Not all the buildings are that old either. There’s the 1978 Crown Life Plaza, St. Stephen’s United Church built in 1964, and the 65-year-old art deco Salvation Army Temple.
The 63 remaining Townley & Matheson homes claim a spot—represented by 1550 West 29th, built in 1922 to showcase the use of electricity and which Heritage Vancouver calls “demolition derby.”
Chinatown and Commercial Drive also make the list, as does the Red Light District of Alexander Street, one of the most interesting of all, and an area I studied extensively for Sensational Vancouver.
In 1913, Chief Rufus Chamberlin wrote in a report called “Social Evil” that “there is no restricted district in the City of Vancouver at this time.”
Clearly no one had told the dozen or so madams who had either renovated existing buildings or built luxurious and expensive brothels along Alexander Street. In 1912, a time when there were few opportunities for women, brothel keeping was an attractive proposition. Dolly Darlington bought a sturdy brick building at the corner of Alexander and Jackson. The one at #504 was designed for Kathryn Maynard by William T. Whiteway, the same architect who designed the Sun Tower, while Alice Bernard hired Woolridge and McMullen architects to design and build a two-storey brick rooming house.
These three buildings still exist, as do three others in the 600-block.
Others, such as the ones owned by Fay Packard and Marie Gomez’s House of Nations, named for her multi-cultural employees, are long gone.
The lists and the tours are certainly raising awareness, but I was curious whether they are actually working. Heritage Vancouver’s Patrick Gunn says past wins include Carleton Hall Arthur Erickson’s 1980 Evergreen building, but otherwise it’s hit and miss.
He sent me this list from the first tour in 2001 as an illustration:
1.Firehall 13 & 15: one lost, one saved
2. James Shaw House (1894): saved and restored
3. Alexandra Park Cottages: lost
4. VGH Heather Pavilion: ongoing
5. Opsal Steel (1918): saved
6. BC Electric Showroom (1928): saved
7. Pantages Theatre (1907): lost
8. Stanley Park structures: various stages
9. 100-block West Hastings, Ralph Block (1899): saved
10. Ridley House (1911): lost, illegal demolition
© All rights reserved. Unless otherwise indicated, all blog content copyright Eve Lazarus.
6 comments on “Heritage Vancouver’s Top 10 Most Endangered Heritage Resources of 2016”
Thank you for this post Eve!
Most tragic about the 1907, Pantages Theatre……They waited far too long to decide to restore it, by the time they decided it was ” doable ” the building had succumbed to total damp rot!…. . A friend of mine, Peter Pantages, who works with us in the Film Industry, is the Great – Grandson of the theatre builder, AND the man who started the Polar Bear Swim, in 1920!
Thanks Rob! That awesome, I’m a huge Peter Pantages fan!
What about St. Paul’s Hospital? Not on the list this year? It is such a beautiful building.
I’d say Opsal wasn’t saved, but ‘rebuilt’ in a form of facadism; and the BC Electric showroom was also a classic case of facadism. Both are nice to have in the urban landscape, but are not outright success stories either. The Ralph block is more of an obvious exception, and the entire block is a critical and integral example how important revitalization and restoration can be for a district, which not long ago was seen as a write-off.
my grandparents owned a 3-story boarding house on Robson Street- I thought it was secure as it was listed at one time as a Century old Heritage home. Next to it was a house turned into a rowdy place called Charlie’s (whore house)! on the corner was a Chinese market. Vegetables and flowers all neatly showing at the store front. That house was a composition. I remember tangled together in quiet chaos, were 3 stories of tantalizing aromas, languages, music, laughter, dinners cooking, shuffling feet on stairs and non-stop toilet flushing.
Sigh. Are you saying Robson St. traded its soul and sold out? I thought it was safe, I wanted to show it to my great- grandchildren this year.
Where might I find any photos from about 1955-1960 . I am sifting through letters to find address but so far, no luck. Last name of grandparents was McCormick.
Hi Maureen: Great memories! I just did a quick check of the 1955 city directory (last one that is online) and there are two McCormick’s on Robson Street – one is Jerome McCormick a salesman at 1030 Robson, and the other is Ray McCormick a plumber at 1222 Robson. I looked at Google maps, and it’s all new at the later, but there is an old apartment building still existing at 1030. As for photos, once you’ve confirmed the address try Vancouver Archives at http://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/ or the Vancouver Public Library http://www3.vpl.ca/spe/histphotos/ both have thousands of photos. Let me know how you get on.