
The Sails of Canada Place


Like five ballerinas in blue tutus surrounded by a twinkling corp of a thousand, the skyline of Vancouver is lit up for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. The light show of the accompanying Cultural Olympiad is being shown on the Sails of Canada Place. The office buildings of downtown Vancouver furnish their own light show behind it. The normally white sails shine with other colors than blue as in the photo above. When you watch the YouTube Link below you will see: the green, red, yellow, blue and white colors of the Olympic Rings; scenes of the athletes and their venues in the lime green, blue and white colors of the Winter Games banners; and stars, stripes and flowers on green and blue backgrounds.

Construction on 999 Canada Place started in 1983. The sails were up by October 1984, and the Prince Charles officially opened the building as a part of Expo '86 in May of that year. Canada Place juts out into the salt water of Burrard Inlet like a magnificent sailing ship. The building houses the Cruise Ship Terminal, the original Convention and Exhibition Center, and the first Vancouver IMAX Theater. The Pan Pacific Hotel is on the land adjacent to this "ship". In 2001 a third berth was added to the Cruise Ship Terminal. The site of Canada Place is the old CPR Pier B-C. This was the western terminus of the sea to sea transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railway.

Today is the opening day of the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Games. From March 12th to the 21st 600 athletes from more than 40 countries will be competing in Vancouver and Whistler. Their events included: Alpine Skiing, Biathlon, Cross-County Skiing, Ice Sledge Hockey, and Wheelchair Curling. This, the Xth Paralympic Winter Games will be welcomed by its own Olympic Flame.

Photo: Taken February 2010 by SW.
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4TG6CYlFmk
Link: http://www.canadaplace.ca/Our_Story/Our_History

Thursday, March 11, 2010
The Manton Mansion

The house at 720 Edgewood Road was built in 1956 for $12,000 by T. Wesik. After that it was J. Donald and Vivienne M. Manton all the way. They had bought the house by 1960 when J. Donald was the branch manger at Manton Brothers. Manton Brothers Ltd. had their head office in Toronto, Ontario. They were a printing equipment and suppliers company. Their motto was "we can supply all classes of new and rebuilt printing equipment." In 1971 J. D. and was branch manager of a different company, this time Canadian Linotype. And in 1980 both he and Vivienne are listed as doing that job. In 1991 not only were J. D. and Vivienne retired but they had a new resident in their house, Kathryn Manton. Kathryn was a ward clerk and Lion's Gate Hospital. All three of them were still living in the house in the year 2000 and 2008/10 as indicated by the phone books of those years. That comes to probably 20 years for Kathryn and at least 54 years for the Manton's.

As can be seen in the photo above that the house at 720 Edgewood Road would be  easily converted to a convenient home for two families. This style of house in North Vancouver often has a basement, actually, downstairs suite. The configuration of the rooms both up and downstairs are about the same. You can see the large picture window that would be the living room in both of the suites.

The house at 720 is on the corner of a 1 block section of Edgewood Road between Skyline Drive and Ranger Avenue.This area of North Vancouver is known as Canyon Heights. Edgewood Road itself goes passed the south side of Handsworth Secondary School and dead ends at MacKay Creek Park.

Demolition: Permit applied for February 2010.
Photo: Taken in February 2010 by SW.
Thank you: To neighbors for the clarification of the location of the house. 

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Montreal on Marine

The Bank of Montreal originated in 1817 in Lower Canada. The name became Bank of Montreal in 1922. It funded building of the 1st canal in Canada from 1821 to 1825, the first railway in 1832, and the 1st telegraph in 1840. In 1859 it opened an office in New York and in 1861 an office in Chicago. It was in 1892 that the Bank of Montreal came to British Columbia, first to the city of Nelson. (See Link.)

The Bank of Montreal at 1120 Marine Drive was built in 1961 for $105,000. The square, multitoned brown brick, flat roofed building sits on the commercial corner of Marine Drive and Lloyd Avenue. In 1971 the branch manager was T. Roberts, in 1980 it was Sylvia Faoro, and in 1995/96 it was Douglas Mosby. Today that area of Marine Drive is receiving a face lift. The buildings in the 1100 block to the west of the bank have already been demolished as have those in the eastern half of the 1300 block.

The plan for the 1100 block is the "construction of three new buildings, including ground floor commercial space fronting Marine Drive, underground parking, an interior drive court, and condominium apartment units on the upper floors. The site is approximately 7284 m2 (1.8 acres) in size and the development proposes approximately 1589 m2 (17,100 sq. ft.) of commercial space and 129 condominium apartments. ... approximately 194 parking spaces (are) proposed." Link 2.

Demolition Permit: Applied for February 2010.

Photo: Taken in February 2010 by SW.

Link 1: http://www2.bmo.com/bmo/files/images/4/1/BMOHistoryEng.pdf

Link 2: http://www.dnv.org/article.asp?a=4294&c=771

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Pink Cottage at the End of the Lane

The pink cottage at 1426 Draycott Road was built before 1926. At that time it was one of a few cottages that sat at the end of  the lane off Draycott Road. A neighbour tells the story of his father-in-law who bought the cottage at 1436 Draycott Road "when you had to take a ferry to get to North Vancouver." 

