Rows and rows of eclectic items, worldly trinkets, vintage furniture, and the simple and mundane fill a warehouse in Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant neighbourhood.
You may not know it by just walking near the building, but it’s home to a gem in the TV, film, and art industry. Mount Pleasant Furniture, which boasts a massive collection of props, has been operating for 40 years, through three generations of Madsens.
“We started off with antique stores many years ago, so we had two antique stores, then we started renting things from the antique stores and then we blossomed,” explained Leslie Madsen, who currently owns the prop house, which, from her calculation, houses over a million items.
“The rental business with film ballooned in the 1990s so then we started focusing more energy on that. This is how Mount Pleasant Furniture started, it’s been since 1988.”
But Madsen is now getting ready to say goodbye to the family-owned business. Like so many other buildings in the area, the warehouse along East 4th Avenue has been sold to a developer.
“We have our building across the street, which is staying, but this building that we’re in that I leased, it has been bought by a development company so it’s been slated for demolition,” she said, speaking to CityNews from her warehouse.
“So, we’re kind of like in limbo right now. This neighbourhood is completely changing. As you can see, when you walk around here, a lot of the old businesses are gone now and there’s a lot of ‘For Lease’ (signs) on buildings because it is slated for demolition. So a lot of the locally owned family business people are moving or just retiring. A lot of people in my neighbourhood, they are gone they sold their buildings and gone. It’s a changing Vancouver.”
Madsen, who raised her family in the neighbourhood, continues to live across the street from where her warehouse currently sits.
As she looks around her block, she says it will soon be filled with high-rise buildings. She admits the area soon won’t be recognizable
“It’s all going to change because we’re going to be sort of pushed out by development, right? It’s going to be super hard. I’ve got my building across the way but when I think about this one coming down and the one right next door to me, it’s slated for, I think, 14 storeys? So trying to live or operate something under those circumstances, I think it’s going to be super hard for that,” Madsen explained.
While Madsen understands the need for housing, she says the development that’s planned for her area is actually geared for office space and medical research.
“I understand that change happens and what’s happened with Vancouver — I was born and raised here — basically, downtown is moving down here and it was just a matter of time. I’m lucky that I got to have a long roll here, like almost 40 years, so I’m thrilled, I love this neighbourhood, 100 per cent, I probably will always want to be in this neighbourhood somewhere but I don’t know if it’s viable for me, or if I want to stay here when everything’s coming down around me,” she said.
While many businesses are becoming casualties of gentrification and development in parts of the city, Madsen is hoping her collection will live on after her family parts ways with it.
She tells CityNews she has her heart sold on someone buying the entire collection and keeping it in film, so the magic of her props can live on.
“I really don’t have it in my heart to see it get dispersed. It’s been a work of our lives, our family, and it’s something that I’d really want to keep together,” she explained.
“Just trying to find a large space is really difficult for this.”
While she’s sad to see the collection go, Madsen says she’s also ready for retirement and is looking forward to her next chapter.
“It is certainly tough to say goodbye, 100 per cent. It’s been our whole life’s work. My kids all worked here, it’s a big family thing. But you know what? Things go on, things change, and I’m thinking positive that it’s going to get a good new home.”
MPF to be the star of the show
MPF has provided items for many popular films and shows over the years, including the X Files, Supernatural, and Night at the Museum. But Madsen says if you’ve ever watched anything filmed in Vancouver, chances are you’ve seen her pieces.
“As a family, we’d go to Mexico every year and over Christmas time with the kids and we used to watch TV and the kids would go ‘that’s ours, that’s ours, that’s ours.’ You kind of never got away from it. But yeah, we laugh,” she joked.
In honour of the business, Griffin Art Projects is putting on a show dedicated to the history of MPF.
The Prop House: A Collection of One Million Objects runs from May 18 until Aug. 18.
“Artist Paul Wong, he’s a friend of mine. A lot of artists do come here to get things, I support a lot of the arts, projects. And so he was wandering around one day and … him and his assistant Christian, he’s a whiz with the cameras, so they … flew a drone all through MPF and then all the way through the other building and up onto the roof deck. And we looked at it and then Paul came up with the idea,” Madsen said of the show. She says curator Lisa Baldissera with Griffin Art Projects was immediately on board.
Madsen says apart from a general sense, the whole show is going to be a surprise for her and her family.
“I’m really excited about it,” she said.
It’s unclear when exactly MPF will have to officially have to vacate the warehouse. But for now, Madsen is hopeful people will get a sense of what her business has been all about by visiting the gallery.
When it comes to actually moving the entire collection, Madsen admits it’s a scary thought, noting it’ll be a massive undertaking.
“I have no idea how long it would take to move. I would think months,” she said.