Occasionally it’s nice to celebrate heritage buildings that have survived the bulldozers and are being used in interesting ways. One of my favourites is the eccentric Accommodations by Pillow Suites.
Accommodations by Pillow Suites, Mount Pleasant
This eccentric former corner grocery store was built in 1910 near Vancouver City Hall and is a short-term rental suite. I visited some years ago when I was writing Frommers with Kids Vancouver and it was like being inside a giant jumble sale. There were Coca Cola lampshades, Campbell Soup light fittings, a fire-engine red 1940s fridge, a 1920 General Electric stove, and an old clawfoot bathtub.
Corkscrew Inn, Kitsilano
Wayne Meadows was on his way to buy some bread one day in 2001 when he saw a For Sale sign outside a 1912 house, just three houses away from his own home. Wayne was six months away from retirement and he decided to buy it for what he calls “a little fix-up project.”
“I did buy it and I did retire, and I discovered that it was a flop house for university kids. Everything had been jip-rocked over.” Wayne, hired architect Alexandre Ravkov for the renovation and became the contractor for his house’s extreme renovation.
Wayne’s wife Sal Robinson, a high school teacher and creative type, jumped in and designed the different room decors—there’s five—with names such as British India, Art Deco and Arizona. She made 83 stain-glassed windows, most of them with a corkscrew theme.
Why corkscrews you ask?
Because Wayne’s been collecting them since the ‘70s, and now owns thousands. He recently returned from a corkscrew convention in Bucharest, and his B&B has a corkscrew museum in the basement.
The Inn won a City of Vancouver Heritage Award in 2004. I asked Wayne, knowing what he did now, would he do it all over again. He told me on the day that he saw the For Sale sign he would have kept on walking.
West End Guest House
Nestled in a sea of non-descript apartment buildings, the pink Victorian house on Haro Street really stands out. Built in 1906 by the Edwards family, visitors are said to include Pauline Johnson, the poet. The Edwards boys, George and Edgar, ran a photography studio on Cordova Street and the family held onto the house until 1964. It became a B&B in 1984.
West End Guest House, 1362 Haro Street. Eve Lazarus photo
The Manor Guest House, Mount Pleasant
Brenda Yablon has operated the 1902 Edwardian home as a B&B for the past 23 years. She recently sold the old house and it will change management next week. As well as being one of the oldest buildings left in Vancouver, and just a block away from city hall, I love the elegance of the architecture and décor and the stunning views.
Buchan Hotel, West End
This is a charming 1926 low-rise building on a tree-lined, largely residential street, just blocks from Stanley Park. The huge hallways have historic prints of Vancouver and Tiffany lamps. There’s a sitting-room just off the lobby with a blazing fire in the winter, comfortable overstuffed furniture and a well-stocked bookcase.
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7 comments on “Vancouver’s top five heritage inns”
You’d love my fave Clair’s Bed & Breakfast in Ladner …. check out her Facebook page.
Looks gorgeous Jean. I might have to do a larger metro Vancouver B&B post later
Hi Eve !
Dawson and I stayed at the Buchan Hotel a few years ago. It seemed to me that it hadn’t always been a hotel – the layout just didn’t seem right. When I told my Mom about it – who had grown up in Vancouver – she said it was the former children’s hospital and that I had spent a fair bit of time there in the early 50’s ! I was a sickly kid and spent a lot of time in hospital until I was about 3 ! Have you heard about that or could she have been mistaken ?
Jeanne
Hi Jeanne: Well, how interesting is this! I’ll check it out, sounds like a fun blog post, thanks for letting me know
Lovely post.
I’ve stayed at the Windsor B & B about three or four times, 325 West 11th, at the back of City Hall, and was told it was a children’s home in the early 1900s. Another great old house.
Hi James! Thanks for this, I didn’t know about them — I see they run three old heritage houses as B&Bs. I see I’ll have to expand my list for next time, it’s a great way to preserve heritage.
[…] necessarily back to their grocery roots. Some have been repurposed into cafés, an antique store, a B&B, and some sell jewelry and […]