John Atkin can be a bit of a kill joy, always squashing rumours about secret tunnels in Chinatown, ghosts in the Dominion Building, and well, blood in Blood Alley. John squashes another rumour in his story about a tunnel that supposedly connected a sugar baron to a brothel, but in doing so he uncovered some fascinating information about Maxine MacGilvray, a successful businesswoman who moved to Vancouver in 1914. This article originally ran on John’s blog What Floats to the Top of My Desk.
By John Atkin
I recently had the pleasure of leading a walk in the West End for the Vancouver Heritage Foundation as part of their Sunday coffee series at JJ Bean.
The cafe’s newest location on Bidwell sits behind the preserved facade of Maxine’s Beauty School. The question that’s most often asked is if there was a tunnel that connected the Rogers’ mansion Gabriola on Davie with a bootlegging operation and/or brothel based out of Maxine’s.
Apart from the general absurdity of the idea – the elevation change between Gabriola and Maxine’s would have made a tunnel an incredibly expensive engineering feat—Maxine’s was built in 1936—long after prohibition ended in BC and three years after it was repealed south of the border. There was no need for a bootlegging operation, let alone tunnels in the building, and the idea that a tunnel was used by sugar magnate B.T. Rogers to access a bordello from his home makes no sense because Rogers died in 1918.
The idea of the brothel probably stems from the sexy sounding name Maxine’s, but while sexy, it was still just a beauty school. Instead of a silly cliche, what we do have is a story of an enterprising woman who built a successful series of businesses here and in Vancouver and Seattle. I think she deserves some recognition.
So who was Maxine?
Maxine’s was named after Maxine E. MacGilvray from Wisconsin. Her name first appears here in connection with beauty products sold by Spencer’s department store in 1914. Trained in California, she gave talks on skin care at the store and would later open the first of her parlors in the store.
Maxine started with a hair salon in the 600 block of Dunsmuir, opened her second location in the 1920s on the ground floor of a house at 1211 Bidwell Street, and followed this with the opening of the Maxine College of Beauty Culture next door. Maxine manufactured her own beauty products in a small factory at 999 East Georgia Street called the Max Chemical Company.
She hired Ivor Ewan Bebb, a young Welshman who came to Canada in 1924 as her apprentice. Four years later Maxine, 36, and Ivor, 26, were married in Washington State. In 1931 the company moved to 1223 Bidwell to join her other enterprises and was renamed the Max-Ivor Company.
The couple hired architect Thomas B. McArravy to design a new building to replace the original school on Bidwell in 1935. The design is a cute Mission Revival building which was expanded in 1940 by architect Ross Lort. This is the preserved facade we see today.
The Vancouver beauty school closed in 1942 and the couple converted it into the Maxine Apartments. By the late 1940s, advertisements show it as an apartment hotel, and later as a full blown motel. In 1943, Maxine and Ivor opened the Max-Ivor Motel at 4th Avenue South in Seattle. The motel had 20 rooms, maid service and steam heat. Maxine died in 1952 and Ivor moved to Seattle to run an expanded Max-Ivor motel.
Sources: 1940 US Census, Skagit County marriage licences, immigration records, Vancouver World newspaper, BC Directories and Chuck Flood’s book, Washington’s Highway 99
8 comments on “Who was Maxine?”
Another Vancouver myth put to bed! I have met a couple of folks who SWEAR they have seen the entrance to a tunnel at the Gabriola mansion. Any thoughts on where this might lead? Perhaps just a wine-cellar?
As an Ex Employee of Maxines Caberet , for Lee Torlage, I have to say I searched for that “Fabled” tunnel to no avail. People pointed to bricked up sections of the wall, and phoney panelling etc… saying it was behind, but there was no proof.
There was a mysterious Man hole type covering in the basement that was impossible to pry open in the short periods we had to try. Anyone’s guess what might have been down there. I’m sure the demolition crew and the present management of that property could answer any questions pertaining to that.
As for the other “Fables” –strange Phenomena was noticed by almost every employee myself included.
That was at the very end of my heavy drinking period, and I witnessed much “phenomena” everywhere . I can say with certainty, glasses shattered for no apparent reason and light bulbs unscrewed , others saw this as well. People were very afraid of the Basement.
There is nothing else I can report that couldn’t be dismissed by any psychiatrist as a alcohol induced Hallucination, so I can’t say. Much of that time didn’t make it into my long-term memory. Only emotionally charged incidents have been retained in a slightly distorted way.
It was very disturbing.No reflection on the management past or present.
Charles
Great story Charles – I didn’t know about the ghost. Could have been in my haunted house chapter!
Hello Eve-
It’s certainly part of west end Folk lore. Many had their opinions about ghosts changed by that place.I can attempt a causal investigation and send you the results if you like? Going to read your post..
Charles
I have come across a Professional Cosmetology Book that is dated 1935 it was a students book enrollment 1937 the name in the book is The Maxine Beauty School . Is there any one that collects these books ? It also has the students name in the book .
Cheers Arlee
Ok, so, she bought the place in 1920’s and renovated it in 1934. Is it not possible that a brothel ran in the basement during that time and that discreet entrances were made? Probably before her like during the Canadian prohibition1(918-1920). In 1934 they renovate and get rid of anything not legit.
I maintain the mechanical equipment in this building and, having access to all areas of the building, have searched for evidence of tunnels to no avail. Surely anything below grade was covered up during construction of the parkade which goes 4 floors down.
[…] If you have ever driven down Davie Street toward Denman you would have noticed this West End landmark. Its unique architecture is matched by the legends that surround it, including bootlegging, brothels, and secret tunnels to the Rogers family mansion a few blocks up the street. All that remains is the front façade of the original building. The rest has been gobbled up by a 21-storey condo development – its 4 floors of underground parking failed to unearth any tunnels, but did awaken a few ghosts. […]