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Kogawa house gets a little TLC
By Sandra Thomas-Staff writer
A non-profit land trust that takes landmark B.C. properties under its care has negotiated an option to purchase the childhood home of author Joy Kogawa.
Bill Turner, executive director of The Land Conservancy of B.C., also known as TLC, said an agreement was reached with the present owner.
"We have a lot of things to do but until the legal stuff was in place there was no point going ahead," he said. "The owner has been very reasonable and cooperative."
Kogawa lived in the house at 1450 West 64th Ave. until age six, when her Japanese-Canadian family was interned in the Slocan Valley during the Second World War. The Marpole house was auctioned at a bargain price through the government's "Custodian of Enemy Alien Property" program. Kogawa tells the story of her early life in the home and in the internment camp from a child's perspective in the award-winning book Obasan. She was named to the Order of Canada for her writing and work with the Japanese-Canadian redress movement, and Obasan was named one of the most influential Canadian novels of the 20th century by Quill and Quire, a monthly magazine of the Canadian book trade.
Two and a half years ago, the property went on the market, and the Save Kogawa House Committee, which evolved from the Joy Kogawa Homestead Foundation, formed to purchase it. The home was bought in 2003 by private owners who, unaware the committee was raising money to buy the property and turn the house into a writers' retreat, stared renovations without a permit. The Kogawa committee contacted the city, which issued a stop-work order. The family donated the three doors and 12 windows they had removed to the city for safekeeping.
Last September the owner, who wants to remain anonymous, applied to the city for a permit to demolish and rebuild on the site. Prompted to action, the committee solicited support from writing and arts organizations across the country. In November the city's planning and environment committee gave the Kogawa group 120 days to raise the $700,000 needed to purchase it. The official deadline is March 30.
Turner said TLC, which purchases landmark properties and protects them in perpetuity, heard about the home's uncertain future in December from the Vancouver Heritage Foundation. TLC's board of directors agreed to get involved, but only if enough money can be raised to purchase the house and property, pay for required restoration, and establish an endowment to maintain the property. The total cost required is $1.25 million.
But even if enough money is raised merely to purchase the home, the board of directors will not go ahead with the project, Turner said.
"They will not agree to a mortgage and they do not want to struggle ahead trying to find money for the restorations," said Turner. "We're just going to have to make this work."
He said TLC can raise money more easily than can a small committee and is already soliciting corporate, philanthropic and private donations.
Todd Wong, a member of the Kogawa committee, said the group is extremely pleased TLC agreed to join its quest to save the home.
"They saw it is a worthwhile project and that lends even more legitimacy to it," he said.
Raising money for the cause was tough through Christmas, and hopes for any help from the federal government are on hold until after the Jan. 23 federal election, Wong said. He admits raising $1.25 million in less than three months is a daunting task.
"We were hoping to raise enough money for a down payment for a mortgage, but the Land Conservancy told us to think big," he said.
Wong and the group want the home preserved for a writers-in-residence program, in the same vein as the Pierre Berton House Writers Residence Retreat in Dawson City, which is operated by arts, tourism and library groups. The program, initiated by the author while he was still alive, enables professional Canadian writers to live in his boyhood home rent free while writing in the remote northern community.
Wong will donate proceeds from his annual Gung Haggis Fat Choy Dinner held last Sunday at the Floata Seafood Restaurant on Keefer Street, to the project. Wong said almost 500 people, including Kogawa and Mayor Sam Sullivan, attended the Robbie Burns Chinese New Year dinner. Wong was not able to say how much money had been raised before the Courier's press deadline.
For information on the Save Kogawa House project, call 604-733-2313 or go to www.conservancy.bc.ca.
published on 01/25/2006
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