This 1912 brick factory/warehouse was designed by W P White for E Denton. At the time this was Dufferin Street, and Booker, Campbell & Whipple were hired to construct the $20,000 investment. Initially it remained vacant, having been built just as the economy collapsed. The Hendry Crossman Electric Co moved in around 1917, building, and repairing electrical motors.
Ed Denton was a lodger in New Westminster in 1891. He was aged 27, and working as a general labourer. He’d been born in England, around 1865. That year Edwin Denton married Elizabeth Zinn, originally from Ohio, who was six years younger. (Both had arrived in Canada the year before). By 1901 he was a postman (the street directory called him a letter carrier) and he had a house here, at 74 Dufferin. It was pretty full; as well as his wife there were John, Florence and Edwin, who were eight, six and one. (Another son had died, and Beatrice would be born a few months after the census).
In 1911 Edwin was still a postman, working as a clerk in the post office, and by 1913 he had moved to Prince Edward Avenue. In 1916 Edwin and Elizabeth’s son, Private John Denton, aged 24, was killed in France, and buried in Rouen. Ed was still a post office clerk in 1917. We aren’t quite sure how a postal clerk develops a $20,000 building, which remained unoccupied for several years, but in 1920 The Sun reported “Indicating that the south shore of False Creek may show considerable activity before long, there were a couple of rather important deals put through In that section during the week. One was the purchase of a three-storey brick warehouse at the corner of Quebec and Dufferin streets by the Vancouver Knitting Company. The vendor was E. Denton and the price is stated to be $25,000. The warehouse was built about eight years ago and has a frontage of 50 feet on Dufferin street and 120 feet on Quebec street. The other deal Involved the transfer of a vacant lot adjoining the warehouse with a frontage of 50 feet on Dufferin street, which was also purchased by the Vancouver Knitting Company.”
After they bought the building, Vancouver Knitting Mills spent another $10,000 on it, hiring Townley and Matheson to design the work. By 1921 Ed Denton was working for B C Mills Timber & Trading Co, and Edwin jnr, still living at home, had a job with W H Malkin.
Edwin was 95 and living in Burnaby when he died in 1959. His daughters were living in Vancouver and Burnaby, and his son, Edwin had returned to the Lower Mainland, in Coquitlam, where he died in 1984, aged 84. (When Beatrice had married in 1950 she visited her brother in Prince George.)
The building tenancy was rescued by the war; Vancouver Knitting Co won a contract to supply military sweaters, and hired 50 women in 1914. At the time they were located on West Hastings, and expanded here. In 1921 the building was occupied by Quigley Knitting Mills, who made a variety of knitted garments including sweater coats anmd swimming costumes. They were a family business, with Francis A Quigley in charge, and his daughter, Miss Genevieve Quigley running the women’s and children’s division from an office in the Yorkshire Building. Francis had been sales manager for Vancouver Knitting Co, and bought the business, including the building, in the early 1920s. Genevieve married BC artist George Eugene Turner, and moved to the US. The business didn’t last long; a liquidator had been called in by 1924. The building was bought by Gordon Campbell Ltd, who also wove cloth and made clothing. They won several military and naval contracts for supplying coats, and stayed here until 1990 (so are in this 1974 image). Wear Else clothing were here for a while after that, and then Maynards opened an auction showroom for a while.
After a fire destroyed the interior, the building is now home to The Glory Juice Co and Earnest Ice Cream on Quebec, with offices on the upper floors.
Image source: City of Vancouver Archives CVA 1095-03288
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Changing Vancouver 