Update: In February 2022 it was announced that the Wing Sang Building at 51 East Pender Street and reportedly the oldest in Chinatown, is going to be the new home of the Chinese Canadian Museum.
Story from Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History
In 2006, I wrote a story for Marketing Magazine featuring Bob Rennie and his move into Chinatown. Just two years before, Rennie paid a million dollars for the Wing Sang Building. He bought it sight unseen and didn’t go inside for the first six months. “People think I’m crazy,” he told me. “Do you want to go for a walk around inside? It’s scary.”
And it was, in a dilapidated, kind of fascinating way. I followed Rennie and his constantly ringing mobile into the bowels of the building. When we came to a boarded-up door, Rennie looked around, rolled up his expensive shirt sleeves, and found a shovel to lever off the bar. Then we were climbing up six flights of stairs, past rat traps, broken windows and old stoves.
Built in 1889:
The original building, a two-storey Victorian Italianate structure went up in 1889. That was back when the population of Vancouver was around 15,000 and extremely hostile to the Chinese. Yip Sang operated an import/export business, a bank and a travel agency and sold everything from Chinese silks and curios to opium—which was legal until 1908. He added a third storey in 1901, and in 1912, a six-storey building went up across the alley. It was connected by an elevated passageway to include a warehouse, a meeting place, and a floor for each of his three wives and their 23 children. Because there were so many offspring, they were each given a number in order of their birth.
Henry Yip, son of Kew Mow, number three son of first wife, was born in 1917 on the fourth floor of the building. He was only 10 when his grandfather died, but when I talked to him in 2006, he told me he remembered Yip Sang as a “Disciplinarian.” “He used to sit beside a potbelly stove next to the doorway of at the front of the building smoking his pipe and watching everybody go in and out.” Yip Sang had a strict curfew and would lock out family members not home by 10 p.m.
$10 million renovation:
Shortly after my tour, Bob Rennie spent $10 million to turn the back of the building into a private art space to house his massive art collection. He left the original Chinese schoolroom untouched and put a neon sign that says “EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALRIGHT” on the building’s rooftop garden. Bob regularly holds free public tours of the building and art gallery, and at one point it became a satellite gallery for the Royal BC Museum with an exhibit by a young Emily Carr.
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15 comments on “Wing Sang Building”
What is not obvious is that when these buildings were erected there was that there were buildings built facing the alley behind the Wing Sang building and additionally there was a narrow walkway passage between the buildings facing Pender street and the alley behind it. It is similar to the “Fan Tan Alley” in Victoria. There is still a remnant of the old pedestrian walkway area that can sometimes be accessed by that small short storefront immediately adjacent to the Wing Sang building west.
Thanks Anthony, I’ll take a look next time I’m down there.
There is a hidden mall behind those buildings with store fronts. There is also a very narrow walkway with a red steel gate off Pender Street. The hidden relic mall is city owned public sidewalk but both entrances are normally locked to prevent illicit activities. If you’re interested to check it out I can get access through the athletic club who’s back door goes into the hidden mall. Drop me an email to arrange for a time.
I would love to do that when we get back to a near normal. Thanks so much for the offer Anthony!
Eve, do you know anything about W.H Chow? He appears as the co-architect on several old buildings in Chinatown. Apparently established White architects would lend their license to his projects so he could build. There are a few online references one can google, such as the one in the “Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada.” But no one seems to know when he was born or died.
I just looked him up in Don Luxton’s Building the West (page 284). Says with the exception of his own house on Lorne Street (1904) he did most of his work between 1912-1914. Says he built frame dwellings, offices, stores and apartments/rooms. Interesting that he designed Yue Shan Society HQ and Mings and Ming Wo on East Pender – all still standing. Also interesting that he worked with WT Whiteway on several Chinatown buildings. He was refused admission to the Architectural Institute of BC in 1921 because supposedly he lacked technical skills …. There’s a picture of him in an ad (W.H. Chow contractor, builder and timber dealer) from Henderson’s Vancouver Directory, 1908
Hi Eve,
W.H. Chow was refused admission into the AIBC due to racism. I am conducting research on him and have found some interesting information but there is still a lot to uncover! Hopefully I can share publicly one day!
Yes I read through the lines! I’m looking forward to hearing more about him. Eve
Beautiful and lovely to see. What’s interesting too is that the tiny building to the left is still there, with red window frames. What is that building? Thank you.
Hi Eve,
Fascinating story , there is so darn much history in this city and in fact most of the Province , fine work and much appreciated ,
Cheers,
Dave
PS. I’m 80 now but if I had it to do over again I would be either a historian or an Archeologist , never could decide which😁
Never too late Dave! Thanks for stopping by
That was a great story! I would love to go on that tour one day through that building!
Great story and lots of comments. Ah Bob Rennie. The devil or not. When he changed teams he became more into giving back.
I believe Carol Lee Bob’s daughter and George’s ( older George owned 1 Water st , 2 Water Steet and so forth) niece offices are there. She ownes Chinatown BBQ on Powel just down from New Town. Only meat , rice ans one veg she brouht back the old style. Spicing is flawless with cinnemon not cassia and so forth and used with a lighter hand.
Very good and in tun has elevated New Town as well.
My lament is Shanghai Alley!
Tragic!
I would love to visit this place one day!
Visiting the building and the beautiful museum now housed within it, I twigged that this was also once the location of the Yen Lok Restaurant… beloved of my childhood. Any information about the years between the building serving as a warehouse and it’s restoration into a gallery and museum space?