This Vancouver Public Library image shows a block of buildings in 1936 in a Downtown that was still more like a small town, than the Downtown of a major city. There were already five properties here as early as 1890, with seven tenants: three carpenters, a bricklayer, a CPR employee, a barber, and Charles Duhamel who worked for Henderson and Couth, who sold coal and produce on Carrall Street. The corner store was built a little later, but still before there were any building permit records.

In fact, there were houses here in 1889, but the street directories only selectively identified home addresses, so we don’t know exactly when they were built, or who their first residents were. There’s an 1889 insurance map that shows the five homes were those beside the grocers, to the lane, (and the three storey across the lane came later). They were initially numbered as 205-215 Georgia Street – the block was reassigned as the 300 block a little later. They couldn’t have been built very much earlier, as there was nothing here after the fire in 1886, and this part of town hadn’t been built on before that, so these would have been the first buildings developed at this location.

The store on the corner featured in the press for the wrong reasons. In 1931 $10 worth of tobacco was stolen in an overnight break in, and two years later the Province noted Paul Winkelman, the store’s clerk was robbed of $57 by two armed gunmen. (E Stalmans was the store owner that year).

A year later the Sun reported ‘Two bandits, armed with a single revolver, held up Leopold Finkelman, clerk, and looted the cash register in the Hamilton Grocery, 699 Hamilton Street, of $41 in cash at 11 p.m. on Tuesday. Finkelman was alone in the store when the two bandits walked in. One of them whipped out a revolver and ordered the clerk to back against the wall, the second gunman looted the cash register. Both bandits then backed through the open door and disappeared.’

In 1935 Special Constable J Hamilton disturbed two men trying to break open the store’s door at 3.00 am, but they managed to outrun him and get away. In 1945, “a polite thief left a scribbled thank you note on the cash register of Hamilton Grocery, 699 Hamilton, Thursday night, after rifling the till of $45. The note said, “Thank you,” and was signed “The Amateur Cracksman.” Also missing were $60 worth of cigarettes, $28 worth of chocolate bars and gum and $3 in stamped postcards“.

There was another armed robbery two years later, and a Winnipeg 19-year-old was arrested two weeks later with a replica .38 revolver, believed to have carried out nine hold-ups over a 2-week period. Earl Hough received five concurrent 1-year sentences for the string of robberies, one involving as assault on a West End grocery store owner. In 1948 a 17-year old was found in the store at 1.05 am by two policemen, who noticed a broken window. A second burglar escaped, and owner Roy Kwong said 35 boxes of cigarettes and 15 of cigars were missing.

In 1950 under the headline ‘Fire Traps Woman Forced To Jump’ the Vancouver Sun reported ‘Mystery Blaze Makes 9 Homeless; Stranger Seen As Flames Break Out. A woman leaped to safety from the second storey of her fire-ravaged suite and eight other persons were left homeless when flames raced through residences at Georgia and Hamilton Tuesday night. One of the hundreds of spectators attracted to the downtown fire saved Mrs. Monica Walsh, 303 West Georgia, from possible serious injury when he had the presence of mind to unroll the awning of the Hamilton Grocery just before the woman jumped from her flaming home. She landed on the canvas and slid to the sidewalk below. Mrs. Walsh was taken to Vancouver General Hospital for treatment and then released. Destroyed by the blaze, which broke out mysteriously over Hamilton Grocery shortly after 9pm were the Walsh suite and the upper sections of 305 and 307 West Georgia.

The entire block was cleared in 1953, and excavation of the site took much of 1954. By 1955 a steel framework was assembled for what was said to be the largest welded steel frame in North America. The new Post Office building  (which was a state-of-the art partially automated sorting office) saw an opening ceremony in 1958, and continued in operation for over 50 years.

A new fully automated plant was built a few years ago new Vancouver Airport, and the post office was sold to Quadreal, the development arm of the BC Pension Fund. Initially they planned a development with residential and office towers above the 1950s building, but later switched to 100% office, with two rooftop blocks over the heritage structure, both leased to Amazon. In the older part of the building there’s a City Market food store, several restaurants, and soon a new Fitness Centre and a Food Hall.

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We’ve already seen the Roslyn Apartments (now the Elizabeth) on Jervis, and The Florida on Barclay, both developed by recently arrived development partners Andrew Tod, and John Moxam. They had been developers in Winnipeg before their arrival here in 1925, and they hired R T Perry to design a series of modest apartments in the West End, and south of False Creek, that they built in very short order. (We also saw another on Barclay that John Moxam developed on his own).

This was one of their slightly later buildings. The permit for $50,000 was noted in the press in July 1927, and one of their carpenters was injured that same month, while demolishing the house that was originally on the site. (It was built by William Carey Ditmars in 1899). Moxam & Tod quickly flipped the new building, with 13 suites, to ‘a Vancouver Investor’ for $68,000 in November 1927.

