630 Keefer St

This home is an “Edwardian Box” pattern book design, which was popular for its practical layout. The home was probably built in 1905 by John Holmes as a rental property. At that time, the then-called East End was a well-located neighbourhood near the port, Hastings Mill and the business district of Gastown.

The first resident was Walter Warner, a BC Sugar Draftsman. From the 1920s until 2007, this home was rented or owned by Chinese families. Among these families were the Mahs, the Lees, and the Yuen family who owned this house for over 50 years starting in 1954. This was the era immediately following the retraction of the Exclusion Act (1923-1947) which effectively banned Chinese immigration. When the act was repealed in 1947, many Chinese families bought property for the first time and were able to bring relatives over from China.

For a short period after WWII, the Choy family lived here as well. Their son Wayson Choy became one of Canada’s best known writers, most famous for his novels ‘The Jade Peony’, ‘Paper Shadows’ and ‘All that Matters’. He was inducted into the Order of Canada in 2006.

The house was a stop on VHF’s 2010 Heritage House Tour.

Source

VHF Heritage House Tour Brochure 2010

More information

https://www.heritagesitefinder.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Guidebook-2010-final-low-res.pdf