Yup, thanx MK. I’ve seen pics of that Googie restaurant in L.A. a few times. I still remember that booths in cafes back then had little juke boxes in them. The E&B Restaurant was one. It was at Kingsway/Victoria Dr. S/E just east of the bank on the corner. Directly north across KIngsway was the Colonial Motel with its white pillars/facade.

Oh, the address of the Switzer house was in Eve’s post! 840 Mathers. But thanks to my careless reading we now have a better sense of its location and lots more information about the immediate neighbourhood from you. I guess I should keep asking dumb questions.

Burley Park was always there. 9th St. opened to the highway and was a cul de sac which ended at Burley Drive. There used to be just woods between the Burley Park tennis court and 9th. A small bark mulch running trial was built in those woods.

But I’m rambling. The Switzer house was on the corner of Mathers and the end of 9th St. on the east side. My dad said Switzer owned the 9th St. Lands, and sold our neighbours’ lots and our lot. He was a pretty nice guy, from what I remember.

Oh, that’s great information. Thanks John. Does that place the Switzer house on the 800 block of Mathers or perhaps the 900 block where Burley Drive Park now sits ? There are remnants of residential landscaping in the eastern part of the park so I presume there were once houses there before the Upper Levels encroached.

I lived on the end of the same street as the Switzer house- it’s actually west of Taylor Way behind the wood sound baffle (wall). I was 8 and I cried when they tore it down. A teenage neighbour and his friend, Tim Topping and Cy Lord, were asked by Mr. Switzer to demolish some of the inside. We kept one of the skylights for years but never did anything with it. Great to see this recount. Thanks!

By the way, the rock wall visible on the south side the Upper Levels east of Taylor Way marks the location of the house, according to a friend who should know.

We moved from West Van to the Okanagan in 1966 and I never knew what happened to it. Every trip to the coast I would look for the Windmill House. Even as recently as ten years ago I drove along Mathers by Taylor Way to see if it was still there hiding behind some giant cedar hedge. I wanted to show it to my daughters. How sad that it lasted for only eleven years.

As I remember this house stood in the defoliated centre of the newly-divided Upper Levels Highway for some time until they razed it.