504 Hawks Ave

504 Hawks Avenue is part of a row of six houses (502-520 Hawks Avenue) that was built in 1898. The land was acquired by the Vancouver Improvement Company in 1898, which then sold the property to Walter Scott. The houses were then built and connected to city water.

504 Hawks Avenue first appears in city directories in 1902, with the resident listed simply as “Clarke”. This referred to William Clarke, a boiler maker who lived at the house until 1903. The house had a series of short-term residents, including a nurse, a painter, a cigar maker, a musician, several carpenters, and several labourers.

For many decades, this row of compact, simple Victorian houses served as rental accommodation for successive waves of immigrants. In 1986 the row of houses was put on the market, and purchased with the intention of restoring them.

With the help of a loan from the Gulf and Fraser Fishermen’s Credit Union, the remaining four central houses were restored, and the missing houses at each end were replaced (one having burned down, and the other having collapsed). The work was completed in 1987, and the six houses were registered as separate strata-titled properties; subsequently the four restored houses were designated and the project received a Vancouver Heritage Award.

In 2006, VHF awarded True Colour Grants to #504-516 Hawks Avenue, aiding in repainting them to their original colour scheme.

Source

VHF Files