The Clarence Hotel/Malones Tap House on West Pender and Seymour Streets is one of the oldest hotels in Vancouver.
We held the book launch for Cold Case BC at Malone’s Taphouse on West Pender and Seymour early last November. It was perfect. Built in the early to mid-1890s, it’s one of the, if not the oldest pubs in the city.
The Clarence Hotel first pops up in the city directory of 1894. It was a pub with 38 rooms for rent. And, while the owners changed over the decades, the hotel’s name did not.
Bob Drabik tells me that his dad Frank bought the Clarence Hotel with his business partner Ralph Fortin around 1960, shortly after they moved here from Winnipeg.
“When I was a kid, I used to go to the hotel on Sunday’s when it was closed,” says Bob. “The beer parlour in those days was divided, men on one side and escorted ladies were allowed on the other side. I don’t know when they stopped that. There was a tiny wall between the two sides but the waiters could go to either side to serve. I think beer was 10 cents a glass.”
Bob says he loved exploring the basement. “It was all in rock that had been excavated. On Seymour they would put the barrels of beer onto an opening that lowered below the street level and one could shift the barrel into a spot,” he says. “From there they could connect the hoses that allowed the beer to go up into the place that would fill the beer glasses.”
Bob remembers small rooms, steep stairs and narrow hallways.
Frank bought out his partner after a few years. Not long after that, the place nearly burned down when the hotplate a resident was using caught fire.
Frank used the insurance to fix the place up, but by 1967 he’d had enough. He sold the hotel, bought an Olds Cutlass 1967, a colour television and mostly retired, say Bob. Frank Drabik died in 1996 aged 82.
The Clarence Hotel sold to Cambie Malones Group in 1998. The group also operates the Cambie Hostels at Malone’s and at the nearby Cambie Bar and Grill.
Teresa James, a retired North Vancouver librarian, kindly sourced the archival photos and put me in touch with her cousin Bob. “Next to the beer parlour was a nice café called The Pepper Mill,” she says. The café was swallowed up by the pub which includes the 515 Bar on Seymour (the original address for the Clarence Hotel).
For more information on the hotel’s early years check out the Changing Vancouver blog.
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18 comments on “The Clarence Hotel – Then and Now”
I am Ralph Fortin’s son. I remember it well, I would hangout there in the early 60’s on summer holidays. I knew all the desk clerks and loved going into the basement looking at very old things that were stored over the decades. My dad hired me and a friend to clean out some of the junk once and I remember coming out of there covered in coal dust.
Downtown was safe then. I still have a watch for the jeweller Ferguson &
Stevenson who rented a space on the south end of the building. There was also a barber shop next to that.
Thanks so much for adding to the story Bob!
I enjoy all of your stories, thanks from many of us
Thanks so much Bob!
I do remember Frank Drabik but I don’t remember his son Bob.
Bob – my father, Stan Drabik, was one of Frank’s brothers. One day in the mid – ’60s, when I was a teenager on summer holiday, Dad brought home a couple of old beer parlour chairs from the Clarence. I bet they were from the basement there. Although they were very sturdy and made of hardwood, one had a broken arm and one a broken leg, and they were very dirty. I cleaned them up and made patterns out of the worn upholstery and then sewed new ones. Dad glued the broken pieces together, and I painted the wood. He showed me how to reupholster the chairs, and we worked together on it. They turned out well, and they got good use at our house for many years. They are still in occasional use.
Clarence hotel is now being operated as The Cambie travel backpackers hostel. Does anybody know what the ghost sign on the front of the building originally read?
Hi Eve
Our family bought the Rainer Hotel ..in 1940 ..however in the 1890;s it was a street bar and brothel ..Gasey Jacks ?
Our family also bought the Marr Hotel in 1954 ..
Lots of stories if you are interested
Paul Berrettoni
And both are still standing! Love to hear more stories, especially if you have family photos! I’m at eve@evelazarus.com
Stayed there one night years ago , couldn’t figure out how the footprints got on the high ceiling above the bed 🤷🏽♂️. Bryan Fortin , Ralph’s youngest son .
Great picture of Mark from the future. 😉
I was going to,print that out as well! November 2023. Hope he is there on time to have his picture taken! Enjoyed all the info here as usual.
I’ve looked and couldn’t find any older bars operating in the city. It’s ironic that the Cambie continues to falsely claim that title after having bought oldest bar in town.
Thanks Lani, that’s what I’ll go with!
*after having bought the actual oldest bar in town.
Once again a great history lesson.Thank you Eve
Glad you enjoyed the story!
In September 1966 I got a ride from Mission into Vancouver early one morning with my mom, in time to start a new job at Woodwards, Oakridge. I was 18, I had a small suitcase I stashed at work that first day, and in the afternoon I rode a bus downtown until a saw a for rent sign, got out and booked into the Clarence Hotel. Within days I was transferred to Woodwards downtown, so I stayed in the Clarence, walking distance to my work, ’til at least Christmas. I think it was maybe $8 a week, and I earned enough at a $1.25 an hour, to cover my room in one day. The Beachboys’ Good Vibrations was playing everywhere I went that fall, and the old guys in the Clarence’s tiny lobby spent a lot of time talking about football. And that fall I went to the Grey Cup parade that turned into a riot, from which I beat a hasty retreat to my safe space, at the Clarence.