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Jacquie Pope's 'Vatican'

Earlier this month , we were invited to attend the Alta Lake Road Block Party. While sharing information about the neighbourhood's history with residents, a couple came by to share some history of their friend Jacquie Pope with us.
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summer fun Three of the original Witsend owners and residents of Alta Lake Road, (from left) Jacquie Pope, Kelly Fairhurst, and Florence Petersen. Whistler Question Collection, 1980

Earlier this month, we were invited to attend the Alta Lake Road Block Party.

While sharing information about the neighbourhood's history with residents, a couple came by to share some history of their friend Jacquie Pope with us.

Jacquie Pope first visited Alta Lake in 1953, when she and Kelly Forster (later Kelly Fairhurst) took a two-week vacation at Rainbow Lodge. After that holiday, Pope remembered that they returned every chance they got, including "the following summer and every long weekend in between."

At the time, travel to Alta Lake was an all-day affair and weekend trips took dedication.

In 1955, Jacquie and Kelly were part of a group of teachers who bought a cabin together on Alta Lake Road. The five women were Jacquie, Kelly, Florence Strachan (later Petersen), Betty Gray, and June Tidball. At Alta Lake they learned to split wood, cook on a wood-burning stove, and lime an outhouse.

Their cabin, soon named "Witsend" after a particularly trying and rainy journey to Alta Lake, was a much-loved summer and weekend getaway for the group.

Jacquie sold her shares in Witsend in 1964 and bought her own lot further along the road. She paid $1,500 to a PGE employee for Lot 30 and her house, built by Alta Lake Road neighbour Colin Ramsay, was completed in 1965. In a play on her last name, the house was named "The Vatican."

At that time it wasn't uncommon to see names attached to properties, including Valhalla, the Gowery, Whispering Leaves, Woodbine Cottage, Worlebury Lodge, Primrose, the Vicarage, and Kelso Lodge.

Jacquie continued teaching in Burnaby and spent her summers at Alta Lake. After retiring in 1983, she moved to Whistler full time.

Florence remembered Jacquie as "the life of many a gathering," especially when she led the sing-a-longs with her ukulele. Jacquie had a passion for sports and had even played field hockey for Canada in the Netherlands in 1959. During her retirement in Whistler she hiked, fished and even sailed her own Sabot, a sailing dinghy that is sailed single handedly, as part of the Alta Lake Sailing Club.

Jacquie stayed at "The Vatican" on Alta Lake Road until 2001, when she sold the property and moved to Squamish to enjoy easier winters and a longer golf season. James Collingwood, who bought Lot 30, demolished the house built by Colin Ramsay.

The sign that hung outside "The Vatican" moved to Squamish with Jacquie and was reportedly displayed in her garden. After her death in 2011, friends and neighbours of hers inherited the sign and kept it in their own garden.

These friends of Jacquie's attended the Alta Lake Road Block Party and brought with them the sign from her Alta Lake property, surprising us by donating it to the museum collections. Despite spending decades outside, it is in remarkably good condition and the carved lettering is still easy to read.

The sign represents a period in the area when Alta Lake was a popular summer cottage destination, before visitors traded their sailboats for skis. Though Jacquie's house is no longer standing, artifacts like her sign provide insight into Whistler's history.