Sareena’s Place is nothing much to look at, but it’s a valuable facility within the Downtown Eastside.  The structure dates back to 1909, although we’re willing to bet that the stucco dates from around 1950. It’s changed colour many times – back in 1979 when our ‘before’ image was taken it was the Wings Hotel, and pale blue. In the early 2000s it was pink, and the New Wings Hotel. Today it’s name reflects the clientele; a privately owned SRO housing building with 56 rooms now managed by Atira for women facing multiple barriers and challenges, paying welfare rates. It’s now named after Sareena Abotsway, one of six women identified as victims in the Pickton trial. Atira took over management after the City of Vancouver closed the property in 2005, a year that saw three murders in the building. The owner spent a million dollars in repairs before it reopened.

Vancouver Public Library have an image of the building when it was much newer, from around 1910, and it was known as the Dunlevy Apartments. When it opened Frank Vandall was the proprietor, but he just managed the property; the 1908 building permit was issued to Parks & McDonald. John Parks and Donald Bain McDonald were miners, and obviously pretty successful as a couple of years after this building they built another on West Pender. We know they retained this building from subsequent repairs to the building submitted by John Parks and Parks & McDonald in 1921. By 1930 the Dunlevy Rooms had become part of Japantown, managed by K Kaminishi. The building was still listed as the Parks and McDonald Block in the 1940s street directories.

Donald Bain McDonald was Scottish and about 10 years older than his Irish partner, and in 1911 both lived on Jackson Street. We traced them to the ‘Unorganised Territories’ in the 1901 Census – they were both miners, working on ‘their own account’, lodging with Charles Redmond and his wife, Ella, at Bonanza Creek in the Yukon. They had arrived in Canada in 1894 and 1893.

Mr. McDonald was involved in a curious case that led to the dismissal of the Gold Commissioner for the region. In 1902 the Dawson Daily News told the story of two women who started an action that led to the dismissal. “No. 13 (on upper Dominion) was originally staked by H. J. Burt, the packer, but he having left the country, it lapsed by non-representation and was subject to relocation under the proclamation of Gold Commissioner Fawcett. Burt’s title to the property lapsed at midnight August 31, 1898, and Mrs. J. T. Kelly and Mrs. E P Minor were on the ground ready with stakes prepared beforehand. At exactly midnight they drove their stakes, Mrs. Kelly staking the lower half and Mrs. Minor the upper half. Ladies First. Alex McDonald held Burt’s note for $2,000 and it was alleged he was given permission to relocate the ground. The relocation was made by Alex’s brother, Donald McDonald, the staking, however, being a few minutes subsequent to the staking by the ladies. The ladies, by having provided horses near the claim and a boat at the mouth of the Hunker, outstripped Mr. McDonald in the race for this property, he having chosen the Bonanza trail overland. Although both their staking and their application for record were prior to McDonald’s, Fawcett refused to allow them to record. His reason for refusing being that he recognized McDonald’s right to relocate. On October 11 the ladies compromised with the McDonald interests and were permitted to record. Through this claim and through these facts came about the famous Minor Case, which resulted in the Royal Commission being appointed to examine Commissioner Fawcett’s case. Mr. Fawcett was afterward dismissed from the office of Gold Commissioner.”

By 1920 the building was known as the Dunlevy Rooms, a name it retained until at least 1955. We think Mr. McDonald died in Burnaby in 1952, aged 91, single. There’s a John Parks, retired, living on Water Street until 1941, but we can’t be sure if it’s the same John Parks.

Image sources; City of Vancouver Archives CVA 780-323 and VPL.

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This house is pictured in 1968, so very nearly 50 years ago. It was built in 1899 by Frederick William Sentell.  F W was elected as a City of Vancouver alderman for a single year, in 1890. Some of the family history can be extracted from interviews with Major Matthews, the City Archivist, but those records are somewhat confused, and not totally in line with contemporary records like the census.

