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.
Frits Jacobsen studio, 522 Shanghai Alley. Harold H Johnston photo, 1974
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.
1117 East 10th Avenue, Harold H Johnston photo, 1950s
Sean, who is Emeritus Professor at the University of Glasgow, says his parents bought the house from his grandparents in the 1970s.
East 10th Avenue, 1974. Harold H Johnston photo
“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.”
1117 East 10th after a renovation in the 1970s. Harold H Johnston photo
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.
1117 East 10th, 2023
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.
Frits Jacobsen illustration for the Alcuin Society book, ca. 1970
The Orillia on Robson Street in the early 1970s. Angus McIntyre photo
The Orillia on Robson:
The Orillia on Robson and Seymour Streets, was just a memory by the time I moved to Vancouver in the mid-1980s, but from time to time I see a mention or a photo of this early mixed-use structure at Robson and Seymour. One particularly poignant photo was taken before its destruction in the 1980s and shows the Orillia boarded up, covered in music handbills, smeared with graffiti, and the words “Save Me!” scrawled across one of the plywood boardings.
Author and historian Michael Kluckner tells me he used to play pool there in the 1960s and that it was well known for Sid Beech’s Vancouver Tamale Parlor, which operated there for decades as a popular dining and late-night hangout. Beech’s eclectic menu ranged from tamales and enchiladas to Chinese noodles, spaghetti, soup and sandwiches.
Michael Kluckner painting of the Orillia, set in the 1930s.
Over the years there were rumours of a brothel that had set up shop in the Orillia. It was Funland Arcade, for a time, and Twiggy’s, a gay disco. Twiggy’s morphed into Faces in the 1970s.
The Orillia (1903-1985). Bob Cain photo, 1980
Built for William Tait:
The Orillia was built in 1903 for retired lumber baron and real estate tycoon Owner William Tait who owned several rental properties and his house at 752 Thurlow Street. Originally a two-storey wooden rooming house comprising six row houses, the Orillia first appears with tenants in the 1905 city directory. Residents listed include a nurse, a painter, a cutter, a saddler and a clerk. In 1909, Tait added another floor for retail businesses.
Real estate was good to Tait, and in 1911 he built his Shaughnessy dream home. Glen Brae was dubbed “the Mae West” by locals because of its two outlandish turrets. Tait died in 1919, and Glen Brae changed hands several times, becoming the headquarters for the Kanadian Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in 1925, and eventually the home of Canuck Place Children’s Hospice.
Robson and Seymour. Just look what we did with the space!
Fate was less kind to the Orillia. After years of neglect the building was demolished in 1985 and replaced four years later by the 16-storey Vancouver Tower.
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.
Originally from Edmonton, Raymond Biesinger is a Montreal-based illustrator whose work regularly appears in the New Yorker, Le Monde and the Guardian. In his spare time, he likes to draw lost buildings.
In his down-time, Biesinger is drawing his way through nine of Canada’s largest cities. He’s just finished Vancouver, the sixth city in his Lost Buildings series, and his print depicts 18 important heritage buildings that we’ve either bulldozed, burned down or neglected out of existence.
Biesinger uses geometric shapes to ‘build’ his building illustrations
Biesinger spent loads of hours researching photos from different online archival sources, as well as local journalists and blogs such as mine.
The Short List:
Unfortunately, there is no shortage of amazing buildings missing from our landscape for Biesinger to choose from. Narrowing down his list was a challenge. He looked for buildings that were socially, architecturally or historically important.
Union Station designed by Fred Townley in 1916. and demolished in 1965. Illustration by Raymond Biesinger
“I tried to get a selection of buildings that had a variety of social purposes—so residences, towers, commercial spaces, athletic spaces, transportation spaces, entertainment and that kind of thing,” he says. “At one point my Vancouver list had mostly theatres on it, because there were so many gorgeous old Vancouver theatres.”
Two of the biggest losses for Vancouver, in Biesinger’s opinion, was the Vancouver Art Gallery’s art deco building on West Georgia and the David Graham House in West Vancouver designed by Arthur Erickson in 1963.
West Coast Modern:
“It just blew my mind that this west coast modern house was demolished in 2007. Someone bought it for the lot and knocked it down so they could put up a McMansion,” he says. “The VAG building from 1931 is incredible. When I found that it was love at first sight. The supreme irony that it was knocked down and is currently a Trump Tower is insane.”
Biesinger has a degree in history from the University of Alberta, and between 2012 and 2016 was at work on a series that showed 10 different Canadian cities during specific points in their history—for example—Montreal at the opening of Expo ’67 and Vancouver during the opening of the Trans-Canada Highway in 1962.
Vancouver in 1962. Courtesy Raymond Biesinger
“What really fascinated me was the buildings that weren’t standing any more, and that people were surprised that existed,” he says.
So how does Vancouver stack up against heritage losses in Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Edmonton and Calgary?
”The worse a city’s record for preserving old buildings, the more enthusiastic people are about these prints,” he said. “Vancouver has done a poor job. I think the economic currents running through Vancouver are just insane and not in favour of preserving the old.”
The Stuart Building sat at the entrance to Stanley Park. It was demolished in 1982. Photo Courtesy Angus McIntyre
