Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Grand Boulevard

Grand Boulevard is in the eastern part of the City of North Vancouver. It extends from East Keith Road to East 19th Street, almost a mile in length and 346 feet wide. Clearing for the Boulevard and lots for homes on both the east and west sides began in 1906. "According to its developers, the North Vancouver Land and Improvement Company, the Grand Boulevard would be to North Vancouver "what the Champs Elysees is to Paris..." (See Reference 1.) Stately homes fronting the Boulevard and with views of Burrard Inlet and the city of Vancouver started to be built in 1910 and can be seen in the "City of North Vancouver Heritage Inventory 1994".(Reference 4.) In 1907 a street car line ran up the center of the Boulevard to East 19th Street. And in 1920 smaller infill homes began to be built.

837 Grand Boulevard was one of the smaller infill homes, but the date it was built was not listed in the Building Permit Book at the North Vancouver Archives. However, this book only records building permits through 1947. The owners in 1950 were Thomas C. W. and Gertrude Fox. Thomas C. W. Fox was employed as a lino operator at the North Shore Press. Thomas C. Fox, a student, was also listed as a resident. Thomas C. W. and Gertrude Fox continued to own the house until 1991. Thomas C. W. worked as a printer at Pacific Press in 1960 and in 1971 reported that he was retired. In the 1995/96 City Directory Michael D. and Brenda Reid reported that they had owned the house for four years.

The photo of 837 Grand Boulevard was taken by Suzanne Wilson as part of her
Year 2000 Photography Project, Your House/Our Home. 2000 photos of homes in the City of North Vancouver were photographed.


In the month of June 2007 Suzanne Wilson celebrated the City of North Vancouver's 100 birthday by distributing to their home owners copies of 1000 photos taken for the Y2K Project. At this time it was discovered that the home photographed at 837 Grand Boulevard had been demolished and a stately new home had been built.


Demolition: Permit applied for in 2004.

Photo: Taken in the year 2000 by SW. Black and white negative and contact sheet print available on Roll #45 of the Demolition and Construction Project at the North Vancouver Archives.
Reference 1: "The Ambitious City, a History of the City of North Vancouver" by Warren Sommer, page 93.
Reference 2: See Blog Post June 23 for more information on Grand Boulevard.
Reference 3: See Blog Post June 21 for more information on Demolition and Construction Project by SW.
Reference 4: "City of North Vancouver Heritage Inventory 1994" available at the City of North Vancouver library and the North Vancouver Archives.
Reference 5: The Year 2000 project was donated by Suzanne and Alan Wilson to the North Vancouver Archives and is available for viewing.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010
New in 1950

This small house on the east side of Mountain Highway was built in 1949 for $4,500 by M. Condliff. In the 1950 City Directory no one is named as the owner of 4380 Mountain Highway but it is listed as a "New House". 4380 is near the top of Mountain Hwy., the route that used to be the foot path leading to the Grouse Mountain ski trails.

In 1960 the owner is listed as Sid C. Rockey, a pressman at Pacific Press. In 1971 the owners are recorded as Sidney C. and Nellie I. K. Rockey. Sidney Rockey continued to work as a pressman at Pacific Press. However, in 1980,  1991, and 1995 Sydney and Nellie Rockey reported to the City Directory that they were retired.

This black and white photo is another in the Demolition and Construction collection by Suzanne Wilson. The negative and contact sheet are available at the North Vancouver. (See Blog Post June 21, 2010.)

Demolition: Permit applied for in 2006 from the District of North Vancouver.
Photo: Digital photo taken of Roll #69 contact sheet taken in April of 2006.

Monday, June 21, 2010
Black and White
Dowsley Court

The permanent collection of photographs at the North Vancouver Archives is preserved in black and white photos, negatives, and slides. There are over 45,000 of these available for viewing and research. Copies can be obtained of most. One part of the collection is the 2001 to 2010 Demolition and Construction project by Suzanne Wilson.There are over 3000 black and white photos recorded on negatives and contact sheets that have been taken since 2001. These photos are mostly of houses where Demolition Permits have been applied for. Others document construction, important buildings, and streetscapes. The home in the photo above is at 3502 Dowsley Court and is in that collection.

