A Mission, A Baron, A Doctor

I hope you aren't tired of Abbott Street since I have a few more places to look at from that same block.

In a previous post I mentioned the Central City Mission which was residing in the Hickey Block for a short term while the mission waited for its building to be built. This is the Central Mission Building which was built directly across the street from the Hickey Block . Building dates listed are 1910 to 1911.

At the beginning of the twentieth century there was rampant unemployment, labour unrest and violent anti-Asiatic riots. There was a need for assistance in the changing economic and labour times so in 1908 local citizens answered that need by organizing the mission which was incorporated in 1909.

The mission's goal was to supply food and lodging to local destitute men. In 1910 construction on this Edwardian-era building began. During the construction it had to be tripled in size due to the worsening economic conditions. When it was finished, this was the largest facility of its type west of Toronto.

This six storey plus lower level is an early surviving design by architect William Frederick Gardiner, who had a long and prolific career, and an early project by Dominion Construction Ltd, which went on to become one of Vancouver's most prominent construction firms.

The Hotel Winters is at the corner of Abbot and Water Streets. Built in 1907, it is a massive Edwardian era masonry hotel.

As with many of the buildings I have featured this hotel had combined functions of retail and/or commericial services on the ground floor and rooms on the upper levels.

This shows the alley between the Central City Mission Building and the Hotel Winters.

This building demonstrates the influence of the Chicago School. Popular architectural styles were used in the hotel business to market a progressive image.

The Hotel Winters was designed by William Tuff Whiteway, the architect who was responsible for the Woodward's Department Store, and the Sun Tower - once the tallest commerical building in the British Empire (1912).

This is the hotel from the Water Street side.

A block south on Abbott Street is a hotel that was originally known as the Travellers Hotel.  When the Hotel Metropole across the street was demolished to make room for the Woodward's Building, the owners of the Travellers Hotel took the Metropole name. I don't think I've covered this one before but if I have, I apologize.

Built in 1910 it is a five storey, classically inspired commercial building. And another Edwardian era structure that was designed by William Tuff Whiteway. The contractor was J.M. McLuckie, a name I've mentioned before, and the hotel was originally an investment property owned by Dr. Robert Clarke Boyle - a prominent physician and surgeon and president of the Vancouver Medical Association.

In the 1930s the original storefronts were altered. Gothic inspired entry doors and sidelights were inserted which reflected a popular design that appeared between the two world wars. It was also indicative of a change in the liquor policy. Drinking establishments such as this one now turned inwards and were no longer allowed to have open windows to the streets.

Now we will walk north again. Not far, I promise. A block to West Cordova and Abbott Streets.

This is 81 West Cordova Street, originally named The Atlantic Furnished Rooms. Built in 1906 this Edwardian era two storey masonry building is notable for a few reasons. One is that it represents hotels that were quickly built after a liquor licensing law passed on July 1, 1906 prohibited free-standing saloons.

Seeing potential in this new city,  Baron and Marquis James Canby Cyprian DeBiddle Cope purchased the land as holding property in 1890. When the building was constructed there was a new optimism for Western Canada's growth based on the proposed completion of the Panama Canal.

The Atlantic Furnished Rooms is representative of the transition between the decorative style of late Victorian and the simple classic influences of the Edwardian eras with its segmental arched windows and elaborate cornice.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

TAGS:Vancouver, Karen Magill, William Tuff Whiteway, Abbott Street,Dr.Robert Clarke Boyle,J.M. McLuckie,history,

Hydroelectric Power and Lions

In the fall of 1903 the first North Vancouver District Municipal Hall was built at the corners of First Street and Lonsdale Avenue. Although the city had been incorporated twelve years earlier the city council had been meeting at different places around Vancouver except for the one obligatory meeting each year in the proper district.

The Province reported on November 12, 1903 about the new Royal Bank at Hastings and Homer Streets. The bank had the city's first safety deposit box and two teller cages. It was put up by Jonathon Rogers (as you may remember Rogers was the first person to step off of the first passenger train to arrive in Vancouver. The Rogers building at Pender and Granville is named after him) One of the credited architects is Sydney Morgan Eveleigh after whom a city street is named.

November 13 of the same year the secretary at the Vancouver General Hospital reported that, during the last month, the hospital's expenditure had been $2,492.16. The house surgeon made a report that there were 38 patients - 26 males and 12 females - at the beginning of the month.

Five days later the Vancouver High School Cadet Corps - the first military cadet corps in Vancouver - was gazetted to the militia as a unit.

