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404 Somerset - A Tale of Pioneers and Crime Busters!

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When a heritage house survives the rigours of time, we should applaud. Particularly when it has the pedigree of a quality build and a rich local history. One such house holds these attributes in spades. It is the Diplock Residence at 404 Somerset Street, North Vancouver.

Diplock Residence, 404 Somerset, North Vancouver,

Listed on the City of North Vancouver’s Heritage Register, the Diplock Residence was built in 1912 and is named after its first owner, Arthur Bramah Diplock. We’ll get to the history, but first let’s have a look at the house.

Set originally on an expansive three lot plot (now two lots) in Tempe Heights, the sumptuousness of the build is described in an article in the Vancouver Daily Province of 20th April 1912.

Thankfully, much of the original wood panelling, hardwood floors and fireplaces have been retained. The house has survived the pressures of development. This 1981 photograph shows little change from the 1912 original or the house of today.

404 Somerset, circa 1981, Courtesy of MONOVA: North Vancouver Museum & Archives (Inventory No 5955)

Of equal value, many would argue, is the house as a depository. The history behind its walls.

Arthur Diplock, the man who commissioned the house, was a pioneer of North Vancouver when it was little more than a quayside, a timber mill, and forest. This portrait, taken in 1907, gives us an insight into the determination of the man.

Arthur Diplock, 1907, Photo courtesy of MONOVA: North Vancouver Museum & Archives (Inventory No 10457)

An emigrant from Britain, Diplock arrived in Vancouver in 1887, shortly after the great fire had ravaged the city. It was a time of opportunity for a savvy businessman. Quickly, he established a trading company in conjunction with a like-minded businessman, Osburn. Diplock & Osburn Importers were based at 519 Hastings Street and a youthful looking Diplock, aged 26, can be seen, far right, in this 1889 photograph.

Diplock & Osburn Importers at 519 Hastings Street with Arthur Diplock, aged 26, far right, 1889. Photo courtesy of the City of Vancouver Archives (AM54-S4-: Str P50).

By the time of this photograph, Diplock’s wife, Eleanor Theresa (nee Rischmann), had followed him out from England. Married in Winnipeg, they set up house in Nelson Street, Vancouver, together with Eleanor’s younger sister, Daisy.

The Rischmann sisters had grown up in Lewisham, Kent. Their father, Louis Rischmann, was a hop merchant of German extraction, and the family appears to have been at one time well-to-do. However, at some point, Louis ran into difficulties. A court record dated 1869 references his bankruptcy with debts amounting to GBP7,622, which equates to over a million pounds in today’s money (CAD1.75m). His death in 1878 (when Eleanor was 15 and Daisy 8) left the siblings’ mother, Eleanor Rischmann (nee Wheeler) a widow, and her subsequent death in 1881, three years later, left Eleanor (then aged 18) and her siblings without parents. It must have been a tumultuous time for the family. As described, two of the sisters migrated to Canada, with a third, Maria Louise joining them later.

 The history of North Vancouver may have been different if the two sisters had not migrated.  Diplock was an acquaintance of Benjamin Cornish, a builder who had emigrated from England in the same year. An introduction by Eleanor resulted in a romance and subsequent marriage between her younger sister, Daisy and Cornish. Cornish and his friend, William Keene had been considering a plan to settle in North Vancouver, which at the time was pioneering country. In 1897, they struck a deal with the North Vancouver Land and Improvement Company to buy 20 acres of forest on the upper reaches of the Lonsdale skid road. Cornish and Keene brought in Diplock, Alfred Crickmay (Keene’s brother-in-law), and Arnold Kealy. Described by Warren Sommer as the “founding five” in his book, The Ambitious City: A History of the City of North Vancouver, these five men and their families were the catalyst for the settlement that was to become Upper Lonsdale.

By the end of the 1890s, the Diplocks and their three boys, and the Cornishes, were neighbours on their 5-acre plots near the corner of 15th Street and Lonsdale.

