Heritage Vancouver released its annual top 10 endangered site list today and it spells more bad news for the last of the West End mansions. The heritage conservation organization has flagged three properties: the Legg Residence at 1245 Harwood Street, Gabriola Mansion at 1531 Davie Street, and three houses that sit side by side at… Continue reading The Last of the West End Mansions

Spite Houses: A couple of weeks ago I wrote about Spite Houses and ran a picture of a lime green house painted with large purple dots. The back story was the owner had run afoul of the local heritage commission, was denied a building permit for a porch, and chose his colour scheme out of… Continue reading Chef Chuck Currie’s Polka Dotted House

To mark the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, this week’s blog is a story about Mabel Fortune Driscoll who survived the disaster, moved to Victoria and lived there until her death in 1968. The full story appears in Sensational Victoria. Mabel Helen Fortune was 23 when she set off for a tour of… Continue reading The Titanic’s British Columbia Connection

A Spite house is a building “constructed or modified to irritate neighbours or other parties with land stakes. Spite houses often serve as obstructions, blocking out light or access to neighbouring buildings, or as flamboyant symbols of defiance. Because long-term occupation is at best a secondary consideration, spite houses frequently sport strange and impractical structures”… Continue reading Spite Houses

From Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History On Sunday February 1, 1981 shortly before 9:00 a.m., George Wright, a 70-something caretaker was working at the Englesea Lodge when he spotted fire coming from the building’s basement storage area. “There was a big boom and the fire rushed out at me. It threw me… Continue reading The Life and Death of the Englesea Lodge (1911-1981)

For the first half of last century, houses lined the water side of Beach Avenue, from the Burrard Street Bridge to Stanley Park From Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History When I first started researching Alvo von Alvensleben some years ago I made several road trips to see how many of the buildings… Continue reading The Former Houses of Beach Avenue

On February 23, Jennifer Clay gave an A to Z workshop to home owners wanting to research the history of their homes. Jennifer has written a guest blog based on her presentation. By Jennifer Clay I live in a 1926 heritage home in North Vancouver, and while I had a vague idea of the previous occupants of… Continue reading Researching John Bull’s House

In honour of International Women’s Day on Friday March 8, it seems fitting to feature Victoria print maker Pat Martin Bates. An excerpt from Sensational Victoria: At 85, Pat Martin Bates is still strikingly beautiful. The day I visit her she has a scarf wrapped around her dark hair and she’s wearing a jacket full… Continue reading International Women’s Day: Meet Pat Martin Bates

The house on Somerset Street in North Vancouver was built in 1912 as a hunting lodge for Alvo von Alvensleben.  The story of Alvo von Alvensleben and the hunting lodge on Somerset appears in At Home with History: the secrets of Vancouver’s heritage houses: A couple of weeks ago I was taking photos of this… Continue reading The Hunting Lodge on Somerset Street in North Vancouver

It may be long gone, but at least Hogan’s Alley is finally getting the recognition that it deserves. As part of the Vancouver Heritage Foundation’s Places that Matter program, a plaque will be placed near the Hogan’s Alley Cafe at Gore and Union Streets at 2:00 Sunday February 24. Hogan’s Alley Project: The plaque and… Continue reading Hogan’s Alley and the Jimi Hendrix Connection

Barbara Howard received a Queen’s Jubilee Medal last week at Burnaby City Hall. Barbara turns 93 this year, and in the last couple of years she’s been festooned with a slew of honours including induction into both the Burnaby and the BC Sports Hall of Fame and a “Freedom of the Municipality” award from Belcarra… Continue reading Black History Month: Barbara Howard

I had lunch at the Baron’s Manor Pub recently. It’s a heritage house at the corner of 96th Avenue and 192nd Street in Port Kells, converted to a pub in 2005, and the new owners have given it a museum-like quality by filling it with old photos, newspaper articles and artifacts from one of its… Continue reading Spy House

It’s the 60th anniversary of the Mr. and Mrs. P.A. Woodward’s Foundation, and it’s my guess that unless you’re part of the medical community, you’ve never heard of it. It’s an amazing charitable organization with a mandate to improve the health of British Columbians, and gives away over a million dollars a year to do… Continue reading A brief history of the Woodward’s Department Store Building

Some of my favourite pictures in Sensational Victoria are the then and now ones in James Bay. There’s a fabulous archival shot of Carr House on Government Street taken in 1869 and a current photo that doesn’t look all that much different—143 years later. Another find is of the Queen Anne house on South Turner… Continue reading James Bay – Then and Now

This photograph of the three little boys in their cowboy suits that appears on the cover of Sensational Victoria is one of my favourite pictures in the book. It’s not just because the little boy in the middle grew up to be David Foster, record producer, composer, songwriter and arranger—but because it’s such a great… Continue reading The House that Fostered David Foster

On October 23, 1918– six years after the sinking of the Titanic—the SS Princess Sophia sailed out of Skagway, Alaska. Four hours later the ship slammed into a coastal reef killing all aboard. These men and women formed the backbone of the North and it was a devastating tragedy for the Pacific Northwest. More than… Continue reading The Sinking of the Princess Sophia

Ghosts are said to be attracted to houses where there is a lot of activity. For Jim, a carpenter, and Lou, a massive renovation of their Queen Anne home on Townsend Place, in New Westminster, seems to have awoken them. Townsend Place: Whatever the reason, for a few years the old house was haunted. Jim… Continue reading The Ghosts of Townsend Place

Five amazing women who put their stamp on BC in unique ways. There is more information about them in At Home with History, Sensational Victoria and Sensational Vancouver, and in the books listed below. Capi Blanchet (1891–1961)   Capi Blanchet was found dead in 1961, slumped over her typewriter while writing a sequel to The Curve of… Continue reading Five Amazing Women of BC

Alvo von Alvensleben not only has a name you couldn’t make up, he’s one of the most fascinating characters in BC’s history. For some mysterious reason he has never rated a biography, but there is a chapter dedicated to him in my book At Home with History. I was just browsing my bookshelf and thinking… Continue reading The Mulligan Affair and other BC characters

June 13, 2013: Update from Carole Witter: “Sadly we could not negotiate saving the house.  The owner was in such a rush to take it down and now the empty lot sits barren with no sign of any development.  Very disappointing. We did however manage to rescue much of the folk art which is now stored… Continue reading Saving the Swallowed Anchor