Tuesday, January 26, 2010
The James' Residence

The house at 891 Leovista Avenue is truly the James' Residence. D. A. James built the house for $8500 in 1951.  Nine years later, in 1960, he built a $2500 addition.  For both jobs the builders were Bridgeman and Williams.  In 1955 Doug was working as an adjuster for Turner Meredith  and Co., and he and his wife Norma were living in the house.  In 1960 Doug and Norma still lived  at 891 and he was the casualty manager for Underwriters Adjustment Burrard.  Ten years later, in 1970, the D. in D. James was David and he was a student.  After another 10 years, in 1980, only Norma James was listed at the Leovista Avenue James' Residence. So, after building the house a member of the James family lived there at least for 29 years.

Leovista Avenue  continues to be a desirable place to live.  It is north of and convenient to Edgemont Village and just off Highlands Blvd, west of Mosquito Creek.  The new house being built at 891 Leovista by Noort Homes will be considerably larger than the James' Residence.  It will be 5487 square feet with four bedrooms, a den and four full bathrooms. Perhaps the new owners will enjoy the quiet and convenient location for 29 years as well. 

Link: http://www.noorthomes.com/index.cfm?method=residential.list&cityid=FB3FE305-36CC-4E4B-B486-22A7CCBDE26D
Demolition Permit: Applied for October 2009.
Photo: Taken October 24, 2009 by SW.

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.

Sunday, January 24, 2010
Sunday Church Feature
St. Andrew's United Church

St. Andrew's United Church at 1044 St. George's Avenue in the City of North Vancouver was built in 1912.  The architects were Alexander and Brown.  However, the first St. Andrew's, which at that time was a Presbyterian Church, was located on East 6th Street facing Victoria Park and built in 1904.  The "new" church built in 1912 is the one we see today, a shingle-clad adaptation in the Gothic Revival style.


In 1925 the Presbyterian, Methodist, and Congregational Churches in Canada joined together to form the United Church of Canada.  The following year, 1926,  two churches in North Vancouver, Sixth Street Methodist at the south west corner of St. Georges Avenue which has opened in 1910, and St. Andrew's Presbyterian joined to form St. Andrew's United Church.   At the time of the union, St. Andrew's had a membership of 340 and the value of its property was $19,000.  Sixth Street Methodist had a membership of 140 and the value of its property was  $7,050. 

In the early 1970's there was some talk of the St. Andrew's United Church  being demolished and an apartment building being built on the site.  The church would continue at that address, but in the street floor of the new building.  This idea was never carried out.

Directly behind the church and across the lane to the north is the St. Andrew's United Education Centre. Here over the years many programs have been provided for the community. In the 1970's there was the Margaret Fulton Centre, an adult day care to give a daytime break to adult children caring for senior parents that benefited from supervision.  To the east of the Church Hall is St. Andrew's Park, a children's park where in recent years an annual Teddy Bear's Picnic has been held. From the front steps of the church you can look down St. George's Avenue right to the blue waters of Burrard Inlet.


Today the inspiring church spire of St. Andrew's continues to act as a witness to the Christian Community in North Vancouver. 

Book: Heritage Inventory, City of North Vancouver 1994.
Reference: St. Andrew's United Church, North Vancouver, 1925-1975 a history by J.S. Terry. 
                 Available at the North Vancouver City Library.

Photo: Taken March 2002 by SW.

Saturday Travel Feature

San Francisco Cathedral

The Cathedral Hill Hotel entertained its last guest October 31, 2009.  This 44 year old San Francisco hotel opened its doors in April 1960 as the Jack Tar Hotel.  It remained under that name for 22 years. The 12 story hotel  on Van Ness at Geary just off Union Square included 400 rooms, a mezzanine ballroom, and a fourth floor outdoor pool and plaza that could be rented for weddings. At one time it had a rooftop skating rink.   As the Jack Tar it was painted pink and turquoise and then as the Cathedral Hill Hotel painted beige. Some called the hotel's modern architecture "ugly".  It was even nicknamed "The Ralston Checkerboard Square" and  "the box that Disneyland came in".  The hotel was  San Francisco's first  with air conditioning.  It also boasted an indoor parking garage, a rarity in San Francisco.  The Jack Tar name remained part of the Cathedral Hill Hotel in the naming of  the Jack Tar Bar and Grill.  

"Jack Tar was a common English term used to refer to seamen of the Merchant or Royal Navy,  particularly during the period of the British Empire.  Both members of the public and seafarers themselves made use of the name in identifying those who went to sea. It was not used as an offensive term and seafarers were happy to use the term to label themselves." Wikipedia.

The Cathedral Hotel will be demolished and the California Pacific Medical Center will be built.  The 555 room hospital is expected to be ready for occupancy in 2015.  A glass and steel design is planned. 

