We’ve already seen the Roslyn Apartments (now the Elizabeth) on Jervis, and The Florida on Barclay, both developed by recently arrived development partners Andrew Tod, and John Moxam. They had been developers in Winnipeg before their arrival here in 1925, and they hired R T Perry to design a series of modest apartments in the West End, and south of False Creek, that they built in very short order. (We also saw another on Barclay that John Moxam developed on his own).

This was one of their slightly later buildings. The permit for $50,000 was noted in the press in July 1927, and one of their carpenters was injured that same month, while demolishing the house that was originally on the site. (It was built by William Carey Ditmars in 1899). Moxam & Tod quickly flipped the new building, with 13 suites, to ‘a Vancouver Investor’ for $68,000 in November 1927.

Their business didn’t survive very long. A 1929 advert announced a meeting of creditors, organised by the company’s liquidator. The failure of their business obviously didn’t totally ruin the partners, as in 1931 Mr and Mrs Lett went to stay with the Moxams who were at their country home at Brentwood Bay, in Victoria, “Rookery Nook”. In 1932 Mrs Moxam stayed at the Hotel Georgia for two weeks before returning to her home in Foul Bay Road, Victoria, where her husband continued to develop apartments. His partner Andrew Tod and his wife Isabel moved to Nanaimo, where he became an insurance broker.

When it opened in 1928 the building was described in glowing terms. “With Stanley Park at your back door and English Bay but a few steps away, what more could be desired? Only half a block to the car and shops. The suite is modern in all detail and consists of large living room, dining alcove, bedroom, kitchenette and bathroom. Rent $65.”

The tenants soon discovered the West End had downsides too. “Miss M. Ashbrldge. 1835 Barclay street, reported to the police Wednesday afternoon that she was awakened at 3 a.m. to find a prowler at the door of her room. The man fled. Later it was found that he had stolen $1 from another room in the house.” Four months later R. C. Parks found his rooms ‘ransacked by a prowler but nothing was taken.’

In 1941 Mrs Campbell was running the apartments, and leasing suites for $65 – $70, to adults, and required references. Senora Emilia Davidson was offering Spanish lessons to beginners or advanced students in 1945. In 1950 a 3-room suite was available for $80, and in 1955 the Top Suite, with a view of the ocean, was $110 a month for a ‘quiet, reserved adult’.

In 1959 Jean Buchanan could afford to move out after inheriting $190,000 from her brother, a retired Seattle police officer who amassed his fortune investing in the stock market.

The Waldron was bought by former real estate salesman and accountant Keith Shepherd in 1968. An unapologetic gentrifier, he acquired a portfolio of older apartment buildings that he renovated and re-leased (preferably to transient tenants) at an average of 30% more than before he bought them. It’s seen here in 1974.

In 1986, developer André Molnar demolished the old building and built a strata project on the property. The new building was called ‘Parkside Place’, with 22 units designed by MacDonald Hale Architects. The units were sold with 1 bedrooms from $82,900, 2-bedroom from $129,900 and 1-bed and den from $119,900.

Image source: City of Vancouver Archives CVA 1095-01342

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This is another West End apartment building designed by R T Perry. This was for Moxam Realty & Construction Co on Barclay Street, and the building only stood for about 60 years. It was developed in 1926 as the Moxam Court Apartments, and cost $45,000, replacing a house owned by John Burns, and where his son Fred (of Boyd, Burns & Co) and daughter Mae lived from around 1900. The new furnished suites in 1927 rented for $60 a month. We looked at Mr Moxam’s story in a recent post. He partnered with Andrew Tod on a series of West End apartment buildings,but developed this one on his own.

John Moxam occupied one of the suites when it was newly built, and had his car stolen from here in 1928. It was found, stuffed with sweets, in a lane in the 100 block of East Hastings. Three men were reported ‘acting suspiciously’ near the car, and one was arrested, believed to have used the car after a break in at a confectionery store. H Harrison’s apartment was broken into and looted at the end of the year, with jewelry, clothing and mining stock certificates being stolen. In 1930 it was F B Walpole’s turn to have unwanted visitors. They took $590 worth of goods, including the vacuum cleaner, silver, household goods and clothes.

