Every Place Has a Story

Switzer House (1960-1971)

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The Switzer house of West Vancouver was designed one Sunday, painted pink, and received attention from all over the world.

North Shore News, August 19, 1994. Courtesy West Vancouver Museum.

840 Mathers:

In 1960, the Taylor Way interchange on the Upper Levels Highway looked radically different than it does today. That year, local builder Henry Switzer placed his shocking pink house at 840 Mathers Avenue at the end of 9th Street. The futuristic-looking house quickly became a North Shore landmark, and locals called it the helicopter house, the airplane house, and the Jetson’s house because it appeared to have wings.

Even though the house was only there for eleven years, it seems to have resonated with everyone who saw it.

Henry Switzer house
840 Mathers Avenue, West Vancouver. ca. 1970 courtesy Daryl Parsons

“I lived on the same street as the Switzer house,” recalls John Oberhoffner. “I was eight and I cried when they tore it down.”

Alice Brock says that she and her four brothers called it “the Windmill House” because each wing reminded them of the blade of a windmill. “We would always look for the house when we were driving on the Upper Levels in our ’54 Chev Bel-Air,” she says.

Experiment:

The house was a radical experiment designed to be built on a rocky building site or steep slope. Switzer designed it one Sunday afternoon, and it attracted attention from all over the world.

The Switzer house shared many of the elements of Googie architecture, a southern Californian movement born out of the car culture of the 1950s and influenced by the space race. Googie was popular among roadside motels, coffee shops and gas stations and typically featured swooping rooflines, brightly coloured geometric shapes, glass, steel and neon.

“The Switzer house was unusual in design with four elevated cantilevers supported by a central column where the front entrance was located,” says Kiriko Watanabe, curator at the West Vancouver Museum.

Switzer House
The Lions Gate Times, July 15, 1960. Courtesy West Vancouver Museum

It was also the second house of its type that Switzer designed. The first predates it by four years, and although renovated, still exists on Inglewood Avenue in Sentinel Hill.

Watanabe organized a West Coast Modern house tour this summer featuring the first Switzer House. “It isn’t elevated like the second one, but the roof line is raised in the middle part of the house and the overall shape looks like open wings,” she says. “It’s very symmetrical when you look at the house from the distance.”

Ironically, the house that was built on car culture was expropriated and then demolished in 1971 to make way for the widening of the Upper Levels Highway.

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Top photo: North Shore News, August 19, 1994. Courtesy West Vancouver Museum.

© All rights reserved. Unless otherwise indicated, all blog content copyright Eve Lazarus.

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22 comments on “Switzer House (1960-1971)”

OMG what a memory! I remember that house so well. I loved it and asked my uncle, who was a builder, if he’d build me a house like that when I grew up. He said he would and after that it became known as my house! I wanted a skating rink in the middle! Thanks for this great post – still laughing.

Growing up in Surrey in the 60’s at least once a year we travelled north to Britannia Beach to visit Dad’s relatives. One of the highlights coming and going was to look for “we called it The Jetson’s house.) You come up with such neat history Eve.

Keep it coming.

When I first discovered your blog I asked you about this home. You told me to look up Switzer House which I did. That house was on my dads sight seeing tour. When relatives came to visit they were taken through Stanley Park , up to the suspension bridge and the Cleveland Dam. Past the Switzer House on the way to Trolls at Horseshoe Bay. Between living in one of those beautiful old West End homes (1257 Barclay St.) and the surrounding area it truly was like living in paradise. Everyone from the prairies was blown away by the Jetsons house.

WOW,,,I am absolutely blown away. Thank you for commenting. Its hard to find many friends / contacts from that far back. Questions , my oh my Ive got questions. If our hostess were to give you my contact info maybe you could answer some of the questions. I hope you and your family are all doing well.

Loved that house, so sad when it was gone. We made models from balsa wood in elementary school (Cedardale), and I made a model of that house.

Loved this house. We lived on the north side of the highway and some of my parent’s p roperty was also expropriated when they widened the highway.

I remember passing this house as a young boy after I arrived in Canada in 1966. We lived near Horseshoe Bay for the first 6 months and so drove passed it regularly on trips to Vancouver. I thought it was so cool. My dad had a different opinion, though more so due to his view on the cost of heating the place. I’ve thought about the house over the many years that have gone since I last saw it sitting derelict. I have even told my wife and children about it. It popped into my head today and so I decided to search it. It was nice to find this information about it.

Dad still lives on 9th Street looking back at the Switzer house. Every house in the neighbourhood built by Switzer and Cowan was painted pink and green. I grew up with a pink and green bathroom.

I will always remember this house. If I remember correctly it was one of the last standing then torn down to make room for the new Upper Levels Hwy.?

Eve,

Thank you for this article. My dad designed and built a house a little ways away on the edge of Capilano River around 1960, and I have always remembered the Switzer house (without knowing its name). At one point years later I looked for it, and assumed that it had been demolished as part of the Upper Levels highway construction.

Cheers,
Gary

I seem to remember that the house rotated to catch the sun and the changing views!
I may be dreaming . We lived on Keith Road in the 1000 block.
Varick Hewitt Ernst

I remember this house so well! We used to pass it everytime we drove out to my grandpa’s boat at Eagle Harbour!

Hello Eve:
Henry Switzer was my grandfathers’ brother and I was born while my parents and grandparents were working and living with Henry building the high school and city hall in Rossland. He was a superintendent for Marwell Construction and employed my dad and grandfather there and other sites around BC. I have lots of memories of Uncle Henry, his house, gold teeth, pink cadillacs and his band called Curley Switzer and the Mountain Boys. I believe I actually have photos of the house on the Upper Levels Highway, some sheet music and at least one of his records. I have good memories of time spent in their house listening to him yodell and sing “High on Grouse Mountain” with aunt Eleanor. If I can be of assistance on your blog you are welcome to contact me. PS. The house did not rotate and a little tidbit that I distinctly remember is one of the last construction projects Henry did in Vancouver was the coloured lines and courts at the Vancouver Tennis Club at 16th and Fir. He subcontracted to a company called Norwood Construction to place the courts. I remember 45 gallon drums of colouring that his crew mixed and poured under the suspended roof of the courts. That was a few years before he passed in Dec 1976

Oh my gosh, this is so awesome that I finally came across a posting and information about this house that I remember so well as a kid!! We drove past it countless times on our way to Horseshoe Bay or Squamish back in the days. Me and my sister and brothers always thought it was so cool! Like many people, we also called it the Jetson House!! Such a great memory from the good old days!

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