Friday, January 15, 2010
A Gate in the Bush

The gate in the bush could be found at number 4041 about half way up Prospect Road in North Vancouver District. And Prospect Road can be found as far up the mountain east Mosquito Creek as residential streets go. It is the first right turn  after the top of Lonsdale Ave. Many of the other houses on this street at the top of the world would sell for a million dollars. Then there was the overgrown lot with the deserted ramshackled house. The bush grew all the way up to the street and the vertical board gate and fence was wedged between their branches. The deep and steep lot may have revealed a view of Burrard Inlet and Vancouver Island if it weren't for the tall and thick overgrowth. Only parts of the house could be seen. In the back of the house the cream colored exterior was covered in horizontal shiplap at the bottom and shakes on the second floor. The sides of the house seemed to be all shakes. Because it was on a steep slope the one floor Prospect Rd. side of the house seemed to extended to the back as two floors. Multipaine windows wrapped around the south west back corner of the second floor and looked out at the view. A brick chimney seemed to stick out from the very top of the roof.  This chimney was added the year after  the house was built in 1923.  Before that there was only a pipe from the stove.


Thanks to historian Roy Pallant we know who lived  in this mysterious overgrown house.  His report at the North Vancouver Archives indicates the house with a timber foundation was built by local carpenters. According to the neighbors he interviewed Dorothy "Dot" Fraser lived there.   Her family moved to B.C. in 1889 and she was the great-aunt of Senator George Van Roggan (Liberal) who was active in Canadian-American affairs.  "Dot" spent her life as a governess and a nurse and in later years a nurse-companion.  She was known by the local people for her regular habit of walking, complete with silver-knobbed walking cane and fox pelt scarf. The creek which runs past this property is still known locally as Miss Fraser's Creek.  "Dot" was also a regular attendee at St. Martin's Church.  Dorothy Kathleen Fraser died in Beacon Hill Lodge in 1983 at age 100.  In the 1955 City Directory she is listed as Miss K (Kath) Fraser. She remained the owner  until at least 1970.  In 1980 the resident is listed as A. Zalemanis. There was no listing in 1998.

Research:  Thank you to Roy J. V. Pallant.Demolition Permit: Applied for September 2009.

Demolished: January 2010.

Photo: Taken October 4, 2009 by SW.

Thursday, January 14, 2010
Last House on the Block

This lovely gardened home at 258 and its neighbor to the east were the last single family homes to be demolished on East 11th Street in the City of North Vancouver.  When the new buildings are completed the entire block will be multifamily housing, and Eva Rose's lovely and much loved garden will be gone.


Eva Rose, purchased the home in March 1956  from the original owner and builder, Mr. Kasher. It was built in 1954. As soon as it was livable, Mr. and Mrs. Kasher and their two young daughters moved in and construction continued until it was almost finished, then hard times hit the family, and they sold the house to Eva.  Eva did the finishing touches and built the garden.


Eva parents. Russ and Grace Rose, lived with Eva until they died. Her mother died in Dec. 1966 and father in Dec. 1968. In March of the year 2000 Eva was  80 years old and had  lived in the house for 44 years. Eva had two brothers, Frank and Philip. They were all born in North Vancouver and attended North Star School, Ridgeway, and North Van High Schools. Her father, Russ came to Canada in 1906 and to North Van in 1908. My mother, Grace came to North Van in 1914. Both Eva's mother and father came from England. Eva owned and operated a Hairdressing Salon at Kings and Lonsdale until 1948 when she sold out and was then employed at B.C. Telephone Co until her retirement.  In her retirement she tended her beautiful garden.


Eva Rose's father, Russ was a story teller.  And Eva liked to tell the stories about his early life in Scunthorpe, near Petervorough in England and his pioneer adventures in Canada. Russ told of working as a printer's apprentice at age 12, naming Syringa Creek on the Lower Arrow Lakes, in 1908 building a one room shack on what would become West 29th Street in North Vancouver, and naming  the creek there, Old Riley's Creek after his new hunter and prospector friend, Riley.


More stories by Russ Rose are available in the Year 2000 Photography Project, Your House/Our Home on file at the North Vancouver Archives.


House Demolished: 2009.
Photo: Year 2000 Project, Your House/Our Home by SW.

Marine Dr. Strip Malls


Two strip malls, two automotive stores, and a parking lot in the 1300 block of Marine Drive in the District of North Vancouver are going to be turned into a four story building with retail on the ground floor and residences above. This will give housing in an area that there is none now. Marine Drive, the commercial thoroughfare of North Vancouver, stretches from the Lions Gate Bridge in the west to the Iron Workers Memorial Bridge, formerly called the Second Narrow's Bridge, in the east.  In this journey it changes its name from Marine Drive, to 3rd Street, to Main Street.


Oh yes, if you look in the bush in the trees above the strip mall you will see homes. These are the single family houses of West Keith Road on the bluff to the north of Marine Drive. To access the street from Marine Drive you have to climb the steep wooden steps a block east at Pemberton Avenue.  Or you can drive east to Mackay Avenue and turn North for two blocks to West Keith Road/West 19th Street.


