Empty Lots for over $3 Million

Two houses were sold for $3 million and recently demolished. This one is located at 3708 West 35th Avenue. We had a bit of snow on January 3, 2016 when this photo was taken. Built in 1925, it was demolished in March 2016.

The second house is located at 3937 West 34th. It was built in 1931 on a 66 foot wide lot which allowed the "cat slides", as someone commented on Vancouver Vanishes.

The elegant front door as the house was being readied for demolition on March 24, 2016. Demolished shortly thereafter.

A recent check on the hole dug for this wide lot showed one large hole, so it is unclear if one or two houses will be built there. More information on both houses can be found on Vancouver Vanishes.

Two new houses in the Dunbar area have been advertised for well over $7 million. One has already sold. These are the highest prices I've seen for the area. Is it possible that we will have $10 million properties in our neighborhood soon?

In an Old 1920's Precinct

Built in 1928, this house closely resembled how it looked when new, except for the front door. It was sold in April 2015 for over $2 million dollars.

The location is between the Immaculate Conception Church and their school on 26th Avenue and St. Philip's Anglican Church on 27th Avenue. The Catholic church was built in 1925 and the Anglican in 1929. What was built at that time for the Anglicans is not the church building that you see today on West 27th but a "shingle-faced, multi-purpose, practical building" that now serves as the gymnasium. (Information from The Story of Dunbar, edited by Peggy Schofield, Ronsdale Press, 2007.) You can see that building when you walk on the lane behind St. Philip's. To the west of the Catholic church is the former Convent of the Sacred Heart, built in 1913 and now St. George's Junior School.

The houses surrounding 3726 West 27th date between 1924 and 1929 and are still standing. Somehow this area has been spared demolitions, perhaps because people do not want to live near so many churches and schools with all their comings and goings. This house is adjacent to the IC playground, as you can see by the chain link fence.

Across from the Dunbar Community Centre

Coming out the front door of the Dunbar Community Centre after my over 50's exercise class today, I heard the loud and familiar noise of yet another demolition, right across the street from the Centre. Built in 1940, it was a modest one-storey house, and it was kept in good shape behind a beautiful screen of vegetation.

Lilacs in April 2015 when the house was for sale as 4744 Dunbar:

In October 2015, the house became 4748 Dunbar, a luckier number.

In February 2016 the camellia bloomed for the last time:

The lucky house number was not lucky enough to keep the house from being demolished. The Dunbar area is no longer the place to have a small modest house.

To see a video of the house link here.