Drivers and Detectives

1036 Odlum Street, built in 1908, is a part of a group of four homes on the street built between 1908 and 1910 by Vancouver builder J.L. McKenzie.

This house was briefly the home of Vancouver City Police Detective Donald A. Sinclair. Sinclair's photo is beside the door of the men's washroom in the Vancouver Police Museum. I have written on the museum previously, (see this entry) but I didn't get a photo of the men's washroom.

Further down the block is 1018 Odlum Drive. In that home, Dugald Carmichael once lived. Twenty years before residing on Odlum Drive, Carmichael worked as a conductor for the Vancouver Electric Railway and Light Company. In fact, he had the distinction of driving Vancouver's first street car on its first trial run.

Three of the houses on the opposite side of the street were moved there in the 1940s from the 1200 block of Venables.

Did you know that on August 21, 1949, the biggest earthquake in B.C.'s history occurred off the Queen Charlotte Islands? It registered 8.1 on the Richter scale. Damage was minimal since the major force of the quake was felt in the uninhabited west of the islands. However, the Province reported that a clock at the home of Mrs. Laurie Sanders on Imperial Street in Burnaby stopped.

In 1949, the only link to West Vancouver was Marine Drive. On November 27, the Capilano River - swollen by a violent rainstorm - swept away a large section of the road. In addition, the river also swept away part of a bridge over the Capilano. For ten days West Vancouver remained cut off from the rest of the city.

On August 29, 1950, workers from the firm Eccles-Rand Limited checked out Vancouver's first atomic bomb shelter. The company had built it in an unidentified backyard in Shaugnessy. I wonder if it is still there.

I have to thank Bob_2006 at flickr.com for the information on the house and to the History of Metropolitan Vancouver website for the fun facts.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill, Vancouver, Donald A. Sinclair, history, Dugald Carmichael, History of Metropolitan Vancouver British Columbia, Canada, the Province,Marine Drive

Fabulous Pre Fab

When I think of the people who originally came to this area and homesteaded I tend to think of them slaving for hours as they cleared the land, planted crops and built homes. Those pioneers of yesteryear had to have been so handy; natural born carpenters the whole lot of them. I think of my own aptitude with a hammer and realize if it were up to me to build a home I would have frozen to death!

A little research has shown me that perhaps not everyone was as handy with a hammer and nails as I would have thought. For those who didn't have the time or were perhaps building challenged BC Mills Timber and Trading Co. in Vancouver would ship you a prefabricated kit house.

This kit house is on Grant Street and was constructed for Vancouver City Councillor Edward Faraday Odlum. A professor and realtor, Odlum is reputed to have named the neighbourhood Grandview.

This house on East 1st Avenue is Vancouver's only remaining example of BC Mills Design O-O-O. It is one of the larger and more elaborate examples of the Town House series.

Vancouver's last example of a BC Mills Church. Built in 1908 this was the Robertson Presbyterian Church until 1977. Then it became a Fijian Hindu temple and cultural centre.

The Shiv Mandir Shree Sanatan Dharm Ramayan Mandali of Fiji had a congregation of 600 and many of the parishioners could trace their roots back to Fiji.

The church is now deserted and plans are to incorporate the heritage building into a multiple conversion dwelling.

This last home I am showing you is on Adanac and is listed on the Heritage Register. It is an example of BC Mills Design L-L-L.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill, Vancouver, BC Mills Timber and Trading Co., kit homes, Edward Faraday Odlum, Grandview, British Columbia