Built 154 years ago, Navvy Jack House belonged to West Vancouver’s earliest settler

Navvy Jack isn’t going anywhere.

District of West Vancouver council voted unanimously Tuesday to give heritage designation status to Navvy Jack House, the home of West Vancouver’s earliest settler. It has been on West Vancouver’s waterfront for 154 years.

“The home is one of the oldest homes in the Lower Mainland and it is believed to be the oldest home that has been continuously occupied since construction,” district planner Michelle McGuire told council.

The heritage designation means the building cannot legally be altered or destroyed.

The house was built in 1872 by John “Navvy Jack” Thomas, the North Shore’s first ferryman. He married the granddaughter of Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation) Chief Ki-ep-i-lano. Some of their descendents were among the supporters who pushed council to save the home from demolition in 2020.

In 2023, the district leased the property to Carrera Management, which has restored the home in accordance with a heritage conservation plan, built an addition and patio and will open it to the public as a bistro this summer.

Council held a public hearing prior to the vote on Tuesday but no one came to speak for or against the heritage designation.

Council passed the bylaw without any debate, although Mayor Mark Sager did speak up to praise the Navvy Jack citizens group that led the work to see the building kept and repurposed.

“Your efforts and your push to see this building preserved made a huge difference,” he said. “I was fortunate enough, about two weeks ago, to go through the building and I hope you’ll agree with me, the fellow restoring has done a superb job. It is going to be a real asset for this community.”

When it opens as a bistro, Navvy Jack House will come with interpretive signs telling the history of the place and the efforts made to save the home.

That opening has been delayed, however, because components of the patio’s awning have been waylaid on a freighter in the Strait of Hormuz since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran, prompting an international crisis.