Their business didn’t survive very long. A 1929 advert announced a meeting of creditors, organised by the company’s liquidator. The failure of their business obviously didn’t totally ruin the partners, as in 1931 Mr and Mrs Lett went to stay with the Moxams who were at their country home at Brentwood Bay, in Victoria, “Rookery Nook”. In 1932 Mrs Moxam stayed at the Hotel Georgia for two weeks before returning to her home in Foul Bay Road, Victoria, where her husband continued to develop apartments. His partner Andrew Tod and his wife Isabel moved to Nanaimo, where he became an insurance broker.

When it opened in 1928 the building was described in glowing terms. “With Stanley Park at your back door and English Bay but a few steps away, what more could be desired? Only half a block to the car and shops. The suite is modern in all detail and consists of large living room, dining alcove, bedroom, kitchenette and bathroom. Rent $65.”

The tenants soon discovered the West End had downsides too. “Miss M. Ashbrldge. 1835 Barclay street, reported to the police Wednesday afternoon that she was awakened at 3 a.m. to find a prowler at the door of her room. The man fled. Later it was found that he had stolen $1 from another room in the house.” Four months later R. C. Parks found his rooms ‘ransacked by a prowler but nothing was taken.’

In 1941 Mrs Campbell was running the apartments, and leasing suites for $65 – $70, to adults, and required references. Senora Emilia Davidson was offering Spanish lessons to beginners or advanced students in 1945. In 1950 a 3-room suite was available for $80, and in 1955 the Top Suite, with a view of the ocean, was $110 a month for a ‘quiet, reserved adult’.

In 1959 Jean Buchanan could afford to move out after inheriting $190,000 from her brother, a retired Seattle police officer who amassed his fortune investing in the stock market.

The Waldron was bought by former real estate salesman and accountant Keith Shepherd in 1968. An unapologetic gentrifier, he acquired a portfolio of older apartment buildings that he renovated and re-leased (preferably to transient tenants) at an average of 30% more than before he bought them. It’s seen here in 1974.

In 1986, developer André Molnar demolished the old building and built a strata project on the property. The new building was called ‘Parkside Place’, with 22 units designed by MacDonald Hale Architects. The units were sold with 1 bedrooms from $82,900, 2-bedroom from $129,900 and 1-bed and den from $119,900.

Image source: City of Vancouver Archives CVA 1095-01342

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We saw this building when we looked at the 100 block on the north side of Water Street. It’s known in the Canadian Register of Historic Places as the Twigge Block, and is said to date from 1898. When it was built it was numbered as 137 and 139 Water Street. There’s no architectural attribution for the warehouse, or the additional two storeys that were built before 1906.

Something about that date doesn’t add up, because it was already in use in 1896. The Daily World shows that it was actually developed earlier, in 1895, and that Major Twigge, the developer, had a partner, E Cook. We saw Edward Cook’s history when we looked at his 1892 development near here on Cordova. He was from Ontario, a builder and sometime developer who was responsible for building many of the city’s more prestigeous buildings, including Woodwards. He arrived in 1886, and was still building in 1928. The architect for this building was G W Grant.

John Twigge had been a member of the British army (in the Royal Engineers). He moved here around 1891, with his brother arriving a year or so later, and both invested in property throughout the Lower Mainland. Major-General John Twigge and his brother Samuel Knox Twigge, came to Canada in 1887 and looked at Vancouver before 1890. They were the sons of Captain John Twigge of Dublin. John’s wife, identified as Mrs. S.K. Twigge and her two daughters came in 1891. They lived in a house on Pender Street, jointly owned by the brothers. Both brothers were developers, including the ‘Twigg Block‘ on Granville Street.

This building was occupied by Kelly, Douglas and Co at 137 Water Street in 1897, and W H Malkin who were at 139 Water by March 1898. It’s known as the Malkin today, but both companies moved on pretty quickly; W H Malkin to a much bigger warehouse to the east, and Kelly, Douglas an equally massive warehouse just to the west.

By 1905 G H Cottrell (a commission agent) was in 139, with Charles Milne, and F H Cottrell (who was George Cottrell’s son). At 137 G F and J Galt had their wholesale grocery business, with C J Peter as manager. Mr. Cottrell appears to have bought 139, where he carried out $1,000 of alterations in 1911. He was in the storage business by then, and he developed a warehouse on Cambie and another on Railway. That year he had a customs brokerage business here, but the space was leased to A W Young & Co, Imperial Tobacco of Montreal, J A McComber’s wholesale produce business and F G Evans & Co, who were brokers. At 137 there were three tenants; W H Gunn & Co, commission agents, Young Bros, tea and coffee, and Alcock Downing & Rose, wholesale importers of plumbing and electrical supplies.

In 1918 Gold Seal Ltd of Calgary were operating in 137 when prohibition was introduced. They sold wine – $1 a bottle, or $8.50 a case. “REMEMBER You can’t buy these wines in British Columbia after April 1 or import them from outside. Lay in a supply now for medicinal purposes or for table or social use.” In 1921 they were still here, advising that with the ending of prohibition on May 1st they were struggling to fulfill all the orders that had flooded in.

In 1930, for over two decades, Chess Brothers operated their wholesale produce business in 137, and Chapman Bros, who were in the same business, were in 139 in the 1930s and early 1940s, replaced by 1950 by Ridgway & Adderley china manufacturers.

