Luxton said fixing up old wood frame houses like this “is not difficult,� but it does take money, which is in short supply for heritage buildings in Canada.
“It’s an unfortunate confluence of circumstances, “ he said.
“It happens with many institutions and service providers; they work on very tight budgets, and there are no identified budgets for additional priorities like heritage conservation.�
Modest as it is, the house has an interesting history. After Henderson moved in 1893, it was occupied by John Stitt, the manager of the Hastings Mill store, which is now the Hastings Mill Museum in Kitsilano. (The Hastings Mill store was originally located on the waterfront at the foot of Dunlevy, a block away from 502 Alexander. It dates to 1865, which makes it the oldest structure in Vancouver. The oldest house is 385 East Cordova.)
Alexander street is named after Hastings Mill manager Richard Alexander, who built a large house at 300 Alexander in 1888. His neighbours included fellow bluebloods Duncan and Henry Bell-Irving.
Early residents of 502 Alexander included a bookkeeper named Huddart, an accountant named Jackson and a restaurateur named Schuman. The seven-block long street went out of vogue with the monied class fairly early, though: Richard Alexander moved to the West End in 1907, when his mansion was listed as a “Japanese boarding house� in the city directory.
The street would be part of Japantown until Japanese-Canadians were forced to leave their homes during the Second World War. For a brief period prior to the First World War, the 500 and 600 blocks were also a red light district.
In 1911, Ruth Richards took over 502 Alexander, and a year after that, Dollie Darlington is the first listing at 500 Alexander. Which means 500 Alexander was probably built as a brothel.
In recent years both buildings had fallen into disrepair.
“[500 Alexander] probably hadn’t been touched by the previous owners in 45 years,� said Abbott.
“It was one of the grossest SRAs [single room accommodations] I’ve even been in. When you went in there, it smelled like dead bodies, it was just abysmal.�
The new residents of 500 Alexander are to be young women between 18 and 24.
“We will have young women who are currently living in the Downtown Eastside and homeless or at risk of homelessness,� said Abbott.
“I think it’s fair to say some of those young women, if not all of them, are being sexually exploited.�
The new residents won’t be there permanently: 500 Alexander is supposed to provide housing for up to 12 months, when it’s hoped the residents can move on.
“The goal is to try and support them to explore options they probably didn’t know were available to them,� said Abbott.
“And get out of [the Downtown Eastside] before they get entrenched.�
Vancouver’s planning director Brent Toderian said the city “did investigate some options� to try and save the house, but none worked out. Part of the problem is that Alexander east of Main is outside the officially designated heritage districts of Gastown and Chinatown, “so frankly the amount of [heritage incentive] tools that we had to offer in this particular case were limited.�
