Mole Hill Community Housing Society executive director Quentin Wright and Doris Traynor of Mole Hill Neighbourhood Support Society with society donor Hiroko Desmichelis.

MOLE HILL
A Community Within A Community

The West End’s Mole Hill is the last surviving block of pre-First World War housing stock in Vancouver and the most significant example of Vancouver’s Victorian and Edwardian era domestic architecture. The block has thirty heritage-listed properties built between 1888 and 1908, providing a direct link to the earliest days of the City.

In the 1960s, when the city started buying up the houses along Comox Street, the plan was to bulldoze them and double the size of Nelson Park. Not everyone was happy with this idea, and one of the residents, Blair Petrie launched a five-year campaign to save the houses in Mole Hill, an area that stretches in a square around Comox, Thurlow, Bute, and Pendrell Streets.

As recounted by Eve Lazarus in her “Every Place Has A Story” blog, “As part of his research, he made a couple of ghostly discoveries.

“The Thurlow Street house was one of four built in 1903 by a doctor who went into real estate speculation, the favorite sideline of almost anyone with a few bucks at the time. He likely flipped it right away, and it changed hands over the years to a number of different, mostly working-class residents.

Two examples of Mole Hill heritage houses. True fact, the editor of TWEJ lived in that turret on the left in the mid-’80s!

“When Blair started his research, the house was a bed and breakfast where strange things happened. The two young guys who ran it would find lights turned on after they had turned them off, and once found a room locked from the inside.

“Most convincing though, were the actual sightings. ‘They had both witnessed this ghost and had many of their customers over the years come down to breakfast totally freaked out,’ said Blair.

“The ghost only showed herself in one bedroom and always wore a high-necked nightgown. The owners found old markings on the floor and figured out where the original furniture sat. From the placing they could imagine her brushing her long blonde hair in front of the dresser mirror.

“Most of the sightings were by women who generally chose to stay in that particular room. Once the ghost asked a guest: ‘Are you being taken care of here?’”

Blair’s research couldn’t find anything about the history of the house to explain the ghost, and after the building has been stripped to its studs and remodeled into rental suites, he says he doesn’t know whether the ghost stayed or moved somewhere more accommodating.

For several decades the heritage houses, saved from the bulldozer, provided affordable “housekeeping room” type accommodation for seniors and others needing low-cost housing. Today, Mole Hill is governed by the Mole Hill Community Housing Society and contains 170 social housing suites, three daycares, a group home and a host of community assets, set in a park-like environment. The Society has been recognized for achievements in heritage conservation, construction, landscaping and the provision of social housing.

The management and maintenance of the Mole Hill houses and gardens are the responsibility of Mole Hill Community Housing Society, for the past seven years under the leadership of executive director Quentin Wright.

However, the community has goals and aspirations which extend beyond the usual activities of a housing society. To fulfill those aspirations and with the non-housing goals of its community, the Mole Hill Neighbourhood Support Society was founded in 2019, focussed on providing advocacy and in-home support for Mole Hill’s elderly tenants. In 2020 they partnered with Gordon Neighbourhood House to begin a weekly meal program which will provide free lunches for senior tenants. Other activities include education and advocacy related to community development and heritage preservation, historical maintenance projects, organizing community art projects, and consulting about non-profit property management outside of Mole Hill.

Among the 170 rental units at Moll Hill are both market and subsidy rate suites, ranging in size from bachelor to three bedrooms. Ten units are dedicated to the wait list of the MacLaren Housing Society, which provides homes for persons living with AIDS. The St. Paul’s Heart Home, which provides housing for heart transplant patients and their families while recuperating from surgery, is directly across from St. Paul’s Hospital.

Watson House, with a transition home run by the Coast Mental Health Foundation, provides rooms and support for eight people learning to reintegrate with the community while managing mental health issues.

Mole Hill was created with environmental sustainability in mind. All the homes are heated with geo-thermal technologies, which minimize the energy consumption necessary for heating by using the earth’s natural underground warmth through energy-efficient heat exchange pumps. A focus on energy-efficient lighting and appliances also helps minimize energy use. The gardens were constructed using recycled bricks and lumber. In the alley, there are four spots dedicated to the Vancouver Co-operative Auto Network, and a number of the residents are co-op members.

Today, Mole Hill is a relaxed and friendly community in the middle of an ultra-urban environment. West End and Mole Hill residents meet and chat in the laneway. Children play together in back and front yards. Gardeners complain to each other about the weeds and squirrels, and trade tips on care for their tomato plants, in the Community Gardens. During the summer, the laneway is alive with butterflies and birds; during the fall, pears hang heavy from mature trees, saved through careful planning. Yet it is a quick walk or bus ride to all the amenities of the urbanite – community centers, theatres, libraries, restaurants from a variety of cuisines, groceries gourmet or generic, the Dance Centre, the Vancouver Art Gallery, Harbour SFU and UBC Downtown – and anything else that might strike your fancy.

And all of this is only a few blocks away from the ocean, a stunning view of the mountains, the Seawall, and Stanley Park. There are many aspects to the community envisioned in the Mole Hill project in addition to preserving the heritage and history of the West End of Vancouver.

A thriving community within a community, Mole Hill lends a special backdrop to the annual West End Farmer’s Market and opens its doors to its neighbors for events several times a year. One thinks that the ghost’s question “are you being taken care of here?” would receive a resounding “yes!” from current residents.