By the mid 1950s 137 was called the North Western Building, and 139 was also owned by the same North Western Warehouse Co, with the Brinton-Peterboro Carpet Co, and various importers and manufacturers agents leasing space. Thompson River Mining also operated from here.

In 1963 the entire building at 137 was vacant, and there was a fire that caused considerable damage to the top two floors of 139. Artists took the opportunity to occupy cheap warehouse space, with the Gastown Studio setting up in 137, and there were art classes available in 139.  As Gastown changed in the early 1970s from a warehouse district to a tourist-oriented retail street, Scandinavian Imports operated in 137, soon replaced by the Leather and Things store, and then by by the Maharajah Restaurant, while Gestalt Studios were in 139.

In 1996 extensive renovations were carried out and an additional two floors were added, and a residential strata building called ‘The Malkin’ replaced the warehouse space. Designed by Paul Merrick for a company called Amadon, there are now 12 big loft-style units on six floors (above a floor of retail). Previous owners, the Imperial Fox Fur Co, sued the developers for $44,142.77 ‘persuant to an agreement’.

Image source, Heritage Canada

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This single storey retail development was built in 1922, and is seen here in 1978. It was developed by R O’Hanley, who hired E Evans & Son to design it, and Blackley & Turner to build the $9,500 investment. This was Ronald O’Hanley’s only development in Vancouver, as far as we can tell. The notice of his death, in 1934, said he had resided in BC for 38 years, but it was actually longer, as he was listed living in BC in Union Mines in the 1891 census. Then he was aged 21, and a coal miner. Born in Cape Breton in Nova Scotia, he was an engineer (probably at a mine) in 1901 on Texada Island. He was described as ‘of Texada’ when he married ‘Nettie’ (Sarah Euphrates) Ross, of Orillia, in 1902, and they returned there after their wedding.

In the following years he moved at some point – R O’Hanley was an alderman in Port Coquitlam in 1914, and then joined the army during the war. In 1918 he was on a train from Montreal that derailed, killing several servicemen, but he was apparently unharmed. By 1920 he was living in Vancouver, a salesman with C C Snowden, and living in the Beaconsfield apartments on Bute Street. His employer made a wide range of cleaning and lubricating products, mostly from oil. He was still working for the same employer in 1930, living at 1001 West Georgia, and listed as Ron O’Handley. He died in 1934 at his home at 790 Howe Street, still working as a commercial traveler. “He was well known in Northern Alberta and throughout British Columbia.” His wife died in 1951, in Vancouver.

For many years after the store was completed it was a drug store, initially Grandview Drugs (run by Frank Whaley) until 1928, then the Reliable Drug Store until 1933. Both stores had armed robberies; in 1927, 1929 and 1932. A fish market opened, and promptly closed in 1935, and then from 1937 to 1941 the Grandrive Shoe Service, followed by Grand Re-New. In 1948 Harry Mah Dong opened his Master Tailors store, which remained here until 1995, although John Ngo took over in 1972 and in 1975 it became Master Tailors and Cleaners (seen in the picture).

Next door were 906, and 910. Combined into one store as Everbest Grocery in 1948, run by M Chiu (according to the street directory) into the 1950s, although the Vancouver Sun said someone else ran the store. In 1951 “Jack Chin, proprietor of Everbest Grocery, 910 Commercial, told police he was lying on the chesterfield in a room at the rear of his store when he heard someone force the back door of his storeroom. Chin grabbed his pump shotgun, loaded it and ran to the doorway. When he saw one of the burglars in the storeroom, he shouted: “Stop or I’ll shoot.” But the burglar failed to heed the warning. Ducking his head low, he ran out the back door towards a gate at the rear. Chin fired the shotgun in his direction.”

Mr Chin’s response was more understandable considering just 9 months earlier the Province reported that “approximately $1500 in merchandise was stolen from Everbest Grocery, 910 Commercial, Tuesday night.
Proprietor Mathew Chin told police that cigarettes, tobacco, a Swedish rifle and shells, costume jewelry, tea, two bottles of whiskey, a case of butter, some stamps, a piggy bank containing $50, and some aspirin tablets were taken.”

In 1922 there had been a dry goods store (Allen’s) next to a bakery (Godley’s), and a wide variety of other businesses and services that never stayed more than a year or two, from Acme Signs to the Grandview Sports & Social Club. The one exception was George’s Barber Shop, run by George A. McLeod, from 1936 to 1947 in 910 Commercial. Everbest was here until 1995, when the Commercial Super Market replaced it from 1996 to 1999, before plans for redevelopment saw the building cleared.

In 2005 the replacement for the single storey building was completed, called City View Terraces, designed by Ankenman Marchand. There are 18 strata units on the top three floors, and retail below. There’s currently a tattoo store, a pharmacy, and a cafe and coffee shop.

