Historic Vancouver Photos

[flight_from_kamakura]

the second hotel vancouver.


it used to stand on the southwest corner of granville and georgia, built 1911-1913 and demolished in 1947 (i think).

profile:

view from the hudson's bay building (vpl archives):



view from georgia medical & dental building (vpl archives):



view from robson street (vpl archives):


georgia street driveway entrance (city archives):


interior (bc archives):

lobbyway



entry to the main dining room


inside the "grill room"


billiards room


entryway to the ballroom

[flight_from_kamakura]

old city hall.

it stood on the corner of northwest corner of main and pender, built around 1890, it served as city hall until the deco building on cambie was finished. not sure of the demolition date, but i'm told it was sometime in the 1960s (all photos from vpl archives).

before the carnegie library was built, there was a public market lot adjacent to city hall:


notice the horse troughs and so forth:


troughs gone, fire escape added:


addition built below the fire escape:


beautiful street profile:


a mini-civic centre at the edge of the core:


at the dawn of the automobile era:


it was damaged some time around 1930 and lost its clock tower:


and then in the 1940s, a new public market:

[flight_from_kamakura]

old vancouver art gallery.

everyone's talking so much about the new vag building, we've forgotten that the current building IS the new vag building (it's only been there since 1983 when erickson finished the new courts complex, freeing up the old one for the gallery). from 1931 to 1983, the vag building was housed in a beautiful example of low rise institutional deco, that sat at 1145 w. georgia, which is just adjacent to the site of the ritz-carlton residences project.

it's a real shame they couldn't save this one.

street profile



entrance


and some lovely interior shots:

[flight_from_kamakura]

cpr terminus, vancouver station.

granville square and waterfront station sit of the site of van horne's old cpr terminus, a beautiful, almost story-book gothic building. it was built with the line and demolished when the cpr decided to build the ports and extend granville street, and that generally, vancouver had already outgrown it. a shame they couldn't have repurposed it somehow, as this thing would look amazing at the foot of granville street.



aerial view



street view



rear view (looking south from the tracks)


and check out these remarkable images (1914) of the construction of waterfront station

[flight_from_kamakura]

the georgia medical and dental building.

there's a thread on here about the demolition of this one in 1989, and though iit had low ceilings, etc, it's still a shame that it was demolished. personally, i think that what replaced it is an abomination. anyway, nearly every town in north america saw one of these deco medical buildings built, and vancouver's was one of the great ones. all photos from the vpl archives.

profile

looking northwest:



looking east:



street view:


interior

lobby and elevators:


doctor's office waiting rooms:



"macdonald's pharmacy":


two views of the beautiful deco auditorium:



and vancouver's first underground parking!:

[Smooth]

Thanks for posting all those pics. I've seen many of them but not all in one place. Another gem that was lost is the Birks Building on Georgia and Granville, where the hideous London Drugs sits now.

[flight_from_kamakura]

great northern way station.

completed in 1917 and demolished in 1965, great northern station (colloquially known as union station) once stood adjacent to the pacific central station. it's pretty depressing to think that on the site of the failed tech park/new st. pauls hospital site, this thing once sat.

profile (from vpl archives):



profile (from gnw in fraser valley website):


street view of the facade and some old time buses (from vpl archives):


interior, facing toward the street entrance (from gnw in fraser valley website):


view of the parks and the two stations (from gnw in fraser valley website):


wonderful symmetry (from vpl archives):


you can see where the warehouses along venables close the plaza (from vpl archives):

[vanhattan]

Originally Posted by flight_from_kamakura

old vancouver art gallery.

everyone's talking so much about the new vag building, we've forgotten that the current building IS the new vag building (it's only been there since 1983 when erickson finished the new courts complex, freeing up the old one for the gallery). from 1931 to 1983, the vag building was house in a beautiful example of low rise institutional deco, adjacent to the site of future ritz-carlton hotel.

it's a shame they couldn't save this one:



some loverly interior shots:

OMG, this art gallery was fabulous! Thanks so much for the photos! Since this was the first and there is talk of building another, I vote that this building serve as inspiration for the next. A truely modern classic building would get my vote. Deco influences would also be great, if done properly.

[SpongeG]

looks like an archway across georgia

vancouver just couldn't leave good enough alone

[Overground]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

looks like an archway across georgia

vancouver just couldn't leave good enough alone

That's a decorative arch built in 1927 for the visit of the Duke of Windsor(future King Edward VIII)...the famous one that abdicated.

Looks like they had a pretty good flag pole back then in front of the Courthouse.

