Houses of Former Babysitters

West 33rd Avenue leads to a popular pedestrian entry to Pacific Spirit Park. If you walk there with your dog or if you run there, you may recognize this house which stood at 4056. During the week of October 5-9, it  was demolished:

The house was built in 1934, but people living there in the 1970's added a second storey. When we moved to Vancouver, we had small children and were on the constant lookout for teenage babysitters. One of our babysitters lived here. The photos are from April 2015.
 
We had another babysitter who lived at 3981 West 36th, when this house was only one storey. I think the second storey was added in 2007.  It was put up for sale in June 2013. The lot is large, 66x130.37 feet. Walking by one Sunday, I was surprised to meet a neighbour who said that although the house was beautiful inside,  she was pretty sure that this lovely and secluded house (so secluded that it was very hard to get a good photo) was going to be demolished. Photos from June and December 2013. The house was demolished sometime around July 2015.

Too many houses of our other babysitters and family day-care have been demolished: 3649 West 31st (in 1994), 4070 West 31st (in 2013), 4076 West 31st (in 2014), and 4085 West 31st (in 2014). I suspect that none of those (now grown up) teenagers can afford to live on the west side of Vancouver. We do not have a continuity of generations in this neighbourhood because none of the "starters" are in any way affordable.

It's Getting Boring

This house built in 1952, as were almost all of them in the several block area near St. George's Senior School, was located in an area of transition because of the ability to build quite a large house on these 52 foot wide lots. The replacement house on the left was built in 2012, but the original house on the right is still there (although not for long).

Sold in September 2013 and demolished in September 2015. Will any of these bungalows remain?

The Nicest House on the Block

Yes, in my view, this was the nicest house on the 3800 block of West 31st Avenue, a block that looks out on Memorial Park West. It was one of the original houses, built in 1937, and a well-kept example of the houses of that era.

The house sold in February 2015 and was demolished on September 24, 2015. The latest assessment of the buildings on this lot was $261,000. That amount indicates that the interior had been remodeled and probably there was an addition at the rear. In contrast some 1930's houses in this neighbourhood are assessed at less than one tenth of that amount. Aside from the skylights, the front of this house retained its 1930's look. This is a loss to the character of the Dunbar community.