In the darkness of the early hours of the morning, West Vancouver’s historic 'Queen Marine' house began her big move to her new resting place on Tuesday.
After 95 years of sitting on her perch, at 2367 Marine Dr. in Dundarave, the Craftsman style home was lifted off its foundation by hydraulics at 12:21 a.m. Nov. 3.
Residents nearby may have heard the heritage house, built in 1925, mutter a few moans and groans as she was lifted onto the truck to begin her 300-km journey to her new home on Malcolm Island – east of the northern tip of Vancouver Island.
The house was not formally on a heritage list but when a developer came up with plans to replace it with a duplex, they turned to Nickel Brothers to see if the house could be saved.
And it could.
Ronel Dreyer, of Nickel Brothers, said a third-generation Finnish Canadian family bought both the Queen Marine and another 1925 “embattled but now saved” heritage home on Larch Street in Vancouver.
“However sad it is for West Vancouver to lose this beauty, she will soon be a greatly valued asset to her new family on Malcolm Island,” Dreyer said in a previous interview with North Shore News.
The house was moved in the early hours of the morning to allow for the closure of Marine Drive to traffic and to co-ordinate with the tides. The highest tides are required to float the barge as close to land as possible to allow the truck to safely transfer the house.
Peter Miller, president of North Shore Heritage, a non-profit that represents heritage homeowners and supporters in all three North Shore municipalities, said the move had gone “smoothly” so far.
“It was a big, big night and it was particularly spectacular because they were moving two heritage houses,” he said.
“It was quite the operation.”
- With files from Martha Perkins
Elisia Seeber is the North Shore News’ Indigenous and civic affairs reporter. This reporting beat is made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.
