There’s certainly no shortage of new builds happening in the City of North Vancouver these days. So far, the undeveloped chunk of city-owned land at the corner of Chesterfield and West 3rd Street has escaped attention. And that’s interesting because the land which occupies 10 city-sized lots, stretches for a full city block north to West 4th Street and half-way from Chesterfield to Mahon. To put this in perspective, it’s not that far off the size of a Canadian football field.
The site has been home to the Presentation House Theatre (PHT) for over fifty years as well as the Anne MacDonald building and a decent-sized parking lot.
The buildings look to be in rough shape and rather than turn the large grassy slope into gardens or a park, it is largely occupied by dog walkers.
Both the PHT and the Anne MacDonald building are listed on the City’s heritage register, but neither have legal protection. And, while I usually come down hard on saving heritage, the main building has been added to and remuddled so much over the decades, what’s left of its historic significance is a large rambling mess.
The current PHT building was the city’s first school from 1902 to 1915. It was then repurposed into a temporary City Hall and stayed in that location for the next 60 years. In 1975, PHT moved into the space, and for many years, shared the building with North Vancouver Museum and the now Polygon Gallery which have both since moved onto bigger and beautiful new spaces just a few blocks away.
So, what are the plans for the land?
My calls to North Vancouver City last week were ignored, but with a council occupied with the October election, there appears to be no immediate plans to either love the property or list it.
In fact, the last report I can find is from 2010 which looked at demolition versus rehabilitation. “In the past the city has undertaken only minimum maintenance to satisfy its tenants. This anticipated a ‘big move’ by the city either to demolish or significantly rehabilitate it.” The site was found to be “undeveloped,” “zoned for cultural use,” and “conducive to commercial or residential development.” While the architects of the 16-year-old report note that the building required “major renovation,” they recommended saving history and returning the building to either its Central School or City Hall origins.
The value of the land has fallen sharply over recent years. BC Assessment valued the parcel at just under $8.3 million this year, a sharp drop from the almost $15 million it was assessed at in 2022.
North Vancouver resident Bill Allman is the owner of Famous Artists Limited and president of the BC Entertainment Hall of Fame. He has staged four productions at Presentation House that include Mrs. Claus’ Kitchen, Santa Land Diaries and Love Letters with Jeff Hyslop and Ruth Nichol. Allman was a PHT board member from 2019 to 2025.
“Quite frankly, how to deal with that property has been a real quagmire for the City and for the Board,” he says. “The smart play is to redevelop it. Put up a condo tower and put in a good theatre underneath.”
PHT is the only professional theatre company on the North Shore and it’s time that the city got its own purpose-built theatre. The existing building, Allman says, has had its moment. “It’s an adequate little black box theatre, and not much more, and it’s a building with a lot of problems.”
Anne MacDonald Hall was built in 1899 as the Church of St. John the Evangelist and moved to the site from West 13th in 1973. Perhaps we could pop it back on a truck and move it next to the old 1913 Pacific Great Eastern train station. Once at the foot of Lonsdale Avenue, the PGE building has been boarded up and sitting behind a chain link fence on an undeveloped lot along the Spirit Trail since 2014.
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