Casa Mia (Vancouver)

 architecture - Do not use this category, mansion / manor house / villa

Built in 1932 for George Reifel, a liquor magnate during Prohibition who also opened the Commodore Ballroom, "Casa Mia" is an historic Spanish Revival/art deco mansion in Vancouver's Southlands neighbourhood.

At over 20,000 square feet, Casa Mia has 8 bedrooms, 9 fireplaces, a 4-car garage, and a ballroom in the basement with a sprung dancefloor, mens & womens washrooms and a stage. During the 1940s, Reifel’s son George Jr. was known to bring famous jazz musicians including Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie and Count Basie to the house for late-night parties.

The grounds once went all the way down to the Fraser River, but the lower part has since been sold off and developed into housing. George Reifel’s brother Harry also had a Spanish Revival mansion, Rio Vista, up the street at 2170 Southwest Marine Drive.

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