There were more thefts reported in 1931, 1932, 1933 and 1936, but in 1934 the screams of Mrs R H McCall frightened off three masked youths with revolvers. In 1937 Miss L Garner and her sister frightened off a repeat visitor, trying to gain access to their suite through a window. He was thought to have been responsible for the theft of Miss Garner’s purse earlier in the week. A 1939 burglary was thwarted by the janitor, who interupted the man trying to get into W R Farnell’s apartment, but the would-be thief got away. Later that year Mrs H A McCallum had a radio stolen, and in 1941 Miss H Nathan had her purse stolen through the partly open window. In 1943 G S Cooper, the caretaker, frightened off thieves at 2am on two nights in a row.

There were no further thefts reported after that. In 1952 two business girls were looking for two more business girls to share their large apartment. In 1955 a quiet bachelor suite was available for $80 a month, and in 1968 it was $90 a month. Our image shows the building in 1974.

In 1976 Lort and Lort, for Viva Holdings, proposed a 26 unit condo building on 4 floors, but the project was deferred, and a year later architect Michael Katz proposed a 48 unit apartment building on 4 floors for the Housing Corporation of BC, which was completed in 1979. Called Barclay Square, it’s a strata building, having been sold by the Housing Corporation in 1978 before it was completed. Although the building was a strata, some of the suites were available to rent, as sales were low (with units still available for sale in the early 1980s). In 1983 a 2-bed suite was $625 a month. Suites were still rented out in the early 2000s, and in 2004 a 2 bed, 1 bath, 831 sq. ft. condo  sold for $250,000, and in 2007 a similar sized unit sold for $365,000. By 2022 a 1-bed 716 sq. ft. condo sold for $717,000, and top floor apartments are now assessed at over $1 million.

Image source: City of Vancouver Archives CVA 1095-04922

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These were the Elizabeth Apartments in the West End, seen exactly 50 years ago. They were developed in 1926, and designed by R T Perry. The developers were also listed as the builders of the $65,000 ‘Apartment; Two-storey, frame const., covered in stucco’, ‘Moxam & Tod’.

Andrew McTear Tod, and John Archibald Moxam were partners in a development business that built at least five West End apartment buildings, all with the same architect, and many of them with a fairly similar design. Most saw a large house from the late 1890s or early 1900s demolished to make way for a 2-storey walk-up apartment. This was a larger site, and a slightly different design to the others.

John Moxam was from Foresters Falls, Whitewater Region, Renfrew, Ontario. He was born there in 1882, and he married Blanche Boyle there in 1906, and the couple had a daughter, Margaret. We can’t find the family in either the 1911 or 1921 census records, but they were in Calgary in 1912. Margaret married Lieutenant D Newall, but he was killed early in the war, and she married again in 1941 to another serviceman, Lieutenant W Rorke of the Calgary Highlanders.

Andrew Tod was Scottish, born in 1884 in Larkhall, Lanarkshire, and arrived in Canada in 1902. His wife, Isabel Janet Service came to Canada from Glasgow at the age of 16, in 1905 (following her brother). The family were in Edmonton in 1913 when their only child, Philip, was born. Mr Tod was working as a motor driver there when he signed up to fight in France in 1917, and was demobilised in 1919 in Vancouver.

Moxam and Tod arrived in 1925, having developed nine apartment buildings in Winnipeg, two in Calgary and two in Oakland, California, and immediately developed five apartment buildings here, three in the West End and two in Fairview, in the spring of 1926. This followed soon after, in October. Having overstretched their business financially, the business was liquidated in 1929. This had already been sold to ‘a local investor’ a year after the building was completed, Pemberton’s Realty office sold it, named the Roslyn Apartments, for $95,000.

By 1931 Andrew and Isabel Tod had moved to Nanaimo, where Andrew was an insurance broker. They moved back to Vancouver in 1936, but six days after arriving Isabel died, Her death was entirely unexpected, and the death notice recorded the fact that she was the sister of Candian poet, Robert Service. Andrew Tod died in Vancouver in 1950.

John Moxam moved to Victoria, where he had owned a home since 1912, and he continued to develop apartment buildings, including a hotel in Oak Bay. He died in Victoria in December 1941.

Roland Raymond lived here in 1936 when car was stolen, and was subsequently written off. Four men, believed to be safecrackers, were chased by police at speeds of up to 80 miles an hour at four in the morning, and crashed the car in Burnaby, rolling it six times. Remarkably all four men were able to run away, but were arrested later. The case against them fell apart when witnesses gave an entirely different version of events at the site of the accident than police evidence, and the judge acquitted them. That same year J C Short had $300 of jewelry stolen from his apartment here.

