through the ages
The ever-popular prize home has gone from a typical family home in 1934 to a cutting-edge modern design in 2017. Along the way, Vancouver got too expensive. This year, the prize home is designed for a lot in Naramata.
The 2017 PNE Prize Home is a large contemporary home brimming with all the latest trends and doodads, such as a double-height ceiling in the living room, white Corian countertops and a media room with $6,000 theatre seats and a 92-inch projector screen.
It comes with a double-sided gas fireplace in the living room that’s set into the wall, chic maple barn doors in the kitchen, and a master bedroom and ensuite that’s bigger than many Vancouver condos.
Wine cooler? Check. Subway tile? Check. Gas “fire table” on the outside deck to warm you and your guests on cool nights, like an oldstyle fire pit? Check.
“Dream home” elements like these help the PNE sell about a million tickets annually to the prize home. And buying a prize-home ticket has been a B.C. tradition since the PNE gave away its first house in 1934.
“It’s the Everyman’s Lottery,” said the PNE’s Laura Ballance.
“People don’t just buy because they think they’re going to win, they want to be part of the collective history. It’s something their parents did, and their grandparents, and their children and grandchildren will do it.
“It’s as much about the nostalgia and the history as it is about the actual winning of the prize.”
Today’s prize home is a far cry from the prize home of yesterday. It’s bigger, glitzier and will be moved after the fair to the Okanagan, rather than the Lower Mainland.
Typically, 100,000 people tour the prize home during the fair, which is constructed in six modules for easy erection and moving.
The fair moved the prize home in 1994, after lot prices in the Lower Mainland got too high.
“It was a gamble, but looking back I think it’s been very successful for us,” Ballance said.
“We poll people as they leave the home (during the fair) and test different ideas, and people love the Okanagan. I think it’s that idea ‘I’m quitting my job, I’m going to move, our life is going to slow down.’ A lot of people associate that with the Interior of B.C. and the Okanagan.”
Winners of home lotteries often sell the home rather than live in it, but nine of the last 10 PNE Prize Home winners have kept the house.
“We probably have more people keep the home longer than any other giveaway program anywhere in North America,” Ballance said.
For the last three years, the prize home has been sited in Naramata, a beautiful community on Lake Okanagan, northeast of Penticton.
For this year’s home, designer Marlies Venier went to Naramata to see what would work.
“We mapped out the lot so we know what we could put on there,” she said.
“We take the lot and then design a house that fits with the lot and the view.”
This is why there’s a second-storey entertainment room above the living room — you get a skookum view of the lake while you’re playing pool or relaxing at the home’s bar.
That view is a lot different from the 2800-block Dundas Street in East Van, where the first PNE prize home was moved on a horse-drawn skid after the fair.
The 940 sq. ft. “ideal bungalow” was advertised as having two bedrooms, oak floors and “numerous electric outlets.” One of them would have been used to power the home’s hightech selling point, an electric stove.
It was designed by architect Harold Cullherne and featured glass French doors that opened into the living room, which had a cool River Rock fireplace.
The cost of the house and furnishings in 1934 was $5,000. The house last sold in 2014 for $900,000, but would probably fetch a lot more today — houses in the neighbourhood have been listed for over $2 million.
The last PNE prize home in the city of Vancouver was at 7807 Fraser in 1952, and was worth an estimated $10,000. (The home has since been knocked down.) The last one in the Lower Mainland was on Tamarack Crescent in Maple Ridge in 1993.
In 1954, the prize home had an estimated value of $15,000. It was won by a 20-year-old bellhop at the Ritz Hotel, Alec Savage. But when Savage decided to sell it, it was appraised at only $8,500.
It wasn’t the only time the prize home winner was disgruntled. The 1983 winner, Claire Smiley, sued the PNE for “breach of contract” when the $250,000 prize home she won turned out to be worth “substantially less.”