Image source: City of vancouver Archives CVA 786-79.01

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Central City Mission was built in 1910 and designed by W F Gardiner. The idea for a building had started in 1907, and in 2 years $45,000 was raised by selling shares. The 1910 permit was for a $75,000 reinforced concrete building – which would have been one of the city’s earliest to use the new construction technique, and advisable in a six storey structure. Initially, in 1909, the site was acquired for $55,000, and 5-storey building was announced. J G Price, who was also sometimes an architect, was the builder.

The building was to be ‘fitted out in a modern way and containing a gymnasium, baths, classrooms, restaurant. bedrooms, offices, auditorium, employment office and savings bank and other conveniences. Besides doing reclamation work the object of the mission is to provide cheap, homelike, sanitary accommodation and congenial surroundings for miners, loggers, sailors and other classes who are only in the city a short time during which they are subject to temptation.’

By September 1910 construction was underway, and $80,000 had been subscribed. The building now had a steel frame, and had been constructed at seven storeys, (six above ground), 72 feet square, with concrete floors. The front elevation was clad in Clayburn pressed brick. There was a 600 seat auditorium on the main floor, with ‘two electric fans under the stage. In this auditorium will be centered the religious work of the mission. While this aspect of the work will be prominent, it will in no case be forced upon the patrons of the house, who will be free to come and go as they wish and for whom the one object of the mission Is the provision of clean, comfortable rooming quarters at a reasonable price.’

There was a dining room and kitchen in the basement, as well as a reading room and library. Overindulgence by loggers and seamen was a particular problem in the city, with many months wages paid out, and a return to the availability of alcohol that was prohibited in the logging camps. ‘Among the novelty features is a cell for the accomodation of such as may be disposed to disturb the meetings or in any other way become a nuisance. This Mr. Henry (the superintendent) thinks will be a better way of dealing with inebriates than ejecting them into the streets’. There were rooms and dormitories on the upper floors, and a hospital ward on the fourth floor. ‘Each floor will have accomodation for fifty men, and will be equipped with six lavatories, two bath rooms and a large wash room.’ The dry tank idea was dropped. A year later in a report on the success of the 200 capacity building, which had cost $100,000, the Province newspaper noted ‘The rules ‘governing the mission are brief but pointed. No liquor is allowed on the premises. Intoxicated men are immediately dismissed as also are those whose language is objectionable. Smoking is only allowed in the proper smoking room.’

In 1912, four additional floors were announced expected to cost an additional $75,000. The existing building was providing beds for nearly 250 men, every night. Fund raising didn’t go as well as hoped, and then the economy took a severe downturn, followed by the war. With many former residents finding war work (or enlisting) the need for the services were reduced, and by 1916 the building was in use as a soldier’s club, with accommodation for soldiers on leave without homes to return to, and the Mission took over the King’s Hotel on Carrall Street. Once the troops had moved from Vancouver to Vernon, later in 1916, the Mission amalgamated with The Rescue Mission and returned to this building. By 1919 150 men were staying here most nights, but there was no immediate need for additional space.

In 1932, with another recession, demand was greater than ever, and a drive to raise $100,000 was successful, but tensions among the population of indigent and homeless were high. In 1933 ‘One man was injured, four were arrested, and more than 800 dishes were smashed in a miniature riot at Central City Mission, Abbott street, late Saturday afternoon. George Watson, 4603 Slocan street, superintendent of the Mission, suffered severe bruises and lacerations when he was attacked by demonstrators. Gordon Van Every, no fixed address, and Carl Reisner, no fixed address, were arrested by police and charged with assaulting Watson. Charges of malicious damage to property were laid against George Lute, 2237 Main, and John Kramin, no fixed address. Police reports state that the disturbance commenced when the table was being set for supper. When Constable E. O. Seeget arrived at the Mission to investigate, the pandemonium was at its climax and it was some time before order was restored. 

In 1934 there was an investigation by City Council into the Mission because the Rooming House Operators complained the building was owned by a corporation, taking their potential clients away by offering cheap accommodation. Although technically true,  ‘shareholders’ received no dividends, and so the operation was in effect a non-profit.

We’re not sure when the additional floors were added, but in 1957 the Mission was accommodating 265 beds, and regularly turning men away despite them turning up with the 30c cost of a bed. In 1960 a new model was adopted, concentrating on treatment rather than just providing hostel beds (as new Salvation Army and other facilities had been developed). Initially, 100 men lived at the residence, with 130 of the 270 beds removed, leaving only those for residents, plus an extra 30 ‘for emergency care for transients’. That use was still in place when this 1985 image was taken.

The Mission developed a new facility on West Pender with 120 beds, that opened in 1993. The old building was sold for $1,050,000 in 1989 and closed in 1993, (having been rejected as the site for a street youth dormitory). K C Mooney designed the conversion to 45 strata apartments called Abbott Place, completed in 1996. The building’s pediment was replaced, and there are retail units on Abbott Street. A 687 sq ft 1-bed apartment sells here for around $600,000.