In 1947 Edward Gudewill married Janey Cherniavsky, and the Sun announced they would be moving here. Edward worked for the family Goodwill Automatic Music Co, and had $60 stolen from car, parked in a garage. The entire sum was in nickels, as Mr Gudewill’s job was emptying the family’s rented jukeboxes, and weighed over 60 pounds.

Some time in the late 1950s or early 1960s, the building name changed to The Elizabeth. In 1954 a batchelor suite was $70, and a 3-room suite $82.50 in 1960, but in 1982 rent inflation meant a large 1-bedroom apartment leased for $450 a month. By 2003 the building was the Roslyn again, and a 2-bed apartment was $1,600 a month – a high rent for the time, but no doubt justified by the description of the suite; ‘Funky – Hip – Stylish’. In 2009 935 Jervis Holdings were looking for a manager for the 10 unit building – ‘must speak Korean’. The furnished suites today lease for between $2,750 and $4,500 a month.

Image source: City of Vancouver Archives CVA 1095-01238

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Fifty years separate these images, and this modest two-storey walkup has had a major ‘do-over’ in the recent past. It was developed in 1926 by Victoria Estates Ltd., and built by Moxam and Tod for $45,000.  This was the only project by that developer, but by no means the only one with the same architect, Richard T Perry, the same builders, and almost the same design as four others in the West End built in only a year. The builders set up the development company a month before the building permit was submitted.

We’ll look at the history of the developers in a future post. They arrived from Winnipeg in the mid 1920s, and bought a series of houses in the West End, most of them on Barclay Street, (and in Fairview) which they redeveloped into 2-storey walk-up apartments. They were bankrupt by 1929,. In some cases they had already sold the buildings, but others were part of their business. The Florida was sold off, and then again in 1953 when several of their former properties were offered for sale.

The tenants here generally avoided the limelight, There were frequent accounts of burglaries in the 1920s, through to the 50s, usually of cash or jewelry. In 1933 Arthur Huddell spotted two men syphoning gasoline from his car, parked outside. In the 1940s and early 50s suite 5 was the home of W G Hulbert, who was a Doctor of Divinity and a Metaphysician, and leader of the Universal Health Institute, offering ‘Health through Mental Science’ Generally they met in hired halls or rooms in Downtown hotels, but his suite was home to ‘a special seance’ in 1942 by a visiting speaker.

In 1952 Joyce Hughes, aged 39, was found dead in a gas-filled suite. She lived elsewhere, but was visiting her estranged husband, Harold, an accountant, who was 10 years older. He was also found in the suite, in another room, ‘woozy’, but as his wife was judged to have been dead 10 hours, he was promptly arrested. A coroner’s jury recorded an open verdict on Joyce’s death, and her husband was released from custody without facing any charges.

In 1954 Patrick Fitzgerald had someone enter his apartment and steal a pair of pants and a cheque for $100. A year later Herrick Duckworth was getting out of a car in the lane, coming home to his suite here, when a ‘tall, youthful thug’ punched him to the floor and stole $85 in bills from his pocket, and car keys.

In 1968 Eugene Sorochan, who lived here, was found in posession of marijuana when he crossed the Douglas border crossing from the US, and was given a 9 month prison sentence. Our image shows the building in 1974. A fire in 2015 caused extensive damage, and Hearth Architectural were hired to design a re-built structure with 2 new floors and additional units, increasing the count from 16 to 28.

In 1951 a beautifully furnished 3-room suite, for a ‘quiet couple’ was $80 a month. The newly completed and rebuilt apartment rents today are a little higher. A 692 Square Feet 2 bed, 2 bath apartment was listed for rent at $3,850 per month, and a 460 square foot 1-bed rents for $2,850 per month. The building is described as ‘a brand new 4 storey, luxury, heritage apartment building’ (although many listings inaccurately say it has 6 storeys)

Image source: City of Vancouver Archives CVA 1095-01346

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This is the original St. Paul’s Hospital, on Burrard Street close to the corner of Pendrell,  seen here around 1898.  It was a wooden, 25-bed, four-storey building that was designed by a nun originally from Quebec, Mother Joseph of the Sacred Heart, and built in 1894 at a cost of $28,000. Born Esther Pariseau in 1823, the third of 12 children, she grew up helping her mother look after her younger siblings, but also in her father’s coachmaking shop, learning carpentry and design skills. At the age of 20 she decided to enter a newly formed religious community of Catholic women known as the Sisters of Providence. In presenting her, her father said “I bring you my daughter Esther, who wishes to dedicate herself to the religious life… She can read and write and figure accurately. She can cook and sew and spin and do all manner of housework well. She has learned carpentry from me and can handle tools as well as I can. Moreover, she can plan and supervise the work of others, and I assure you, Madame, she will some day make a very good superior.”

