1086 Bute Street

Today I'm focusing on one address and I am also going to fill you in on some of the history of Mole Hill.

In 1911 Jacob Valdone Lightheart and G.E. Lightheart built one of the early great apartment buildings in Vancouver. It was built on the site of Albert Edward Beck's 1891  house and was named the Royal Alexandra.

On July 8, 1927 the Royal Alexandra caught fire. A painter's varnish and thinners caught fire and turned the building into an inferno. Eight people died in the blaze and it likely destroyed the house at 1180 Comox Street. It was one of the worst fires in Vancouver history.

The building was badly damaged but it was repaired - with much alteration to the exterior and interior - and renamed the Strathmore Lodge.

I was asked by one of my readers how Mole Hill got its name and I realized I didn't know. So I started investigating.

To understand where the name comes from I am going to tell you about how it came to be.

In the 1940s the population in the West End was exploding. Homeowners began renovating their homes to allow for tenanting or rental suites and apartment buildings sprang up everywhere. The Parks Board realized that the green spaces in the area were rapidly disappearing so the city began buying up homes in the 1950s to hopefully create more green space.

The official name of the area was “Block 23, District lot 185″ and the desire to create more green space began in earnest. Over the next twenty years houses one block north were razed to the ground and Nelson Park was created. Block 23 was next on the list to go. But then something unforeseen happened.

Residents of the area realized that destroying these old homes was also destroying the diversity of the area. The reason most people wanted to live here was its unique streetscape and that was rapidly disappearing. And Block 23 not only provided the old homes that were becoming rare in our city but were also provided housing.  But the Parks Board was still intent on expanding Nelson Park and those houses were going to have to go.

So a group of people got together to take on city hall. Through educating the public about the history of the homes in this block, gaining signatures and numerous other activities they managed to save the homes which tenants were being certain to keep up from the wrecking ball.

So how did Mole Hill get its name? When organizers got together to save the block from destruction they wanted to call it something besides  Block 23 or Nelson Parksite. The first residences of this area that sits on the highest point of the West End were believed to be Henry and Elizabeth Mole. So hill for the location and Mole for history.

I hope you find the beauty around you.


Karen Magill,Henry and Elizabeth Mole, Vancouver,StrathmoreLodge,Bute,Parks Board,History,Royal Alexandra

Return to Mole Hill

I told you I would be going back to Mole Hill one day to get the photos I missed. And I did that. So let's take a look.

This house, located at 1150 Comox Street, was built in 1903 by John Matheson. Matheson was an early Vancouver contractor and builder who had the expertise to provide architectural designs.

The first residents of this relatively rare late representation of Queen Ann Revival architecture were Roy MacGowan and his wife Emma Snowden who were married in 1904.

MacGowan was the son of businessman and MLA Alexander MacGown and worked for his father's company, MacGowan and Company which happed to be one of the largest shipping commission and insurance businesses in the city.

Within a few years a variety of renters lived in the house and an addition to the rear was built. Around 1954 David and Pauline Gilmour bought the house and moved in. They stayed until their deaths in 2009 and 2010.

1154 Comox Street was built in 1906 and, from what I read, has a beautiful and intact interior. The first resident was Charles Rummel who worked for the BC Electric Railway.

The front portion of the house was sawn off and an extension inserted. More than likely to make extra room for lodgers at some point. A rear addition was also added on  with some alteration to the front facade - probably in the early 1920s by the Marr family when it became Braemar Lodge.

1160 Comox Street is one of the oldest houses on the block and one of the few oldest surviving houses in the city and apparently the only one in its original streetscape context. William Mace, a house carpenter, built his home in 1888 and then it was practically alone on the summit of this hill and of course Vancouver was only two years old.

 This house has a number of special features that make it unique and stand out from. On the outside there are the large windows and the interior has a spiral staircase and handmade details. The Edwardian front porch is thought to have been added in the early 1900s.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill,Marr Family, Vancouver,Braemar Lodge,BC Electric Railway,MacGowan and Company,History,Alexander MacGowan

Powell Homer

Today I want you to come back to Gastown with me. First of all we'll take a look at some buildings on Powell Street.

This is 58 Powell Street which was built in 1910 to the designs of Vancouver architect Joseph Henry Bowman. It was probably built for labour agents White and Bishoprick.

This building played a vital part in helping Japanese males immigrate to Canada during the pre-World War I era when Canada was labour hungry. Many of the men found jobs at the nearby Hastings Sawmill.

From about 1910 until World War II the inhabitants of this building were primarily Japanese businesses and individuals.

The architecture of this building is typical of the bland, early twentieth-style commercial style common in the downtown core.

The style and choice of the awkward lot of 58 Powell Street - the building is in a strange piece of land that was created by the oblique intersection of the CPR track with the street - speaks to the value of the land in the area at the time and the modest means of the owner.

Another red door at the neighbouring building. This is 56 Powell Street, a three-storey, mixed  retail and commercial building that was probably built in the mid to late 1890s. The building is a good example of the transition from the busy Victorian Italianate and Richardsonian Romanesque Styles to the much plainer Commercial Style.

When the building was constructed it was probably owned by John Babcock Lovell of Victoria. Lovell invested in real estate in the growing city of Vancouver. By 1904 the building was owned by Angelo Calori whose family owned the nearby Europe Hotel. In fact for some time the upper floors were used as an annex to the hotel. The use continued as those rooms were later used as residential or housekeeping rooms.

Over time the ground level has been home to a leather goods merchant, a barbershop, a pool hall and a cafe - typical uses for the area.

Now I am taking you out of Gastown and to the corner of Homer and Smithe Streets to give you a glimpse of this three-storey apartment building composed of two symmetrical blocks flanking the main entry facing Smithe Street. The Homer was built around 1913.

One of the important features of this building is the record of the transition of the era. The single family home residences were give way to more densely populated mix of uses.

The building’s exterior is representative of good speculative development: the classically-derived exterior composition of base, body and capital regions; the substantial brick base to the wall assemblies and between bays on the floors above; the dominant window bays on the second and third floors overhanging the public space; and the substantial cornice-work with classically-inspired details in relief.

I walked by this structure this summer but it was shrouded in scaffoldings and such. Thankfully The Homer is emerging just as beautiful as before.

I hope you find the beauty around you.


Karen Magill,The Homer, Vancouver,Smithe Street,Gastown,Hastings Sawmill.,History,Joseph Henry Bowman