Heritage Vancouver released their annual top 10 watch list last month (for 2021), and rather than look at endangered buildings, they have focused on space. I was interested to find Victory Square on the list—or rather not the square itself, but the buildings that surround it, some of which date back to the 1800s. The challenge, according to Heritage Vancouver, is to find the sweet spot between heritage retention and the need for low income housing.
This story is from Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History
What a lot of people don’t know is that before Victory Square was Victory Square and home to the cenotaph, it was a happening part of the city known as Government Square, because it was the site of the first provincial courthouse.
The Original Vancouver Court House:
The impressive domed building was operational by 1890 and was the first major building outside of Gastown. It was quickly apparent that it was too small for our growing city, and within a few years it was given a large addition with a grand staircase and portico facing Hastings Street.
Other buildings started to spring up around the Courthouse. In 1898, architect William Blackmore (Badminton Hotel, Strathcona Elementary) designed a building for Thomas Flack who had made his fortune in the Klondike and wanted to see an impressive building bear his name.
Military and Religion:
The original courthouse lasted just 20 years. It was demolished when the new law courts opened on West Georgia Street in 1912. The square, which is actually a triangle, is bounded by Hastings, Cambie, Pender and Hamilton Streets. It didn’t remain empty for long. By 1914, it was filled with a military tent, used to recruit soldiers to fight in the First World War. Then, in 1917, up went the Evangelistic Tabernacle.
The Cenotaph:
The church too was short lived. The Southams, owners of the Province Newspaper, which was housed across the street, donated funds to develop a park, which was then renamed Victory Square. By 1924, enough public money had been raised to build the cenotaph designed by G.L. Sharp. Sharp had the 30-foot cenotaph constructed from granite from Nelson Island.
The inscription facing Hastings Street reads: “Their name liveth for evermore. Facing Hamilton it says “Is it nothing to you.” And Facing Pender Street: “All ye that pass by.”
Heritage Vancouver Top 10 2021
- Pandemic spaces
- Food Hub near Joyce Station
- False Creek South
- Reconciliation and the Fairmont Building
- Mount Pleasant
- 800 Block on Granville Street
- Kingsway
- 555 West Cordova Street
- Victory Square
- Neighbourhood Businesses
© Eve Lazarus, 2022
18 comments on “Victory Square: What was there before?”
Very interesting, Eve! Thanks for the article.
What interested me even more was the Heritage Vancouver Top 10 2021 underneath, and #2 Food Hub near Joyce Station. I live in this area. I’m opposed to all the tall towers (such as the recent one at 5050 Joyce) and I’ve been to a few of the open houses. The people at the top building the towers etc have no desire to hear the resident’s concerns. I voiced some, and was talked down. All these little places of interest, such as the stores, will soon be gone; no one wants them as part of the landscape. Neither does it seem they want Carleton School at Joyce and Kingsway; it’s been closed for years due to arson. I wish I knew what they were going to do with it! Our way of life is changing a lot, but it has led me to write my own historical articles on this Collingwood area for the Renfrew Collingwood Community Newspaper, and I’ve enjoyed researching about it before it has vanished entirely. Thanks for your inspiration!
Sorry to hear about all the change, but glad you’re documenting it!
Very interesting Eve! I also love the history of the Sinclair Centre, and how it came to be today. It was taken over in 1938, maybe worth a story. They completed many buildings back in the day, and many of them were replaced after twenty years or so. Why did many come down and why did some survive. Good day!
Fascinating Eve! Both my parents had offices in the Dominion Building. Any historical information you know about that building would be of interest. Thank you again.
Everything I know about the Dominion Building is in my first book At Home with History
In the last 1925 photo of this article, you can see small sapling trees growing along Cambie, Pender, and Homer Streets. Those trees are now enormous-sized! One of the huge trees along Cambie blew over in a wind storm a few years ago and crushed a car.
Oh no – didn’t reach 100!
Thanks, Eve! I have worked in both the Dominion Building and Cambie and Pender (with frequent visits to VCC), and have spent a lot of time in Victory Square (look at all that free parking on 1020s Hamilton and Cambie!). Just wanted to note that the contemporary lamp standards there featuring WWI-style military helmets are by architectural designers Bill Pechet and Stephanie Robb (the latter also well-known for redesigning our city’s ‘Vancouver Specials’) … https://pechetstudio.com/portfolio/project-template-2020-4/
Typo! 1920s, not 1020s Cambie … that would be the unceded lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and T’seil-Waututh peoples …
Still is …
Thanks for that added piece of information, I did not know that.
interesting fact s ! thanks for sharing !
I really hate to see the past lost. Revitalized! I like that word. Low-income housing needs tight controls that usually require government control at prevent such an area changing over to an area to avoid….
How can I send my Picture?
Sorry Don, I don’t know why the blog won’t accept photos in the comments – can you send it to me at eve@evelazarus.com?
Do you know who bought the land from the Tabernacle? Did the Southams, and did they sell it or donate it to the city?
Hastings and Hamilton St on the northwest corner of the Square is also the first Street corner in and start of Vancouver’s street map.
Seems fitting that the cenotaph to honour WW1 casualties was built where there had been recruitment for WW1 soldiers. Vancouver just keeps changing. I’ve been away for 12 years and I’m worried I’ll only recognize the mountains and the ocean when I return. The provincial court house must have been a beautiful solid building. It’s surprising it wasn’t repurposed once its use outgrew the space. Too much crime for such a small space.
I also wanted to add to my former comment. I went to the old Kingsway West elementary school where Metrotown now sits. Oh the good old days. My Mother (Bless her heart) planted a tree at the end of Dow Rd. near the sky-train entrance at Metrotown where my Brothers ashes are planted beneath in 1982.