Taking her vows and becoming Sister Joseph in 1845, she became assistant to the Mother Superior in 1852. Four years later she led a group of four Sisters of Providence from Montreal to Vancouver. That wasn’t here – there were almost no settlers in the British controlled territories to the north. The Fort was in Washington Territory on the banks of the Columbia River, still known today as Vancouver, just across the river from Portland. At the Fort the sisters established a school, and in 1858, a hospital, the first permanent hospital in the Northwest. “Schools are needed first of all,” Mother Joseph reported to the sisters in Montreal. “Americans do not count the cost where education is concerned [and] their generosity will help us to maintain our establishments for the poor.” The new 1871 school building is still standing today, built of brick supplied by Lowell Hidden, who was taught how to make bricks by Sister Joseph.

Jean Baptiste Blanchet drew up the plans for the hospital. He was also living in Vancouver, Washington, and was Mother Joseph’s assistant, having initially started as a carpenter in Quebec. Sister Joseph spent little time in Vancouver (BC) as she had responsibility for a vast area, mostly in the US, and she was already 71 when the hospital was built. It was known locally as the St Paul’s Roman Catholic Hospital, and it soon took on an important role for the city’s women, as in 1896 the City Hospital only had a ward for men, so female patients were sent to either St Paul’s or St Luke’s Home.

After less than 20 years, in 1912, this building was demolished to make way for a new reinforced concrete structure finished in the Second Renaissance Revival style with brick, terra cotta and granite. Now known as the Centre Block of the Burrard Building, the cross-shaped floor plan accommodated 200 patients and cost $400,000. Robert Tegen, a German born architect designed the building, some of it still standing as the Centre Block. In the 1930s and 1940s the north and south wings were added on either side of the central 1912 building.

Image Source: City of Vancouver Archives Bu N426

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We initially took a while to line this shot up. The before image was shot by Arthur Collier, and is labelled as being shot somewhere between 1955 and 1957. All of the buildings along Beach Avenue today were developed later than that, so we couldn’t line any of them up. We were able to identify Tudor Manor, some of it still standing, but some redeveloped as a tower today. The mountains also line up! (The image is available at a larger size if you click on it).

There’s a white, modernist 8-storey building on the western side of the picture. We’re pretty certain that’s The Pacific Beach, designed by Gerald Hamilton and completed in 1959, which would seem to be just completed when this picture was actually taken. The houses in front on Beach Avenue, were replaced by (from left to right) the 11 storey Penthouse Tower in 1965, 8-storey Ocean Villa in 1993 and 11-storey Beach Terrace in 1964. Those block the view of the building, and the Barafield Apartments which are behind the Pacific Beach, on Harwood street, seen as a grid of recessed balconies, not yet completed. The building was first leased at the end of 1959.

In the background, the tallest building in the centre of the 1950s image, with a red brick rear elevation is Holly Lodge, at a high point of Davie Street. It’s also possible to see Royal Mansions, developed in 1910, with a solid 5-storey red brick facade. That’s now hidden by The Tallin, completed in 1969, with 1133 Beach, even taller at 21 storeys and completed in 1973. The tallest tower, Sunset Plaza, on the right hand edge of the image today, has 26 floors and 176 apartments. Developed by Block Brothers, and completed in 1969, it had Lort and Lort as architects. In the gap between the towers the red roof of Pacific Horixon can be seen, built in 1978 and designed by Waisman Architectural Group.

Image Source: City of Vancouver Archives CVA 1415-154

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We’ve been hoping to find an image of this building for a while. It’s an apartment building, developed in 1911 By G J Wonder, (although the permit described it as an addition to a house). George Wonder and his family lived in a house here (addressed as 765 Broughton) for several years before the $15,000 transformation, built by W W Brehaut, but apparently designed by Mr. Wonder himself.