PNE board member George Puil blamed the shortfall on a declining real estate market. The suit was settled out of court.
The 1981 prize home was designed by the renowned architect Ron Thom. But builder George Wilson of Batex Industries ran into financial trouble and liens were placed on the house by several contractors, as well as Thom.
The PNE offered the winners $250,000 cash rather than the house, and they took it. The PNE eventually sold the home for $2,500, and the new owner moved it to Ocean Park in Surrey. (The PNE held onto the $100,000 lot in Coquitlam where the house was originally supposed to be moved, and recouped $50,000 by selling off the furniture and fixtures.)
In 1967 and 1968, the PNE gave out a $50,000 goldbrick rather than a prize home. But it dropped the concept after the 1968 winner, Lorraine Valouch, was sued by her husband Chris.
Lorraine testified that when the couple went to the PNE her husband declined to buy a program with a prize home ticket, saying “it’s a waste of a dollar.”
She bought the prize-winning program and ticket, then refused to split the winnings with her husband. So he sued her, arguing that the couple always split their bingo winnings and there was an “implied agreement” that the money would be shared.
Judge T.W. Brown agreed and ordered Lorraine to split the booty.
The concept of a local prize home predates the PNE’s lottery. In March 1922, local builders unveiled their own $5,000 bungalow at the Vancouver Building Exhibition, a twoweek showcase of local products at 933 Granville.
The 1934 PNE “ideal bungalow” was also designed to showcase local companies.
“They came up the concept during the Depression, as a showcase of B.C. building trades,” said the PNE’s Ballance.
Right off the bat, the PNE prize home boasted the latest trend in homes — a hallway made out of Masonite Cushioned Flooring, “a wood product of great beauty and durability.”
“As the name suggests, it has a built-in shock absorber, which eliminates much of the fatigue and discomfort from walking,” said a Masonite Cushioned Flooring ad.
The 1956 prize home came with cutting-edge features like a television, an “automatic” washer and a “gold-tinted” refrigerator. The 1958 home came with a pool. The 1966 home was a Spanish-style bungalow with an inner courtyard, and the 1977 home had a skylight.
Flipping through this newspaper’s PNE Prize Home photo file is a flashback to home decoration trends of the past.
The 1972 home had a circular brick fireplace in the living room.
The 1974 home had white shag carpet and a circular glass dining table with chrome legs. The bedroom of the same home had white wicker furniture and a flowery, almost psychedelic curtain. The exterior had cedar siding and reflective “Solarex” windows.
The 1979 home had wall-to-wall carpeting in the living room and a Flintstones-style rock fireplace. A “dream kitchen” in 1980 had a banquette breakfast nook. The 1985 home had striped wallpaper and wall-to-wall.
For many years, the estimated value of the prize home and package was relatively modest — the 1958 home had an estimated value of $30,000, the 1966 home was $36,000, and the 1972 home was $50,000.
The value went to $100,000 in 1974, $150,000 in 1979 and $250,000 in 1983. The 1996 home had a value of $500,000, the 2003 home was $750,000, and the 2006 home was the first to top $1 million. This year’s prize-home package has a value of $1.6 million.
As the value of the prize home has gone up, so have the accoutrements. Some of them were a bit silly — the 2002 home had a dog shower. But other features caught on, like the 1997 home in Pender Harbour that came with a hot tub, home theatre and a boat.
The size of the homes has also gone up. The first home was 940 sq. ft. This year’s home is 3,348 sq. ft.
Alas, this year’s home doesn’t come with a boat or a dog shower. But it does come with a hot tub, three TVs, a KitchenAid stainless-steel fridge, range and dishwasher, two outside decks, and a two-car garage.
The exterior may look like simple wood and stone, but in fact it consists of Versetta Stone “panelized stone veneer,” “Knotty Maple” Saigwall PVC siding, and “Pearl Gray and Aged Pewter” Hardie Panels.
And it could all be yours for the price of a $25 ticket.