Image source: City of Vancouver Archives CVA 790-2142

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In 1911, the Runkle Block was completed on the corner of Cordova and Abbott. Previously the two-storey wooden Cosmopolitan Restaurant was here, as we saw in an earlier post. In 1910, according to a building permit, J C Runkle hired Sharp and Thompson to design a new building costing $28,000 and built by Robert McLean. There’s no Vancouver resident with that name, but we have identified  a likely subject. The name ‘J C Runkle’ is on the building permit, and there’s a cartouche on the building with the initials ‘J R’.

Fortunately, Runkle is a relatively unusual name and in the 1911 census there was only one person in Canada listed with the surname ‘Runkle’. Even better, he lived in Vancouver, but he was Gordon Runkle, not J C Runkle. He had lived in Vancouver from around 1906, and died in Nanaimo in 1943.  He was married in the city in 1914, and he had the same architects design a house for him on Marine Drive in 1922.

Gordon had a brother (sixteen years older) named John Cornelius Runkle. Our guess is that Gordon, at the height of Vancouver’s property boom, managed the development on behalf of his brother – an absentee American east coast investor. In 1900 John worked for the National Coal Tar Co, in 1910 he was Vice President of a manufacturing company in Boston, and in 1930 he was an executive of a lumber supply company, living in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1908 he bought an old house dating back to 1765, had it moved, and hired architect Lois Lilley Howe to reconstruct and remodel it. In 1911 both John C Runkle, and Gordon Runkle, made applications to buy land in the Skeena Land District. The family were obviously close; after Gordon’s death, his daughter Pam was married in New York in 1948, and was given away by her uncle, J C Runkle.

Upstairs the Dixie Rooms were addressed initially as 145 Abbott. In 1914, Kathleen Dooley, aged 7, lived here with her parents. The Province reported that “the little girl was attempting to cross the street in company with a small boy. She is said by witnesses to have stopped directly in the path of the approaching machine. The driver saw the danger and applied both foot and emergency brakes, but the car could not be brought to a standstill until after it had struck her.” Kathleen died of her injuries in Vancouver General Hospital.

A year later ‘Bobby’, a white setter went missing, and an unspecified reward was offered for his return. John Burgess, aged 14, lived here in 1917, and was riding his bicycle on Arbutus Street when he fell off and injured himself badly enough to be taken to the hospital. The Rooms closed in 1918, and the contents of 21 rooms were auctioned off by Love & Co. The rooms reopened as the Acme Rooms, and within a year became the Don Rooms, renumbered to 247 Abbott. In 1930 Ole Tallman dropped dead, after he asked his roommate Fred Johnson to get him a glass of water at 3.00am. His death was believed to have been as a result of his drinking a bottle of carbolic acid that was found in the room.

The address appears regularly for death notices, and reports of burglaries. Among the more unusual reports, the death of John Keilly was notable, in 1935. Police found the 65-year-old war pensioner wandering, and brought him back here. His landlady took him to his room, but his confused state didn’t improve, and he died soon after in the hospital, where a fractured skull was discovered. It was later confirmed that he had fallen down a flight of stairs, while intoxicated, before he was found by the police.

In 1944 Fred Lundgram met a charming couple and they all went back to his room here for a few drinks. He fell asleep, and when he woke the couple, his wallet with four $100 notes and his registration card had gone. He told the police, and an hour later a woman was arrested after $200 were found in her shoe. Her companion was arrested soon after, with $100 found in his sock. The death notices were often of loggers, or seamen. Ole Ongstad, a captain with BC Packers was 61 when he died here in 1951.

The rooms were called the Olando Rooms in 1974 when they were closed by a new lodging house bylaw, having failed Health Department inspections. Combined with the adjacent Cook Block to the west, the upper floors became office and commercial space addressed as 289 Abbott. These days it houses a mix of creative/tech companies including Archive Digital and Loud Crow Interactive, a company that crafts interactive book apps ‘that capture the fun and nostalgia of story time’, and a tattoo parlour.

The storefront on the corner became home to The Stanley Cafe, with Commercial Printers in the basement. By 1916 it was the Klean Kitchen Cafe, with May Gerrels selling cigars here too. In 1921 Yetta Franks had her cooking stove business here, but in 1924 it became home to a gun store. In 1929 “The door of Harkley & Haywood’s store, 101 West Cordova street, was accidentally left unlocked and a thief entered and stole two shotguns.” A 16-year old boy, armed with a loaded revolver, was arrested that year behind the library, which he had a passkey for, which he used for a series of minor thefts. He also admitted burglarizing the gun store.

Vincent Cashmore and his son were running the store in 1954, when a friend, Wallace Crawford, paid them a visit. A gun that was being repaired discharged unexpectedly, with the bullet ricocheting off the bench and passing through Mr Cashmore’s hand. In 1957 Michael Packloff of Timmins, Ontario, was jailed for two years for breaking in and stealing two rifles and 240 pounds of ammunition. Our picture shows the store in 1973.

After the gun and rod store moved, around 1980, the London School of Hairdressing was here, (the gun store moved nearby and went into receivership in 1982). Fusion, a consignment store, was here in 1990, and for the past 19 years, La Casita, a Mexican restaurant has occupied the space.

