Heritage activists remain hopeful one of Vancouvers oldest homes can still be saved and relocated even though its owner, Atiras Women Resource Society, filed an application to demolish it with the City of Vancouver last week.
Located at 502 Alexander St., the wood-framed house was built in 1888.
Its mentioned on Heritage Vancouvers 2012 Top Ten Endangered Sites list under number 5, Strathcona North. The entry points out the house was completed two years after the city was founded. Its also significant because it was built by John Baptist Henderson, who according to the entry was an early settler and pioneering architect, contractor and entrepreneur, who worked in many western Canadian communities before returning to Vancouver where he died in 1931.
But the home is located on the site where Atira plans to create 12 studio units for marginalized Downtown Eastside women using repurposed shipping containers. The society restored a Class B heritage building next door where 18 women live.
Society CEO Janice Abbott told the Courier its exhausted all options to save the heritage house over the past 15 months.
Part of the condition to receive a development permit from the city was that we make significant attempts to find an alternative for the house, she said. Over the past year we have worked with a handful of potential recipients of the houseso folks that were considering moving the house to their property and restoring it. Two of those conversations were fairly serious conversations, but at the end of the day the cost was prohibitive.
Abbott added that the prior owners did nothing to maintain the house, so its in a significant state of disrepair. The only thing that would save it is public money and that has not been forthcomingso some level of government being interested in its restoration, she said. Its going to cost somebody money and a fair amount of money. As Ive said to Heritage Vancouver all along, its not like were gleeful about doing this. I know we dont have another option. So without somebody coming to the table with some cash to save it, its not savable and weve made enormous effort to try and find someone and so those other folks also couldnt find a way to save it.
Abbott added that Atira has owned the house for not even two years and the most surprising and tragic thing to her is that nobody noticed the house for decades as it deteriorated.
Heritage Vancouvers president Donald Luxton told the Courier in an email that heritage advocates are still interested in saving it. He would like to see it relocated as close to the current site as possible. But as long as it is preserved we would be happywe dont want such valuable heritage to be destroyed, he said.
Luxton is convinced its not too late. [The effort is] not lost until the building is demolished. There have been many last-minute saves. We intend to work on this one until it is resolved, he said.
Barb Floden, a spokesperson for the City of Vancouver, said the developer was asked to try to retain, relocate, reuse, salvage or deconstruct the JB Henderson House at 502 Alexander in the interest of heritage conservation and building waste. At this time, a demolition permit has been applied for but it has not been issued.
noconnor@vancouver.com
Twitter: @Naoibh
