Selwyn Pullan shot these photos of the Ritz Hotel in 1956, shortly after it had been renovated into this awesome mid-century modern look.
But while it had a fancy name, the Ritz Hotel at 1040 West Georgia was originally designed as a YMCA in 1912 by Henry Sandham Griffith. Griffith had offices in Vancouver and Victoria and was riding the real estate boom of the time. He made enough money to build himself a castle-like manor he named Fort Garry on Cook Street in Victoria, that later belonged to David Spencer and became known as Spencer’s Castle. It’s now part of a condo development.
Unfortunately for the YMCA, the economy tanked in 1913, the First World War broke out the following year and the Y couldn’t raise the money to finish the building. It sold, and was completed as the St. Julien Apartments in 1924. Radio Station CJOR launched in 1926, and shared the building for the next three years.
The St. Julien Apartments didn’t last long. By 1929, it had transformed into the Ritz Apartment Hotel, offering hotel rooms and fully serviced apartments. One of its long-term residents was Mabel Ellen (Springer) Boultbee, a divorcee who is said to be the first white child born on Burrard Inlet. She was born in Moodyville in 1875 and died in her room at the hotel 77 years later. She shared the apartment with her sister Eva.
Mabel and Eva ran a school together in the 1890s, and Mabel wrote for the Vancouver Sun’s women’s pages for 30 years. She was also a member of the swanky women-only Georgian Club which occupied the top floor of the Ritz Hotel from 1947 until the building’s untimely demise in 1982.
The Devonshire Hotel—our other much loved and storied building just two blocks away on West Georgia, came down in 1981, replaced by the HSBC building.
The Ritz Hotel was replaced by the 22-storey hideous gold Grosvenor building.
With thanks to:
- the Vancouver Public Library and BC City Directories
- Chuck Davis’s Vancouverhistory.ca
- Changing Vancouver blog
- Building the West: Early Architects of British Columbia by Don Luxton
- Find a Grave
To find out more about fabulous buildings that no longer exist – go to: Our Missing Heritage
© All rights reserved. Unless otherwise indicated, all blog content copyright Eve Lazarus.
20 comments on “Our Missing Heritage: The Ritz Hotel”
I’ve always wondered why the guests in Pullan’s photo of the Ritz bar are wearing their coats. Maybe we’ll never know.
The Ritz was a beer parlour when I was young. Wish I had paid more attention to my surroundings at the time. I think I took my coat off though.
Good post. I’d like to hear more about the real estate boom and bust cycle one hundred odd years ago.
Thanks! Selwyn used to stage all his shots, and this was likely a commission from the architectural firm that did the renovation. He probably thought the coats looked classy (I do).
Very Interesting.
I recently acquired a shipping container ( very large old trunk) it has a shipping label on it to M. Birnbaum Ritz Hotel Vancouver from AN Beaver Fur Co. Spadina Ave Toronto. Did they sell furs in the Ritz Hotel? If so any idea years they did? Thank you!
In 1973, I spent evening of my 21st birthday at the Ritz in the days when 21 was the legal drinking age. Before that age I did most of my drinking on Granville and Hastings Street in places that were less fastidious about asking a patron’s age.
While the Ritz was simply a beer parlour it seemed a bit — there is only one appropriate word — Ritzier.
The drinking age was lowered to 19 in 1970! I drank at the Ritz when I was – ahem – 16.
These stories about “the first white…” fascinate me. Europeans have “marked” their territory with these firsts wherever they have established themselves. This is the first I hear of Mabel Ellen Springer. I had encoutered in my research another “first white child born in Burrard Inlet” – Pierre Plante a.k.a. Peter Plant, born in Moodyville (later North Vancouver) to Pierre Plante, a French-Canadian from Trois-Rivières, who married in 1869 Ada Guinne, daughter of Supplien Guinne, one of the first settlers of Marpole, and granddaughter of Squamish Chief Khatsalahno, whose village was originally in Stanley Park. So really, Pierre Plante Jr. was a Métis, but since his mother could “pass”, both his native and French-Canadian roots were “disappeared”. In fact, given his attributed claim, he was selected as the carriage driver to Lord Stanley when the latter came to claim his newly-named park.
Re. the Ritz, I have a matchbook and cool swizzle sticks from that hotel. thanks for this very interesting post.
I am fascinated and very jealous about your Ritz branded swizzle sticks and matchbook.
Yeah I remember walking through the Ritz Hotel on a Sunday afternoon while it was being demolished in 1983 despite being gutted of all furniture one could tell it was a once a very grand affair. (that was back in the day when construction / demolition sites simply had “Keep Out” signs and simple fences)
I am intrigued by Maurice’s point. According to Chuck Davis in his History of Metropolitan Vancouver the first white male born on the Inlet was Henry Alexander, son of Richard Alexander, manager at the Hastings Mill. Henry was born in 1873. Perhaps your Miss Springer was the first female. Anyway I agree with Maurice’s imputation that perhaps it is time to abandon these claims.
Yes, Henry got in first by a couple of years. You’re probably right about first woman, and I agree with both of you. Who cares–poor Mabel didn’t even get a street named after her! Anyway, this is all distracting me from researchingthe name of the first English Springer Spaniel born in Moodyville. Later!
How would they be abandoned? They are simply historical facts.
Thanks again for another great read, Eve. Love your stuff.
Thanks so much for stopping by!
Thanks for this post, Eve. I hadn’t noticed it earlier. I LOVE the Selwyn Pullan shots at the start!
For more info on Mabel Springer (and others of her clan and of their circle), this post may be of interest: https://vanasitwas.wordpress.com/2018/02/09/the-remarkable-images-of-the-springer-album/
Thanks Murray, that’s really interesting!
Does anyone remember the disco in the Ritz the loose caboose! It was downstairs, great place, this would have been in the mid to late nineteen seventies?
Worked in the captain’s locker in 1958 .hotel was owned by colie hall. He. Also owned the Canucks in the PCL.
Worked in the hotel cocktail lounge from 1969 to 1976. Was the largest cocktail lounge I ever worked in. It was a mad house Friday nights after they brought in 19 year old age limit.
In 1948 there was a flood in the fraser valley
So mom my brother, baby sister and I and maybe a nanny stayed in an apt my grandparents had in the “Ritz”. We used to play in the lobby when the nice night watchman was on duty. There was a whitespot beside hotel and we d watch the carhops waiting for them to drop the long trays that fit through the front windows of the cars.
What a great memory! Makes me want to time travel