Manhattan Apartments

Frits Jacobsen: Anatomy of an East Van House

by Eve Lazarus on June 3, 2023

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.

Tags 1117 East 10th Avenue, Birks Building, Castle Hotel, Englesea Lodge, Frits Jacobsen, Harold H Johnston, Heritage Hall, Manhattan Apartments, Orillia, Sean Johnston

Barr and Anderson: Established 1898

by Eve Lazarus on January 22, 2022

Barr and Anderson, was a Vancouver company founded in 1898 and the name behind the mechanical work in some of our oldest buildings – a few of which still stand.

Vancouver Club, 915 West Hastings Street, 1914

Founded in 1898:

Back in the 1960s, Doug Archer was an apprentice plumber with Barr and Anderson, a Vancouver company founded in 1898 and the name behind the mechanical work in some of our oldest buildings – a few of which still stand.

Recently, Doug sent me photos of eight of the buildings they had worked on. He told me: “One day I was given the job of straightening up the storeroom and I found these old commercial pictures of buildings that they had worked on. I took them home and photographed them onto 35mm slides, then I recently re did them to digital.”

Doug figures the photos were promotional photos taken for the architectural firms that employed Barr and Anderson.

The Vancouver Club opened on January 1, 1914 and is still at 915 West Hastings Street. Designed by Sharp and Thompson, it replaced the first Vancouver Club located on the next lot over.

Union Station was designed by Fred Townley for the Great Northern Railway. It sat next door to our current Pacific Central Station. By the end of the Second World War rail travel was on the decline and the GNR offered the station to the City of Vancouver for use as a museum and library. The city declined and the station was demolished in 1965. It’s been a parking lot ever since.

Manhattan Apartments at Robson and Thurlow, 1908

The Manhattan apartment building at Robson and Thurlow is a familiar site to anyone who spends time in the West End. Designed by Parr and Fee in 1908, the building managed to survive a demolition threat in 1979.

Second Hotel Vancouver, designed by Francis Swale 1916-1949

The second Hotel Vancouver stood at Granville and Georgia Streets, and is the most elegant and ornate building that we ever destroyed. It was pulled down and replaced with a parking lot for a quarter-of-a-century, and it’s now home to the TD Bank Tower and the building that now houses Nordstroms.

Standard Bank Building, 510 West Hastings Street

The regal 15-storey Standard Bank Building has sat at the corner of West Hastings and Richards Streets since it was designed in 1914 by Russell and Babcock architects.

The Hudson’s Bay building has also managed to survive at the corner of Granville and Georgia Streets. The building was designed by Burke, Horwood and White in 1913.

The Birks Building went up around the same time as the Bay on the opposite side of Granville and Georgia, but sadly only managed to survive for just over 60 years. Designed by Somervell & Putnam, it was so beloved, that the people of Vancouver held a mock funeral in 1974.

Province Building, 140-142 West Hastings Street

According to Andy Coupland, of the excellent Changing Vancouver blog, the six-storey building in the photo (above) was called the Stock Exchange building, and the Province had offices there for a time. Today, it’s an SRO called Regal Place. The two-storey building next door (140 west Hastings) was the Province’s home from 1903 to 1925, and Andy thinks is most likely the building where Barr and Anderson did their work.

Barr and Anderson also had their own connection to Hastings Street. They had architects Parr and Fee design their building at 112 West Hastings Street in 1902.

Barr and Anderson’s office is still at 112 West Hastings Street. Photo: Historic Places

Sources:

Building the West: Early Architects of British Columbia, Donald Luxton, 2007
Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History
Changing Vancouver
Historic Places

Tags 112 West Hastings Street, 142 West Hastings Street, 510 West Hastings Street, 915 West Hastings Street, Barr and Anderson, Birks Building, Doug Archer, Fred Townley, Great Northern Railway, Manhattan Apartments, Pacific Central Station, Parr and Fee, Province, Second Hotel Vancouver, Standard Bank Building, Union Station, Vancouver Club

The Art of Frits Jacobsen

by Eve Lazarus on August 4, 2018

Frits Jacobsen arrived in Vancouver in 1968 and drew many of Vancouver’s long since demolished heritage houses.

