Volume 15 Number 5 November/December 2006 www.heritagevancouver.org HERITAGE

Vanco N e w s l eu t t ev r er

Our BC Mills Legacy

By Penny Street Above left: Above right: BC Mills Design A From the Settlers’ 1998 Canada Post stamp, Housing in f, between 1904 and 1910, you were homesteading any- Series Ready-Made Houses. Canada Series, “Prefabricated Housing.” “This series of our houses has been One of a pane of 9 stamps to celebrate where in Western Canada, you had a tremendous amount designed with a view of meeting the Canada’s excellence in housing of work to do in your first year if you and your family requirements of the incoming settler or structures. Canada Post emphasized that miner, during the early days of his career Canada had been “an early leader both were going to make a go of it. You had to clear your in a new country, with a small and inex- in the construction of homes from highly land, plant a successful crop, and build a well-insulated home. pensive dwelling which is capable of with- processed wood products, and in the I standing the various changes of climate.” advancement of prefabricated wood If your homestead site was near to a railway line — and Design A cost $100 in 1905. housing. The prefab homes introduced by it likely would be, because you were probably planning to the British Columbia Mills, Timber and Trading Company of were a grow grains so you needed to be near a grain elevator — or significant contribution to the evolution a body of water, you could order a prefabricated kit house of Canadian architecture.” from BC Mills Timber and Trading Co. in Vancouver and it would be shipped to you by rail or barge from the BC Mills other end of the spectrum, Design O-O-O in the “Town House Vancouver factory. Series” was two storeys, and included, on the main floor, a BC Mills guaranteed that you would be able to assemble the parlor, a library, a dining room, a kitchen, and a separate house without any high-falutin’ framing or carpentry skills. pantry, and, on the second floor, four bedrooms and a bath- Like today’s Ikea furniture, the house kits came with everything room. BC Mills also manufactured prefab school, church, you needed to complete your house, including numbered, and bank kits. The prefab bank kit was actually their big- pre-painted panels, and a complete set of instructions. They gest seller, and the Bank of Commerce was one of their guaranteed that you could assemble your house with ease. The best customers. 1905 BC Mills catalogue featured houses in the Settlers’ BC Mills prefab kits came with plain panels, panels with Series and the Town House Series. Design A, the smallest doors, and panels with windows. The designs were ingenious. house in the Settlers’ Series, featured a one-room floor plan, Unlike other prefabs in that era, which had a reputation of all “living room,” that measured 12 feet by 12 feet. At the Continued on page 2 BC Mills Legacy

Photos: Penny Street continued from cover BC Mills Legacy Today there are but seven. The recent loss of the Salsbury Drive houses makes being hard to heat, drafty, and insub- protecting and saving these remaining stantial, BC Mills panels featured seven critical. weather-tight joints and an innovative insulated design made with two layers • 401 East Waterfront (formerly of wood separated with tar paper and Dunlevy Street) was the general an air space, so they were well-equipped office, showroom, and sales centre Left: 1735 East 1st Avenue to withstand the cold of prairie winters. for BC Mills in Vancouver. Now the Right: 1550 (also known as 1556) Adanac Street Also, there was quality control that building is home to the Flying Angel surpassed that of homes assembled Seafarers Club, a seaport sanctuary for • 1795 Napier Street is Vancouver’s outdoors in the elements; BC Mills seafarers from all over the world. This only remaining BC Mills church. Built panels were assembled and pre-painted is probably the most well preserved in 1908 on the northwest corner of in a nice dry indoor space, in the specimen in Vancouver’s remaining Napier and Salsbury, it was, until 1977, Vancouver factory, before being shipped BC Mills inventory. In 1930, when the Robertson Presbyterian Church, out to the building site. when it changed hands and became BC Mills shipped prefab home kits a Fijian Hindu temple and cul- all over western Canada and as far east tural centre, the “Shiv Mandir Shree as Winnipeg, but as innovative as the Sanatan Dharm Ramayan Mandali of BC Mills prefab design was, the com- Fiji.” The congregation consists of pany overestimated the homesteader 600 worshippers who trace their market. BC Mills Timber and Trading roots to Fiji. This building is a B on the Left: Flying Angel Seafarers Club Heritage Register. Co. only manufactured and sold pre- Right: 1860 Grant Street fab houses for a few years (from • 1735 East 1st Avenue is Vancouver’s 1904–1910). Although their ideas were the Vancouver Harbour Commission only remaining example of BC Mills precocious, even brilliant, the manu- took over the building, it proudly Design O-O-O, and, although quite facturers made one serious miscalcu- announced: “The site on which the rundown, is an example of one of the lation. It was a grand idea to provide offices are located is one of histori- larger and more elaborate models in easy-to-assemble prefab kits to settlers cal value, for around it was built the the Town House Series. Although clearly — exactly what was needed in the City of Vancouver.” It includes a recognizable as a BC Mills house, it virtually timber-free prairies and the giant vault (shown in the 1906 plans) is not on the Heritage Register. panel design was ideally suited to their and support beams that are 47 feet in • 1550 (also known as 1556) Adanac climate. But the company failed to take length. This building is an A on the Street is Vancouver’s only remaining into account the fact that most of the Heritage Register and is Municipally example of BC Mills Design L-L-L, settlers were “dirt poor” and, much as Designated, but it is located in a vul- another in the Town House Series, also they would have liked to, they couldn’t nerable spot, right on the edge of the clearly recognizable as BC Mills. It is afford to purchase prefab homes. Port of Vancouver. a B on the Heritage Register but is in In 1974, historians Ted Mills and • 1860 Grant Street was built for need of restoration. Deryk Holdsworth wrote an occa- Edward Faraday Odlum, an early sional paper in the Canadian Historic Vancouver City Councillor (and also Sites series called “The BC Mills a professor and a realtor). Odlum was Prefabricated System: The Emergence allegedly the one who, reflecting on of Ready-made Buildings in Western the fine views that could be had from Canada.” It contained an almost the slope up from Park Drive (now exhaustive inventory of the BC Mills Commercial Drive), named the neigh- structures still standing (in 1974) in bourhood “Grandview.” This house western Canada, including Vancouver. 515 and 521 Hawks is not on the Heritage Register, but According to their count, there were 14 in Vancouver; they missed three that • 515 and 521 Hawks are both BC we know of, two of which were the Mills structures, built in 1904 for the recently demolished cottages — a pair Hastings Mill yard foreman. The of Design Js — on Salsbury Drive. side-by-side houses, like the now- Interviewed recently, Ted Mills says demolished Salsbury Garden houses, BC Mills structures represent “an 1795 Napier Street represent a common practice where a important historical phenomenon in builder put up a row of between two Vancouver and a step in the evolution it should be. Of those identified thus and five small workers houses and of wood marketing in BC and in the far, this and the two Salsbury houses then, perhaps, lived in one and rented development of a value-added sector of are the only BC Mills structures not the others out. The Hawks Street the BC lumber industry.” mentioned in the 1974 Mills and houses are Bs on the Heritage Register, Holdsworth inventory. and both need some restoration. ADVOCACY UPDATE