His 1956 obitiary described the 60 years that George had been in Vancouver. Born in 1862, in Gault, Ontario, he came west in 1892 and married Agnes Morris ten years later (which wasn’t completely accurate). He was food broker, ‘representing eastern brands’, and he had an office in the Dominion Bank Building. In 1894 three men attempted to rob George on Granville Bridge. He threw a few punches, and then sucessfully ran from them.

Agnes was younger than George, and also from Ontario, although it looks like she was living in Winnipeg by 1881, aged 10, and still there in 1891. They had four daughters, Marie, Ethel, Alvonna (who was 17 months old when her death was announced in 1909), and Christobel. Gertrude Smith from New Brunswick was living with them in 1911, and presumably helped Aggie with the family.

The Wonder’s had a loose association with dates (George said he was 41, in 1911, but was actually 49) and the couple weren’t actually married until 1905, and then in Everett, Washington, where Aggie Morris, a book keeper, was shown as five years younger than her husband, (who admitted to 38, but was really 43). They were supposedly living in Seattle at the time.

The family start appearing on the social calendar in the 1920s. Aggie took the children for a holiday in Victoria in 1920, and although we can’t find them in the 1921 census, they were living in suite 1 here, and in 1922 “the regular meeting of the St. John’s Women’s Missionary Society was held on Tuesday at the summer home of Mrs. George Wonder, Mahon avenue, North Vancouver. A most interesting address was given by Rev. W. H. Hardlie of Jamaica.” In 1931 the family had moved to Willingdon Place, in Burnaby.

Agnes died in 1946 in Toronto, (when she was shown born in 1870) leaving her husband and Mrs James Pitcairn (who must be Ethel), and Miss Marie and Miss Chris Wonder. George retired in 1950, and died in 1956.

The building continued to be an apartment building with retail below until the mid 1970s. The Vancouver Gas Co took the retail space in 1912, and by 1921 Rife’s Drug Store. Mr. Rife was held up by two armed men in 1921, who stole $35 from the till. In 1929 there was another armed robbery – a lone gunman stole a car in Stanley Park (tying the driver to a tree) and then attempted a robbery in the Piggly Wiggly on Davie, but was foiled in his attempt. “About 11:30 he appeared in the Broughton Confectionery, where the proprietor, W. J. Edmunds, was talking to Jack Caid, a salesman for Hayward & Scott. He pointed a revolver at the men. “Stick ’em up boys,” he ordered “Come across with the jack. I’m sorry to do this, but I gotta. If you don’t hand over the jack I’ll shoot.” Edmunds handed him a five-dollar bill, hoping he would be satisfied and leave. The bandit however, turned to Caid and ordered him to “come through.” Caid protested that he needed his money, but the man was insistent, and his victim passed him $40. The gunman then took $7 from the till and fled.”

Mr. Edmunds understandably gave up the store, and H Stewart took it. In 1930 he too was held up, but ‘enraged’ he grabbed a hammer and hit one of the men in the head, the other escaping with $10 he took from the till. In 1931 “A bold bandit escaped with $20 from the Broughton Confectionery, 1401 Robson street, in a daring holdup shortly after 11 p.m. Monday. The man, a well dressed young foreigner, entered the store and walked behind the counter to the cash register. Before Mrs. Helen Hayes, the clerk, realized what was going on he had opened the register and was removing the cash. She called to Mrs. Nellie Stewart, the proprietor, who was at the rear of the store. The bandit drew a small black revolver and ordered her to hold up her hands. He completed looting the register and left the store. Mrs. Hayes described the man as being of medium build, hatless and with smooth hair. He wore a brown tweed suit and appeared to be aged about 30.”

Only a month later Mr. Stewart was in action again. “Robbed by two armed youths who entered his store at 1401 Robson street just as he was closing it at 11:40 pm. Tuesday, H. J. Stewart seized a revolver and gave chase. He fired two shots at the automobile in which they escaped and saw It swerve, he reported to police. Stewart declared that the men drove up to his store in an old car. One covered him with a revolver while the other looted the cash till of about $15.”

By 1934 David Mitchiner and his wife had taken over the Broughton Grocery. A gunman held them up and looted the cash register of $8. He was searching for more loot, but the screams of Mrs. Mitchiner alarmed him, and he ran off, escaping in the fog.

