User:Bobanny/historical buildings

• UPDATE: I've started a list that I hope to move to its own page soon of all the designated heritage buildings in town. Shee-it, like a lot of computer/wikipedia-related things I take on, it's a lot more tedious and time consuming than I thought, but it should be useful when it's done, and catch a lot of buildings that probably don't merit their own articles. It's amazing how the sources don't agree on basic details. Is the Firehall Arts Centre Firehall #1 or #2? The plaque on it says #1, the designation is #2. Addresses and year built also fluctuate depending on the source. Anyway, here's what I've got so far (the list includes Schedule "B" as well as "A" buildings.) As soon as I get something down for all designated buildings, and maybe alphabetize it, I'll create a formal wiki-list. bobanny 05:49, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

User:Bobanny/historical buildings/Schedule 'A' heritage designations

Introduction

I'd like to get some more articles on historical buildings in Vancouver and beef up the Vancouver Buildings and structures category. I'm over-stretched right now, but thought starting a list while its still fresh in my weary brain would be a good idea, at least to document my lofty intentions.

I'm thinking some overview articles on certain themes, with daughter articles for the more deserving buildings. Otherwise, I think we'd end up with a ton of stub sized articles that wouldn't be as user friendly. I find this an interesting subject right now because a lot of development is happening (for better and worse no doubt, might lose that cheap, dirty, white, and decrepit 1980s look for the city, especially as all the expo stuff falls apart). Alot of development happening in the DTES that's affecting the historical building stock.

Resources

A good online resource is the Greater Vancouver Book list by Harold Kalman. I've got a first edition (1973) of his book on the subject as well, a section on demolished buildings from an architectural POV. (I hate the idea that we're replicating the GVB here, without pay, but it almost seems unavoidable to some extent). There's also lots of historically, but not architecturally, significant buildings that would escape Kalman's radar.

Another book I'm going to add here is Michael Kluckner's Vancouver Remembered (2006, Whitecap Books Ltd.) 230 odd pages colour photos, illustrations and an exhaustive retrospective on buildings and neighbourhoods from an architectural and historic standpoint.

I'll add more resources, etc. another time, but fer now, here's a first stab at a list. Most of mine are labour-history related. Feel free to make additions and a one line note if it's not a well-known building. In-depth discussion should be placed on the User talk:Bobanny/historical buildings page.

• Vancouver architecture (a main article from the section in Vancouver, concentrating on architecturally significant buildings, and perhaps notable local architects)
  • • The Canadian architecture page when I found it was all about, of course, notable buildings in Toronto and Ottawa, and made sweeping pronouncements about Canadian styles and tastes which had nothing to do with the world outside the Golden Horseshoe and the Bureaucrat Belt; I made some changes but it still needs work/emendation, and will need a "main article" template when and if there's a separate Vancouver article; Architecture of British Columbia is a very separate topic, by the way, but I'll deal with that another time...Skookum1

Buildings

• • Lumbermen's Building not overly remarkable, but a nice office building from the early 20th c. It was built by C. F. Pretty, a BC lumberbaron, fascist, and one of those proto-socred monetary reform cranks of the depression-era. It's in rough shape now, standing empty and begging for renos at 509 Richards, accross from the Marble Arch hotel. Notable for it's occupants: Numerous far right and overtly fascist political parties, including the Fascisti of Canada, and Tom MacInnes's various parties (one with the acronym NDP, but I forget what it stands for). Several private detective agencies (i.e., labour spies) had their offices there. The Citizen's League, a vigilante group formed to fight the commies in 1935, "Labour Truth," a newspaper for "sane" labour, i.e., those who supported company unions and the Shipping Federation (at least til the commies infiltrated it).
    • Likewise ther Rogers Building (Vancouver) (Pender at Granville) and the Standard Building (Pender at Richards]] - I think that second one's name is right but maybe I've mixed it up with the one on the corner of Richards and Granville. There's that whole Edwardian collection from there down towards the Dominion building; the old banks along Hastings e.g. (WAVES coffee shop is the old Bank of British Columbia, for instance), and the various old buildings along Pender, including the neoclassical portico down past Homer; which used to be a professional assn. I think; that Gothic thing opposite A&B has a story, too.

• • 411 Seniors Centre Originally built by organized labour as the Labour Temple. Was raided by a few hundred ex-servicemen in 1918, probably hired to do so, during the Ginger Goodwin general strike, and they hung the president out the 2nd story window and made him kiss the union jack. But the revolutionary schemes nonetheless continued... Whichever union owned it couldn't afford to hang onto it in the depression, and it fell into the hands of the provincial government. As a slap to labour, it was used as a relief office, where the weekly "gunny sack parade" of married men went to get their government handouts of food and such. Still owned by the government.

