Every Place Has a Story

Our Second Hotel Vancouver (1916-1949)

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Our second Hotel Vancouver opened its doors in 1916 and was the most elegant and ornate building that we have destroyed.

From Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History

second hotel Vancouver
Second Hotel Vancouver ca.1930s. Sat at the corner of Georgia and Granville Streets. Courtesy CVA 770-98

Built in 1916 and pulled down just 33 years later to make way for a parking lot, the second Hotel Vancouver was  a replacement for the original Hotel Vancouver which was built in 1888.

Corner Georgia and Granville Streets
First Hotel Vancouver, CVA Hot N53 , 1898 Granville and Georgia Streets

The new 16-storey version had 700 rooms and was designed in the grand Italianate revival style. The hotel had arched windows, turrets, a roof top garden, and was dressed up with Gargoyles, buffalo heads and terra cotta moose.

Second Hotel VancouverAt the end of the Second World War, homeless veterans took over the hotel, and it became an official barracks for a short time before its demise in 1949 at the tender young age of 33. And, after two decades as a parking lot, the site became home to the uninspiring Pacific Centre mall and the 30-storey black TD Tower which opened in 1972

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