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, June 23, 2014

Torn Down Twice

In 1976 I remember walking down my street (West 31st Avenue) towards Dunbar Street with my two very young children. On the corner of Wallace, bordering Memorial Park West (the one next to the Dunbar Community Centre), I saw a home being demolished. It was an unusual one that I especially liked, a "California mission" or Italian type. I told the workers that I liked the house, complaining that it was being torn down. Those were the days of building Vancouver specials. A developer probably made a large profit, building three Vancouver specials on the large lot. Of course, now all three have seen better days. The one on the corner was sold in 2011 and has been moldering ever since. The one next to it was sold in November 2012 and looks to be torn down sometime.

This Vancouver special in no way replaced that original house, but the builder did make some attempt to relate it to the corner.

The original back yard had at least one fruit tree, and you can see the trunk of it. I was intrigued with the old stone bench. It appears that no one has sat on it for a very long time! Just before the demolition, it disappeared. It was from the original house. I hope this vintage bench found a new home.

I really wish that I had a photo of the original house!! This Vancouver special replacement was torn down in May 2014. The next replacement appears to have the same footprint, but of course the hole is deeper. Is the new house destined to be torn down in 2054? Do the math.

Saturday, June 14, 2014

4076 West 31st Avenue

Times change. Daffodils and grape hyacinths were blooming in the brick planter in April 2013 in front of this house.


The next April, they bloomed again, but the house on the left had been torn down, and a new one was under construction.

In mid 2013, the house was  no longer being rented, and the neighbourhood knew that the owners planned to rebuild.

I usually do not show a photo of the rear of the  house, but this one stood very near where I live, hence more detail, as I lurk about in the lane.
This house is the third in a row on this side of the block to be torn down: the others were 4064 (in July 2011) and 4070 (in July 2013). Many neighbours can still remember the three as the Sanders', Hers', and McCabe's houses. This latest one was torn down in late May or early June 2014.