• • • Right next to it, or rather on the block opposite the Queen E, was the much-lamented Alcazar Hotel. Not really architecturally notable though maybe historically; I just miss the old lounge...(big cozy armchairs, quiet, kinda dark, adult, not like a beer parlour...we used to have lots of those...)
  • IWW hall -- Building kitty corner to Woodwards on Cordova at Abbott. I think it's a heritage building notable in its own right, besides the Wobs.

• • Coroner's Court I made a stub for the police museum, but it's a notable building beyond what's in that article. Erol Flynn kicked the bucket there, or else his corpse was taken there, rather than the hospital to avoid the papparazzi. Vancouver also had a cutting edge forensics laboratory there under a fellow named Inspector Vance, who invented things like a version of the breathalyzer, and did ballistics experiments and tests there. Gangland tried to do him in a few times and police departments from all over called on his services.

• • Japanese Cultural Centre (Vancouver), heart of Japantown in its day, seized during WWII, later returned and restored.

• • Ukrainian Hall (not sure if that's the correct name, it's in Strathcona) Also confiscated during the war, I think because they were all commies, and later returned. Served as a make-shift hospital during depression-era skirmishes with the police (as did the Coroner's Court).
    • what about all the other ethnic halls? e.g. Cambrian Hall, Polish Hall, Alpine Hall? It's a long list, and many have histories attached to them...
  • WISE Hall - a "major" cultural venue, surely

ah, yes. Stands for "Welsh, Irish, Scottish, and English." They recently removed the periods, because too many people were calling it the "white" club. The original building was part of a church, (which is now the Vancouver East Cultural Centre), which was built as a gymnasium with a bowling alley downstairs (now the pub).

• • Vancouver East Cultural Centre (or commonly referred to locally as the Cultch).

• • Robson Square - Arthur Erickson's (controversial among locals) 1970s court house design, which essentially is a tall concrete building laid flat on the ground with water and trees placed on it.

• • Vogue Theatre Art Deco, built in 1930s and I believe abandoned for some time until resuscitated.

• • Yale Hotel.
  • Dominion Hotel (Vancouver)
• Vancouver Rowing Club - most people don't know this was originally moored on the other shore of Coal Harbour, at the bottom of the bluff in the area of Hornby and Howe Streets; IIRC the location of the Vancouver Club was picked partly because it was handy to the Rowing Club.

• The Only (restaurant)
• The Smiling Buddha - currently with a "For Lease" sign, but missing its famous old neon sign (which is in the Vancouver Museum's neon collection now, I think...)
• The White Lunch
• The Bodega Building(s)
• Ho Ho Restaurant (now defunct, renovated and known as Foo's Ho Ho).
  • As I recall, Foo's used to be right next to the Ho-Ho; I guess they amalgamated ;-)
• Ovaltine Cafe (heck, oolichan was still on the menu in the early 90s, haven't been there lately to see if it still is, although I doubt it.. if anyone knows where I can get some by the way, let me know ;)--Keefer4 23:34, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

Ask User:OldManRivers.....Skookum1 07:45, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

