Casa Mia is on this year’s Vancouver Heritage House Tour. I finally got to tour it with my partner in crime Aaron Chapman
Casa Mia is featured in Sensational Vancouver: Built on Rum
Owned by Rum Runners:
Casa Mia must be one of Vancouver’s most storied old mansions, and at the moment, one of the most controversial. It’s a late addition to the tour, and a smart move by the owners looking to sway public opinion towards their plan to turn the old girl into a 61-bed home for seniors.
Casa Mia was built in 1932 for George Reifel, a brewer who made his fortune during U.S. Prohibition. The proceeds from selling rum to thirsty Americans between 1920 and 1933 was so lucrative that he also built a hunting lodge in Delta (now the Reifel bird sanctuary), and with his brother Harry, who built Rio Vista a few doors down, built the Commodore Ballroom, the Vogue and the Studio, all during the Depression.
The Reifels:
Bill Lort told me my favourite story about Casa Mia. Bill’s father Ross Lort designed the hunting lodge and Casa Mia for George Reifel. One Saturday morning in 1931 when Lort was inspecting the property, Reifel pulled up in his long black car. Dressed in a full length coat and fedora and puffing on a cigar, he asked Lort if he’d like some money. Not waiting for an answer, Reifel reached into his pocket, pulled out a wad of bills, peeled off a thousand dollar note and handed it to Lort. Bill, the youngest of five kids, was only four at the time, but still remembers his dad arriving home with the bill. “My father came home, showed the thousand dollar bill to my mother who damn near died of heart failure looking at it,” he says. The Lorts’ hid the note under their bed and took turns sitting on it until the bank opened on Monday morning.
Artists from Walt Disney:
Casa Mia is built in the Spanish-style, with nine fireplaces, 10 bathrooms, a sauna, and a ballroom that had the only sprung floor outside of the Commodore. George brought up artists from Walt Disney Studios to hand-paint murals in the playroom.
While Casa Mia is the most impressive house on the tour this year, the VHF has put together a nice range of houses from both the east and west sides of the city. Tickets are $40.
For more about Casa Mia and the Reifels see:
The Commodore, Casa Mia and others
© All rights reserved. Unless otherwise indicated, all blog content copyright Eve Lazarus.
Hi Eve…loved your post on Casa-Mia. some old stories and accounts of this house also involve secret tunnel(s), leading to the river, for access to the family’s rumrunning boats…also deceptively powered by retrofitted powerful engines.
I believe the family also owned a large country home in Langley, not sure if it is still standing, but was equally unique and well-appointed. that might be a fun sidebar. also…I don’t think the family ended all that happily, in something of obscurity compared to their early days. a caretaker at the bird sanctuary??
cheers, Mary-Gay Gray
I had occasion to be at the Casa Mia a few times when Dr. J. Ross MacLean, who owned owned the house for a time. Dr. MacLean also owned Hollywood Hospital, famous for LSD, mega-vitamin and insulin deep sleep therapy and medial withdrawal from alcohol, in New Westminster. On staff at Hollywood Hospital for a few years in mid-70s, I heard talk that often “high end” and famous patients would be admitted at the hospital but stay at Casa Mia while in therapy and treatment.
I had occasion to be at the Casa Mia a few times when Dr. J. Ross MacLean owned the house. Dr. MacLean also owned Hollywood Hospital, famous for LSD, mega-vitamin and insulin deep sleep therapy and medial withdrawal from alcohol, in New Westminster. On staff at Hollywood Hospital for a few years in mid-70s, I heard talk that often “high end” and famous patients would be admitted at the hospital but stay at Casa Mia while in therapy and treatment. Hollywood Hospital had some rich and famous local, national and international clientele (patients?) come medical alcohol and prescription drug withdrawal, as precursor to LSD therapy.
I am writing an article on Hollywood Hospital but can’t find much about Dr. Maclean – as I understand he suffered a heart attack in the mid-seventies, sold Hollywood Hospital which is now New Westminster Center was 515 5th Ave. (along the old stagecoach line) and died shortly after – a mensch to the end he is listed as a sponsor of a local women’s softball team that placed second in the world in 1978. Can’t find an obit. Anybody?
Whoops, managed to get some parts of the Reiffel family story(ies) wrong……..so tonight I got down your book At Home With History. I’m up to speed again, really had a great time dipping in to your 2007 book, and can’t wait for the new one, Sensational Vancouver.
Hi Eve,
Thanks for more history of Casa Mia. Fascinating! I read a book recently that credits one of your books with the reference of a midden buried under Casa Mia. Is this true???
Sheryl
I house sat in Casa Mia one New Year’s Eve (I think it was Jan 1 1972). I worked at a jeans store that Dr. MacLean owned; can’t remember the name but I was earning $1.50 an hour, which was minimum wage at the time.
The MacLeans’ originally were going to stay in that night, but changed their minds, and had already given their staff the night off.
So Dr. MacLean’s son, who I worked with, asked if I would house sit.
I said yes and his son arranged to pick me up.
I had visions of a limo picking me up.
Alas, his son picked me up in a Pinto!
I stayed overnight, and was paid $150 for basically doing nothing but answering the phone at midnight.
More money than made in a month.
