We had a brief look at this building in an earlier post, but concentrated on the neighbour to the south, now 
replaced. John Clowes submitted the permit in 1909, and claimed to have designed the $18,000 building, built by J Hoffmeister at a cost of $18,000. The Province had an image, and more details. “The building will be a brick veneer faced with pressed brick, three stories high, with six large, well appointed apartments on each floor. It will be heated by hot-water system. The estimated cost is $15,000. Mr. Arthur J. Bird is the architect.” There were in fact only 6 apartments on the two upper floors, as there are today.
According to the 1901 census John Clowes was born in Quebec in 1849, and Dolena in Ontario in 1853. Mr Clowes had bought the site in 1905, for between $1,500 and 2,000, on a day in February when there was rush to acquire lots on this block, with seven sold in 24 hours.
In 1881 John was a carpenter in Winnipeg, and we think Dolena was still at home, aged 35, with her parents and four siblings, on a farm in Oxford, Ontario. The couple were married and living in Vancouver in the late 1880s, living on Seymour, where John was a carpenter and Dolena was a dressmaker. In 1891 they were farming in Moose Jaw, then part of the Northwest Territories, and they appeared again at 1120 Granville from 1894, when John was again listed as a carpenter.
His wife, Dolena, was also a property owner and developer on Granville Street, including a building she developed on the block north of here in 1908. Dolena, died aged 70 in the family home in West Burnaby in 1917 (so she was actually born in 1847). After her death her husband was unable to find a will, which was unfortunate as she owned $180,000 worth of property, mostly in Burnaby. The estate was split between her husband and her three sisters and three brothers in Woodstock, Ontario. John died three years later, and a Trust company applied for probate for his $99,528 estate.
In 1942 a tenant here, Rosa Stearns, was hit by a car driven by Virgil Dragoo. A year later her husband, Michael, was arrested and charged with manslaughter for hitting E B Borthwick with his car. It was the city’s 34th traffic fatality of the year. At trial, Mr Stearns was found not guilty, as the victim (who was the retired chief of police for Swift Current) had crossed the road at night, mid-block between parked cars.
In 1944 Vera Goslin, who lived here, died a week after accidentally taking bichloride of mercury pills that she told police she had stored in a bottle of stomach pills. Ten years later 18 year old Edward Deacon, who lived here, was charged with robbing the owner of a Howe Street Chinese Laundry with a butchers knife. Police had no problem finding him to lay the charges; he was already in jail accused of two break and enters.
The six suites have been leased out continuously over the years and have become increasingly unusual as they have many of the original features of a 1909 building, with little alteration. One reason is that any changes to the building would trigger a requirement for seismic upgrades, that would be far from cost-effective. As the land value is so high, the building itself is worth very little, so the formula that determines whether seismic upgrades have to be provided ensure almost no work that requires a permit can be carried out. The same family have owned the building, and live in two of the suites, since 1968. It’s seen here in 1973, when Bing’s Market had replaced Barker’s Furniture (but not their sign).
In the early 1980s the owners of the building were forced into a court case when their tenants, the Church of Scientology, bought new premises on West Hastings, and tried to get out of the lease here by claiming the building was unsafe. A judge accused the Rev Harvey Schmiedeke from the church of ‘coming close to committing perjury’, and said he had ‘seldom encountered a more unreliable collection of witnesses’ representing the church. The landlords were awarded $85,000.
When the City approved a new rental building 10 storeys tall next door, in 2010, the owners attempted to get $10m in compensation, arguing that their building had been devalued by that amount. They lost the case. More recently the building has been offered for sale for several years, currently at $7.25m ‘sold as is where is’.
Image source: City of Vancouver Archives CVA 1095-10344
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Changing Vancouver 