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History of Brock House, our Jericho Beach heritage building

The Gilman years

Philip Gilman, a mining engineer and provincial assayer from England who had made a fortune from his real estate investments, purchased 2-1/2 acres of beachfront property at Jericho Beach in 1906 and 1909. He engaged architects Samuel Maclure and Cecil Fox to design his “dream home,” and construction started in 1911. Philip and his wife Dorothy moved in in 1912. However, by 1916 land values had plummeted and Philip was forced to sell the land back to the Government of BC in lieu of taxes for a fraction of its value. The house was mortgaged and then remortgaged until, almost bankrupt, Philip sold his dream home to Mildred Brock in 1922, then returned to England with his family.

The Brock years

Millie and her husband Reginald Brock, Dean of Applied Science at UBC, moved in with the youngest of their five sons in August 1922. Millie named their new home “Brockholm” and poured all her energy into both the home and gardens. Many years later, the boys remembered Brockholm as a “children’s paradise.” Reg and Millie had a profound interest in people and a wide circle of friends and hosted guests from all over the world. But tragedy struck in July 1935 when they were killed in an airplane crash near Whistler. Their three younger sons remained in the house to finish their education until 1938 when they sold Brockholm to David Tait.

The Tait and McConnell years

David Tait and his partners owned Privateer Mines in Zeballos, one of the richest gold properties in British Columbia, but they had to start a public company to bring the mine into production. He and his wife Emily moved to Vancouver, “where the money, the stock market, the mining community and the major media were,” and into Brockholm. Life during the war years was difficult anyway, but then the gold standard was frozen at $35 an ounce and the mine was forced to close, sharply reducing David’s income. In 1952, he died suddenly and his widow sold the property to the Federal Government for the use by the RCMP.

The RCMP years

In 1951, the RCMP absorbed 495 members of the BC Provincial Police after it took over provincial policing. These police officers had to be trained in RCMP policies and procedures, so the RCMP established the Fairmont Training Subdivision at Fairmont Barracks. At the time, Fairmont was home to the RCMP’s Vancouver Subdivision, but it quickly became clear that more space was needed. So, in 1952, the subdivision moved into the home and the name was changed to Brock House. It was a challenging workplace from the start and became even more so when the RCMP’s Security and Intelligence Section moved in three years later. By 1971, the RCMP had boarded up Brock House and moved to new quarters in South Vancouver.

The lost years

Brock House remained empty and a target of squatters and vandals until, in early in 1975, the City of Vancouver purchased the property from the Federal Government and transferred it to the jurisdiction of the Vancouver Park Board. After lengthy public consultations, the Park Board awarded the property to Brock House Society in October 1975.