So here is a fond farewell to the businesses sandwiched at the bottom of the bluff between Kypriaki's Taverna on the west and Bridgeman Avenue on the east: Budget Brake and Muffler, APG Car Sales with the Montessori Academy above, VANTECHS Computers, North West Pharmacy, Cartridge Plus, the Medical Clinic, Al's Vacuum, Package, Princess Nails, Depot/FEDEX, and Speedy Glass. And here is a "hello" to all the new residents in the 1300 block of Marine Drive.

Demolished: 2009

Photo: Taken December 1, 2009.

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 11, 2010Start the Demolition


Mahon Avenue is two streets to the west and parallel to Lonsdale Avenue, the main drag of the City of North Vancouver. It runs from Esplanade on the south and into the District of North Vancouver up as far as Braemar Elementary School. Edward Mahon (some pronounce it "mohn") was "a prime figure in the North Vancouver Land and Improvement Company" which also owned the Capilano Suspension Bridge from 1910 to 1935.  The avenue and a park are named in his honor.


J. F. Leighton built the initial house at 1920 Mahon Avenue for $2775. In 1935 he added a $50 garage. In 1938 he added a $250 dairy. And in 1940 J.S. Leighton did a $100 house alteration. The white stucco house looks like it was built originally as a box with additions of side and front structures, a punch out front window and upstairs dormers.


There are several listings of John Leighton being a dairyman. He received a building permit to add a dairy to the Mahon Avenue house in 1938. The 1925 City Directory lists him as a dairyman living at 264 West 19th Street. West 19th and Mahon Ave. is the site of the 1920 Mahon Ave. house. And at the North Vancouver Archives there is a photo of Wagg Park on West 19th Street being the site of the Leighton dairy.


A Permit for Demolition from the City of North Vancouver was applied for in August of 2009.


Photo: Taken  August 27, 2009 by SW.
Quote from: "The Ambitious City, A History of the City of North Vancouver",
                            by Warren Sommer.

Sunday, January 10, 2010Sunday Church Feature

Jehovah Witness's on Philips

Around the corner from St. Richard's Anglican Church (see Blog January 3, 2010) is the Tomahawk Restaurant. But this building qualifies for the Blog Sunday Church Feature because it was built as a Jehovah's Witness Church. It was built in 1956 for $6500. If you sit at one of the tables at the Tomahawk and look at the bones of the building, you can imagine a church congregation sitting there. The room is a long rectangle which would facilitate a center aisle bordered by rows of seating.The ceiling is pointed and there are lines of small windows at the tops of the side walls. The partition at one end, blocking off part of the kitchen even looks like it could have been the backdrop for an alter. However, the native wall mural, paddles and artifacts remind you that you are indeed in the Tomahawk Restaurant.


Before the Jehovah Witness Church moved into the 1550 Philip Ave. building, services were held across the street in one of the store fronts in the Norgate Shopping Center. The Tomahawk BBQ started in 1926 on the north side of Marine Drive at Mackay Road.  Then it moved to the shopping center.  At this time it was a drive-in. It was in 1962 that the Jehovah Witness congregation moved out and Chick Chamberlain brought his Tomahawk Restaurant to the building on Philips Ave. He modified the building with a $1000 addition.


Photo: Taken in 2009 by SW.
Books: City of North Vancouver Heritage Inventory 1994.

Saturday Travel Feature
Catalina Casino

"26 miles across the sea, Santa Catalina is waiting for me, the island of romance" (the song recorded by The Four Preps in 1958) and the gorgeous Art Deco Catalina Casino. The casino was built on Sugarloaf Point in 1928 by Wrigley, of Wrigley chewing gum fame. It replaced a 12 story dance hall on the same site, appropriately named Sugarloaf Casino. "The lower level of the Casino houses the Avalon Theater. The upper level houses the world's largest circular ballroom with a 180-foot (55 m) diameter dance floor. French doors encircle the room, and balcony views are spectacular." Wikipedia. Today, the Catalina Casino is open for tours.


Catalina Island itself is 22 miles long and 8 miles wide. "The total population as of the 2000 census was 3,696 persons, with almost 85 percent living in its only city of Avalon ." Wikipedia. "The use of motor vehicles on the island is restricted; there is limit on the number of registered cars, which translates into a 10-year-long wait list to bring a car to the island. Most residents move around via golf cart." Wikipedia. Crossing the actual 22 miles of Pacific Ocean to get to the Island itself is by Cruise Ship, the "MARINA FLYER", a high-speed 149 passenger catamaran making the crossing to Avalon in about 1 hour 30 , or to fly to the Island "Airport in the Sky".


The first person to swim to Catalina Island was George Young. He won the Wrigley Ocean Marathon swim across the Catalina Channel in 15 hours, 44 minutes, and 30 seconds on January 15, 1927.


Besides the Casino, the Island also boasts California's first permanent desalination plant which opened in 1991.


Photo: Taken May 2007 by SW.