The building was bought by a company based in Hong Kong called Melford Estates Limited, registered in 1973, (related to Central Developments of Hong Kong) and it was demolished in the mid 1970s, soon after this 1974 image. By 2015 it had still not been developed, and was worth $8.5m.

Today, nearly 50 years since it’s demolition, despite a West End Plan now permitting a 300 foot residential building it’s still vacant (but regularly tidied up), and currently assessed at $43m, and paying $170,000 annually in taxes.

Image source: City of Vancouver Archives CVA 1095-07118

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The Bonaventure Apartments were developed in 1911 by James Young. The architect was identified in the permit as ‘White, William P. [of Seattle]’. The building cost a substantial $50,000.

In 1909 the Province newspaper announced the death, at 53, of Caroline Young, wife of contractor James Young at their home, 1041 Comox Street. She left three sons and five daughters. Not surprisingly, a few months later a wanted notice appeared for a housekeeper. A year later furnished rooms were offered in the house. The ‘nicely furnished’ Bonaventure Apartments, with 24 suites on four floors, were completed by the end of 1911, and James B Young had moved his family to West 13th Avenue.

In 1914 James’s death was announced at the home of his daughter, Mrs Moscrop. The origin of the name of the building became apparent in the death notice. Born in Quebec in 1851, he came to Vancouver in 1889, leaving Gore Bay, Ontario, where he had initially moved. He became a successful contractor. “Among the larger buildings erected by the late Mr. Young was the Odd Fellows’ Hall, the Pantages Theatre and Hotel Regent. Upon the retirement from business, Mr. Young erected the Bonaventure Apartments on Comox street, which he named after the county of his birth.” All five daughters were married, three in Vancouver and two over the border in Washington. His three sons lived in Atlin, Seattle, and China. George and Beatrice Moscrop moved to the Bonaventure, and we assume ran the apartments until George’s death in 1941.

Unlike some apartment buildings we look at, almost nothing untoward happened to Bonaventure tenants – although Mrs Pollard had a $175 neckpiece stolen in 1930 and Mr Birch lost some jewelry after a prowler broke into his suite in 1932. Often tenants seem to have been elderly, so death notices (and suites available to rent as a result) regularly appeared in the press. In 1943 Michael Clancy, the building’s owner, had to pay $375 to his tenant, Mrs Millie Ross, for injuries sustained in a fall on a stairway.

In 1998 the apartments were acquired by the Wings Housing Society, and there are now 30 apartments for people living with HIV/AIDS.

Image source: City of Vancouver Archives CVA 790-1687

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This modest three storey apartment, seen in a 1930s Vancouver Public Library image, was called The Macdonald. It was designed by E Evans and Son, and the Vancouver Sun put its development on the front page in a March 1930 news piece. It had only 15 suites, and cost estimates were for a $50,000 building developed by ‘Hugh B Warner’. We’ve seen several of Mr. Warner’s other developments in the West End and in Fairview, and know him well enough to know that he was actually Hugh A Warner. We looked at how he arrived from the UK, and made his fortune here in a post on another West End building.

By November 1930 the classified section of the newspapers were advertising ‘MACDONALD. 851 BIDWELL STREET, has been completed last two month. There are two apartment left, one with two bedrooms and the other with one. If you want a first-class modern suite with every convenience you need look no further.’

The new tenants soon found out that the West End wasn’t an ideal neighbourhood. In March 1931 Mrs Helen Bates discovered her suite had been broken into, and $40 stolen. A year later The Sun reported “The story of a bluff which failed is written into a report to police by A Glennie, janitor, of a hold-up in the hallway of the McDonald Apartments, 851 Bidwell Street. Glennie declared that a youthful masked bandit attempted to hold him up at the point of a toy pistol in a corridor of the apartment. Glennie looked over the weapon and fled along the hallway. The gunman fled in another direction.”

In 1933 J H Bennett parked his automobile outside his suite, and thieves broke in “and stole a large quantity of cigarettes and other goods valued at $100”.

In April 1935 39-year-old Harry McConaghie was arrested for trying to interfere with a Crown witness in a case of illegal gambling, and was also charged with ‘conducting a game of chance’. In September his wife, Katherine McConaghie passed away, aged 36, leaving Harry to look after their daughter, Royden. McConaghie was manager of the Railway Club, and also manager of  two professional billiards players.