By Jason Vanderhill

I first heard about Frits Jacobsen, and saw his beautiful drawings in a post by Jason Vanderhill on his Illustrated Vancouver blog. Jason kindly allowed me to repost it here.

522 Shanghai Alley:

Frits Jacobsen studied at the Free Academy of Fine Arts in the Hague before arriving in Canada in 1959. He moved to Vancouver in 1968. I met him in East Vancouver a few years before his death in 2015 and was able to show him a photograph of the door to his studio at 522 Shanghai Alley taken in 1974. His studio was next door, just above the Sam Kee Building. Both buildings are still there.

Courtesy Harold Henry (Hal) Johnston, 1974

The photo reminded Frits of his hostility towards the postal code movement, though when I showed it to him, he shrugged it off as rather comical.

In December 1979, Vancouver Magazine ran a feature titled “Now you see them” by Ian Bateson and featuring some of Vancouver’s threatened heritage buildings. The drawings that accompanied the article were not credited but I was able to confirm with Frits that he drew them.

Englesea Lodge:

The Englesea Lodge, at the entrance to Stanley Park was the first to go, destroyed by fire in 1981.

Manhattan Apartments:

In 1979, the Manhattan Apartments at 784 Thurlow Street was also under threat, but fortunately has managed to survive.

Built in 1908 for industrialist W.L. Tait, the Manhattan was one of the city’s first apartment blocks and served as a model for many that came after. The building contains attractive stained-glass windows designed by A.P. Bogardus and made in Vancouver. Three of the windows overlook the ornate, pilastered main entrance to the building, although the two smaller ones that sat above both the main and Robson Street entrances are missing. Hopefully, they have been stored somewhere and not destroyed by vandals.

Orillia:

The VanMag article included Jacobsen’s drawing of the Orillia on Robson and Seymour—demolished in 1985 to make way for a new tower.

Heritage Hall:

Heritage Hall on Main Street rounds out the article. At the time, it had stood empty and neglected for two years and was in serious jeopardy. Thankfully, this was one battle that the heritage advocates won, and the hall survives to this day.

Frits was a remarkable artist and a true Vancouver character. If you happen to be going through the MCC thrift store in Surrey, you might just find his drawing of the missing Birks Building.

Tags 522 Shanghai Alley, Birks Building, Englesea Lodge, Frits Jacobsen, Heritage Hall, Jason Vanderhill, Manhattan Apartments, Orillia

Thurlow and Alberni Streets: then and now

by Eve Lazarus on July 4, 2015

Garden family at 752 Thurlow Street, ca1890s. Photo courtesy Anders Falk

This story appears in Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History.

Anders Falk is a Vancouver realtor with deep roots in the city. His great, great grandparents William and Mary Henderson Garden arrived in Vancouver from Helensburgh, Scotland, via Liverpool and a cross Canada train trip in April 1889. William opened up Garden and Sons Wholesale Tea and Coffee on East Hastings. By 1894, Murchies has broken their monopoly on the tea business, and William and Mary and their two sons William and John have moved into a new house at the corner of Thurlow and Alberni Street.

Garden and Sons Wholesale Teas, 222 East Hastings Street, ca.1890s. Photo courtesy Anders Falk

William died in 1897, and the following year, the business has disappeared from the directory. John became a lumber broker and William Junior played in a band and worked at the Bay for his day job. The Gardens remain at 752 Thurlow until 1903. Fortunately one of the Garden family was an avid photographer and was able to capture the family’s various activities—at the house, a boat at the rowing club, and biking in Stanley Park.

William and Mary Garden family in Stanley Park mid-1890s. Photo courtesy Anders Falk

Anders says Joe Fortes taught the Garden kids to swim at nearby English Bay.

