Heritage Buildings

Vancouver Hobbit House has sold. It’s one of three in Metro Vancouver designed by Ross Lort The  Hobbit House has sold. David Mooney already owns the properties to the west and is looking to incorporate the West Kind Edward property into a town house development. Mooney works with W.T. Leung Architects and has retained heritage consultant Don… Continue reading The Hobbit House Sold

*See update Hobbit House sold I toured the Hobbit House this week. The South Cambie house is one of two story book cottages in Vancouver—a third is in West Van. The house has had a ton of media attention since it went up for sale, mostly speculation about its imminent demise. Realtor Mary Ellen Maasik… Continue reading Vancouver’s Hobbit House

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

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

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

Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside is a warehouse for the desperate: filled with crackheads, hookers, chronic alcoholics and the mentally unhinged. Drive down Hastings and it looks like a Dostoevsky novel. There are drug addicts shooting up in the alleys, pawn shops, scuzzy hotels and a myriad of agencies trying to unravel the mess. This sketchy area—one… Continue reading Save on Meats creates food currency for the DTES

I’m a huge fan of Samuel Maclure, a BC-born architect with an incredible design range. Maclure designed almost 500 houses in his 40-year career including the audacious Hatley Castle in Victoria, Gabriola on Davie Street, and Brock House at Jericho Beach. There are several books about Samuel Maclure, but my favourite is Janet Bingham’s. It’s… Continue reading The Story of Brock House

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

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

At 7:30 pm on Tuesday June 26, the Vancouver Heritage Foundation is presenting a Places that Matter plaque to the Joy Kogawa House. The house at 1450 West 64th Avenue is one of 125 places chosen to celebrate Vancouver’s 125th anniversary and represent people, places and events that have shaped the city and that matter… Continue reading Places that Matter

I covered the opening of the new Urban Fare for Canadian Grocer Magazine last Friday. I’m always surprised that this store with its $40 bottles of olive oil, bread flown in from Paris, and wine bars comes out of the Overwaitea Food Group, the same company that operates Save-on-Foods, Buy-Low and PriceMart. It is of… Continue reading Urban Fare opens at the Village at False Creek

Win two tickets to the Vancouver Heritage House Tour on Sunday June 3rd. Simply leave a comment at the end of this blog saying which building you’d like to get inside (could be a mansion such as Casa Mia, Shannon or Gabriola, or a commercial building such as the Dominion Building or BC Sugar, or… Continue reading Vancouver Heritage House Tour

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

See the story about Victoria’s Trend House  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… Continue reading The Trend House – North Vancouver

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

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

I’m one of the few people in this city that’s never been to the Penthouse Night Club, and fortunately for me I’ll still get the chance because of the quick response by Vancouver firefighters early this morning. Yes, it’s a strip club with dubious connections, but it’s also one of the longest running family businesses… Continue reading The Penthouse Night Club

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.