THE 2024 Prize Home is already constructed on its Langley property and will be available for tours from July 13 to September 2, 2024 (opening Friday and Saturday, and then all Saturdays until Labour Day Weekend 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.). Free tour tickets will be available through TicketLeader in June.
This year’s Lottery will feature three ticket options, including bundles of two tickets for $35, six tickets for $80, fifteen tickets for $165, and thirty tickets for $285.
PNE Prize Home tickets are available online at pneprizehome.ca or via phone at 604-678-4663 or toll free at 1-877-946-4663. The call centre is open Monday to Friday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and weekends / holidays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Here are some photos of this year’s Prize Home:
IT was the height of the depression when the organizers of the PNE came up with a novel concept aimed at generating excitement as well as promoting the best of British Columbia building products, ingenuity, design and acumen. Unveiled at the 1934 Fair at the PNE was North America’s first home lottery giveaway, says The PNE.
The astonishing prize that would go to one lucky fairgoer, a fully furnished home that came with a free Vancouver city lot and $500 in furnishings from Eaton’s Department Store brought thousands of curious and hopeful guests to the exhibition that year. The home, which was dubbed the “Dream Bungalow,” boasted an astonishing total prize value of $5,000, including the home, lot on Renfrew Street, and the furnishings that included a “state of the art” electric stove. After the Fair the Home was pulled to its Renfrew Street home by a team of Clydesdale horses, leading the way to the development of the Hastings Sunrise neighbourhood.
The legend of first winner of the PNE Dream Home is as charming as the original give-away concept. The ’34 Home was won by Leonard Frewin, a mechanic from Vancouver who was courting Emily Leitch. Emily’s father insisted that Leonard couldn’t properly provide for his daughter, so he did not support the match. As fate would have it, Leonard attended the 1934 PNE on the last day of the Fair, where he purchased a Dream Home ticket for twenty-five cents. He heard his name announced as the winner while listening to the radio that night, ran to Emily’s house, sat on the stoop until she emerged in the morning to go to work, and proposed on the spot.
The Frewin family lived in the original 800 square foot Dream Home for over 60 years until both Emily and Leonard passed away within months of each other in the 1990’s and their children sold the home.
It has been 90 years since Leonard Frewin won that first PNE Prize Home, and since then, dozens of winners, like Leonard, have had their lives changed forever by the annual lottery.
The PNE Prize Home has come a long way since Leonard won that first 800 square foot bungalow.
Follow the PNE Prize Home’s social accounts: @PNEPrizeHome on Facebook and Instagram for updated photos and videos throughout the summer.