Image source: City of Vancouver Archives CVA 1095-09053

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This Vancouver Public Library image dates from 1945. It shows the London Grocery at 2225 Main Street and the Motor Bureau next door at 2205 Main, The buildings had been approved in 1924. H H Simmonds designed them for  Monmouth’s Ltd and construction cost $6,000 to be carried out by A D Snider. We have no idea who Monmouth’s were. They’re not in the street directories, (there wasn’t even anyone called Monmouth in Greater Vancouver) and they don’t appear in any newspaper articles or notifications. Six months after the development there was a second permit for $500 for a new garage, also for Monmouth Ltd.

We don’t think the buildings were built immediately, but by 1930 Early-Neil Motors, Ltd were at 2205, in a building set back from Main Street, with a forecourt that could also be accessed from East Sixth. 2221 was vacant, Morton Clarke (who were confectionery and tobacco wholesalers) at 2223 and London Groceers and Provisions were at 2225. They were a chain with eleven stores across the city. The unit they occupied was first offered in 1927 for $30 (we assume per week) as a grocers and confectioners, with living room.

By 1931 the car dealer had become Autoteria, where Ed Johnston would pay cash for your car. That year Ed Robertson, the 16-year old delivery boy from the grocerery store was held up by 2 youths who stole $15 from him. The tobacco warehouse was broken into in 1932. Thieves broke into a skylight (using tools they had stolen from another warehouse on West 2nd), and removed a large quantity of cigarettes into a large car they had also stolen. A neighbour, suspicious of the car parked in the lane, called police. As they arrived one man ran away, and a shot fired into the ground by the police failed to stop him. Another man, Lorne S Anderson, was caught hiding behind a bush nearby. The cigarettes were valued at $500, and Anderson (‘active in unemployed demonstrations for the past two years’) was sent to jail for 9 months, with hard labour. Lawrence Manufacturing took over the premises in the late 1930s.

In a 1940 burglary at the grocery store in January, cigarettes were stolen, and another December break in saw the loss of $300 worth of cigarettes, and candy. In 1942 tea and tobacco were stolen, and in 1944 there was another burglary. This time the thief was caught, and Wilfred Humphreys, a soldier on leave from Calgary, was sentenced to three months ‘at hard labour’.

In our 1945 image The Motor Bureau sold used cars at 2205, run by F S Higgins and G F Quinnell, and the street-front building had two stores, Dawfield Meat Market at 2221 and the London Grocery was still next door. To the north was the Popular Priced Dress Shop. Burglaries continued at the grocers, and in 1947 a large police dog was stationed at the back door. The burglars broke in through the front of the building, took $35 from the till, and then left through the back door without the police dog noticing. In 1951 $371 of tea, coffee and other groceries were taken, and the store closed not long afterwards. In 1952 the butchers at 2221 was a Home Service Meat Market, but that also closed not long afterwards.

In 1955 Black Motors sold trucks from the garage, 2221 was still vacant, (although the Tow-Rite Trailer Co were operating from the lane behind, building custom trailers) and at 2225 the unit was home to BC Telemaster tv antennae. At 2223 the Western Rod and Gun Store started operating in the late 1950s. Rifles and ammunition were stolen from here in 1958, and a North Vancouver resident surrendered to police in 1960 and admitted involvement in the burglary. He was put on probabtion, and required to provide a $1,000 peace bond. By then the address was (briefly) associated with a new car dealership offering Peugeot cars.

Rowland Motors operated the second-hand car garage in the early 1970s, E&T Autos sold cars here in 1980, and the last firm to use 2205 Main was Vancouver Taxi, in the early 1990s. For many years the site was cleared, and used as a parking lot. It was acquired by the City of Vancouver for a possible road project that would have continued Kingsway diagonally as far as Quebec Street. That would have involved buying the block to the north as well, replacing a substantial bank data centre and a heritage school structure. The road plan was abandoned, and the City looked at using this site for boosting the supply of moderately priced rental apartments.

Today there’s a new non-market housing developed by the City’s Affordable Housing Agency. Called Aspen, and managed by Catalyst Community Development, it has 145 below-market units. The lower rents were possible because the land was provided by the City of Vancouver, and funding included support from Vancity Credit Union and CMHC. There’s a Steamworks restaurant facing the remainder of the site, which is being developed as a public park, and other retail units, with a pharmacy and a dentist as tenants.

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This is another West End apartment building designed by R T Perry. This was for Moxam Realty & Construction Co on Barclay Street, and the building only stood for about 60 years. It was developed in 1926 as the Moxam Court Apartments, and cost $45,000, replacing a house owned by John Burns, and where his son Fred (of Boyd, Burns & Co) and daughter Mae lived from around 1900. The new furnished suites in 1927 rented for $60 a month. We looked at Mr Moxam’s story in a recent post. He partnered with Andrew Tod on a series of West End apartment buildings,but developed this one on his own.

John Moxam occupied one of the suites when it was newly built, and had his car stolen from here in 1928. It was found, stuffed with sweets, in a lane in the 100 block of East Hastings. Three men were reported ‘acting suspiciously’ near the car, and one was arrested, believed to have used the car after a break in at a confectionery store. H Harrison’s apartment was broken into and looted at the end of the year, with jewelry, clothing and mining stock certificates being stolen. In 1930 it was F B Walpole’s turn to have unwanted visitors. They took $590 worth of goods, including the vacuum cleaner, silver, household goods and clothes.