Resource: The San Francisco Gate Newspaper 

Photo: Downloaded from www.hotels.com 

Link:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Tar

         

            

Special Friday Feature

Georgia Medical Dental Building

The stately fifteen storey George Medical Dental Building  stood proudly at 923 Georgia Street on the corner with Hornby Street from 1929 to 1989.  It was just what its name said it was,  a building of offices of doctors and dentists.  In fact it even contained a hospital and auditorium.  But what was really distictive about the modern skin of this pink terra cotta and brick building was the art deco decoration. Giant white nurse sculptures watched Vancouverites from three corner parapets nine storeys above the street.  They were nicknamed the Rea sisters, Pya, Dya, and Gonna.  White cement icing  gracing the top of the building completed the art deco facade.  

The original Rea sisters were cast in terracotta and filled with concrete.  These were no frail women; they each weighed 5000 pounds.  When the building was demolished in 1989 they  bcame the property of the Vancouver Museum. However, the molds belong to Cathedral Place. A 500 pound fiberglass replica can be seen at ItalDecor Ltd. on East Hastings Street at Sperling Avenue. Yes, a larger than life Georgia Medical Dental Building nurse is standing in the Hastings Street yard amid cement urns, gargoyls, and fountains.  Whether she is Pya, Dya, or Gonna, is unknown.

In 1989 the 1929 Georgia Medical Dental Building was deemed "economically unsaveable"  because of skyrocketing prices of downtown office space.  The demolition was dramatic and took place Sunday morning at 7:45 am on May 28, 1989. It was done by a "controlled explosion", an implosion.  The streets around the building were filled with people who had come to honor the building and wonder at what an implosion looked like.  The crowds were not disappointed and gasped as the gutted 15 storey building quickly crumbled. Then some went across the street to the Vancouver Hotel for breakfast.

Later in the year the framed set of four photos by Graham Hollins was sold in local stores.  The photos show not only the original building and the stages of implosion, but also an interesting shadow in the south wall of the pink windowed Park Place building at 666 Burrard Street.  Look closely and you can see the outline of the Vancouver Hotel, just the roof in the first photo and then gradually the whole building.  

The building that now stands on the site on the north west corner of Georgia and Hornby is the 23 storey Cathedral Place.  A sculputed bust of a nurse sits in the lobby as a very small tribute to the original 1929 Geogia Medical Dental Building.

 

Photo: Copy of framed photo taken Sunday May 28, 1989 by Graham Hollins.

Books:  Exploring Vancouver 2 by Harold Kalma, 1974.

              Vanishing Vancouver by Michael Kluckner, 1990.

Research: Thank you to Mario at ItaliDecor Ltd.

Linc:  http://925westgeorgia.com/

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Pink Posies on Chesterfield

Pink posies in a rock planter grace the front of the pink house at 1805 Chesterfield Avenue.  It could be called the Blanchett House, since Sid and Charlotte built it and lived in it for over 30 years.  The house was built in 1947 for $5000.  At that time Sid was a carpenter.  In 1955 Sid was working for Leslie Construction. By 1970 it seems he was a building contractor out on his own with Blanchett Construction.  Blanchett Construction is again listed in the 1980 City Directory under the name of Sidney G. Blanchet.

Chesterfield Avenue runs north from Esplanade near the waterfront up the base of the mountain and crossing the Upper Levels Highway and Queens Road and then all the way to Osborne Road.  Although most of Chesterfield Ave. is in the City of North Vancouver, at the north side of 29th Street is extends into North Vancouver District.  The whole way it is parallel to Lonsdale Avenue which is the main drag of  the City of North Vancouver.  At one time Chesterfield Avenue was a street of homes. Much of the street as far up as the Upper Levels Highway is now lined with apartment buildings.  With the shops, library and recreation center just a block away on Lonsdale Ave. Chesterfield Avenue is a desirable and convenient place for a denser population.

A prominent complex on Chesterfield Avenue between West 3rd and 4th Street  is Presentation House, the home of the North Vancouver Museum, an art gallery and a theater.  On its campus is the old Church of St. John the Evangelist.  Presentation House was built as Central School in 1902 and has been the home of the North Vancouver City Hall,  jail, and the North Vancouver Archives. 

Demolition Permit: Applied for September 18, 2009.

Photo: Taken October 4, 2009 by SW.

Book: Heritage Inventory City of North Vancouver 1994 

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Seylynn at Fern 

The house at the corner of Mountain Highway and Fern Street is addressed 1502 Fern Street. It was built in 1931, a garage was added in 1940, and a green house in 1974.  The first listing for Fern Street in the City Directories was found in 1949.  In 1955 the address is listed at 1602, with the resident being Mathew Watson, a notary Public. The address and resident remained the same in 1960.  In 1970 the address had changed to 1502 and the residents were Doreen and Ervine Demers.  Ervine worked as a mechanic.

Fern Street now leads from Mountain Highway to the on ramp to the Upper Levels Highway.  However, until a few years ago, the on ramp was at the end of Keith Road just after the bridge across Lynn Creek.  It will be the southern border of the new Seylynn Village.  Demolition of the homes on Fern Street has begun.

Thank you to Elaine Oakes, RM Clerk, Admin. Svcs. NVD.

Photo: Taken August 30, 2008 by SW.