2980 Malaspina Promenade

Mar 24

3 min read

From 1915 to 1918 the property was registered to Norman S. Mullett of Modern Office Supply in Vancouver.

Emily Wootten was the owner from 1918 to 1932.

In 1925 Harry Keefer built a two-storey store and post office on the property. According to Gladys Bloomfield, “it had a set of long steps at the side leading up to the verandah which ran across the front. It was painted brown with cream trim and had a plank sidewalk leading to a platform at the bottom of the steps, for ease in wheeling in supplies. The McPhail boys thought it left something to be desired, so they made a huge white sign with black lettering saying STORE POST OFFICE and nailed it to the front verandah railings. It was beautifully done and it added much class.” Behind the store was the Pavilion, a canvas walled dance floor where masquerade balls and Saturday evening dances were held in the 1920s and ‘30s. As well, the Reverend Allan Green of the Columbia Coast Mission came to Savary in his boat and held services there.

Harry Keefer and his wife Gertrude purchased the property in 1933. The store/post office burned down around 1940, most likely due to a spark in a wastepaper basket. It was said that tinned goods exploded like ammunition. Gladys Bloomfield recalled that you could smell the odour of baked beans, sausages and tomato soup as the flames ravaged the groceries.

Harry Keefer sold the property to his nephew Allen Mace and his wife Leone in 1941. They built a much smaller store and post office in 1942. World War II was raging and Allen was called into service a year after the store opened. While he was gone, Leone and Allen’s parents shared the operating duties until his return. Allen and Leone ran the store until 1960. They had one son, Russell. A buyer from Safeway visited the store at one time, and was said to be fascinated by the old scales, weights, and bins.

After the death of Allen Mace in 1960, Jack and Norma Bald bought the property and operated the store/post office until 1967, when they sold to Savary realtor Mary Semple. She turned it into a residence and lived there for a couple of years. According to Gladys Bloomfield, the water from the Baxter house next door was connected to Mary Semple’s house, and Baxter renters always wondered why they had to pump so often.

The property was purchased in 1974 by Gordon Cooper and registered in the name of his daughter Janis Turnbull. Janis and her husband Dr. Ian Turnbull moved in two weeks after their son Gordy was born and Janis remembers bathing him in the kitchen sink held up by 2x4s. Terry Chettleburgh and Gordon Cooper updated and renovated the building. The old store was re-studded, wired for electricity and insulated, raised ten feet and moved back. A bunkroom and master bedroom were added. Ian Turnbull’s brother-in-law John Mantel and Janis’s father put in a sandpoint, and an Onan generator and Briggs & Stratton engine were brought to the island to pump the water to a gravity feed storage tank. Hugh Rickard installed a float to shut off the pump when the tank was full. The original bathtub is still in use today.