Frits Jacobsen arrived in Vancouver in 1968. He was a prolific artist and captured some of Vancouver’s iconic and long-gone buildings such as Birks, the Englesea Lodge, and the Orillia on Robson Street. He also drew some that have survived. Two that I’ve seen are the Manhattan Apartments on Thurlow and Main Street’s Heritage Hall.
Frits also sketched modest family residences, and it’s always a thrill when one of these drawings lands in my inbox.
1117 East 10th:
Sean Johnston sent me Frits’s 1974 drawing of his grandparent’s house on East 10th Avenue. Francois and Denise Coulombe, a couple of francophones, moved to Vancouver via Edmonton in the 1950s. Coulombe is first listed in the city directories as the owner of the house in 1953. The house had surprisingly few owners over the years. Margaret Mills lived there from 1910 until 1920, after which Mary Clancy and her son Walter – a bartender at the Castle Hotel – owned the house until 1939. It changed hands a few more times before the Coulombe’s took up residence.
Sean, who is Emeritus Professor at the University of Glasgow, says his parents bought the house from his grandparents in the 1970s.
“My dad and mom began renovating the house in August 1974,” says Sean. “He was a plasterer by trade, and they did extensive repairs, plastering and converting the house to separate flats at that time. I was only peripherally involved but remember us collecting and using a 1910s console gramophone that had been in the basement.”
Sean’s dad, Harold, was a talented photographer and documented quite a bit of Vancouver and Burnaby in the 1960s and ‘70s. He became good friends with Frits, and often took Sean to visit the artist in his Chinatown studio.
Sean doesn’t think his parents ever lived in the house, and says it was likely sold after his father’s death in 1985. Amazingly, the house is still there and assessed at just under $2 million dollars.
Related:
- Vancouver’s Missing Buildings
- Life and Death of the Englesea Lodge
- Missing Heritage: The Orillia
- We Held a Funeral for the Birks Building
- Missing Heritage
6 comments on “Frits Jacobsen: Anatomy of an East Van House”
Hi Eve,
Did you know that Frits designed costumes and set pieces for St. James Church “faires” for many years, as well as cards and program covers for St. James services?
Cheers
I did not! Thanks for the information
[…] Source link […]
I’m amused by what looks like a “conspiracy theory” sign about the postal code in the door of his studio 😆
I just stumbled across your site by googling 2nd Narrows Bridge after a discussion with my son tonight when he asked where the sulfur piles he saw when we’d visit when he was a kid. I wasn’t sure but thought maybe they could be seen from that bridge, so I was looking for pictures of it.
Found your article about the collapse years ago—which I was unaware of. Very interesting story!
I’m not even Canadian, but have always loved Canada and Vancouver in particular and am enjoying your various, interesting stories!
A Southern California native
Glad you’re enjoying the stories – thanks for stopping by!
Hello, Nice to see some of Frits’s illustrations and this post. I knew Frits quite well as a neighbour, also living at 522 Shanghai Alley. The front door shown in Harold H Johnston’s photo is the entrance to the building and subsequently to five flats. Frits occupied the top floor space in the building, up three flights of stairs, his live in studio which remained a cold water flat until the day he moved out.