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1036 Odlum Drive
Grandview/Woodland
701-725 Hawks Avenue
Strathcona
817 East Georgia
Strathcona
I used to live in this great old house at 1036 Odlum, one of a group of four built between 1908 and 1910 by Vancouver builder, J.L. McKenzie. It was this house that sparked my interest in house genealogy. I ended up researching all the houses on both sides of the block.
1036 was briefly the home of Vancouver City Police Detective Donald A. Sinclair. You can see his picture beside the door to the men's washroom at Vancouver's Police Museum.
Further down the block, is 1018 Odlum Drive, once the home of Dugald Carmichael. Twenty years before he lived on Odlum Drive Carmichael had worked as a conductor for the newly formed Vancouver Electric Railway and Light Company Limited. On April 6, 1889 had the distinction of driving Vancouver's very first street car on its first trial run.
Three of the houses on the opposite side of the street were moved there in the 1940s from the 1200-block of Venables.
Contractor George Elliott began building this seven-unit row house, one of four built in the 700- and 800-blocks of Hawks Avenue, in 1908.
701 Hawks was a corner grocery for many years, while 703 Hawks was initially home to a butcher shop.
The original occupants were mostly working class immigrants from Britain and Eastern Canada. These were later followed by Italians, Russians, Yugoslavs, Jews from Eastern Europe, Japanese, and later, Chinese residents.
By the 1980s the building was run down. Three units were actually condemned and vacant. However, in 1984, a group of new owners rehabilitated the row house and planted gardens where before there had only been gravel and concrete. In 2002 this section of Hawks Avenue was voted Vancouver's most beautiful block.
One of the units is reputed to be haunted by a house genealogist.
Every house has its stories. This recently renovated Victorian, painted sunny yellow with bright red and black trim, today exudes a sense of joy, but this home had a sad start.
Carpenter Isaac Churchill built this house in 1900 for he and his wife Emma, and their newborn son, Isaac Walter Churchill. Tragedy struck the family shortly after moving in to the house. Baby Isaac died at fourteen months of age and his mother died a month later. Churchill left the house soon after.
Newfoundland-born seaman James John Bartlett and his wife Minnie moved in shortly after. Bartlett figures in a Newfoundlander colony of sorts that flourished in the 600 and 700 block of Princess (see 732 Princess below) in the early 1900s.
From 1942 to 1952 the grey house at 827 East Georgia was home to Tennessee-born Nora Hendrix, grandmother of the legendary Jimi Hendrix.
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