The Sentell family arrived from New Brunswick in 1886. Piecing the various records we can pull together we think there were at least five Sentell brothers, all carpenters and house builders, Ephrahim, Alfred, Frederick, James and George, and there were at least six sisters, Margaret, May, Sophia, Charlotte, Ann and Florence, although we’re only sure that Florence and Charlotte lived in the city (and Florence might have been known as Ann). The 1891 census shows Edward, their father living in the city, listed as an 83-year-old farmer, his wife, Margaret (shown as Margrett), aged 66, with Ephraim, James and Florence as well as a granddaughter, Annie, with her father, Meelett Fowler, who was also a carpenter (and C M Fowler in the street directory). George Sentell lived with his wife, Clara, next door to Edward, E B and G J Sentell on East Hastings Street. Frederick (aged 31 in the 1891 census) lived with his wife Alice, who was from Quebec and aged 19, and their infant son, Fred. The street directory has some different ideas about who lived where, but in 1891 all the different families were either living at 409 or 417 E Hastings. Before arriving in Vancouver the Sentell brothers had worked on building the railway, both in Brandon and Winnipeg, and their last job was building a bridge across Granite Creek.

Frederick Sentell & Alice Slade married in Vancouver on 13 May 1889. Fred was 30, Alice just 17. Alice’s parents were shown as John and Margaret Slade; both from England, but Alice was born in Quebec. We might know what Fred and Alice looked like; there’s part of a picture said to be of an 1888 church outing: the Vancouver As It Was blog identifies them sitting behind each other. Fred has his younger sister Charlotte on his knee; Alice Slade is sitting behind him to the right.

In 1871 John Slade was an English-born house painter, living in Montreal with his Irish wife Mary and infant son, John. In 1881 he was still in Montreal, but he had shaved a few years off his age (or the 1871 census was inaccurate), and his wife was now Harriet, and son John was 11. They were the only family called Slade listed in the province of Quebec. In 1891 the family were listed in Vancouver: John Slade was listed as a house painter, living close to here on Prior at Gore. A second son, William, born in Montreal in 1883; older son John was at home, a clerk in a drug store. An Irish-born labourer, Patrick Fox and his wife Alice lived next door.

We haven’t found any birth records for Frederick Sentell’s wife, Alice Slade, in Montreal, but there was only one Slade family in the province, so although she seems to slip from the census, it seems likely that she was John’s daughter, born to his first wife, (Mary, or Margaret), and sister to his eldest son, John. The Archives have a family picture of Alice and John Edward Slade from 1878, when they were small children, photographed in Montreal. John Slade seems to have remarried and moved to Vancouver with a new wife, Harriet, and they had a son, William. (When William married in 1915 his mother’s name was recorded as Harriet Anne Morgan, born in England). John Slade’s death was recorded in summer 1895. In 1901 Harriet Slade was shown in the street directory as ‘widow of John’, living on Gore Avenue (at Prior). The census shows she shared the house with her son William, and Alice Fox, listed as her sister-in-law.

The Sentell brothers had built a number of the city’s earliest wooden structures, including the first City Hall on Powell Street soon after the fire. They started on September 1st on the $1,290 contract, and completed it in 30 days. When the City Council of the day couldn’t pay them for the work, they locked the building and refused to hand it over until they received their money, which took two weeks. There’s a hint in a Chilliwack newspaper that the brothers were not just builders. One brother (F W from the records that show where some of his children were born) lived for a while in Chilliwack in the mid to late 1890s (possibly farming, like his father Edward). Two other brothers visited in 1898 on their way to the Upper Country, “where they own some valuable mining property”. Ephraim Sentell in 1931 wrote to major Matthews in 1931 to tell him that he, F W, and A J arrived in the city in August 1886, from Granite Creek Mining Camp.

In 1901 the street directory says that Fred W Sentell was living on Westminster Avenue, in Mount Pleasant, while Edward B and G J Sentell were living on Grove Crescent, with Alfred Sentell, also a carpenter. The brothers had bought a large piece of land overlooking False Creek, and built their home here. To their shock the decision was made in the 1910s to fill the creek in, and much of their land, (five legal lots), was expropiated, for which they received $103,500. The census shows that Edward B was actually Ephraim Blair, who in 1901 was shown as aged 49, while Alfred James Sentell was 44 and George Jordon Sentell was 38. Their mother, Margaret Sentell was aged 76, and living with her daughter Lottie (presumably Charlotte) and her son-in-law, John Johnson, who was Norwegian, and worked as a drayman. (The Johnsons had been living on Grove Crescent with the three brothers in 1898).