William Lamont Tait, a wealthy retired lumber and real estate tycoon, is the next resident at 752 Thurlow. Tait must have spent much of the next few years planning and supervising the building of Glen Brae, his Shaughnessy mansion on Matthews. Completed in 1911, Glen Brae, named for Tait’s Scottish homeland, was dubbed “the Mae West” by locals because of its two outlandish turrets. Tait died in 1919, and in 1925, his former house became the headquarters of the KKK. More recently it has found a nicer use as Canuck Place.

The house on Thurlow Street and Alberni, like most large places in the West End, went through a number of uses—at one point it was a YWCA, a nursery, and during the First World War, it was occupied by the Canadian Medical Army Corps.

Rear of 754 Thurlow Street in 1956 CVA Bu P508-19

Between 1924 and 1940, 752 Thurlow showed up as the Vancouver Women’s Building in the directories, and in 1941 it was taken over by the Salvation Army. Surprisingly, it looks like it survived until at least 1956, and at some point went through a street change to #754.

In 1966, 752 Thurlow was a three-storey building next to the Manhattan Apartments and occupied by Oil Can Harry’s. The club stayed there for the next 11 years.

The Carlyle, a 21-storey tower replaced the Thurlow Street building in 1989. Its address is now on Alberni.

The Carlisle, 1060 Alberni Street — The Carlyle, 1060 Alberni Street

Our missing West End residential heritage: What were we thinking?

by Eve Lazarus on April 25, 2015

For more stories like this one see Vancouver Exposed: Searching for this city’s hidden history Westend in the 50s Tom

I was trekking around the West End with artist and historian Tom Carter on Tuesday. I found some pictures of gorgeous old West End houses at the archives and I wanted to see what replaced them.

Tom had some aerial photos of the West End taken in the ‘50s that showed masses of houses, low rise apartment buildings and lots of trees, built in the late 1880s and early 20^th century, before Shaughnessy opened up and the West End was still a desirable place to live.

Many of the old mansions became apartment buildings and rooming houses, and when the six-storey height limit was removed in the late 1950s, most of these old houses and their beautiful gardens disappeared in a frenzy of demolition.

1201 Pendrell

The house first shows up in the directories in 1906, built for Duncan Rowan who is listed simply as “cannery man.” Duncan died a few years later and the house sold to the Buttimer family where it stayed until1930. When this photo was taken in 1956 it was an apartment building called The Pillars.

Here’s what we’ve done with the lot:

1221 Burnaby

Built for George Coleman in 1901, directories show that at one time it was the Convent of the Sacred Heart and later a school called the Vancouver Academy. The house became an apartment building called Wootton Manor in the 1940s.

This is Wootton Manor’s replacement:

Wootton manor replacement

1185 Harwood

Well, at least the stone fence is still there. The house was once surrounded by other old mansions and built for Alex Morrison, a contractor. It stayed in the family until 1930 and became the Margaret Convalescent and Nursing home during the war years.

1025 Gilford

Thomas Fee house — 1025 Gilford, VPL 16134, ca.1910

Architect Thomas Fee designed this house for his family in 1907 because Mrs. Fee wanted a house in the country. Fee was part of Parr and Fee a prolific architectural firm that designed numerous buildings such as Glen Brae in Shaughnessy, The Manhattan apartments on Robson, the Hotel Europe in Gastown and the Vancouver Block. The house became the Park Gilford Hotel in the late 1940s. It came down in 1961.

All that remains is a few holly trees.

fee today

For more about the West End:

The Last of the West End Mansions
The West End Guest House: one of the last ones standing
The Former Houses of Beach Avenue
The Life and Death of the Englesea Lodge
Our Missing Heritage
For more stories like this one see Vancouver Exposed: Searching for this city’s hidden history

Frits Jacobsen: Anatomy of an East Van House

1117 East 10th:

Related:

Barr and Anderson: Established 1898

Founded in 1898:

Sources:

The Art of Frits Jacobsen

By Jason Vanderhill

522 Shanghai Alley:

Englesea Lodge:

Manhattan Apartments:

Orillia:

Heritage Hall:

Related:

Thurlow and Alberni Streets: then and now

Our missing West End residential heritage: What were we thinking?

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Heritage Hall:

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