Remembering 3441 West 33rd Avenue

All these houses have a history. Here is an email that I received about a recent demolition:

I am a retired librarian too, living in Portland, Oregon.  I lived in 3441 W 33rd from third grade until I completed the first two years at UBC.  My parents sold it a few years later.  I drove by the property just after Christmas, like I always do when I am in Vancouver, and was shocked -- that it was gone.  After all these years I still consider that house to be "home."  Thank you for documenting the demolition of this house and others in Dunbar.  I am in a state of grief about all the old houses being torn down in the Dunbar area.

The blog post for this house was published on November 26, 2013.

The Beautiful Homes on West 33rd Avenue

Roughly speaking and with many exceptions, West 33rd Avenue marks a divide between smaller lots and houses to the north and larger lots and houses to the south in the Dunbar area. The Avenue has many gracious and varied homes. Here is one of them on a delightful April day:

It was for sale, but I did not pay much attention because I doubted that it would be demolished. In October I saw the plastic red fencing and hoped that it was there because a lane house was being built (and the main house would remain). However, the house was torn down in early November 2013.

A more elaborate house east of Dunbar at 3441 West 33rd Avenue, was sold twice or three times in recent years. Here is what it looked like in February 2012:

For sale again in March 2013 it looked very similar:

 

By November 7, 2013, the writing was on the wall or more literally, the plywood was on the windows, probably to facilitate asbestos removal.

When I stopped by at 9 am on November 26, this is what I saw, only a bit of the back wall.  Some 1936 history is lost forever.