1426 Draycott Road backs on to Hasting's Creek. " Hastings Creek is a small urban stream that is one of the six tributaries of Lynn Creek. Considered one of the most important small fish-bearing streams in North Vancouver (Renshaw), Hastings originates on the east slope of Grouse Mountain, and flows through Princess Park, Hunter Park, the Lynn Valley commercial area, and various residential areas until it joins Lynn Creek in the Arbour Lynn area....1912 –" Walter McKay Draycott claims that every year at least fifty salmon and ‘salmon-trout (steelhead), swam up Draycot Brook and kept him awake at night with their ‘flipping and flapping’ in the stream" (Steward, 1975)." See Link 2.

The Building Permit book at the North Vancouver Archives lists a $450 house addition by owner T. Gillette in 1926. A garage was built in 1952 for $150 by then owner R. V. Lonsdale. He also built another house addition for $500 in 1954. R.V. Lonsdale continued to live there in 1960. By 1971 Leslie P. and Millicent Hetherington had bought the house. Leslie was a supervisor at Reid Crowther and Partners. Only Mrs. M. Hetherington is listed in the 1971 City Directory. Mable Hetherington is noted as being retired in the 1991 and 1995/96 City Directories. And  in the year 2000 Phone Book the phone number is under M. M. Hetherington. So for at least 30 years Millicent/Mable lived in the clapboard house with the large multipained front window and the side porch on Draycott Road next to Lynn Creek.

Draycott Road, Draycott Place, Draycott Street, and Draycott Gardens are all named for Walter Draycott. He was born in England where he studied as a topographer and then used those skills as part of the 50th Rifles and Engineers in the Boar War. After that war he moved to Canada and in 1912 bought three plots of land in Lynn Valley. However, he returned to England to again work as a topographer during WWI. From 1923 to 1975 he was a Justice of the Peace in North Vancouver and became the official historian for Lynn Valley. Walter Draycott died in 1985 at the age of 100. A statue of him was erected on the corner of Lynn Valley Road and Mountain Highway. (See Link.)

Demolition Permit: Applied for in February 2010.

Photo: Taken in February 2010.

Link 1.: http://www.walterdraycott.com/biography/textbiography.htm

Link 2: http://www.pskf.ca/ecology/watershed/northvan/hastings02.htm 

Monday, March 8, 2010
Fire in the District

The friendly blue clapboard house across the matching blue railinged creek at 3690 Mountain Highway was built for $8000 in 1951 by Roy and Betty Horne. In the 1960 City Directory Roy is listed as working as a packer (pkr) at Horne Brothers. In 1971 and 1980 Gordon and Arlene Simpson were the owners of the house. Gordon was a teacher in the North Vancouver School District. The final 1990's resident listed in the City Directories is K. Litke, for by 1995 the house was vacant. The house was destined to only have a life of 58 years, for in 2009 fire broke out. The following excerpt from North Shore News article is the story of Jamie Poole, Liza Loranger, and their three year old daughter that were living in the house at the time of the fire.

"Neighbours rally after house fire

Christmas blaze consumes family's possessions

James Weldon, North Shore News

Published: Wednesday, December 30, 2009

WHAT could have been a truly grim Christmas turned out to something else entirely for one North Vancouver family after they lost virtually everything they owned in a fire on Christmas Eve.

Jamie Poole, his new fianc? Liza Loranger and their three-year-old daughter saw their home at 3690 Mountain Hwy. completely consumed by flames Dec. 24, but thanks to the generosity of neighbours and sympathetic strangers, the family had much of what they lost replaced within hours.

Poole, a building contractor who has lived in North Vancouver his entire life, woke just before 8 a.m. to the beeping of a smoke detector. While Loranger got their daughter out of the house, he hurried down to the basement, where he found a spare bedroom filling with smoke and one wall glowing orange. Unable to get to the flames, he raced outside, and began tearing off the shingle siding and then smashing at the wall with an axe in an effort to get at the growing blaze. By the time he had punched a hole big enough for a fire extinguisher, it was already too late.

Firefighters arrived on the scene and told Poole it was too dangerous to re-enter the building. In fact, it was soon too dangerous for them to enter either, and the family was forced to stand by helplessly while almost everything they owned was destroyed.

"All my tools were downstairs in the bin, my hockey gear, my water skis, my snow skis, just everything," said Poole. "The whole bed and bathroom were all fallen into the basement, the TV; everything went down."

As renters with no content insurance, they had no way to replace what they had lost.

"Days go by, me and my girl will sit there and go: 'Oh my God, what about that. Oh my God, what about that,'" said Poole. "You just can't think of all the things that were in there. . . . I lost all the material things that cost money, but my girl lost all the pictures and all (that)."

Poole, dressed in his pajama bottoms at the time, didn't even have a shirt or shoes. Loranger saved little more than her purse, some blankets and her car. The family's Christmas tree and all the presents under it were destroyed.

