The housing stock in the Dunbar area of Vancouver has undergone significant change in the past five years. Originally a working class neighbourhood with many quite modest homes surrounded by lovely gardens, it is now a neighbourhood that 99% of the people working in Vancouver cannot afford because the replacement homes are built to the maximum footprint and cost millions. Greenspace has been reduced. Included on this website are photos of many (not all) of the disappeared houses.
View Teardowns in the Dunbar area of Vancouver, BC in a larger map

Demolitions West of the Dunbar Community Centre

Monday, July 20, 2015

Another Traditional Home in Dunbar

Built in 1928, this is quite a traditional house. I took a photo through the front window, where you can see the typical fireplace and built-in bookcase. It was demolished in May or June 2015. The address is 4018 West 34th Avenue, a street with large 50 foot lots, which are attractive to developers because a large replacement house can be built.
 
 


Vancouver Vanishes featured this house on June 18, 2015.

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

A Forgotten House

Remember the corner where Dunbar Insurance used to be?

Behind the building stood one of the original (probably 1920's) houses. The house must have had a Dunbar address but when the commercial building was built in 1939, it had to change its orientation to 27th Avenue, and because the front porch of the house now faced the back of the commercial building, the porch had to become a side porch. The revised address for 27th Avenue of "3615" could be seen on the porch post. (But legally, it was still part of 4295 Dunbar Street.)



The 4200 block of Dunbar Street was demolished in April 2015, but this house stood for a little longer. Perhaps it was demolished in May 2015. Below is a view of the rear of the block's demolition, with a tiny slice of the house and its fence on the right. Note the large tree which could have been in the back yard of this house or the neighbouring house. In any case, the tree is gone.
Some of these buildings were pretty dilapidated!