Walter and Mary Chan House

This Gabled Vernacular-style home with its wide porch and 2-1/2 storey profile was typical of the working class housing built in Strathcona in the first decade of the twentieth century. The house was built in 1906 by Ontario-born carpenter John Walter McMeekin who had built his own home next door in 1903. By the following year, he had sold both houses and moved a couple of streets away. The first resident of 658 Keefer was David Inches, a foreman and later an engineer at the Post Office Building on West Hastings Street, who stayed until 1920.

This house has special historic significance as the home of Walter and Mary Chan. They moved here with their family in 1956 after their previous home was purchased and demolished by the City as part of the plan for ‘urban renewal’ that intended to clear much of their neighbourhood for a new freeway and social housing. Walter and Mary Chan were instrumental in organizing grassroots resistance to the plan, forming the Strathcona Property Owners and Tenants Association (SPOTA) and ultimately halting the destruction. This home was a frequent meeting place and through the efforts of the Chans and SPOTA, the scheme was abandoned but not before many homes were expropriated and demolished, and the uniquely diverse Hogan’s Alley.

The house has remained in the family. Walter and Mary Chan’s son and daughter-in-law completed a dramatic restoration of the home in 2016, achieving a 2017 City of Vancouver Heritage Award. As part of a Heritage Revitalization Agreement, the house was fully preserved, the basement suite finished, and a strata-titled coach house was built behind the home. Exterior restoration work included removing asphalt shingles to reveal much of the original exterior cladding and trim. Once repaired, rather than returning to a 1906 colour palette, the exterior was repainted in the familiar pink of Walter and Mary Chan’s time. The home is one of Vancouver Heritage Foundation’s 125 Places That Matter in recognition of the significance of Mary and Walter Chan’s contribution.

In 2017, the Walter and Mary Chan House was awarded a City of Vancouver Heritage Award of Honour recognizing the precise rehabilitation of the house. The house was also part of the 2017 Heritage House Tour and the Heritage Discovery Day and House Tour in 2023.

Source

VHF 2017 Heritage House Tour Brochure, City of Vancouver Heritage Awards 2017

More information

http://www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=10866&pid=0