West End Guest House: one of the last ones standing

Wandering down Haro Street in Vancouver’s West End, it’s a welcome surprise to come across the West End Guest House, a gorgeous Edwardian nestled in a sea of ugly, non-descript apartment buildings.

It’s one of the few houses that managed to survive the apartment blitz of the 1950s when the City of Vancouver removed the six-storey height limit, and instead of repairing and repurposing these character houses, the West End lost dozens of sturdy old places, built from first growth timber and stone and crafted by stonemasons. The West End Guest House is a reminder of what the area would have looked like, if only we had left it alone, and a wake-up call to stop bulldozing the little that remains.

Paul Wylie and David Birch are the owners and operators of the West End Guest House. It’s their first B&B, but not their first time in the area—they previously owned a heritage house in the Mole Hill area, and they share a love of history.

Paul says that while guests come for the location—it’s just a couple of minutes from Stanley Park—they also love the architecture and the social history of the house. The same guests come back year after year, he says. “They want to be a part of the history and they love to be in an old character house.”

Paul and David have brought back many of the original features including the wainscoting and the pocket doors. And they love to show off the inn’s fascinating history through a photo gallery on the second floor hallway.

The house was built in 1906 by Melora Edwards following the death of her husband. She lived there until her death in 1919. The majority of the photos were taken by the sons of the original owner—George and Edgar Edwards who, according to Paul’s research, opened Vancouver’s first photography shop in 1893. It was called Edwards Brothers Photography and operated first on Cordova Street and later moved to 623 Granville Street (where the Pacific Centre is today).

George married Rosalind Webling, an actress from England, who was friends with Pauline Johnson, the poet, and supposedly both women were frequent visitors  to the house.

There’s also a ghost. Guests have described a small child in one of the rooms, though Paul said that neither he nor David have had any supernatural sightings.

The house stayed in the Edwards family until 1964 and became a seven-room guest house in 1984.

For more on the West End see:

• The Last of the West End Mansions
• Our Missing West End Heritage: What were we thinking?
• 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

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