Today this 1929 building looks pretty rough, but in the 1978 image it was still in its original use, and still in great condition. Hodgson & Simmonds designed the $15,000 Undertaking Parlour in 1927 in the mission style popular at the time. The developer was owner of the S R Bell Funeral Parlors here. Sid R Bell only appeared in the directory in 1928, so he had apparently just arrived in the city, and that seems to be confirmed by him having no press mention before the end of 1927.
By 1940 the business was known as the S R Bell Funeral Home with S R Bell, A Bell and K C Strange as partners, but that year references to the business change to the Bell Funeral Home, with only K C Strange as funeral director. As there's no listed A Bell connected to the undertakers, it would seem that Annie Bell may have taken an active role in the operation of the business.
Sidney Robert Bell was born in the UK in 1881 (possibly in Newton Abbott, in Devon), and arrived in Ellis Island in 1913, en route to Vancouver. He was an embalmer by trade, but initially ran a confectionery store on Commercial Drive. By 1920 he had become a clerk at Independent Undertakers, and was living on West Broadway. He married Annie Cusick in Seattle in 1926. She was the same age as Sidney, and was from McKillop Township, Huron, Ontario. Annie died in February 1965, and Sidney five months later. They don't seem to have had any children.
The references to the funeral home ended in 1946, and only start up again in 1951, when the business had become the Glenhaven Funeral Chapel, run by George A Martin. That company were still operating here in the 1978 image. In 1999 the business moved six blocks to the east, to new premises, and since 2019 there are 16 visual artists and a wood working collective working here in Shady Acres Artist Studios, run by The Narrow Group.
Image source: City of Vancouver Archives CVA 786-45.03
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