Heritage Buildings

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

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

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

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

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.

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

Mostly I write for business magazines, but every now and then I get a really unusual assignment. Last month it was a trip on the Rocky Mountaineer for a travel magazine and another was writing the bios and web copy for the Vancouver Fire Fighter’s Calendar. The travel job took me to Banff and a… Continue reading Fire Hall No. 6

The 2400 Motel on Kingsway opened in 1946. It still has an old fashioned, retro feel and its huge red and blue neon sign.  I discovered the 2400 Motel on Kingsway when I wrote Frommer’s With Kids Vancouver about a decade or so ago. Loved the old fashioned, retro feel of the place and its… Continue reading 2400 Motel: Vancouver’s 10th most endangered heritage site

Last week Heritage Vancouver released its annual top ten list of endangered heritage sites in Vancouver. Three schools topped the list, but the residence considered most in danger is the four-hectare Shannon Estate at the corner of Granville and 57th. Note that it’s not the 40-room mansion that’s under threat, it’s Shannon Mews, the infill townhouse… Continue reading The Shannon Estate: Fourth most endangered heritage site

During WW2 more than 3,000 Japanese-Canadian women and children were ripped from their homes and housed in the Livestock Building in Hastings Park

Serge Pare is the lightkeeper at Green Island, one of 27 lighthouses still manned in British Columbia.

How I toured my father’s childhood house in Ballarat and told the owners about the social history of their heritage house.