The city's first streetcars started serving the public in 1890 and the system was powered by electricity generated from a little steam powerhouse on what is now Union Street. The city grew as did service to meet the need. In 1903 the little power house was no longer sufficient to supply what was needed so an alternative had to be found.

The BC Electric Railway Company started looking for a new source near the city where hydroelectric power could be generated. They found it at Beautiful Lake or, as we know it today, Trout Lake. They built a  tunnel from Coquitlam Lake to Trout Lake. The fact that Coquitlam Lake was nearly ten metres higher than Trout and that there is an annual rainfall of 3.7 metres provided a motive force to generate the power.

Johannes Buntzen, BCER's general manager, supervised the production of the system which was the first hydroelectric powerhouse on the mainland. This Dane has been called the Grandfather of Electricity here in Vancouver because he went before the Vancouver City Council and urged them to attract new industry that could make use of this new source of power.

In 1903 was when H. Hooper drove Vancouver's first taxi - a 'wheezy, two-cylinder Ford'.

Ladner's Landing changed its name to Ladner in 1903. It has never been incorporated as a town or a village but has always been considered a part of Delta. Ladner does not have any official boundaries nor has it ever had a government of its own.

(This piece of artwork was on a shopping cart in downtown Vancouver)

The Carnegie Centre at Main and Hastings had stained glass depictions of Spenser, Milton and Shakespeare installed in 1903. Although they were removed at one time I can attest to the fact that those beautiful pieces of artwork are there today.

The first chairman of the Vancouver Parks Board, Alfred Graham Ferguson, died in San Francisco sometime in 1903. 

Another death in 1903 was that of Nicolai Schou, the first elected reeve of Burnaby who died in office.

The government wanted to stop immigration from China so in 1903 they raised the head tax on Chinese immigrants to $500. It worked, immigration ground to a standstill.

The three Latta brothers scaled the peaks of the Lions. They brought ropes to climb with them since they had heard that was how to do it. But once confronted with the mountain top the men were at a loss on how to use the ropes so those got thrown aside and the men climbed the peaks using small shrubs and bushes and cracks to haul themselves up. Although it would be considered poor climbing form today I am still in awe of the accomplishment.

Robert Service, future poet, arrived in Vancouver in 1903 after working a temporary job with a Duncan Dairy Farm. Here he got a job with the Canadian Bank of Commerce.

I hope you enjoyed this further look at events in 1903 and I sincerely hope that you find the beauty around you.

TAGS:Vancouver, Karen Magill, BC Electric Railway Company, Trout Lake,Coquitlam Lake,Johannes Buntzen,history,

Cosmopolitan Runkle

On Monday I wrote on the Hickey Block and I mentioned how sad it was that a building with so much history had fallen into such disrepair. Today I happened to speak with two of the men who are working on the building and I am happy to report that it is being redone to its former glory. A furniture store is moving in. I will have to get pictures when the work is finished.

This building is the Rees and Higgins Block and it is next door to the Hickey Block. In fact the two buildings were often jointly occupied on the second floor.

Also known as the Abbott Cosmopolitan Rooms, this Victorian Italianate style building is one of the early brick hotels built after the Great Fire of 1886. In 1889, when this was constructed, fireproof construction was considered a very good selling point.

The building below is the Runkle Block also known as the Cosmopolitan Hotel or 101 West Cordova - it stands on the corner of West Cordova and Abbott Streets.

Architects Sharp and Thompson built this four storey Edwardian styled building in 1911. (They were also the architects that built the Vancouver Club and the University of British Columbia.)

If you look closely you might see the initials J.C. R. for the initial owner, J.C. Runkle in the the decorative cartouches on the main facades.

There is space on the ground floor for retail and the upper was used for a hotel or rooming house, depending on the need at the time.

There are two main facades for the Runkle Block - one at 101 West Cordova Street and the other at 247 Abbott Street.

It has a boxy form with a flat roof and square floor plan.

While walking around inside I went to the top floor and got this following photo of the staircase.

The railing was so high I couldn't really see over it so I just kind of pointed the camera over and pushed the shutter button! Good thing I couldn't see this clearly. I don't like heights.

A few of the interior decorations deserved notice as well.

This one block of Abbott Street - between West Cordova and Water Streets - is filled with history. I will have to be certain to go back and get more pictures.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

TAGS:Vancouver, Karen Magill, Runkle Block, Sharp and Thompson,Gastown,Abbott Street,history,