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February 1997 WEST VANCOUVER HISTORICAL SOCIETY Page 7 ORAL HISTORY The History of Kew House The earliest known fact about this West Vancouver property was that land was bought in 1919 by Mr. Quentin James Trotter. This parcel of land included an unused public beach situated between an acre large peninsula jutting into Howe Sound and the mainland. The beach was 135 feet directly below Marine Drive, Mr. Trotter built a pier, a beach summer resort of three cottages and made his living by renting out his boats and beach cottages. His business was referred to locally as ’Q’s Beach” by some and Holy Joe’s Cove by others. At that time almost everyone travelled by boat. After some years the property, consisting of 24 acres, was sold to Mr. A.J. Taylor (the prime mover behind the building of the British Properties and Lions Gate Bridge for Guinness Family interests) for $12,6(X).(X)!! (The boundaries of this rocky land ran up from the beach and over Marine Drive to the railway line.) Mr. Taylor had huge amounts of rock removed from one part of the site in order to build a large house and garden - in fact the quantity of rock removed was larger than the eventual house! He called the house “Kew House” after Kew Gardens in London, England. It was numbered 5324 Marine Drive, West Vancouver. Mr. Taylor was a very clever man, full of fascinating ideas, many of which were incorporated into the house and grounds. A farm existed across Marine Drive but few details are known about it and after Mr. Taylor sold the property to us in 1945, we sold it to a real estate developer with the suggestion that the new service road from Marine Drive for the homes should be named Kensington Drive as a link with the original purchaser. When we first saw Kew House there was a high fence running along the property with a gardener’s cottage at the beginning of the driveway. A little way inside the entrance there was an electric “eye” in a tree trunk which, when pressed, LEONARD FRANK By: Kay (Norgan) Meek As told to Susan Dirassar and Anne Vernon. CANADIAN HOMES & GARDENS, May 1941 Ksw House from the sea showing the front of the house with its iarge patio and Mr.Tayior’s steep road ieading down to the beach. Kew House, an early view. To the left of the front door is the master bedroom and dressing room and on the right the garage with breakfast room patio above. The bay and Passage isiand are in the background. opened the door of the garage which was incorporated as part of the house - an incredible innovation in this part of the world in the early 30’s when Mr. Taylor had it installed. The drive swept down to a large, well proportioned house, designed by architects Palmer & Bow of Hastings Street, Vancouver, but almost certainly built to very precise instructions given by Mr. Taylor. On either side of the front door, were two lions - models of those at the Stanley Park entrance to Lions Gate Bridge - and gifted to Mr. Taylor, as a mark of his appreciation of that very clever man, by the sculptor Charles Malega. In the entrance hall, just inside the door, was a J^a-nese bell containing a big gong. Off the spacious entrance hall, and to the left of the front door, was the master bedroom with a beautiful stained glass bay window facing over the garden. The bedroom had an adjoining dressing room. A large living room and separate dining room also opened out of the central hall and these rooms all faced onto the ocean giving marvellous views of the bay and of Passage Island opposite. One of the many interesting features of the house was that there was a loudspeaker in the living room and this was used later on to relay music down to the beach house when parties were held there. Further down the hall beyond the dining room was the kitchen which could send food to the upstairs breakfast room via a dumb waiter. (We enjoyed having our breakfast out on the patio off the breakfast room. This patio was built over the garage roof and positioned to catch the morning sun.) There were four bedrooms upstairs, each with its own fireplace and bathroom with heated radiators to ensure there were always warm towels. As with the living and dining rooms Continued on Page 8