Every now and then I run a story under a series I call “Our Missing Heritage – What were we thinking?” It came out of my frustration from researching my books on home histories. Often I’d hear or read about a great story that happened in a house, or see a picture of an amazing building only to find out that it had turned into a parking lot, a boxy condo tower or a monster house.
Last week I looked at missing theatres that included the Strand, the Empress, the Rex, the Pantages and the Vancouver Opera House. Other posts have focussed on the Georgia Medical-Dental Building, the Devonshire Hotel, the Birks Building and the second Hotel Vancouver. Occasionally I take a look at a residential building such as Legg House in the West End, and lesser known ones such as the Fred Hollingsworth West Coast Modern house now missing from North Vancouver’s Edgemont Village.
Sadly, I have a growing list of buildings to add to future posts that have now been bulldozed out of existence. My question to you this week is – what’s your favourite building that we should have kept? It can be anywhere in B.C., commercial or residential, and it doesn’t have to be architecturally jaw dropping or eccentric. It may be a simple house that belonged to someone interesting or it may just have had a great story to tell. In other words, I’m looking for buildings that would have made our heritage a little bit richer if we’d let them stay around.
For more posts see: Our Missing Heritage
