Every Place Has a Story

Five Amazing Women of BC

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Five amazing women who put their stamp on BC in unique ways. There is more information about them in At Home with HistorySensational Victoria and Sensational Vancouver, and in the books listed below.

Capi Blanchet (1891–1961)

 

Capi Blanchet was found dead in 1961, slumped over her typewriter while writing a sequel to The Curve of Time. For a writer, that’s not a bad way to go. The tragedy in Capi’s case is that she died without ever having an inkling of the success her book would enjoy. There was no way for her to know that a half century into the future, her book would be republished in a 50th-anniversary edition and be a regional best-seller.

Capi Blanchett
Capi with Pam on the beach near her house. Courtesy Tara Blanchet

Born in Montreal, Muriel Liffiton married Geoffrey Blanchet, a banker when she was 18. In 1922 the family drove out west and bought Clovelly, a house designed by Samuel Maclure near Sidney. Soon after moving in, the Blanchets bought a boat called the Caprice. In 1927 Geoffrey took the boat out and never returned. That left 33-year-old Capi to raise five kids aged between two and 14, and to wonder if it was accident or suicide.

The resourceful Capi rented out her house, packed up her kids and Irish setter, and set off for what would be the family’s annual journey around British Columbia’s rugged coastline. The rent supplemented her income, and the trips provided the basis for her book.

Muriel “Capi” Wylie Blanchet (1891-1961)

Blanchet, M. Wylie. The Curve of Time (50th anniversary edition). Whitecap, 2011.

Gwen Cash (1891–1983)

Gwen Cash
Gwen Cash portrait by Myfanwy Pavelic appeared on the cover of Off the Record. Jack Cash photo.

When Gwen Cash went to work for Walter Nichol at the Vancouver Daily Province in 1917, she was one of the first women general reporters in the country. Gwen and her husband Bruce settled in Victoria in January 1935. She was the public relations officer for the Empress Hotel and wrote three books including her memoir, Off the Record. In 1954 she had John di Castri design a house to prove that small didn’t have to mean a box. Called the Trend House, it was one of 11 built in Canada and sponsored by BC forest industries to boost retail lumber, plywood, and shingle sales. At 835 sq.ft. Gwen’s house was the smallest, but also the most talked about. “Conventional Victorian viewers, addicted to pseudo-Tudor or modern box construction, were puzzled and vaguely angered by its unique design. Like modern painting it was something that they couldn’t understand,” she wrote. The house was opened to the public for three months and more than 34,000 people trekked through.

Cash, Gwen. Off the Record. Stagecoach, 1977.

Sylvia Holland (1900-1974)

Sylvia Holland 1940s
Sylvia Holland at Disney in the 1940s. Courtesy Theo Halladay

Sylvia Holland met her Canadian husband at architectural school in London, England. They moved to Victoria in 1925 and designed their house. Two years later Frank was dead and Sylvia was left to raise two babies on the eve of the Depression. To make ends meet, Sylvia rented out her house and moved to Metchosin, where Frank’s parents had a farm. Even during those lean times, she managed two architectural commissions. When Boris was diagnosed with the same infection that had killed his father, Sylvia moved to Los Angeles and was hired by Universal Studios and then by MGM as a background artist. Walt Disney hired her as one of his first women animators, and she worked on productions such as Fantasia and Bambi. She worked for Disney for several years, bought an acre of land in the San Fernando Valley and designed a large two-storey house where she set about developing the Balinese breed of cat. She never married again. “All the single guys at Disney were courting her, but she chose to retain her independence,” says her daughter Theo. “She said, ‘If I had a man, what would I do with him?’”

Nellie McClung (1873-1951)

Nellie McClung
Nellie McClung in th garden of her Ferndale Road home ca1949. Courtesy Saanich Archives

When Nellie retired to Gordon Head in 1935 and made sauerkraut and dill pickles from her garden, few neighbours realized how famous she was until her image came out on a 1974 postage stamp. Nellie fought for women’s rights and her accomplishments are long and awe inspiring. In 1900 a woman’s salary was legally the property of her husband. He had control of their children, and of her. The law defined an eligible voter as “a male person, including an Indian and excluding a person of Mongolian or Chinese race.” And, if that wasn’t clear enough; the Election Act went on to say: “No woman, idiot, lunatic or criminal shall vote.”

Nellie raised five kids in rural Manitoba. By 1908, she had written the first of 16 books. That novel, Sowing Seeds in Danny sold over 100,000 copies—outselling Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables, which came out the same year—in a country where 5,000 is still considered a best-seller.

In 1928, she was one of five women who went to the Supreme Court of Canada to insist women are “persons,” and eligible to be named to the Senate. She campaigned for the Liberals in 1935, was the first woman to sit on the CBC board of directors the following year, and in 1938, represented Canada in 1938 at the League of Nations in Geneva.

