This corner, like many in older neighbourhoods, was once a retail store. Today it’s still offering reasonably priced apartments, but the corner store and butchers seen in our 1978 image have gone. Developed in 1913, it had classy architects for such a simple structure. Owners Smith and Keats hired Honeyman and Curtis to design their $7,000 investment.
There was only one Keats in Vancouver in 1913, and Albert Keats was an electrician. There were thousands of Smiths, and none who would obviously know Mr. Keats, so that didn’t really get us anywhere. The only ‘Smith and Keats’ we have found were grocers in North Vancouver after 1919, but we couldn’t be sure there’s any connection to this building. The street directory that year identified F J Keates as running the Model Grocery. The 1921 census shows Frederick Keats was from Staffordshire, England, aged 35 and arriving in 1906 with his younger wife Lillian. We found F J Keates running the Lonsdale Supply Stores in North Vancouver in 1912. In 1913 he was working with Richard Smith, a grocer. Richard was already aged 64 in 1911, and although the store was in North Vancouver, Richard lived on Alberni Street in Vancouver. He had also arrived in Canada in 1906, and in 1911 was living with his wife, Jane, who like Richard was Irish. They had five children at home aged 21 to 32, (one also called Richard).
During the war years Frederick Keates appears not to be in Vancouver, or North Vancouver, so we assume he fought in the war. It’s quite possible that this was an investment that both men intended to operate as a grocery, and then the war intervened. The North Shore Outlook recently reported Fred and Lillian’s wartime wedding. “On June 7, 1916, Lynn Valley’s wedding of the year at St. Clements joined not only Lieutenant Jimmy Hewitt and Gwen Neate but also Gwen’s younger sister Lillian and Fred Keates. The front-page story in The North Shore Press noted, “After the ceremony a reception which later resolved itself into a dance was held in the Institute Hall.” The Province’s lead social-page story reported the church “was crowded to its utmost capacity… while many were unable to obtain admission.” Jimmy Hewitt was killed at Passchendaele in 1917, and Gwen never remarried. Lilian Keates was only 44 when she died in 1938. The last time Fred Keates is shown in North Vancouver is 1945, and we think he may have moved, possibly to Haney.
When the building was completed in 1914 David Sutherland sold dry goods in the corner unit, and the second store was vacant. A year later it was occupied by the Modern Grocery, and the Modern Meat Market. James Shaw was the baker at the grocery, and George Skinner who lived in the store ran the butchers. In 1916 Mrs Annie Wheeldon ran the Modern Grocery which now had expanded to take in the former dry goods store and included Sub Post Office #2, and the meat market had closed.
After brief uses as a beauty store, and a gospel mission, the right-hand store (at 894) became a butcher’s shop during the war. Antonio Negrin opened the Handy Meat market in 1942, and ran it until 1973. Art Grice photographed the store in 1972. The Negrin’s retired to Sardis, and Tony Negrin died in 1977, aged 59. Our 1978 image shows the butcher’s shop continued for several more years, but today there are no retail uses here, but several additional residential rental apartments.
Image source City of Vancouver Archives CVA 677-920
1005
Changing Vancouver 