The story behind West Vancouver’s ‘party house with a view’

A derelict, graffiti-covered waterfront home in West Vancouver at the entrance to Horseshoe Bay has fascinated Vancouverites since it was built in 1951.

A recent story on 6689 Nelson Ave., which photographer Mark Teasdale dubbed a “party house with a view,” garnered over 113,000 views on Postmedia News’ websites across Canada.

It prompted several emails with information about the property, including one from Sharon Gerbasi, whose great-uncle, Cyril Diplock, built the house as a weekend getaway.

It was small, but stylish.

“The house was very nice, quite modern,” she recounts. “It just had one bedroom, one bathroom, a large living room and dining room and kitchen. When I look at the house now, it looks like they built on top of it.”