• What's now the Army & Navy Building; its Cordova Street facade had a genesis as some major investment, as I recall something like a mall or a Robson-style thing with leased storefronts. Lots of old pictures available of it (mostly parades using Cordova).Skookum1 21:22, 7 March 2007 (UTC)
• Hotel Europe- currently a stub needing expansion with reliable sources. Couldn't find much else on the web besides what's already there. Actually I'm just putting it here to de-orphan it to justify my removal of the obnoxious orphan tag.
• Merchant's Bank Building (Carrall @ Hastings)
• Pigeon Park
• Petrina Block (Homer @ Cordova, north side)
• Fleck Block aka Flack Block, NE corner of Cambie @ Hastings
• Metropole Hotel (Vancouver)
• Cambie Hotel
• Carter-Cotton Block (old Province newspaper building, named after the paper's owner at the time)
• Vancouver High School (where VCC is now); next to it was the orginal Vancouver General Hospital; both dreary brick-gothic affairs.
• Pappas Furs - love 'em or hate 'em, they're notable. Their location, however, along with the old modernesque former bank building on the corner of Hamilton and Hastings, was the location of the Inns of Court Building (Vancouver), in the days when the Courthouse was on the other side of Hamilton. The old curb exchange used to function in this area, particularly in a covered/retail pedestrian walkway which cut the corner between Hastings and Cambie, about where Bassix is now; it was called The Arcade (Vancouver).
• Sinclair Centre. Mentioned by Skookum in the Hastings Street article, and a no-brainer, really.
• not sure what to call it - Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce Building (1886) (or 1887?), which is still there with its original window-frames (very mod!); SE corner of Powell and Carrall, most infamously known as Loft Six Nightclub but called the Savoy back during Expo. This was one of the very first buildings built in the wake of the Great Fire, as also the Alhambra and also the ones where the Blarney Stone and its neighbours are in the same block of Carrall. The upstairs of the building on the SE corner of Columbia and Hastings was built specially as a ballroom; now subdivided to rooms-on-the-cheap of course; not sure if the building has a name. Also that one big hotel on the corner of Alexander & Columbia, where Il Forno is, has a notable history; it was a great location because the level crossing of the tracks was there, out to the various water-taxi docks (Cambie, Carrall and Abbott had underpasses). And in that same area, although I think it's gone, was the CPR Telegraph Office, a nondescript one-storey brick building that was on the north side of Alexander, just where the buildings begin again, where those new condo/rowhouses are. The Pegg family used to own the two buildings that were the core of the development; the Peggs - can't remember their operating name - were one of the three busiest wholesale groceries firms in the city for decades (with Malkin, etc.). Is the Malkin Building on anyone's list btw? Also the BC Sugar Refinery or whatever it is out on the north side of Powell near the rail crossing...similar the grain terminals have histories (especially one that exploded at one time - the one by Second Narrows think...water got in the silo, y'see....Skookum1 07:42, 8 March 2007 (UTC)
• Ferrera Court at Hastings and Jackson, heritage apartments and a blurb about Jack Benny on a little heritage marker, will examine it again next time I'm in the area.
• Hydroelectric substations of Vancouver - As per mention of the Murrin Substation below, quite a few others in the city are quite striking of worthy of inclusion in an illustrated list. The Dal Grauer substation on Burrard was considered by Robin Ward to be one of the finest examples of architecture in the city in a Sun series in the 90's, although I wouldn' go that far...--Keefer4 11:55, 8 March 2007 (UTC)
• Evergreen Building - Another Erickson... and was slated to be demolished and then subsequently altered through extension upwards, which generated a minor stir a few short years ago. Nothing happening to it, yet, although across the street on Pender is a mess.--Keefer4 11:58, 8 March 2007 (UTC)
• Eatons Building or Sears Building the whitewash monstrosity-- or whatever you want to call what's gotta be perhaps the most despised piece of architecture in city history, and for that reason alone-- I suppose it should be included somewhere.(although if it's part of Pacific Centre mall or TD Tower (Vancouver) (debatable), perhaps we can find a way out of dignifying it with its own entry.)Thoughts..(??) I like the reference to 'toilet white' in the TD tower piece, btw...
• Gur Sikh Temple, Abbotsford - Canada's first Sikh temple; article in today's paper (Sun I think) ahd a writeup on its centennial. The big temples in Vancouver and Surrey should also have articles, especially the ones that "were in the news for one reason or another"....Skookum1 03:45, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
• Blood Alley (Vancouver) - dab'd because of a film by that name that already has an article; companion piece to Gaoler's Mews....Skookum1 03:47, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
• Don't know what it's called - the big steam plant by BC Place; provides steam heating for an extensive network of downtown buildings, been around for years; one of the routes of the hidden "underground city" in Vancouver; its service tunnels help connect the old tunnel network in Chinatown-Gastown (what's left of it) as far west as Bute & Melville or further; supposedly with the right set of keys you can still go the whole distance that far from about Carrall & Hastings....Skookum1 03:48, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Demolished buildings in Vancouver

• • Arena Theatre (Vancouver) Demolished in 1936, replaced by the Murrin hydro sub-station (itself one of the grooviest art-deco buildings in town). Looks like a dump in old photos, but was a hot bed for commies (and the police spying on them) in the '30s. It's where the vote for the On-to-Ottawa Trek was taken, to the relief of the police and the chagrin of the Communist Party leaders. Jimi Hendrix's grandma, Nora, used to perform there in Minstrel shows.