But even as they watched their home burn, their neighbours were quietly taking action. Bernice Wood, who lives across the street, started spreading word of the family's plight to others, suggesting they bring anything they could to help. Other neighbours took up the cause, and with a boost from the media, the call soon reached the entire community.

"Within three hours of the fire, there was stuff being dropped off," said Wood.

Over the course of the day, friends, neighbours, total strangers came by in droves to drop off whatever they could contribute. Poole's truck, and later Wood's basement, began to fill up with clothing, food, toys, appliances, gift cards, cash -- anything people thought might help.

"My basement on Christmas Eve, you couldn't even move. And now it's completely full again," said Wood.

The family was stunned.

"It was unbelievable, just unbelievable the way everybody has helped us out so much," said Poole.
When the flames had been extinguished, and firefighters were able to enter the gutted home, they found another piece of good fortune in the wreckage: the engagement ring Poole had hidden at the top of their Christmas tree. The box had been scorched, but the ring was untouched. He proposed to Loranger right there in front of the TV cameras.
Loranger said yes.
"I put it on her finger on Global," he said. "She was very happy."..."

Thank you: To the North Shore News and James Weldon for the article published December 30, 2009.

Demolition Permit: Applied for February 2010.
Photo: Taken in February 2010.

Sunday Church Feature
Saint Mary the Virgin
Metchosin, B.C.

"St. Mary the Virgin Anglican Church of Canada, Enter Rest and Pray" is on the sign outside the church at 4354 Metchosin Road in Metchosin, B.C. Metchosin is on the south west coast of Vancouver Island and about half way between Victoria, B.C.'s capital, and Sooke. It is about a 30 minutes drive from Victoria to this small town of 5,000 people on the Juan de Fuca Strait.

"The name Metchosin is the anglicised version of the native "Smets-Schosen", which means "place of stinking fish". Local legend maintains that many years prior to the Europeans' arrival, an orca beached and died, and that everywhere that could smell it rotting became part of Metchosin. The town's museum, which was once its one-room school before an increasing population necessitated a larger building, claims to have vertebrae from the animal on display. Metchosin's community symbol is, perhaps unsurprisingly, an orca." See Link 2.

"St. Mary The Virgin Anglican Church was consecrated on October 22, 1873. It is the third oldest Anglican Church in continuous use on Vancouver Island. This small church is still used as a place of worship, but only for special services, funerals, and a Christmas Eve service. Two acres of land was donated for churchyard by Metchosin resident John Witty, sadly, was also the first to be buried on these grounds." See Link 1.

A white picket fence with its wrought iron gate surround the small white clapboard church with its steeple and triple chancel window. Scattered through the grassy church yard of spring flowers are grave stones of parishioners. One of these is a memorial to John Witty.

Photo: Taken in 2006 by SW.
Link 1: http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM37RX_St_Mary_The_Virgin_Metchosin_BC
Link 2: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metchosin,_British_Columbia

 

Saturday Travel Feature

Adagio in San Francisco

The Adagio Hotel in San Francisco was built in 1929 as the El Cortez Hotel.

Advertisements for the El Cortez were listed in editions of the 1951 and 1961 publications of the newspaper The Medesto Bee. In fact it was exactly the same ad. (See Link 1.) Later it was opened as the Shannon Court. Then in 2003 after an $11,000 renovation it became the Adagio Hotel. 

The Adagio at 550 Geary Street is in the Union Square area of San Francisco.  That makes it close to the theater district, the Powell Street Cable Cars, Moscone Convention Center, Chinatown, North Beach and Nob Hill.  The hotel features Spanish Colonial Revival architecture on the outside.  The ornate sculptured cement facade extends to the second floor. Tall detailed archways surround the three windows and the dark wood entrance doors.  The same detailed archways are above the two windows on each side of the second floor that are below the traditional San Francisco bay windows on the third floor.  In the middle above each of these pairs of arched windows there is featured a shield. These Spanish Colonial Revival features make the hotel unique even in the city of San Francisco.  Inside the renovations have provide contemporary luxury.

This boutique hotel has 171 rooms and 16 floors.  The luxury suites on the top floor have rooftop terraces.  On the 16th floor are two event rooms. The larger room has windows on two sides, both will spectacular views of downtown San Francisco. On the interior wall is a six foot fireplace with carved legs holding up a wooden mantel with carved details.  A wrought iron grill sits in front of the fire pit.   For weddings the fire pit is filled with large pillar candles.  Above the mantel is a large framed mirror.

Amy Wilson, daughter of Suzanne Wilson, and Jody Hart were married in this beautiful room on March 25th, 2006.

Photo: Taken in 2006 by SW.
Link 1:  http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=W0ghAAAAIBAJ&sjid=1H8FAAAAIBAJ&pg=1265,258433&dq=history+of+san+francisco+el+cortez+hotel&hl=en
Link 2:  http://local.yahoo.com/info-21334244-hotel-adagio-san-francisco