The large house at the corner of Lynn Valley and Hoskins Road has always intrigued me, so I dropped into the Community Archives last week to see what I could find out about it. Daien Ide, found this great photo taken around 1912, when the street car ran from the bottom of Lonsdale Street to… Continue reading The Lynn Valley Hotel

When I lived in Kitsilano 20 years ago, I used to drop into the grocery store on the corner of Arbutus and 6th. Even back then it was ahead of its time with organic produce and hard-to-find items. But just like The End of the Line and the Corner Store in North Vancouver have transformed… Continue reading Arbutus Grocery

A photographic comparison of Ceperley House in 1912 and what is now the Burnaby Art Gallery a 100 years later

The story of Ron Thom and Boyd house appears in Sensational Vancouver Kerry McPhedran is selling the house she bought in 1972. It’s not because she wants to—as a freelance writer, it’s her retirement plan, and because of its tony West Vancouver address, it comes with a hefty $1.9 million price tag—too steep for most… Continue reading Boyd House

For more stories about L.D. Taylor’s Vancouver see: At Home with History: the secrets of Greater Vancouver’s Heritage Homes Mayor Gregor Robertson held a press conference Friday announcing the City’s receipt of a $30-million anonymous donation to reopen Taylor Manor. After an extensive renovation and upgrade, the house will provide housing for 56 people with… Continue reading L.D. Taylor and the History of Taylor Manor

I met with Will Woods for coffee last week. Will is a young Brit who moved to Vancouver six years ago with his wife and little boy, and like a lot of us transplants, fell deeply in love with the history of the city. You may have seen him hunched over the card files at… Continue reading Forbidden Vancouver

I haven’t been past the blue building for several months, so it was a nice surprise to drop in for coffee and a veggie panini at Andrews on 8th. Don’t let the unfinished paint job fool you; it’s a major work in progress by Brad Hodson, owner of Valley Estates, a make-your-own-wine store that shares the… Continue reading North Vancouver’s Andrews on 8th

The Trend House at 4342 Skyline Drive in North Vancouver has just sold for $1,375,000. The house was one of 11 built in 1954 for Ted and Cora Backer, designed by Porter & Davidson Architects, and sponsored by BC forest industries to boost retail lumber, plywood and shingle sales in the province. The house needs… Continue reading The Trend House – North Vancouver

See the full story in Sensational Victoria: Bright lights, red lights, murders, ghosts and gardens The first time I call Susan Musgrave at her home in Haida Gwaii, she can’t talk because she’s cooking dinner for John Vaillant, author of The Golden Spruce. The second time I call, she’s busy vacuuming, but is kind enough… Continue reading The Poet and the Tree House

Update: The Dominion Building sold to Toronto-based Allied Properties Real Estate Investment Trust in October 2021. It had been in the Cohen family since 1943 (they operated Army and Navy until last year). It won’t surprise you to know that the 1910 building is haunted. Tenants have heard ghostly footsteps on the spiral stairs and… Continue reading The Dominion Building

Mother Tongue Publishing is a small trade publisher run by the amazing Mona Fertig from her heritage house on Salt Spring Island. While other publishers turn their backs on books that lack mass market appeal, movie options or foreign rights potential, Mona actively seeks out poets, first-time writers and unrecognized artists.

This is one list you don’t want your name on. Crosscut, a blog out of Seattle, released it’s Heritage Turkeys of the Year list, what it calls “who did most to raze, wreck, uproot, neglect and generally trash our historic treasures in 2011” Metro Vancouver made the cut twice. The Pantages for demolition of historic theatre… Continue reading Heritage Turkeys

Want a conversation stopper at your next party? Just bring up the impending real estate meltdown in Vancouver –the one where house prices implode. You’ll be mocked and told how interest rates are at historically low levels and you’ll hear all about those swarms of filthy rich Chinese flooding our borders. Then, they’ll tell you… Continue reading Seriously–you think your house price won’t tank?

Louis the celebrity parrot inherited a three-storey mansion and managed to stave off development for 17 years, before the estate succumbed to “progress” and was bulldozed to make way for the Chateau Victoria Hotel in 1966.

Looking for a mansion on the right side of town? 3390 The Crescent is on the market for $31.9 million. I’m guessing the owners are receptive to a lower bid, since it was up for sale last year for only $17.9 million.

When it comes to West Coast architecture, Fred Hollingsworth is a rock star. He invented the Neoteric style —affordable family housing with simple post and beam construction.

Murder by Milkshake: An Astonishing True Story of Adultery, Arsenic, and A Charismatic Killer Set in middle-class Kerrisdale, the green duplex at 2092 West 42nd Avenue is such an ordinary place it’s hard to imagine it was the stage for one of the most sensational murders in Vancouver’s history. Esther Castellani, 40, died in 1965… Continue reading The Sensational Murder of Esther Castellani

The 2012 Greater Vancouver Fire Fighters Hall of Flame Calendar officially launched on September 8 at Chill Winston’s, a restaurant in a heritage building in Vancouver’s Gastown. Since it’s the Calendar’s 25th anniversary, and because the front page and several of the fire fighters were shot at Firehall No. 6 in Vancouver’s West End, there’s a… Continue reading Vancouver Fire Fighter’s Hall of Flame Calendar

The two-storey Commercial Block at East 8th and St. Andrews in North Vancouver is getting a makeover. New owner Brad Hodson plans to return it to 1912 with a large coat of Strathcona red paint trimmed with Victorian peridot and Edwardian buff accents. For the past four years Brad has driven by 277 East 8th … Continue reading St. Andrews Street makeover

Sylvia Holland was the first registered female architect in British Columbia. After her husband died, she took her two children and moved to Los Angeles where she worked for Universal Studios and later MGM as a background artist. Walt Disney hired her as one of his first women animators. See the full story in Sensational… Continue reading Sylvia Holland (1900-1974)