 McClung, Nellie. The Complete Autobiography. Broadview Press, 2003.

Helen Gregory MacGill (1864-1947)

 

Helen was the first woman to graduate from Toronto’s University of Trinity College, and she was the first woman judge in B.C. From 1917 she presided over Vancouver’s Juvenile Court, fighting for the rights of women and children. Her husband was a sketchy lawyer and their finances went up and down with the times. The MacGill’s bought a house in Vancouver’s West End in 1908, and lost it five years later when they couldn’t afford the taxes.

By 1926 Helen’s judge’s salary had increased to $100 a month, she received $3,000 in damages from an accident settlement and they bought back the Harwood Street house. The house withstood the apartment blitz of the 1950s and is a strata conversion painted a regal red.

The MacGill’s younger daughter Elsie (1905-1980) became a trend setter like her Mum. She was the first woman to receive an electrical degree in Canada and the first woman aircraft designer in the world. She earned the name “Queen of the Hurricanes” for her work on the Hawker Hurricane fighters during the Second World War.

MacGill, Elsie Gregory. My Mother the Judge. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1955. 

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© All rights reserved. Unless otherwise indicated, all blog content copyright Eve Lazarus.

The Trend House – North Vancouver

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See the story about Victoria’s Trend House 

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 love. What was once wood (and may still be underneath) has been carpeted over, wallpapered and dry walled. It’s looking tired and in need of an update. But at 2,472 sq.ft. it’s still a good sized family home with a dramatic split level open concept plan, sweeping vaulted ceilings, and floor-to-ceiling glass.

One of 11 Trend Houses built across Canada in 1954
4342 Skyline Drive, North Vancouver

Originally the exterior cedar shiplap was painted gunmetal black with terra cotta trim. At the time, the house was a showroom for modern conveniences—the latest thermostatic temperature control, remote control touch-plate lighting, copper plumbing and fibreglass insulation.

Gwen Cash and the Trend House

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When Gwen Cash went to work for Walter Nichol at the Vancouver Daily Province in 1917, she was one of the first women general reporters in the country.

From a story in Sensational Victoria: Bright lights, red lights, murders, ghosts and gardens

Gwen Cash, Times Colonist, April 4, 1970
Gwen meets Emily Carr:

Gwen met Emily Carr when she was sent to Victoria by the Province to interview a woman writer boarding at The House of All Sorts on Simcoe Street. “Frankly I don’t remember much about the visit except that there were all sorts of odd things strung up in the ceiling and I was fascinated and a little scared of Emily,” she writes in Off the Record. Gwen and her husband Bruce settled in Victoria in 1935 and Gwen got to know the artist when when she was public relations officer for the Empress Hotel and Emily lived on Beckley Street.

She wrote three books including her memoir, Off the Record.

Gwen Cash portrait by Myfanwy Pavelic appeared on the cover of Off the Record, 1977. Jack Cash photo, Courtesy Derek Cash
Commissions the Trend House:

In 1954, Gwen had John di Castri design a house to prove that small didn’t have to mean a box. Called the Trend House, it was one of 11 built in Canada and sponsored by BC forest industries to boost retail lumber, plywood, and shingle sales.

At 835 sq.ft. Gwen’s house was the smallest, but also the most talked about. “Mine was the smallest of the trend houses but the most talked and written about. Conventional Victorian viewers, addicted to pseudo-Tudor or modern box construction, were puzzled and vaguely angered by its unique design. Like modern painting it was something that they couldn’t understand” she wrote. The house was opened to the public for three months and more than 34,000 people trekked through.

Trend house photo by Jack Cash appeared in Western Homes and Living August 1960. Courtesy Derek Cash
Lady:

Derek Cash remembers staying at Trend House he was a small boy. He was fascinated by his outspoken and flamboyant grandmother and remembers her dressing in bright clothes with lots of scarves, hats and danging jewellery. She also had her three grandchildren call her “lady.”

Trend House, 3516 Richmond Road, Victoria 2011. Eve Lazarus photo

“I don’t think she really liked being thought of as a grandmother,” says Derek. “We did not call her grandma. We were told to call her “Lady.” At the time it was a name just like nanny. It wasn’t until we got older that we realized it sounded funny.”

After Gwen sold in 1967, the second owner added two rooms and a sun porch.

The other trend houses are in Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, London, Winnipeg, Regina and Edmonton. There’s also one at 4342 Skyline Drive, North Vancouver, designed by Porter & Davidson Architects. Michael Kurtz owns the Calgary trend house.

Designed by John di Castri for Gwen Cash in 1954
Architectural drawings for the Trend House

Gwen died in 1983 at 95.

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© All rights reserved. Unless otherwise indicated, all blog content copyright Eve Lazarus.