If home is where the heart is, one East Vancouver home has managed to capture the hearts of families with a connection to not just one, but two White Rock mayors.
Young couple Maggie and Austin and their four-month-old baby boy now inhabit the house, moving there three years ago.
"The house was really charming and had the old character we both love," she said, noting she and Austin both grew up in White Rock; her mother is current White Rock Mayor Megan Knight.
A beautiful, Craftsman-style home built in 1911, the couple made a discovery in the wall in November 2022 during a renovation: a piece of fungus with a picture of the city's iconic white rock, and some writing that says "July/August 1932 White Rock BC."
Knight remembered her daughter's excitement at the find.
"My daughter contacted me (and said) 'It's a sign! We were meant to buy this house. We're from White Rock, and it has a connection to White Rock,'" Knight recalled. "I was amazed by this coincidence. What was the history of this piece and why was it put behind a wall? Did they vacation in White Rock in the 1930s or someone lived in White Rock and drew the picture for a gift? Just so many questions."
She reached out to archivist Hugh Ellenwood at the White Rock Museum to see if he was interested in the piece, and realized it was a piece of fungus 鈥� not a piece of wood, as they had originally surmised.
"When I delivered it to Hugh, we both pondered its origins and who might have lived in the house," Knight said.
It wasn't until a former White Rock mayor stopped by the East Vancouver house earlier this summer that they all realized the connection of the home to the seaside city.
Former White Rock mayor Tom Kirstein's grandfather built the home in 1911, and Kirstein's mother's family, as well as he and his siblings, all grew up in it. The house still features two tall Douglas firs planted in the yard that turned 105 years old earlier this year.
"The Trees," as he and his family members came to call them, were the reason he stopped by the property, as he wanted to ask the current owners' permission to stage a family photo shoot with the house and trees in the background, on the 105th anniversary of their being planted.
"The story behind them is that my twin aunt and uncles, born in 1915, were given saplings right after the (First World) War, in 1919, and they planted those two trees," Kirstein explained, adding he met Austin and Maggie when he popped by to ask about the family photo.
"We found out that he and Maggie bought the house not that long ago, and they both went to Semiahmoo high school. ... We talked a little bit more, and Maggie mentions her mom is the current mayor of White Rock," he recalled with a chuckle. "I say, 'Well, geez 鈥� I was the mayor 45 years ago."
Kirstein was able to tour the familiar property just before it was sold to its current owners.
"The house has hardly changed at all 鈥� the wood from the stairwell going up to our bedrooms was the same, the banister was the same ... that we we used to slide down when we were six and 10 years old," Kirstein said, noting there had been minor changes from what his grandfather built.
With 60 years of family history in the home, Kirstein noted Maggie and Austin also found a listing for movies playing at a nearby theatre, as well as a bottle of castor oil along with the White Rock fungus piece.
"The list of movies they found in the wall 鈥� one of them was King Kong, one was 42nd Street," he said, adding the movies were produced in 1933.
"The twins that would鈥檝e planted the trees would鈥檝e been 18 in 1933, but I never knew anything about those things... It鈥檚 an old house and there鈥檚 nooks and crannies everywhere."
Maggie, Knight and Kirstein all remain intrigued by the unique connection.
"What are the chances of a grandpa of a mayor from 45 years ago, building the house that the current mayor鈥檚 daughter lives in, in Vancouver, when there鈥檚 two million homes to choose from?" Kirstein queried.
Knight agreed.
"It's such a small world, and I'm thrilled that we now have some understanding of where this artifact came from," she said. "The remaining mystery is, why it was hidden behind the wall? Was it Tom's uncle 鈥� or someone else?"