There were more thefts reported in 1931, 1932, 1933 and 1936, but in 1934 the screams of Mrs R H McCall frightened off three masked youths with revolvers. In 1937 Miss L Garner and her sister frightened off a repeat visitor, trying to gain access to their suite through a window. He was thought to have been responsible for the theft of Miss Garner’s purse earlier in the week. A 1939 burglary was thwarted by the janitor, who interupted the man trying to get into W R Farnell’s apartment, but the would-be thief got away. Later that year Mrs H A McCallum had a radio stolen, and in 1941 Miss H Nathan had her purse stolen through the partly open window. In 1943 G S Cooper, the caretaker, frightened off thieves at 2am on two nights in a row.

There were no further thefts reported after that. In 1952 two business girls were looking for two more business girls to share their large apartment. In 1955 a quiet bachelor suite was available for $80 a month, and in 1968 it was $90 a month. Our image shows the building in 1974.

In 1976 Lort and Lort, for Viva Holdings, proposed a 26 unit condo building on 4 floors, but the project was deferred, and a year later architect Michael Katz proposed a 48 unit apartment building on 4 floors for the Housing Corporation of BC, which was completed in 1979. Called Barclay Square, it’s a strata building, having been sold by the Housing Corporation in 1978 before it was completed. Although the building was a strata, some of the suites were available to rent, as sales were low (with units still available for sale in the early 1980s). In 1983 a 2-bed suite was $625 a month. Suites were still rented out in the early 2000s, and in 2004 a 2 bed, 1 bath, 831 sq. ft. condo  sold for $250,000, and in 2007 a similar sized unit sold for $365,000. By 2022 a 1-bed 716 sq. ft. condo sold for $717,000, and top floor apartments are now assessed at over $1 million.

Image source: City of Vancouver Archives CVA 1095-04922

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This  was initially a more modest building designed by W T Dalton for ‘Mr Murray’ in 1902 (numbered then as 177 Water) and costing $10,000 to build. In 1903 Charles Dashway was proprietor of the hotel, and in 1904 Charles Anderson, so that didn’t help which of the many Mr Murrays in the city might have been the developer here. Fortunately William Murray hired W T Dalton to design a house for him on Beach Avenue at Nicola in 1901, so we’re hoping that’s not just a coincidence. If we’re right, then William Murray was the manager of the Canadian Bank of Commerce, and had previously been manager of the short-lived Bank of British Columbia from 1892. There are just too many William Murrays in the city to be able to tell anything more about Mr Murray.

The Heritage statement for the building says it was called the The Great Western Hotel, but the name was only used briefly, and by 1910 it was the Marquam Hotel, run by Thomas Murray. (He wasn’t the developer, as there were no Thomas Murray’s in the city in the early 1900s, although he could be related). That would have been the upper floors on Water Street until the building was sold and the addition was built. E J Brooks, a logger, was living here in 1910 when he was run down and killed by a CPR Locomotive as he crossed the tracks between Powell and Alexander.

By 1911 there was a new owner. K K Bjerkness had Thomas Hooper design an addition, which we think it’s the back of the building, as there’s a 1909 image which shows the building had 3 floors on Water Street before the addition was built. The hotel/rooming house address then switched to 160 Cambie.

Karl Kristian Bjerkness (actually Bjerknes), was born in Norway in the 1860s, probably in 1866, (although the date moved a little further forward as he got older, and he knocked a few more years off his age, even on official documents like immigration applications when he visited the US).

Mr. Bjerkness also had a ranch at Mirror Lake, near Kaslo. He registered a patent for a firearm from there in 1900. In 1922 he was selling his cherries in Vancouver at a premium price of 25c a pound. He still lived here, and owned this building, as he carried out repairs in 1926, and again in 1939. He built a $10,000 house in 1921, on West 34th, which was visited by thieves in 1949 who hacked out the bottom of a safe with an axe, and stole an unspecified amount of money. He was married to Andrea, but they had no children. She died in 1954 aged 83, and his death was a year later, aged 88.

The building was initially a warehouse on Water Steet. In 1913 A P Slade had their business here at 199 Water, and the residential building was called the David Rooms, (although the newpaper ads said Davis Rooms), where Mr & Mrs Bjerkness also lived. Rooms were as little as 50c, and there was running water in every room. By 1920 they were called the Cambie Rooms, and they still had that name in 1939 when Joseph Sjolin was drinking with two friends here, and then made his way home (four blocks away) at 4.45am (after the landlady said they were making too much noise). He tripped and fell down 13 stairs, and was not expected to survive the fall, and that proved to be the case.

Four years earlier Ernest Woodhouse was running the rooms. He tried to argue that Maud Daley, who was the housekeeper for the rooms, was a domestic servant, and so not entitled to the $812 wages she sought. The courts disagreed, and said the Minimum Wage Act applied.

