Publication marks centennial of Brock House
After RCMP left in 1971, mansion was used and abused by filmmakers, squatters and vandals
Thorley Park to Brock House is a new book that celebrates Brock House’s centennial and includes contributions from nine authors and several archival and family photographs. It tells how before the First World War, mining engineer Philip Gilman worked with Victoria architect Samuel Maclure to build his dream home at Jericho Beach. The grand residence he called Thorley Park later became the beloved home of the Brock family, the Taits and the McConnells. From 1952, for almost two decades, Brock House served as headquarters of the RCMP’s Vancouver Subdivision. And in the late 1970s, this once gracious home was saved from demolition and converted into a seniors activity centre and restaurant.
What follows is an excerpt from the chapter An Uncertain Future about the period 19711977, called the Lost Years, by Fay Thompson.
By the spring of 1971, the RCMP had vacated Brock House and the building stood empty. It was officially owned by the federal Department of Public Works. In 1973, The Vancouver Sun reported that “neighbouring Jericho Tennis Club and the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club had made a substantial joint offer of $ 300,000 for the property, while the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation offered $ 1. Neither offer was accepted.”
As empty houses often are, Brock House was broken into and occupied. In an unguarded moment in 1972, the house was ransacked by vandals. Their main targets were the fireplaces, from which they ripped ornamental tiles and in which they “burned anything that was movable.” The vandals also removed the fireplace grates, mantelpieces and banisters and smashed the building’s windows. At this point the RCMP implemented daily patrols and routinely checked for further break- ins and vandalism.
Brock House was not entirely abandoned at this time. In February 1973, the National Film Board spent six weeks at the house filming the comedy A Case of Eggs. This made- fortelevision series, directed by Bernie Devlin, was intended to teach English as a foreign language. The crew cleaned up Brock House’s oak- panelled hall and dining room, and these feature prominently in the production. Brock House was also used for the interior filming of Russian Roulette ( 1975). This thriller starred George Segal as an RCMP officer and Brock House, appropriately given its recent history, as the RCMP headquarters, complete with institutional- green partitions.
Evidence of other use of Brock House during this period is difficult to find, but rumour has it that the property was inhabited by members of Vancouver’s counterculture.
Sources who remember the beginnings of Brock House Society tell stories of the house being used by “squatters” and “hippies.” One story suggests there was just one squatter, Michael, who is said to have lived in the attic and to have kept chickens inside the building. Other sources tell stories of parents arriving at Brock House to retrieve their “om- ing” teenagers.
Whatever its secret history during those years, by February 1974 the house was once again empty and boarded up.
Thorley Park to Brock House is available for sale at the Brock House Society, 3875 Point Grey Rd. or online at www.brockhousesociety.com. For more information call 604- 228- 1461 or email. brockhouse@telus.net.