If you live on the North Shore, chances are you have been to Lions Gate Hospital in some capacity. The hospital is a cornerstone of the community where lives start and lives end, and where sick and injured seek help, care and cure. Today's hospital is in the area of the first funded hospital on East 15th near St. Andrew's Avenue, which opened its doors to patients on May 15, 1908. Read on to learn more about the Dawson sisters, three nurses from Yorkshire, who took it upon themselves to build and run the first hospital in North Vancouver.

In the early 20th century, the area east of the Seymour River was heavily forested with mostly dirt trails, horse drawn wagons, and very few residents, save those connected to logging activities and to the lumber and shingle mills in the area. It was to this “land of opportunity” that newlyweds, Jack and Christena Gillis, came in 1923, arriving by train from PEI. Jack got a job initially with the Burrard Dry Dock, and then at a shingle mill and finally with the DNV opening roads, including from Deep Cove Highway to the wharf at the foot of Strathcona Road. During this time, he scouted the area and decided to purchase four lots on Harris Ave from Strathcona Road towards the water. The price for each lot was $20!  Over the next few years, in his spare time, he built a log house on lot #4. It was eventually completed in 1926. The log house became known as The Homestead and today, lives on as one of the few log homes in the DNV. Amazingly, this year, the Homestead turns 100!  Read on to learn more about the construction and evolution of this house and the Gillis and Webb families, who are inextricably linked to this living piece of history in our midst!