The house at 3502 Dowsley Court was built in 1956 for $11,000 by Hazel Brod Construction. This street off East Carisbrooke Road in the North Lonsdale Area of the District of North Vancouver didn't even appear in the City Directories until about that time. In 1960 the owners were Ray J. and Anne Rice. Ray Rice worked as an operator at B. C. Sugar. Mrs. Anne Rice was a foreman at Mrs. William's Cake shop. Raymond Rice continued to work at B. C. Sugar. In 1991 Raymond and Anne Rice reported that they had retired. The City Directories records them owning the home at least until 1995.

Demolition: Application applied for in 2006.
Photo: Digital copy of photo taken in April 2006 on Roll #69 of Demolition and Construction Collection by SW.

Happy Father's Day

Sunday Church Feature

Costa Chapel

The Costa Pacifica Cruise Ship includes this beautiful petite chapel for daily worship. The chapel seats 18 and is 45 square meters in size.  Christ, Mary, and Joseph and perhaps the feeding of the multitudes are depicted behind the altar. Brightly painted single Saints are painted in the side wall niches of the chapel. Framed spiritual paintings are mounted between these wall niches. The blond wood pews, gold trim, crystal chandelier, and warm overhead lights reset in circular alcoves and chandelier give the chapel a golden glow. Dark carpeting contrasts with the shiny marble center aisle with its stylized cross border. The marble pedestaled altar is covered with a scalloped linen. An urn of flowers sit in front of the altar. Daily church service times at the Chapel on the deck 4 are varied to fit in with excursion schedules.

Other church services are held on board as well. On Easter Sunday the 8:45 am Holy Mass was held on deck 5 in the Around the Clock Lounge. This facilitated a larger congregation. On Saturday night at 8:45 pm a renewal of marriage vows was held on deck 5 in the Amadeus lounge. Honeymooners and those celebrating special wedding anniversaries were invited. Again a venue larger than the chapel was needed to accommodate the many couples that attended.

For personal worship a Gideon Bible can be found in the bedside table in each state room. Since this is an Italian ship, the Bible is in Italian, of course.

For more information regarding the Costa Pacifica see Blog Post June 19, 2010.

Photos: Taken on Costa Pacifica Cruise Ship in April 2010 by SW.
Thank you: To Carol Pennington Senior Advisor, Office of the Sr. Vice President- Guest Relations on the Costa Pacifica for details regarding the chapel.

Saturday Travel Feature
Home On The Mediterranean

The Cruise Ship Costa Pacifica is a "home away from home" during its eight day cruise of the Western Mediterranean. The 3,789 passenger luxury ship built in 2009 features music as its theme. Classical music is played in the halls and music of the day's destination in played in the elevators. Entire lounges are dedicated to a single style of music: classical, jazz, swing, disco, calypso. Afternoon and nightly shows feature a single style or a the whole range including classical, rap, and pop. Decor also features music with: treble clef railings in the lounge, cello motifs on the elevator doors, paintings of musicians in the state rooms, wallpaper sketches of musicians on the hall walls.

The 112,000 tons of this cruise ship are decked out in ultra Vegas with spectacular amenities. There are: two retractable-roof swimming pools as well as an outdoor swimming pool, five hot tubs, a kiddie pool, a Formula 2 race car driving simulator, one of the largest spas at sea, a library, a music studio, and 13 bars/lounges.

The route of this floating beauty is: Civitavecchia (and hour and a half on the train from Rome), Savona (with an excursion to Monaco available), Barcellona Spain, Mallorca, Tunis Tunisia, Malta, and Catania Sicily. Passengers board at several of these ports. (See map below.)

Since the Costa Pacifica is an Italian ship, Italian is the main language used on board.   On the first week of April 2010 cruise only 500 of the 3,789 passengers were English speakers. Italian and French were predominant. Announcements were made taking this proportion into consideration.  Important information such as the life boat drill were repeated in every language represented.  As the 3,789 passengers stood on deck sporting their life jackets all the information was repeated in: Italian, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Japanese, and English. Only then was the all clear horn  sounded.

Another pleasant surprise on the Costa Pacifica Cruise line is the age range.  Families with with babies, preschoolers, and teens, honeymooners, and  extended family groups dominate the roster.

Link: http://cruises.about.com/od/costapacifica/ig/Costa-Pacifica.-odC/
Photo: Costa Pacifica Cruise Ship taken in Malta in April 2010 by SW.

Friday, June 18, 2010

The Fromme House

There is more than one Fromme House in Lynn Valley. The first Fromme house is at 1466 Ross Road. It was built in the late 1890's by Julius Martin "J. M." Fromme, “The Father of Lynn Valley”.  It qualifies as the first real house built in Lynn Valley. This house is not going to be demolished.


