Historic Vancouver home on the move
Posted November 29, 2016 5:17 pm.
Last Updated November 29, 2016 9:08 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – According to the History of Metropolitan Vancouver, 1905 saw the arrival of the first interurban tram in Kerrisdale, car races around Stanley Park and the first bathhouse built at English Bay for $6,000.
It was also the year many homes were built in a growing West End, including one on the south side of 1700 Pendrell near Denman.
Over the next several days, that home will begin a journey through the city, eventually ending up at a new property on East 5th near Prince Edward in Mount Pleasant.
Hidden behind a hedge for many years and clearly showing its age, the house was saved in a last-minute deal between Westbank Corp. and Sanjiv Sandhu with Point Grey Development.
Sandhu calls the Edwardian-era house “amazing” and of “great historical significance,” being one of the first homes in the West End.
“It’s definitely worth saving and there are many architectural elements which cannot be reproduced today.”
His plan is to restore the house, turn it into rental units and pass it along to his children.
“There are 100 years of memories in that house,” Sandhu says.
Heritage Vancouver calls it a loss for the West End “but a gain for retention and character, albeit being moved – but the alternative would be Kleenex and paper cups.”
Nickel Bros. will be moving the house using a flatbed truck into the neighbouring alley on Wednesday morning. On Friday and Saturday, it’ll be trucked down Beach Avenue to the Inukshuk where the home will be loaded onto a barge and shipped to a temporary storage site in False Creek.
Sandhu says it’s complex operation involving BC Hydro, TransLink and the City of Vancouver.
Once the house, a laneway house and an adjacent apartment building are gone, Westbank intends to build a 21-storey, 178 unit market-rental tower on the property
