14 - Friday, July 1, 1994 - North Shore News

HOME & GARDEN

A ghostly past
may still haunt
heritage house

THIS CHARMING bungalow
located in Upper Lonsdale is a
very good example of the
Craftsman Style of architecture.

NORTH SHORE
HERITAGE
By Dorothy Foster

It has many features typical of
this style including: a porch gable
screen, triangular eave brackets,
pointed vergeboards, decorative win-
dow surrounds, twin-coursed shin-
gles, and wiple porch columns on a
projecting tront porch.

The interior of this home has
been restored over the past 10 years
by the current owners who have
become interested in the history of
their home.

What they do know is that
William J. Gilbert and family moved
into this home in 1926, though it had
been officially completed in 1925.

He was a compositor with the
Vancouver Sun newspaper. When
William and Nellie Gilbert moved in
here they had only three other homes
as neighbors; the rest of the area was
bush. :

The Gilberts lived here for 22
years, The house changed owners a
few times, with the next longest resi-
dent being Stanley J. Boggis and his
wife Carol. He was traffic manager
for Woodward's stores.

The present owner told me an
interesting story about her house.
One day she was working in the gar-
den a woman drove up and told her
that they had previously lived in the
house, and that two “entities” lived
in that home as well.

The woman went on to describe
the first entity as a lovely young
woman and the other ghostly figure
as an angry old man. The owner
didn’t take it too seriously. though.

Some time elapsed and little
thought was given to this story. She
had a friend that would come and
visit her but that friend was happy to
stand and chat in the carport.

Several times she invited her in
but her friend always refused.
Finally she confessed that she had a
strange feeling about the house.

The owner insisted that she see
all of the restorations that they had
done to the interior, so the woman

Mon.-Fri. 9:30-6
Sat. 9:30-5

1190 MARINE DRIVE, NORTH VAN.

NEWS photo Nell Lucente

INTERIOR TOUCHES include
this ornate door knob.

hesitantly entered.

The owner went to make tea and
told her friend to look around. The
next thing she saw was her friend
running out of the house, jumping
into her car and driving off.

A week or so later she told the
owner that she had never experi-
enced anything so vivid before. She
had seen a vision of a pretty young
woman dressed in black in the living
room, and on going upstairs she was
confronted by the apparition of an
angry old man.

The owner, understandably.
would be somewhat apprehensive
about her house after that but she
welcomes any information others
may have about the home and its
former occupants.

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Graphic Dorothy Foster ©

THE GILBERT House, located at 133 Osborne Rd. West in North Vancouver, was built in 1925.
The home is said to have had some interesting occupants and the owner is looking for more

information on its history.

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