Heritage Houses “The Dorothies” Get a New Home Base
byThe Vancouver Heritage Foundation has posted on their Facebook page that The Dorothies are getting ready to be moved to a new location. “Ever seen two mirror image heritage homes on stilts? The move is scheduled for March 10th 17th, where the homes will be relocated to a larger lot, restored and become central to a new infill project.”
The homes, which currently sit at 2827 and 2837 West 43rd Avenue, were built in 1931 and they earned their unusual names because the original owners both had wives named Dorothy.
Back in 2013 the Huffington Post BC reported (via The Globe and Mail): “Their Tudor-style design is nearly identical, with French pane windows, pitched roofs and a driveway separating them that leads to matching garages out back. The homes were last sold for just over $2 million each, and the owner, Trasolini Chetner Corporation, has applied for a permit to knock them down and rebuild. The house at 2827 is currently awaiting approval, while a notice has gone around to neighbours about the redevelopment of 2837.
An effort was made to pick the houses up off their foundation and move them to Vancouver Island with the owner’s support, but the logistics proved too complicated and the $220,000 cost too expensive.”
In December it was announced that The Dorothies would be saved, thanks to residential developer Rob Chetner with the help of architect Timothy Ankenman. The Globe and Mail said: “[Chetnet] and Mr. Ankenman went searching for a nearby Kerrisdale property to relocate the houses to, and found it a couple of blocks away, on W. 41st Avenue.”
The plan needed to pass public consultation, which it eventually did. The idea is to preserve the houses and restore them inside and out, with their basements converted into garden suites and four coach houses built to the rear of the new location, totalling eight suites.
4 Comments — Comments Are Closed
Glad they are being saved. They are beautiful.
Rewarding to see a developer with such a commitment to maintaining a piece of heritage. I’m sure this is costing them money to do, but they obviously feel it’s important. Bravo!!!!!
Mrs Chetner
Don’t be too quick to praise the developer. Even after repeated meetings with the city he was still determined to demolish the homes. Only after the city agreed to let him build an 8 family town home complex on the site (which is zoned for one single family home) did he back down. Now he is being praised for “thinking outside the box”. Apparently the box in question here is the box of zoning laws.
As far as “pass public consultation”, that is utter crap. Not one home owners of the adjacent properties was consulted about the project. Only two owners were told anything at all and that was only because they wanted to move the homes into the lot through their yards. To this day (the day of the move) most owners of properties in the neighborhood have not gotten any formal notice from the city or the developer that the project even exits.
The houses are beautiful. It’s respectable that these people are trying so hard to preserve them.