The Dorothies

Published On: March 24, 2014

This is a pretty long post but worth a read, perhaps if you don’t have time to read it now, read it when you have a moment, it’s a great story! I have been chomping at the bit to finally write about this. I am absolutely ecstatic! If you’re a regular follower of mine and read my blog, you’ll know that I’m completely devoted to old homes and sadly watch them get torn down on a regular basis. Caroline Adderson, the founder of Vancouver Vanishes Facebook Page and I teamed up about a year ago to document all of the homes that have been and are getting torn down. The library is quite large and unfortunately keeps growing every week. We’re the ones that go into these homes, no matter how scary they look, we trudge through the sad remains of the once beautiful home. Sometimes people have gone in to take some of the character, some of the hardwood is gone or most times, its all left to go into the landfill. Sometimes we’ll go into a home and nothing has been touched. The home is in perfect condition, boasting all of its glorious character…. and all of it’s furniture in some cases, left for the wrecking ball.

This post isn’t going to be a “fluffy and pretty” post this week but it certainly is a happy one. Caroline and I had been watching two homes that were slated for demolition, and were disgusted so much that a petition was created to prevent them from a demise. With the help of several neighbours, friends and family, some that grew up having the Dorothies in their neighbourhood, we succeeded in saving them!!!!! The developer had purchased the land and had planned on tearing them down to build a home for his family. After seeing how distraught people were to know of his plan, he changed his mind. The Dorothies had been named after the first two wives that lived in each home at the same time, Dorothy Smith & Dorothy MacMillan. Caroline participated in each and every step of the way in order to help save these and proudly, I was there to document every step of the way. I even had my moment of stardom on the news the day they were moved 🙂 Here is my documentation of the Dorothy’s journey into a happy ending…..

Several weeks after we learned that the Dorothies were getting torn down, we were allowed to go into one (the one on the left) to do our routine documentation that we do so many times a month in homes slated for demo.

Preparing the Dorothies for their short journey to their new home two blocks away:

The home that sadly had to be demolished in order to replace with the Dorothies …… a sad reality that this home couldn’t be saved somehow.

Clearing the lot for the arrival of the Dorothies after the existing home was torn down.

MOVING DAY!!!

Sadly as the Dorothies are on their successful journey, they pass a home that has the dreaded red fencing, ready to be torn down. I took a moment to take a picture through the window only to want a barf bag to see the beautiful woodwork in it.