NEWS photo Paul McGrath

Sunshine Girl

TWENTY-YEAR-OLD Tasha is a student at Emily
Carr and part-time model. She intends to pursue a

-career as a graphic artist.

Friday, July 10, 1992 — North Shore News — 11

WV Opens new museum

THE RECENT opening of Gertude Lawson House as West
Vaucouver’s Museum and Archives seerned to have been
planned to please the person who was there in name only.

After a lull of some years, in-
cluding months of restoration of
the stone clad home located at the
corner of 17th Street and Es-
quimalt Avenue, the house once
again resounded with the laughter
and chatter of people and the
festive sight of Scottish Country
Dancing.

“Life was never dull in this
house —- Gertrude loved parties,”’
recalled her niece, Gertrude

, Wilson.

Although Lawson passed away
in 1990, last week’s celebration
coincided with the 100th birthday
of this beloved daughter of West
Vancouver pioneer John Lawson.

The opening ceremony was held
outside on 17th St., but rain forc-
ed West Vancouver Mayor Mark
Sager to abbreviate his speech and
invite everyone inside to explore
the new museum.

_Lawson’s other niece, Nancy
Marjoribanks, confided that she
suspects that the rain was some-
how her aunt's doing, because it
smacked of her sense of humor.

So the house was crowded with
people again, just as it must have
been when. Lawson brought her
aging parents ‘to live there and
made some rooms available to
other relatives and unattached
ladies of limited means.

Present at the opening was Bet-
ty Kirk, who celebrated her wed-
ding reception about 50 years ago
in the house and then spent the
first couple of years of married
life in one of the rooms upstairs.

She suspects that Lawson often
slept on the couch for lack of a
room of her own.

Although the restoration of the
Lawson house opened up many of
the small original rooms into
brighter, farger spaces, Wilson
said Lawson would have been
pleased with the changes and her

Sea Fest ’92 celebrates community

THE 1992 VANCOUVER
Sea Festival, ‘‘a celebration
of a community by
sea,’’? is scheduled to run
from Thursday, July 16 to
Sunday, July 19. .

More than 50 community
groups will participate in 120
nautical events centred around the
English Bay, False Creek, Gran-
ville Island, Kitsilano, and Jericho

areas.

_Said Bob Scragg, 1992 Sea Fes-
tival chairman, ‘Festival orga-
‘nizers want to bring the Sea Festi-
val back to its roots, when it
began 29 years ago as a communi-
ty celebration.’” He added, ‘*‘Our
goal is to involve every aspect of
.the community in our scope. So
far, there has been tremendous
support from community groups,
sports clubs, marine organiza-
tions, local merchants, the hospi-
tality industry and the Canadian
Navy, to name a few.’’

Some of the events inciude a
demonstration bathtub race in the
False Creek harbor; multi-huill,
sailboat, outrigger, and canoe
regattas; parasailing, windsurfing,
jet and water-ski displays;
marine-model seminars; kite

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shows; nautical art exhibits; oyster
eating contests; seaside barbecues
and a community sandcastle com-
petition at Spanish Banks.
Thursday, July 16 and Friday,

- July 17, will be Children’s Days at

this year’s festival. Some of the
activities to take place are: water
safety demonstrations; a family-
oriented sea-walk; a marine pet-

‘ting zoo; and the Travelling Road

Show, featuring a 30-foot-high
“Ecosaurus”’ near Science World.
The highlight of the four-day
event will be the Sea Festival
Land/Sea Parade, sponsored by
Clearly Canadian Beverage Corp.
and CKNW/98 — which will pro-
vide a live broadcast of the parade

from the festival.

More than 40 entries ranging
from marching bands to a ‘‘smok-
ing dragon’’ are registered for the
land parade.

The sea parade (a flotilia of ©

marine crafts) will meet the land
parade near the foot of Beach
Avenue. At that time, an official
on the HMCS Oriole, a visiting
naval training ship, will take the
salute to begin the sea display.
Organizers expect the marine
parade to attract more than 200

-Vvessels.

Those interested in becoming a
Sea Festival volunteer can call the
Sea Festival office at 684-3378.

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home’s new purpose as a public
facility.

“She wanted her house to bea
people placc,’’ said Wilson.

Lawson enjoyed ‘ife and helped
others enjoy their lives.

“Her life is an example of how
a single individual could improve
the quality of life for everyone in
her corner of the world,”’ said
Wilson.

Arriving in Vancouver when she
was about 10, Lawson pursued an
adventurous life that took her up
to Barkerville to teach and later
on a trip around the world in 1926
with another teacher.

The stone house, which Lawson
saved and planned for, was her
next ‘‘big idea.’

“In all the years she lived in the
house, 1 don’t believe the doors
were ever locked,”’ said Wilson.

Lawson was also described as a
joyous person who loved dancing
and pretty clothes. She also had a
strong sense of duty and a desire
to fight injustice.

According to Sager, the
municipality’s decision (to pur-
chase her home and the communi-
ty’s decision to restore it and turn

it into a museum, ‘‘shows our
desire to preserve what is best in
our community.”’ .

West Vancouver bought the’
property for $1.2 million, saving it
from development as an apart-
ment building.

The lot is located across the
street from the municipal hail and
may be a key part of a future
civic centre at-the site.

The West Vancouver Museum
and Archives Society provided
much of the volunteer effort that
enabled the fundraising .and
renovation work to be undertak-
en.

Society president Peter Halli
paid homage to the West Van-

.couver Rotary Club, which years

ago set a goal to start the museum
and archives society and = sup-
ported the subsequent search for
and development-of a permanent
facility.

Thanks also went to the young
people of the Rotoract Club for
their volunteer work, deputy pro-
vincial archivist Gary Mitchell for
his assistance, architect Michael
Barnes for his ‘“‘painstaking’’ ef-
forts, Kay Meek for her generosity
in providing the museum fur-
nishings, former: municipal man-
ager Terry Lester and several
others who had contributed.

The Lawson family contributed
$100,000 to.the $500,000-
Tenovation project, which was
largely financed by donaticn and
government grants.

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