Residence - Crofton House

Crofton House School was founded in 1898 by the Gordon sisters, Miss Jessie Gordon and Miss Mary Gordon. The name Crofton House was suggested by memories of the “Crofton Cottages” just outside Cambridge. The school was started in their father’s home on Georgia Street with just four girls. In 1901, the school moved to the corner of Jervis and Nelson in the West End. In 1937, the Misses Gordon retired and Crofton House School became an educational trust.

Miss Sara E.G. Macdonald became Headmistress and in 1942 the school moved to the present 10-acre (4 ha) site on West 41st Avenue in Kerrisdale. Crofton House was a boarding school until 1990 and the old boarding house is now used as the main administrative building, called “The Old Residence”.

“The Old Residence” was originally built in 1902 for Richard Byron Johnson. In 1909, Alvo von Alvenslenben, a very active businessman in Vancouver, paid $30,000 for the lavish estate called Edgewood. The estate was 32 acres at W 41st/Blenheim. In 1910 von Alvensleben moved his family in and lived there for four years.
As World War One broke out, von Alvensleben’s German connection worked against him. His Canadian properties were seized against him and he retired to Seattle.

Source

At Home with History , Eve Lazarus (P.54, 57)

More information

http://www.croftonhouse.ca/page.cfm?p=361