Dal Grauer

Fire takes out King Edward High School

by Eve Lazarus on June 18, 2022

On June 19, 1973, a three-alarm fire broke out at the old King Edward High School at West 12th and Oak Street. The building was destroyed, but remnants remain on the old site, now part of Vancouver General Hospital.

From Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History

Designed by William T. Whiteway:

William T. Whiteway, the same architect who designed the Sun Tower, designed the school in the neoclassical style and topped it off with a central cupola. It was the first secondary school built south of False Creek, opened in 1905 and was officially renamed King Edward five years later.

King Edward High — Courtesy Andrea Nicholson

Impressive Alumni:

The list of King Ed alumni includes an impressive array of Vancouver luminaries. There is philanthropist Cecil Green and broadcasters Jack Cullen and Red Robinson. Other notables to pass through the school’s corridors are Dal Grauer, president and chair of BC Power Corporation and BC Electric; Nathan Nemetz, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of BC; Grace McCarthy, politican; Yvonne De Carlo, actor; Jack Wasserman, newspaper reporter; Jamie Reid, poet; educator Dr Annie B. Jamieson and Olympic athlete Percy Williams.

The King Ed track team in 1926. Percy in the middle row, third from left. Courtesy Andrea Nicholson.

In 1962 King Ed became an adult education centre and the kids transitioned to Eric Hamber, says Andrea Nicholson, alumni coordinator. Vancouver City College took over the King Ed building in 1965. David Byrnes attended first-year university there in the late 1960s. “One day when we were goofing around my friend Malcolm told me he’d found a way into the attic,” says David. “I remember climbing up to look out the cupola and finding a rifle range.”

Taught Shooting:

Andrea confirms there was a rifle range and students from Cecil Rhodes and Henry Hudson elementary schools used to train there. Andrea’s mum Elizabeth (MacLaine) Lowe taught at the school and later became department head for business education. She was supposed to teach night school on the day the school burned down. “I remember as a child going up into the turret, and I remember when they pulled that school apart the dividers for the bathroom stalls were solid marble,” says Andrea, who could see the flames from the grounds of Cecil Rhodes Elementary at 14^th and Spruce.

Building Sold:

Vancouver General Hospital bought the King Edward building and land in 1970, though it remained an educational institution until the fire. Now, all that’s left is the stone wall at Oak and West 12^th Avenue, a stained-glass window installed in Vancouver Community College’s Broadway campus, and, in the Gordon and Leslie Diamond Health Care Centre that replaced the school, there is a plaque, a large photograph of the original school and a circle of yellow tile in the lobby outlining the original King Ed High School.

King Ed Plaque

The wall received a Places that Matter plaque in 2012. Former King Ed teacher, and vice-president Annie B. Jamieson (1907-1927) had an elementary school named after her.

Tags Andrea Nicholson, Annie B. Jamieson, Cecil Green, Dal Grauer, Elizabeth Lowe, Gordon and Leslie Diamond Health Care Centre, Grace McCarthy, Jack Cullen, Jack Wasserman, King Edward High School, Nathan |Nemetz, Percy Williams, Red Robinson, Vancouver Community College, Vancouver General Hospital, William T. Whiteway, Yvonne de Carlo

Villa Russe

by Eve Lazarus on November 22, 2011

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 as John Mackie points out, it was up for sale last year for only $17.9 million.

1922 Beaux Arts mansion — 3390 The Crescent

Wondering what one gets for $30 odd million in Vancouver? According to the real estate blurb that would be 10,000+ square feet of house nestled on an acre of land with the obligatory grand entry and sweeping staircase, as well as massive living room, five fireplaces, a master bedroom with not one, but three dressing rooms and quarters for the staff, who you’ll need to cook, clean, mow and provide maps to find your way to the games room, gym and cellar.

What it doesn’t say is that the stately mansion has a great story.

I wrote about this house and the Grauer family in At Home with History. The house was built in 1922 for Misak Yremavitch Aviazoff, a local money man and arts lover, and his wife Aileen. The Aivazoff’s loved to entertain and counted Grand Duke Alexander, Serge Rachmanioff, Prince Obelinsky among their guests.

Aviazoff, who is listed in the city directories as president of New Method Coal and Supplies, did not do well in the Depression. He and Aileen bumped around to different Shaughnessy addresses, likely short-term rentals, and by 1938 Aileen is a landlady at a West End apartment building.

H.A. Wallace, the ship builder bought the house from the Aivazoffs and lived there until 1946, when it changed hands again and BC Electric became the owner and Albert Edward (Dal) Grauer, head of the company and his family moved in.

3390 The Crescent — The Grauer Children in front of Villa Russe, 1958

Sherry Grauer was eight when she and three siblings moved into the house, which she describes as “Mediterranean”. Sherry, now an artist living on Vancouver Island, says the house only had three bedrooms (it now has six), so her father built an addition on the back and a pool with a cabana designed by family friend Arthur Erickson.

Sherry’s mother painted portraits and flowers and she remembers going upstairs to bed while her father played Chopin or Schubert on the piano.

By 1961, Dal Grauer, dying with leukemia, continued to battle the BC Government over its decision to take over the company (now BC Hydro). The government announced the takeover the day of Grauer’s funeral. Still, he managed to kick back from the grave. Sherry says her father incorporated his $2 million plus estate into a family company in another province and legally stiffed the government for estate taxes. “And that made Wacky Bennett very cross,” she said. Dal also left his stamp on the BC Electric Building (now the Elektra), built in 1957, and the Dal Grauer Substation.

John Mackie’s article: https://www.vancouversun.com/news/Vancouver+mansion+sale+million/5735598/story.html

See realtor’s listing at https://www.ecorealtyinc.ca/listing?id=259090654

Tags 3390 The Crescent, Aileen Aviazoff, Arthur Erickson, BC Electric, Dal Grauer, Grand Duke Alexander, Misak Yremavitch Aviazoff, New Method Coal and Supplies, Prince Obelinsky, Serge Rachmanioff, Sherry Grauer, Villa Russe

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