The second Fromme House, the one in the photo above, was at 3253 Fromme Road. J. M's. son Harold  helped contractor Jake Seibald  to build this house that was completed in 1955.  He lived in it until his death at 95 in the year 2000. Harold was a renown local historian and athlete and owned and operated Harold Fromme's Lynn Valley Garage which had been the lumber shed of his father’s original Shingle Mill on Mountain Highway and Harold Road.  Lynn Valley United Church is now on this site. The house at 3253 was demolished in the winter of 2009. Three houses will be built on the site.


There is also a Fromme Block. This is on the south east corner of Mountain Highway and Lynn Valley Road. It was built by J. M. Fromme in 1912 and was one of the first commercial buildings in Lynn Vally. There were and are apartments upstairs. For many years the street level was the home of: Barker's Hardware, a soda fountain with the Lynn Creek Post Office as part of it, and a shoemaker. More recently there was an antique shop, barbershop, cleaners, TV repair shop, and thrift shop.  The Fromme Block  was renovated and restored and is now the home of the Toronto Dominion Bank.


There are not only the Fromme houses and a Fromme Building,  there is also the Fromme Mountain and Fromme Elementary School. Mount Fromme, between Lynn Creek and Grouse Mountain is 3888 feet high.  Today it is a key mountain bike destination. Fromme Elementary School is at 3657 Fromme Road.


Lynn Valley located at the heart of the District of North Vancouver was a logging center in the early 1900’s. The heart of Lynn Valley is at the junction of Lynn Valley Road and Mountain Highway, previously called Centre Road.  This is where J. M. Fromme bought the Lynn Valley Lumber Co. and the Lower Shingle Mill in 1906. He later subdivided his property of 1/4 section for housing sites in the area that is now Lynn Valley Center. He gave part of his land to the Knox Presbyterian Church later called the Lynn Valley United Church in the area that is now the Maple Leaf Gardens.


As you can see the names of the Fromme family can be seen on every map of Lynn Valley. Fromme Road runs north and south from Kirkstone Park below Lynn Valley Road parallel to Mountain Highway and up to Chamberland Drive. Harold Road meets Fromme Road just above its junction with Lynn Valley Road. And Frederick Road, named for Harold’s younger brother who died before Harold was born crosses Fromme Road and Mountain Highway just north of Argyle Secondary School. So all the Fromme family roads-Fromme Road, Harold Road, and Frederick Road-are clustered in the heart of the Lynn Valley they helped to build.


Benches in the memory of Jean and Harold and Julius Martin and Martha Fromme have  been placed at the Veterans Community Plaza.  This Plaza leads from Mountain Highway to the North Vancouver Community History Centre next to Lynn Valley Elementary School on Institute Avenue.


Demolition: Permit applied for October 2009.
Photo: Taken October 24, 2009 by SW.
Research:  Thank you to the Fromme family for information, editing, and fact checking.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

One of Five

1938 Mountain Highway is one of five similar homes built in that block. The one storey houses on concrete slabs feature two windows on either side of a central front door. Some have attached carports. There are also two other similar homes on the adjacent East 20th Street and a few others in the nearby neighborhood. Several of the homes are built at an angle to the city street. The 1938 Mountain Highway home was built for $10,500 in 1956 by Pioneer Construction.

In 1961 Cyril and Sylvia Vickers were the owners of 1938 Mountain Highway. Cyril Vickers was an accountant at McIntosh McVicar Dinsley and Co. In 1971 Michael and Marlene Harris were the owners. Michael Harris worked as a fitter at M. B. King Lumber. In 1981 Len and Diane Wagner lived at 1938 Mountain Highway, and had lived there for at least a year before as they were not reported as "new neighbors". Len Wagner was employed at L and M Radiators. In 1991 Kathleen and Gary McLauchian were reported as "new neighbors". Gary McLauchian was an engine designer. In 1995 Kathleen and Garry McLauchian reported to the City Directory that they had lived at the 1938 Mountain Highway address for five years. At this time Kathleen was employed as the office secretary at Oscar's Woodcraft in the Lower Lonsdale area of North Vancouver and Gary was an engine designer at Hipp Engineering Ltd.

Mountain Highway was named and completed in 1927. Before that it was a path then rough road that lead up to the ski area of Grouse Mountain. (See Link.)

Link: http://www.vancouverhistory.ca/archives_grouse.htm
Demoltion: Permit applied for to North Vancouver District in June 2010.
Photo: Taken in June 2010 by SW.