• • Imperial Theatre (Vancouver) (i think). Not quite demolished, but will be soon. It's currently a porn theatre (Venus) beside the Brickhouse at main and union. Important Chinese venue, acts from China would perform there. I think Birth of a Nation was shown there when it came out. In the 1930s, Nazi propaganda films were shown there, possibly under the auspices of the Italian consulate. It was closed for years, then was converted to an autobody shop, then to the porn thing in the 70s. Apparently it's lost all it's architectural value after so many bad renos and poor upkeep.
    • NB there was an Imperial Opera House, either on Pender just west of Carrall or maybe this was the one up by Howe; also the old Princess Theatre at Gore & Pender (where Pavlova danced...)

• • 52 ½ W. Cordova. (see talk page) Don't know if it had a name, but it was the HQ for the Relief Camp Workers' Union and other Communist projects, and a bustling spot during the Depression. I think a lot of relief camp strikers lived there during the 1935 strike. It's now the parking lot beside the Burbon Street pub near Woodwards.
    • McLennan & McFeely (a hardware/building supplies business, and notable not just for what projects it supplied but also for both McLennan and McFeely themselves, as their bios are interesting). (see talk page)
      • Literary Storefront, upstairs from Cabbages & Kinx, which hosted a series of Nobel Laureate poets back in the early '80s and late '70s (Heaney, Brodsky, Milosz....).Skookum1 02:40, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

• • The original PNE Exhibitions buildings (I'll find a pic)

• • BC Chamber of Mines - not sure if this is still "up", but it's only a facade now; it's not the only thing in the financial district worth at least a picture; speaking of which Vancouver Club and Terminal City Club should probably already have articles, and a history of the Rowing Club should include that the building/dock was originally at the foot of the cliff at the north end of Hornby or so (in other words, on the water below where the Vancouver Club is now).

• • Hotel Vancouver (second) - Incredibly beautiful building, demolished in late 40s(??). But some stories about veterans housed here for a time (depression perhaps, gotta research it). Anyway, thin it deserves an article in its own right.

The article exists as Hotel Vancouver (Demolished) and I just fixed the redirect for Second Hotel Vancouver which went to the current Fairmont-run place. There should also be, however, an article on the First Hotel Vancouver, not sure how to title it Hotel Vancouver (Demolished 1916) maybe (I think it was 1916). A relatively unimpressive gabled arts & crafts type building - I think it was arts and crafts, mostly because of stone facing around its skirt and the ivy all over it, but maybe it's something stylistically that I don't know the right name for; it had a big front porch, house-style, and full CPR-quality service; not sure if it had a Panorama Roof but I think so; it doesn't show in the photos, if it's there, except maybe as a widow's walk on the gable (maybe there was a patio up there, I can't tell); it did have the Spanish Grill, though and the Timber Room or whatever the lounge is called; those names were created for the First Hotel Vancouver, used in the Second, and also used (with much less effect, compared to the older version) in the Third.Skookum1 07:10, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

• • not sure what their titles would be, but the first and second CPR stations should get mention, especially the second (foot of Granville, Chateau Gothic); likewise the old Great Northern Station (Vancouver) which was by far the nicest of all the train stations (it was still standing when I was a kid, but I was never in it; behind the Ivanhoe Hotel. Speaking of which, just for newsworthiness, other entries will be American Hotel (Vancouver) and Cobalt Hotel....Skookum1 07:10, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

• • Georgia Medical Dental Building. Built 1929, Demolished circa 1989, one of the taller buildings in DT business district. Nurses on corner of building incorporated into current bldng.
  • Devonshire Hotel - see talk.
  • Ritz Hotel (Vancouver) - see talk.
  • Ho-Inn possibly the Ho Ho (Vancouver restaurant). Chinatown landmarks (plus great neon) and social gathering spots for almost everyone through the Ho-Inn burned to the ground in the late 80s. Or perhaps as part of a Buildings in Vancouver's Chinatown piece.
  • other theatres:
    • Savoy Theatre (Vancouver) (might have been called Savoy Cinema, even Savoy Cafe - first cinema showings in Vancouver c. 1901-02, used to be about where the Telecom building at Cambie and Cordova abuts the re-Woodwards' (Storyeum) garage.
    • Lyric Theater (Vancouver) - part of the old second Hotel Vancouver, built by the CPR, originally named the Orpheum before the more recent one was built.
    • Strand, Coronet, Capitol....
    • Princess Theatre (Vancouver) - unless this already has an article; was at Gore & Pender, once focal point of "high culture" - Pavlova danced there....
    • Lux Theatre Sadly demolished in the mid 1990's.

The link goes to an article in the categorie, Theatres in the United States. Is it really the one you want. Canadianshoper 01:32, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

Nope; thanks for the heads-up; just suitably retitled the redlink.Skookum1 01:51, 8 March 2007 (UTC)