Comments on: The Former Houses of Beach Avenue

By: Eve Lazarus

Eve Lazarus — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 17:33:26 +0000

I’d love to see them! My email is eve@evelazarus.com

By: Julian de Nys

Julian de Nys — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 19:56:45 +0000

I was “born” in one of those houses and lived there between 1949 and 1952.

My mother was able to rent 1642 Beach Avenue around 1940. She lived there first with her parents, then with her husband.

I have close ups of the garden and rockery with my grandfather, of my bother facing the windiws of the house from the sea side, from her in a window from the inside and me as a todler – again in the garden.

Nothing that would help identify what the whole house looked like either street side or from the water.

I have also been searching.

One of my first recollections is crawling around an bright empty room on wooden floors.

I can share the pictures if you are interested.

Julian

By: Robert Ruffo

Robert Ruffo — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 04:12:42 +0000

In reply to Eve Lazarus. Yes sounds like an exceptional woman, who happens to remind me of my own Grandma.

By: Kirsten

Kirsten — Sun, 16 Jun 2024 16:57:55 +0000

We have a family drawing of one of the beach ave homes… my great grandfather (first letter carrier of van I think or possibly his dad) built the last one or second to last one before burrard. They apparently swapped the two at the end at some point- I’m not sure why, but that’s the story.

By: Susan

Susan — Sat, 15 Dec 2018 04:43:32 +0000

In reply to Beverley Ross. My Grandparents lived in the Sylvia when they first married. I’m sure you did not work there then! My Grandmother lived at 1025 Gilford previously. Her father was Thomas Arthur Fee. She passed away at 105 years old, we loved hearing the west end Stories. She would take us to the lobby of the “new” high rise on Gilford and show us the framed picture of her house in the lobby.

By: Beverley Ross

Beverley Ross — Thu, 18 May 2017 23:02:18 +0000

I worked as a switch board operator at the Sylvia Hotel as my first job. There were several older people who lived there including a couple of older movie stars. They loved to chat on the phone with me and it was a challenge to cut them off and work the switch board. It was so full of atmosphere and seemed very classy to me at the time. It was great to work in a hotel that had so much heart and character and it was on the beach.

By: Michael W Negrich

Michael W Negrich — Sat, 15 Apr 2017 00:46:45 +0000

Thank you, most interesting !
I lived in a heritage home on Comox St. 1977 + for thirteen years Magical to have such an amazing spot within the City which certainly was nothing as it is today…

Eventually bought at 1919 Beach , only a few blocks away but such a difference in lifestyle & quite the adjustment, happily am freinds with the owners that had been keeping the Comox for their retirement and visit frequently…

Sadly the West End has lost most of its charm, but there’s always the Park & Seawall …

By: Susan J Anderson

Susan J Anderson — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 23:58:24 +0000

If anyone turns up more pictures I would love to see them…. My grandparents owned and lived in the house closest to the original Crystal Pool on the waterfront side of Beach Avenue…My dad and his brother lived there too….My grandmother actually had her name on the title since when she and my grandfather got married she had been working as a school teacher for close to 10 years and had the money necessary to do so. When the City of Vancouver expropriated all the houses on the water side in 1929 or 1930, the owners had five years to actually take the city money and leave. As the depression started, and house prices started to fall in Vancouver, my grandmother decided to take the money and move. She received the full value of the house, and started by purchasing a house on Angus Drive for $15, 000. This was an extremely low price, but she had the cash. She then invested in other houses around Vancouver, and simply kept them as rentals until after 1945, when house values were rising, people were getting married, now that the war was over, and she sold them all off. That house was still there when I was a kid and until recently, a fruit tree my dad had planted in the yard of their house was still in place …You could tell exactly where the original house had been until the City Parks folks cut it down. One of the sidebars to all this is that my dad and his brother should have transferred from King George High School in the West End, to the new High School on King Edward, which was built to accommodate those living in Shaugnessy…My grandparents refused to allow this, on the grounds that King George actually had a far better academic reputation than this new school, and since both boys were headed for UBC and then post grad work, going to a school with a lower academic standard was simply not permitted…My grandmother lived in that house until about 1974, when she moved herself into a care facility….Being extremely independent ( to put it mildly) she continued to live in various facilities taking cabs on her own, not using a cane etc until she slipped off her bed one afternoon at age 98 and broke her hip…After some serious fights with the system, she eventually ended up at UBC extended care where she lived until she was 102….continuing to be mentally agile, though physically more frail….But she was certainly well enough to attend the Vancouver City Centennial event…since she had been born here that year herself….

By: Gregory Melle

Gregory Melle — Sun, 15 Jan 2017 16:17:36 +0000

My Vancouver Sun newspaper delivery route in 1969 included three of the four wooden houses facing Beach at the Gilford Street corner. They were the final three houses remaining on Beach Avenue. There was one old fellow who had been living in one of those houses his entire life.
My route also included Morton Avenue, Inglesea Lodge and the Sylvia Hotel. I delivered more than a hundred newspapers in just three blocks.

By: Gwyneth

Gwyneth — Sun, 24 Jan 2016 06:13:38 +0000

My great-grand uncle William H. P. Clubb was a businessman with Clubb & Stewart on Hastings Street and had a house built at 1131 Beach in 1913. Unfortunately I do not have a picture.

By: mdelgatty

mdelgatty — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 07:13:40 +0000

This picture is puzzling, though; the “turrets and bastions” house is clearly on the north side of what appears to be Beach Avenue, ie the non-water side. Although Beach Avenue and its extension Pacific Street currently appear to divide the 1300 and 1400 blocks… Was the house torn down to make room for Tudor Manor? Hope we can get more info on this house sometime…

By: mdelgatty

mdelgatty — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 22:04:22 +0000

In reply to Eve Lazarus. I'm so glad to have come across this! I have neighbours who lived in Englesea Lodge before it burned down, and have been trying for weeks to find out what it was called, since I couldn't remember and my neighbours sadly also no longer can... Will look forward to the blog!

By: V Rich

V Rich — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 05:15:16 +0000

Yes the last remaining building on the waterfront was the “Inglesea”. (Spelling as I knew it)

I remember it well. It was sad when it burnt down. Not sure why. There was lots of controversy about why it should be demolished as it had a several tenants living in it who would not leave.

The Park Board of the time was advanced in their thinking of taking back the whole seawall for all citizens’s enjoyment. People have forgotten.

Especially this current Park Board who allowed the restaurant at the foot of Denman on English Bay that now blocks the view as one drives south down Denman Street. Such a terrible shame.

Great work Eve. Keep it up.

V Rich

By: Mike Thorne

Mike Thorne — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 03:07:24 +0000

My grandparents lived in Englsey (sp?) Lodge in the early 50’s and I recall visiting them often. There was still a boat rental and some type of pier or marina in front at that time, and yes, there was a serious fire in the building and it was eventually demolished. I don’t recall houses on the water side of Beach then, but they could have been there.

By: Ali

Ali — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 02:37:00 +0000

May I ask why you took the more recent picture from the 60’s down? It added nice context to the post.

Thanks.

By: Mel Clancey-Dubienski

Mel Clancey-Dubienski — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 04:55:36 +0000

I think that apartment building on the water side still existed I to the 60’s or 70’s. I know there was a large apartment building that was destroyed by fire on beach around that time.
Did you know that there were houses on Spanish banks (beach side) that were moved (expropriated) to make way for the road at the bottom of Trimble street. Not sure what year, but it was before 1946. My parents good friends the Hill’s were one of the owner who had their house moved.