From Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History
Every year Ross Dyck, general manager of the Sylvia Hotel opens about 600 handwritten letters from fans of Mister Got to Go, mostly kids in Grades one and two. And every year he personally answers every one of them.
Dyck has worked in the hotel industry for the past 25 years, before that he taught drama and stage craft to high school kids.
The two Mr. Got to Go books about a cat that moved into the Sylvia Hotel, are so popular he says, that it’s not uncommon to stumble across a bus load of little tykes in the hotel lobby enroute to the Vancouver Aquarium.
“They force the bus driver to stop here so they can come in and find the cat,” he says. “Course the cat hasn’t been around for about 12 years, but we love the fact they still come.”
Dyck is likely the only hotel boss who would say that—but the Sylvia Hotel that celebrates its 100th anniversary this year is a special kind of hotel.
“When I first got here I was horrified. I’d walk into the lobby at 5:30 am and I’d see people walking around in their housecoats and slippers,” he says. “But I can’t think of any other hotel in Vancouver that can say that.”
Last year the Sylvia hosted a fifth generation wedding. The first family member was married there in 1913.
A woman in her 90s came to stay at the hotel for a night. Her mother had stayed at the Sylvia years ago and she showed Dyck the invoice. In those days, two nights accommodation, two breakfasts, and seven phone calls came to $7.14. When the woman checked out the next morning, Dyck charged her $7.14.
The same family has booked room 801, the same room that once housed the Dine in the Sky restaurant–for a month in the summer every year since 1990.
Over the years the hotel has hosted people like Pierre Trudeau and Errol Flynn. Like a good hotel manager, Dyck doesn’t like to name his famous guests, but he’s comfortable telling me that singer songwriters Jane Siberry and Jennifer Warnes are both regulars.
The Sylvia Hotel received Heritage Designation in 1975. Six years before the Englesea Lodge (seen in the photo below) burned to the ground.
Dyck, who likens his job to that of mayor of a small town, says that the best part of his job is that in the five years he has worked at the Sylvia he’s never had the same two days in a row.
