When these six houses were first built they were on Heatley Avenue, between the lane behind East Hastings, and Princess Street. They were numbered as 503 to 523 Heatley. By 1903 the insurance map showed the numbers crossed out, and replaced by 425 to 447. By 1911 Princess Street was renamed to Pender, but the new numbers had stayed the same.
The 1901 street directory shows the houses all completed, (and confusingly, seven addresses listed) but most were still vacant. John F Armstrong (a driver) was living in 507, and Alex Prefontain had a bakery in 523. By 1902 the addresses had been sorted out, and the houses filled up. Henry Dowden, a fireman was at 503, Thomas Wyatt, an engineer at 507, George Dumphy, agent in 511, John McGarligle, a moulder at 515, Joseph Cole, a carpenter at 519 and the same baker on the corner of Princess.
We don’t know who developed the houses, but we know they were still all owned by one person, because in 1912 Mrs L A Angill submitted a building permit to raise the 6 houses and put in basements. As far as we know that didn’t happen (the economy tanked soon after this, and then there was the war). We know that neither Mrs. Angell (as her name was really) or he husband had developed the houses, because they were in the US when they were built.
Lora Agnes Humes of Seattle had married Albert Sidney Angell in Seattle on 18 September 1899 at her parent’s home. She was born in Ontario, (and was Hume, not Humes), and he was from Arkansas. In 1900 they were in Portland; Lora was 20 and Albert 26 and a photo engraver. Their son, also Albert Sidney, was born in Tacoma in April 1901, and a daughter, Eloise was born in Portland, Oregon in September 1902.
The family moved north in 1904, but Albert died aged 31 in November 1905. The tragic death was reported in the press; “Mr. A. S. Angell, engraver, died of poison at the general hospital on Thursday night, A few moments after having been removed there from his workshop, on Hastings Street, near the Board of Trade hotel. There is a doubt as to how Angell came to take the poison. He complained of being unwell in the afternoon and was advised to take port wine and benedictine. He was not used to drinking and became considerably under the influence of alcohol in the combination. It is the theory of his friends that he took the poison by accident.”
The Angell Engraving Company continued in business, and Mrs. Angell continued to have an active involvement. In 1920, when she had moved to Bute Street, she was listed as the manager of the company, and was ‘chairman of the entertainment committee’ of the Engraver’s Convention that was held in Vancouver that year.
Mrs. Angell continued to live in Vancouver, and was often listed in the press as a supporter or attendee at events. One press notice perhaps gives a hint at her character. Under the title “Comment on Court Action Costs Five Spot Per Shot” the Province reported in 1932 “Mrs. Laura Angell, 618 West Hastings, motorist, convicted before Magistrate Paul McD. Kerr of falling to observe a stop sign, was fined $5 In Police Court. “There certainly isn’t any Justice In this court,” Mrs. Angell remarked, “That’ll be ten dollars,” replied the magistrate. “I don’t care what you make It,” Mrs. Angell remarked. ‘ “That’ll be 15.” Mrs. Angell paid the $15.”
Mrs. Angell was still in charge of the engraving business in 1940, and in 1941 was shown as Mrs L A Oliver, widow of C N Oliver, still proprietor of Angell Engraving, with Albert Angell working as an engraver. She had married Charles Mason Oliver, who had died in 1935 in New Westminster, but for some reason the directory initially didn’t change her name from Angell. Charles Oliver was initially a CP telegrapher, then set up as a mining stockbroker and bond dealer in 1905. His wife Mina had died in March 1933, so his marriage to Lora was short (and he appears not to have been the grieving widower for long, as they apparently married in April). He had married Mina, who was from Ohio, in 1908 in Butte, Montana. Lora inherited $27,000 from Charles’s estate. Lora’s son, Albert, died in 1955, and her daughter, Eloise in 1978 in Illinois. Mrs Lora Agnes Oliver continued to run Angell Engraving, and living on Beach Avenue close to Stanley Park until 1955. She died in 1956, in Vancouver, aged 75.
The houses – and the store – saw a revolving door of tenants over the years. The shop was used as a grocery run by William Koshevoy in 1915, a year later Fred Humphrey, and in 1918 Mrs. H A Gillis. The Sons of Israel Church was listed as using the premises in 1916. At some point the buildings were sold off individually and are now assessed at over a million dollars. Each. The third in the row, 435 Heatley, has a small additional window in the facade, added when the house was rebuilt in 1993. The other five are pretty much as they were in 1901.
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Changing Vancouver 