In November 1935 thieves broke into B P Marr’s suite and stole jewelry. In January 1937 Mr and Mrs Hugo Jacobs were held up a gunpoint at the rear of the apartments, and had $200 and a $1,000 diamond ring ‘on which there was no insurance’ stolen. Mrs. Jacobs was so incensed she followed the robbers, but they got away. C T Nicholas had his apartment broken into, and a watch and cigarette case stolen in the same month.

In 1939 the owners of the building removed furniture belonging to Mark Cosgrove, who lived in suite 12. Two years later they offered $1 in settlement, but discovered that it was perhaps unwise to meddle with the goods of a prominent barrister, who was awarded $100 in damages.

Things quietened down in subsequent years, and the building is seldom mentioned except for units offered for rent from time to time, and notices concerning the death of elderly tenants.

In 1980 The Province reported “Tenants of a West End Vancouver apartment building got their hot water and heat back Tuesday after quick settlement of a dispute between their landlord and B.C. Hydro over an unpaid gas bill. A Hydro spokesman said the building’s owner, a subsidiary of Aquilini Construction, paid an overdue $1,300 bill Tuesday morning after about 30 tenants, including pensioners and children, had shivered throughout the night. Monday, B.C. Hydro cutoff gas service to the building at 851 Bidwell, because the owner hadn’t paid after repeated warnings. The building’s tenants were not informed of the sudden cut-off, however, and most spent the night trying to keep warm. Hot water also wasn’t available Tuesday morning.” Blaming a ‘book-keeping error’ the company paid the outstanding bill, and heat was restored.

Today there are 24 suites, and the building was sold last year for $11,450.000.

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The ‘before’ picture here was taken in 1962, when there had been significant change in West End, but the taller towers hadn’t started to get developed. The last residential building visible on Beach Avenue is Kensington Place Apartments, completed in 1913 at the foot of Nicola Street, and still standing, painted cream, today. The tall tower in the centre of the image with the pointed top is Tudor Manor, a 23-storey tower designed by Paul Merrick and completed in 1989. The two taller towers on the right-hand edge of the picture are Pacific Surf, designed by W D Buttjes and completed in 1967, and Ocean Villa, designed by John Hollifield. It’s on the south side of Beach Avenue, and was completed in 1993

Right on the edge of the water on the left hand side of the picture, the Crystal Pool occupied prime real estate. It opened in 1929, intended to be part of the private Connaught Beach Club, designed by McCarter and Nairne, which was to have squash, badminton and tennis courts, Turkish baths for men and women, a beauty parlour, barber shop, a roof garden and a ballroom. The developer’s timing was terrible, and with an economic crisis in North America the contractors finished the pool, and ended up owning it in lieu of payment, and then lost money through the 1930s, despite various stunts and attractions to try to attract crowds.

The City took over the building in 1940, buying it for $30,000, with $27,106 approved in late 1939 in a plebiscite that just squeaked past the required 60% approval. The Park Board ran it when it reopened in 1941 as the city’s only all-year swimming pool, and immediately ran into conflict because a ‘color bar’ was introduced – blacks and Asians were only allowed to swim on Tuesday mornings. That rule took four years to be removed, despite the introduction of a token additional Monday night Chinese swimming proficiency class.

Although it wasn’t reported in the press, Vivian Jung, Vancouver’s first Chinese-Canadian teacher, protested the rule.  She needed a lifesaving certificate to complete her teacher training, but couldn’t obtain it with the rest of her student teacher classmates. Her organised protest ensured that in November 1945 the Park Board lifted all restrictions on the use of the pool. Vivian taught at Tecumseh Elementary School for 35 years. In 2014, the year that she died at 99, Jung Lane, the lane that runs close to Sunset Beach was named for her.

In our contemporary image, which was taken six months ago, the ‘barge on the beach’ was finally being dismantled and removed. She broke free in a storm in November 2021, and stuck fast on the rocks off Sunset Beach, where the pool had once been located. Efforts to drag her off having failed, the barge took from July until November to dismantle, after extensive investigations of toxic materials. Built in Portland, Oregon in 1966, the 5,000 tonne barge had been converted into a bin barge in 1989, and her owners, Sentry Marine Towing, spent an estimated $2.4m on removing her.

Image source: City of Vancouver Archives CVA 392-1756

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