This interesting looking house on Yale Street at the corner of North Kamloops in Hastings/Sunrise was built by a bootlegger in 1931.
The Alvaros:
Turns out the house was built in 1931 at a cost of $8,000—a lot of money smack in the middle of the Depression. Its owners were Joseph and Rosa Alvaro, who kept the house they had at 421 East Georgia in Strathcona as a warehouse, and moved their family (they had four boys and four girls) into the new digs. The Alvaro’s were born in Calabria, Italy and married in 1909.
And no wonder Joe could afford his new house. He was in the bootlegging business big time, and at least until 1934, had an in with John Cameron, the Vancouver Police Department’s chief of police. Cameron was likely one of the 150 guests who attended the Alvaro’s silver anniversary party at the Yale Street house in September 1934, entertained by an eight-piece orchestra.
Arrested:
The following year, Joe was arrested along with Chief Cameron, Joe Celona—King of the Bawdy houses, Shue Moy, Eugene Valente and Wally Cole for “conspiring to corrupt the police department.”
The Alvaros’ moved to Pandora Street in 1942 and the Yale Street house sold to James and Cora Doherty. James was the general manager for the Program Engineering Works and Cora liked to hold garden parties. They lived there until the early 1950s.
The next residents were Heinrich Scheide, a porter with the CPR and his wife Margaret. By 1971, John and Ruth Berryman were selling smokeless incinerators from the house. 2492 Yale Street was up for sale again in 1980.
According to BC Assessment, in 2020 the property is worth $2,315,000, the house just $10,000.
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