Salsbury Gardens and BC Mills Houses. It haps a new business could modify the Stadacona Apartments, 601 Bute at is with great sadness we report the demoli- ‘Helen’s’ lettering to a new business name in Melville. Residents report rumours the owner tion of the two BC Mills prefab houses by the the same typography. intends to redevelop this B-Register developer Richard Niebuhr on October 19. Edwardian apartment building within the next The largest of the garden trees, the Butternut ‘Cotswold’ house, 3979 W. Broadway. We two years. It’s on our watch list. and the Cypresses, were also removed. The are monitoring with concern the ‘Cotswold- site had been in imminent danger since Cottage’ style house, a ‘C’ listing on the Victory Square Park. Victory Square is the the September 2006 BC Supreme Court deci- Register. One of three 1930s homes designed former site of the original 1895 Provincial sion ruling against the jurisdiction of the with undulating shingle roofs to resemble Courthouse. Although the structure was Board of Variance to consider 3rd party thatch, this house has been listed for some demolished prior to WWI, the historic perim- appeals. The City re-issued development time at an asking price that suggests redevel- eter trees still frame the park. One of those and demolition permits and last minute opment. The distinctive roof appears in need trees was recently cut down, raising additional efforts to find a heritage developer will- of significant maintenance or replacement. concern about our heritage landscapes. ing to purchase the site from Niebuhr We are hoping that there is someone out there failed. who will purchase and restore the home. Pender Hotel, 31 W. Pender. We understand there are plans to redevelop this single-room Salsbury Garden Maxine’s, 1215 Bidwell at Davie. Currently occupancy hotel as a condominium. The hotel Site November 2006 operating as the ‘Balthazar’ restaurant/night is listed as a ‘B’ on the Register. Only the club, this C-listed Spanish Colonial Revival ornate terra cotta façade would be retained in has recently been purchased as part of a pro- the new development. This proposal follows posal to develop a condominium tower. As the on the heels of another façade project, the development site also includes non-heritage Grand Hotel, in Gastown — once again high- property along Denman, there are opportuni- lighting a crucial question about our historic ‘Helen’s’ neon sign, 4142 Hastings, ties to retain the heritage building in the over- areas: districts or just façades? Burnaby. (Wallace Neon, 1956) For all project. Ideally, the Balthazar site should decades, the ‘Helen’s’ neon sign, featur- retain its use as an entertainment venue, Chrysler Distribution Centre. In light of the ing a little girl on a moving swing, has contributing to the vibrant urban character of present City Council's resolution to consider hung outside Helen’s Children’s Wear both the street and the building itself. big-box retail on Marine Drive, Canadian on Hastings in Burnaby. Helen Arnold’s Tire has re-submitted its previous rezoning announcement of her upcoming retirement Rougemont Apartments, 1689 Robson at proposal for the Chrysler Distribution Centre has plunged the landmark sign’s future into Bidwell. This 1911 bay-windowed Edwardian site at 26 SW Marine. We understand the pro- uncertainty. As the sign is leased, it is at great apartment block, designed by architect E. E. posal includes the previous plan to retain the risk of being removed when the shop closes. Blackmore, is not listed on the Register. The front portion of the 1955-56 office block, While it might find its way to a museum, we building is remarkably intact both inside and a significant early example of the Modern hope that a creative way can be found to out. We are monitoring this one closely — it movement in Vancouver. keep the sign in the Heights — either in has been purchased for conversion to a its current location or on another build- language school and is therefore at risk ing-front on Hastings. If necessary, per- of significant alteration.