In the 1940s rooms were leased by the day, or week, and in the 1950s the weekly rate was $6. In the 1940s there were three records of theft from different rooms here, and one of the arrest of Robert Kerr, who lived here, for stealing two purses in 1944. He got a nine month prison sentence. Albert Krahn was running the rooming house in 1946, when he was fined $200 for charging more than the amount set by the Prices Board. In 1948, Edna Ross, who lived here, lost two teeth when she was hit in an unprovoked attack by Jaques Fredette, no fixed abode. He was fined $70, or had to serve 37 days in jail. Dorothy Dessaurault (42) was found in her room in 1953, with the gas taps turned fully on.

The rooming house was apparently popular with loggers. In 1957 Joe Bohler, who lived here, died when a Pacific Western Airlines plane crashed in Port Hardy. He was an employee of Alaska Pine, with no known relatives. In 1965 Victor Kirisits, who lived here when he wasn’t a chokerman employed at Jeune Landing, won $2,550 in damages from two other loggers who beat him up in a bunkhouse when he asked them to turn the light out so that he could sleep. This image shows the building in 1973.

The rooming house had shared kitchens and bathrooms, and in the 1980s also supplied linens and crockery. They closed around 1987, and in 1989 Brian Murfett & Co converted the former 42 room SRO to offices and added a 4th floor. For 28 years Starbucks had a branch here, facing the Steam Clock, but that closed in 2023 and has been replaced by Lee’s Donuts, for many years a favourite on Granville Island. Gray Line tours have their offices upstairs, now addressed as 110 Cambie, and there’s a lawyers offices on the top floor.

Image source: City of Vancouver Archives CVA 1095-08074

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We saw the house that sits next to this apartment building in the previous post. We think it was moved to its current position around 1911, to allow the development of this building. As it’s next to a lane, it has the advantage of a flank wall that can have windows, making it a better location for an apartment development.

The Donnaconna Block appears in the street directories for the first time in 1913, with 9 tenants. The building permit was in 1911, to James J Smith, who also built it. He was actually James I Smith, and he was from Quebec. He was in New Westminster by 1890, and Vancouver a few years later. He was probably the mill hand listed working for the Royal City Planing Mill in New Westminster in 1892, and in 1911 he was superintendent of their mill – we assume the local one at the foot of Carrall Street. He was living in Mount Pleasant on Westminster Road (Main St) in 1901, on West 7th in 1905, and at this address (in the house that we think was later moved) by 1908. He stayed in the same house, next door to this building, until the 1920s.

The tenants here, for 111 years, have appeared in the local press in connection with minor crimes. In 1934 E C Fane’s apartment was broken into, and he had a camera stolen. The burglar also took a bottle of wine from a cupboard, and drank the contents before departing. A Year later W Pike lost jewelry and $40 in a burglary, and Mrs Graham had two purses containing $6 stolen in 1937. Murdoch Graham was in court that year for soliciting customers for a rival laundry, having previously worked for Canadian Linen on Richards Street and signing an agreement not to poach customers for a year. The judge was apparently unimpressed with having to deal with the case, requiring Mr. Graham to abide by an injunction not to do it again, and awarding damages of $1 to the laundry. In 1941 L W Gardiner had a blue canvas bag taken from his suite containing $20.

A year later a resident’s attempt to uphold the law were recorded in The Province. “A 16 year old youth was brought to police headquarters for questioning Sunday evening when he and a gang of boys freed a young auto thief and attacked a citizen who had captured the youth. Leo Boyer, 148 East Sixth shipyard worker, captured the lad after he had stolen the auto of William Leitch, 2162 Turner from Powell and Clark, driven it over the railway tracks near the Capilano Brewery into a gully in the 1400 block, Powell. The gang of youths were sitting on a nearby boxcar and after Boyer chased and caught the car thief, they attacked him and released the lad. The 16 year old was in turn captured by Boyer, and was questioned by officers in an effort to locate the auto thief and the other lads who interfered. ”

Leslie Cottrell, who lived here with his wife, was a welder in a North Vancouver shipyard and was killed in the hold of a ship in 1945 when there was an explosion while he was using an acetylene torch.

In 1947 the building (which now had 16 suites) was sold for $35,800 by J. and M Rozenek to M. Peterson.

In 1916 a four-room suite, with newly installed hot water, was $12 a month. This 1974 image is captioned The Stroh Apartments, and that was their name in 1971 when a bachelor apartment was $75 a month (up from $60 in 1963). In 1978 that had gone up to $175, and in 1990 it was $425 (including heat and hot water). In 2002 a 2-bed apartment was $750.

An interior was used for the series iZombie, and the building sold for $5.3 million in 2017.  Although it was photographed for the heritage inventory files, it doesn’t have any heritage status, and it’s a non-conforming residential use (these days with 17 apartments) in an area seeing significant investment in commercial/industrial buildings, encouraged by the plan that followed the Broadway SkyTrain extension. A project has been submitted for a large industrial and office building on this part of the block.

Image source: City of Vancouver Archives CVA 1095-03467

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