This week’s issue of WE Vancouver is all about beer barons in the making. However, on June 1, you can get an idea of how beer barons in the past used to live.
Vancouver Heritage Foundation has added Casa Mia to its roster of 11 gems on the 2014 Heritage House Tour. Built in 1932 for George C Reifel – whose beer empire started in Brewery Creek in the 1900s and survived prohibition by opening a brewery in Japan in 1921 – the house on southwest Marine Drive is Vancouver’s premier example of Spanish Colonial Revival architecture.
“With a distinctive custom design, the home’s plot of land once stretched to the edge of the Fraser River,” the heritage foundation says. “The opulent interior includes a gold leaf covered ballroom complete with sprung wood floors and a stage that served as the second Commodore Ballroom [which Reifel owned] to many of Vancouver’s best known performers, a stunning central staircase with original woodwork, tile and impressive pendant light, a nursery hand-painted in egg tempera by Disney artists, and a gold swan faucet in the ladies powder room.”
Tour tickets are $40 each and are available at VancouverHeritageFoundation.org, or you can enter to win a pair at WEVancouver.com/contests.