It was a fabulous home.
Mrs. MacLean was very kind, and taught me how to make scrambled eggs the next morning.
Never will forget it.
Funny thing is; many years later I met George Reifel Jr. through fund raising for Ducks Unlimited.
I didn’t realize he had ties to Casa Mia.
Casa Mia had no tunnels or hidden chambers. All myth. 1850 S W Marine started out as guest house for Casa Mia, but George decided to sell it off before it was complete as there was no bridge over small ravine and stream at 1890 S W Marine( stream still there) Before Nelson Skalbania and Bill Norton bought all the properties along stretch of Marine drive and subdivide and developed “Angus Lands” below the escarpment, Casa Mia and the Malkin Estate (1950 S W Marine, sat on 7+ acres each. The houses were on the upper 2 acres and pasture land was below. When C N W Woodward owned 1950 S W Marine ( The old Malkin Estate) there ws a riding ring, a riding track and stables on the lower 5 acres.
Victoria MacLean (daughter of John Ross MacLean) kept her horse in pasture of Casa Mia for a while until moving her horse up to the MacLean’s ranch up near Clinton.
Harry Reifel’s house Rio Vista, which is more elegant and impressive than Casa Mia was another home reported to have “tunnels and secret passages” All not true. There is a “Spanish Style” house across from Rio Vista that was intended as a guest house/servant quarters but was severed off from Rio Vista when Marine Drive was realigned at the particular point. Loma Vista farm in Langley was Harry Reifels’ farm where he raised prize winning Jersey Cattle and thoroughbred race horses. He was friends with Austen Taylor who lived at Shannon (10 acre estate on 57th and Granville) Austen Taylor had a large thoroughbred farm near Harry Reifel’s place, which was owned by Dan Blocker (Hoss on Bonanza T V Show) after Austen Taylor died.
I knew DR McLean’s wife and younger daughter Lynda in the 1990s. Mrs. Mclean was a very nice lady. Mrs.Mclean loved the time her family lived at Casa Mia and spent may hours showing me pictures and telling me stories.
Back in 1969 I spent a couple of nights at Casa Mia at the invitation of Dr Ross MacLean.. Dr. MacLean was a very active supporter of the Order of DeMolay, At the time I was employed as the Membership Director at DeMolays International headquarters in Kansas City , Mo and was asked to represent the organization at the Provincial conference in Vancouver.
During the two day conference I was the guest of Dr. MacLean at Casa Mia. Dr. Maclean and Mrs. MacLean were very gracious hosts and I enjoyed my stay with them very much.
Casa Mia indeed was quite an impressive home. I remember Dr. MacLean telling me that the bed I was sleeping in was one that was slept in by the singer Andy Williams just two weeks earlier. Of course, he did not tell me why Andy Williams was visiting him but years later I learned that Dr MacLean would often have celebrities stay at Casa Mia while a patient at his Hollywood hospital.
Dr MacLean impressed me as being a very kind and dedicated man.
Hello, Eve Lazurus. I’ve come across this quite late in the game during some idle research on my boss of old, Dr. J. Ross Mclean. In the mid-70’s, he hired me to act as supervisor for a small 6-store chain selling jeans and accessories. He called it “Union Jacks and Jeans”. I worked down the hall from his office, the door of which he operated with a push-button control hidden under his desk, which, if memory serves, was raised significantly overlooking the room. All of this I noticed when I first interviewed with him from a position in front of, and below, his desk. Very imposing! He toured my wife and I through Casa Mia, where he told us that he was the only person in Canada at the time legally allowed to possess LSD – pretty sure that memory is solid – due to his practice at Hollywood Hospital. (There is a dedication to him at the beginning of the book “The Eden Express” written by Mark Vonnegut, son of Kurt Vonnegut, who found treatment at Hollywood Hospital.) He was very proud of his girl softball team sponsorship, and often threw bbq’s at Casa Mia for them. Long time ago. I write this for any who may come along after seeking information on a very interesting man. Dr. J. Ross Mclean
I visited Casa Mia once while the MacLeans lived there, as Dr. MacLean’s son Ross was living there with my friend Janet Butts and her two young daughters. The ground floor was elegant but the bedrooms upstairs (all of which appeared to have ensuite bathrooms) were dated and a bit shabby looking. One thing that struck me and has stayed in my mind since then (about 1980) was Mrs. Maclean’s bedroom. There were newspapers strewn all over the floor and she herself didn’t seem very engaged with her surroundings. At the time I thought she was being treated as a kind of afterthought by her husband, as I believe they had separate bedrooms. Not long after I visited Ross, Janet, and Janet’s daughters moved to their own place, so I never visited again. Janet died in 1981 or 1982 and Ross continued caring for the girls for a while afterwards.
Hi Eve,this might be a bit late coming,but I am very amazed with this Maclean family and would you know if the daughters are still living, I was living in the area of south marine drive in my younger years and went by the Casa Mia many times… thank you for any information you might share
Diane Holden
Good evening Eve, I have been following along with the Maclean family and Casa Mia and this is all so fasinating….love history of our city. Are the Maclean family still around or is too late a question.seen it does go back quite a few years..I have ordered books from Amazon to follow the years and all the happenings . thank you Eve.