Do You Live in a BC Mills House?

were actually BC Mills structures until cur- The tell-tale interlocking panels are the key. Modernizing removed the dormers and But, if a BC Mills house has been stuccoed rent neighbours contacted members of the Greenius family, which owned the houses verandas and stuccoed over the BC Mills — and many were in the period around panels (right). 1949, when everyone was “modernizing” from 1918–1957. Their family photo album with stucco — it can be difficult to identify. included early photos of the houses that Is stucco concealing the prefab panels on For example, it was impossible to tell that show clearly the prefab panels (left) your BC Mills house? Check your family the two houses on the Salsbury Garden site photo albums! HeritageHeritage Vancouver Vancouver Members Get 10% Off WORDS FROM THE PRESIDENT VANCOUVER Members Get 10% museum Once again it is my pleasure to serve as President of Heritage Vancouver. presents The newly elected Board of Directors are a dynamic group dedicated to fulfilling our Mission to act as the voice of built heritage in Vancouver through education and awareness. The last year has been exciting. Our Society is in a very strong position, The best gifts with a growing membership and increased financial stability. There has been a lot of good news this year: four of our Top Ten Endangered sites — the Evergreen Building, Black Swan Records, Fire Hall No.15 and the Kogawa House — have been preserved, although we have experienced in history! one serious loss — the Salsbury Garden site – which has been desecrated. Compared to previous years, we feel that we have really made The Vancouver Museum Store a difference through our carefully researched positions and our educa- tion efforts. We have also had a substantial impact on the debate A hit with locals and tourists about the governance of UBC and have blown the whistle on the alike, the Vancouver Museum University’s shameful record of heritage preservation — if you Store has an eclectic blend of can even call it preservation, as they continue to “clear-cut” their art, jewelry and exhibit related heritage buildings. merchandise, from hand- Our fundraising efforts have been extremely successful, especially crafted First Nations jewelry to an elegant event at Councillor Anton’s home on September 20th. We beautiful coffee-table books. also have a newly revised website with even more information online You will truly find the best — check it out! And stay tuned for an exciting program of events gifts in history. that will be announced soon. We know that you will be impressed with what we have achieved and what we have planned. Open Tuesday-Sunday 10-5 Sincerely, 1100 Chestnut St., Vancouver (just over the Burrard St. Bridge) tel: 604-736-4431 ext. 387 www.vanmuseum.bc.ca Don Luxton President Heritage Vancouver Thank You HERITAGE VANCOUVER PRESENTS On September 9, to celebrate our new part- Granville Entertainment and beverages, nership with the Business supplied by the Pumpjack Pub in con- Thursday November 16/Panel Improvement Association, we participated as junction with its suppliers, Vincor Wines Discussion: “Does Heritage Matter? a sponsor of “Davie Day”, an annual out- and Okanagan Spring Breweries, rounded The Future of the Burrard Building at door celebration that closes down Davie out the elegant evening. This fabulous St. Paul’s Hospital/7:30pm/ Street. Our table, staffed by volunteers, pro- community support will allow Heritage Vancouver Museum, 1100 Chestnut St. moted awareness of heritage issues; as well, Vancouver’s public programs to expand Non-members $5; Members free. we conducted two informative tours of the in 2007. historic Burrard Street Bridge. The response This year’s AGM was also an event of The potential move of St. Paul’s confirmed the importance of partnering considerable elegance. On October 19, Hospital from the downtown core with community organizations to further Alistair Kerr, the featured speaker, brought — where it has been located since 1894 heritage preservation. greetings from the Minister of Tourism, — is a matter of keen community inter- On September 20, City Councillor Sports and the Arts. The rest of the business est. Join Heritage Vancouver for a panel Suzanne Anton hosted, on behalf of Heritage of the meeting was handled expeditiously discussion of the hospital’s future. Vancouver, a gala fundraiser in her lovely to allow all in attendance the maximum home. Guests, who represented a cross sec- amount of time to socialize and discuss heri- Thursday December 7/Heritage tion of Heritage Vancouver members, the tage issues. Delicious hors d’oeuvres, sup- Vancouver’s Annual Christmas community, architects, developers, business plied through the generosity of Sam Yehia, Party/5:30-7:30pm/Roedde House people and politicians, enjoyed a wonderful were complemented by a delightful and Museum, 1415 Barclay St./Non- evening of conversation and fun. Superb extensive selection of wines, compliments of members $5; Members free. food was provided by the generosity of our president Don Luxton.

Editor: Sharon Meen [email protected] Newsletter design by Piper Design [email protected] / 604.266.2569