We’ve seen this corner before with the St Francis Hotel, but in 1888 at the corner of Cordova and Seymour the White Swan Hotel welcomed travellers, with the American Restaurant run by H Summers. W H Crumer and William Summers, both carpenters also lived there. S D Somes was proprietor, although two years later James Summers was owner and Edgar Summers was tending bar.
The rest of the block had an extraordinary mix of tenants – at 504 H A Mellon operated their marine insurance office, at 510 Leask and Johnson were ‘agents’ and at 512 Corbould and McColl, barristers had their offices. The U S Consulate operated from 516, with Charles M Bolton running things sharing premises with the Canadian Pacific Steamship Line offices. John Murchie of the Orient Tea Company was next door at 518, and A B Diplock and Co offered ‘Artistic Decorations’ from 520, as well as selling Brinsmeads pianos. Alex Tays, a teamster was at 524, Mr O’llagan was a tailor at 530 and the CPR News Agency were at 532.
By 1891 Captain Mellon was still there, now dealing in real estate as well, and as a bonus was Spanish Consul. Charles Tisdall was making guns, the Bayview Hotel was at 514 with a lumber agent downstairs, and John Canning, a printer, shared premises with E Teather, an artist. Along with several other shipping and land agents there was also an art gallery.
Before 1901 the block was renumbered to 600. It was rebuilt with hotels and small retail buildings soon after the turn of the century – the CPR station was just across the street – and things stayed unchanged for many years. 1959 saw the construction of a Reid Jones Christopherson designed parkade on the Granville Street corner, and in 1985 the Seymour corner was redeveloped with the chrome and black glass tower designed by Tudor and Walters