Diplock’s business interests blossomed, such that in 1902 he founded the Western Corporation, a sawmill, building and real estate conglomerate with offices in North Vancouver. The company developed its own wharfs, warehouses, and North Vancouver’s first commercial building, The Syndicate Block. This 1905 photograph shows John Archibald McMillan’s grocery store and post office, which formed part of the building.

John Archibald McMillan’s grocery store and post office, which formed part of the Syndicate Block, circa 1905. Photo courtesy of the City of Vancouver Archives (AM54-S4-: Out P1057).

Located on the corner of Lonsdale Avenue and Esplanade, you can just make out the McMillan sign in this 1908 photograph of the foot of Lonsdale.

Foot of Lonsdale Ave. from ferry wharf. Photo courtesy of MONOVA: North Vancouver Museum and Archives, (Inventory No 458).

The Syndicate Block, now Moe’s General Store (April, 2023), 104 Esplanade, North Vancouver, B.C. Photo courtesy of Jennifer Clay.

Diplock’s passage through life was not to be plain sailing. Despite its prominent and powerful role for several years, the Western Corporation collapsed and went into receivership in October 1909. Its timber operation was renewed as the Seymour Lumber Company, but in May 1912, bad luck was to follow. The sawmill and a portion of its timber lots burnt down in a bush fire that swept through much of the western part of the district. Without insurance, the company folded. 120 workers found themselves unemployed.

The hand of fate was to strike again. Diplock fell ill. He sold the house at 15th Street and commissioned the build of 404 Somerset Street. It was to be his final resting place. Tragically, he died in 1915 at the age of 51.

A subsequent owner of the house from around 1920 until his death in 1963 was Dugald Donaghy, a barrister with offices in West Hastings Street, Vancouver.

Dugald Donaghy., 1926 Photo courtesy of Vancouver Archives (Port N 52).  

To all accounts, Donaghy was a man who spoke his mind. Pictured above, Donaghy served as Mayor of North Vancouver from 1923 to 1925. Elected as the Liberal MP for Vancouver North in the 1925 federal election, he was defeated the following year when he ran in Vancouver Centre.

He subsequently acted as city solicitor for North Vancouver and is known particularly for a case in 1935, when as city solicitor, he prosecuted Joe Celona, a gangster, who had become the target of Vancouver's "war on crime".

Giuseppe Fiorenza, better known as Joe Celona, 1920’s or 1930’s. Public domain.

Giuseppe Fiorenza, better known as Joe Celona, had arrived from Italy via New York City in 1913, and landed in Vancouver six years later. Celona ran a legitimate business, a cigar shop, but also had a string of East Vancouver brothels in the background. Notoriously camera shy, a rare early picture of him from the 1920s, now in the public domain, is shown above.

Donaghy was not one to mince his words. Aside from several racist remarks, which can’t be reprinted here, the following report in The Vancouver Sun of 2nd April 1935 gives a flavour of the trial.

 Donaghy’s prosecution was a win for the authorities. Sentenced to 22 years in prison, an appeal reduced Celona’s time to 11 years. With good behaviour, he was back on the streets in five. His freedom didn’t last long. A public outcry ensured he was re-arrested to serve the remainder of his sentence. When he finally got out of prison in 1943, he turned to bootlegging, before eventually retiring from crime in the 1950s. His death in 1958 marked the end of an era.

Diplock and Donaghy played integral roles as pioneers in the history of Vancouver. In both cases, 404 Somerset Street was their final home. It is a legacy to be treasured by those who come after.

One photograph that for me encapsulates the spirit of those early settlers is the 1905 picture of volunteers clearing Victoria Park. Provided courtesy of the North Vancouver Archives (Inventory No 53), Diplock’s oldest boys, Fred and Thomas can be seen sitting on top of the huge tree stump in the background.

Volunteers clearing Victoria Park with Fred and Thomas Diplock on tree stump, 1905. Photo courtesy of MONOVA: North Vancouver Museum and Archives (Inventory No 53).

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