[flight_from_kamakura]

Originally Posted by Overground

That's a decorative arch built in 1927 for the visit of the Duke of Windsor(future King Edward VIII)...the famous one that abdicated.

you got it.



notice the birks and the second hotel vancouver in the background (pic from city archives).

Originally Posted by Overground

Looks like they had a pretty good flag pole back then in front of the Courthouse.

yep, enormous. it was in all the papers when it was built, the tallest pole in western canada they said (true). lol (pic from city archives).

[Overground]

There's parts of that hotel that I like and some I don't. The portico on Georgia is cool though.

Personally I wish they would have kept the square like this. As you can see from shadows there used to be buildings on the south side of Robson that would have created a traditional, enclosed square. Something this city lacks. With landscaping and or paving the square, I think it would have been better than what we currently have.


pic from VPL

[flight_from_kamakura]

Originally Posted by Overground

Personally I wish they would have kept the square like this. As you can see from shadows there used to be buildings on the south side of Robson that would have created a traditional, enclosed square. Something this city lacks. With landscaping and or paving the square, I think it would have been better than what we currently have.

agreed.

old robson square.

(all images from vpl archives)

view of the square from east side of howe street, at grade:


from south of robson, overhead view:


so, opposite the square on the northeast corner of howe and robson, you had the york hotel, with retail at the street level:


then, on the southeast corner of howe and robson, you had the court house block (offices):


across the street, effectively closing the square was the sprott-shaw building on the southwest corner, and the clement block from midblock, which also had some retail at street level:

the best photo i can find of the sprott-shaw building, later ckmo radio building (on the left)


clement building (dance school upstairs)


view of the southeast corner of hornby and robson (sprott-shaw at the end), with partial view of the entire block:

[Nutterbug]

Originally Posted by flight_from_kamakura

anyway, you get the point (which is that the city, the province and the developers utterly ruined the area).

Ruined????

They had to eventually be replaced with bigger, more modern structures.

It's good to preserve a few classic heritage landmark buildings, but for the most part, they have to make room for something newer and better.

[flight_from_kamakura]

Originally Posted by Nutterbug

Ruined????

They had to eventually be replaced with bigger, more modern structures.

It's good to preserve a few classic heritage landmark buildings, but for the most part, they have to make room for something newer and better.

well, yes and no.

it's true that valuing "heritage" is a fairly modern development, and obviously, folks in the 1950s/1960s attached prestige to novelty and modernity. and it's true that it's important for cities to evolve. but most of these structures were not replaced with anything "newer and better". demolishing an old brick low-rise to build a tower is one thing, demolishing the birks building for a parking lot or a mall is something altogether different. and the story of the second hotel vancouver is just shameful.

and you know, it wasn't just "a few classic heritage landmark buildings" in the courthouse square area. we saw the demolitions of the hotel vancouver, the lowrise retail annex adjacent to it on howe street, the york hotel, the court house block, the sprott-shaw building, the clement block, and most important of all, the square itself! contrast the public square of 1940 - anchored by the courthouse, hotels and retail - with the abominable robson square of today. honestly, the only way that thing works is for ubc conferences - it's conveniently located and it's comfortably removed from streetlevel, but it's emphatically not a public space (and we'll see how future developments affect that).

you know, during that "clamshell" debate, at some conference here, this architects association rep called it 'vancouver's beloved robson square' and i fought hard to hold back an explosion of uncontrolled laughter. beloved! the courthouse steps are 'beloved', the courthouse square they should've just left alone. imo.

[deasine]

wow Vancouver looked pretty nice back then. It's a shame we didn't keep some of those buildings... and even for those we kept, it's a shame how we don't preserve them.

[hollywoodnorth]

amazing thanks

[officedweller]

Interesting about the trolley bus and tram - I wonder if there were two sets of wires (temporarily) or whether the tram ran off the same live wire as the trolley bus (and the trolley bus had the extra ground wire)


Check out the display windows of The Bay, kinda wish they were restoring it to the full height windows and entrance awnings in the current restoration - but that wouldn't provide much shelter for the bus passengers waiting.

If you check out the 3rd Hotel Vancouver (the present one) in the BC archives, you'll see that it has been redone inside too - originally it was all art moderne / art deco - despite the exterior being chateau style. It was eventually gutted over the years and replaced with a more traditional look. The current interior main lobby dates to the mid-1990s.

[mr.x]

these are awesome! thanks for sharing!

[officedweller]

Wow that arch is narrow - as narrow as the Chinatown Gate on Pender.

Those 1940s art moderne styled buildings are an endangered breed in Vancouver - following demolition for the Ritz, Sapphire, Yaletown Park and others.