In the 1901 Census Fred Sentell was aged 42, his wife Alice was aged 28, and they (perhaps inaccurately) they had two ten year old children, Alice born in April 1890 and Fred, born in July 1890. As only Fred had been shown in 1891, either Alice was adopted, not really a daughter, or it was an error by the Census Clerk. We can’t find any further records of an Alice Sentell born around 1890. There were three other children; Clifford, Otto and May, and there are birth records for William, born in 1892, who presumably had died as a child. In 1911 Clifford, Otto and May Sentell were still at home, and there were four younger siblings, John, William, Dorothy and Grace, the baby. Fred was 53, ‘Alisse’ was 39.

Ephraim and Alfred Sentell never married, and continued to live together as a household for many years. Alfred died in 1931, single, aged 71, Ephraim died in 1948, aged 96, also single and George the same year, aged 85, widowed.

844 Dunlevy is a good example of a pioneer Queen Anne Victorian style. It features bay windows on the front and side extending the full two storeys, gingerbread detailing and a decorative front porch. The house was first leased to Ontario-born grocery clerk William John Lamrick and his two daughters, Bessie and Sarah. From 1907 to 1920 Harriet Slade lived here. We’re reasonably certain she’s Alice Sentill’s step-mother. In 1911 she had her youngest child, William, still at home, and shared the house with her sister-in-law, Alice Fox, who had lived next door in 1891 with her labourer husband, Patrick.

The house was bought around 1920 by Mrs. Emma A. Winchcombe (widow of Isaac), and the family continued to own the house for many years. By the late 1960s it was in an area that was destined for demolition; a third of Strathcona was eventually demolished for ‘urban renewal’ and it was intended to clear all the houses, and build a freeway to Downtown on this spot. Fortunately those plans never came to fruition, and unusually, nothing was changed on the house, it had the original wooden windows, mouldings, even the wallpaper. In 2004 new owners took on the task of comprehensively restoring the house. In 2007 they won both a Vancouver City and Provincial Heritage Award of Merit for the saving and restoration of their house.

Image source: City of Vancouver Archives CVA 808-18

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R V Winch developed one of the largest and most prestigious office buildings of its day. Five storeys, over a basement, designed in the Beaux-Arts Classical style, it was completed in 1911. Mr. Winch, originally from Ontario, started in the city as a meat and game dealer with a store on Cordova Street. We looked at his second retail location on that street in 1890. He had hired Thomas Hooper to design a retail store in 1889, and he returned to Hooper and Watkins in 1907 to design this building. Construction took 3 years, was completed in 1911, and cost a reported $700,000. It was described as “an entirely modern Class A office building, the first of its kind in British Columbia” It’s something of a departure from some of Thomas Hooper’s other buildings – here he was given a generous budget (initially costs were estimated at $380,000) so he designed a stone-clad building (albeit on a steel and reinforced concrete frame) that would look at home in London or Paris.

There was no cost-cutting on the interiors either; the interior woodwork was carried out by Stewart & Co of Guelph, Ontario, although most of the other trades were local. It was one of the earliest reinforced concrete buildings to be erected in the city, closely following the adjacent Post Office, (also completed in 1911, which is probably when our BC Archives image was taken) The six-storey building featured 312 steel grillage beams, granite piers and reinforced concrete floors. It contained 130 offices and two Otis Fensom elevators. The stone for the façade came from the Fox Island Quarry at the mouth of Jervis Inlet.

Initially there were many businesses with their offices here, including of course Mr. Winch himself. During the 1920s an increasing number of the offices were rented as federal government facilities, and the building was eventually purchased by the Federal Government for a number of departments in 1928. In 1939 the new owners added more office space, but reduced the interior design of the original by removing the first floor’s glazed domed ceiling seen in this early interior shot.

While still a Federal Building, and used as offices on the upper floors, the building was dramatically transformed in 1983 by Henriquez Architects with Toby Russell Blackwell into the Sinclair Centre, with retail stores as well as the government offices around a central atrium that combines four heritage structures.

Image Sources: Library and Archives Canada and City of Vancouver Archives CVA 1376-14

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There were three Meikle bothers in Vancouver, and they all lived in this house and business on Gore Street when this picture was taken at the turn of the 20th Century. John D Meikle was aged 32 in 1901, William was 30 and Douglas was 34. All three brothers were from Scotland, with John, the head of the household arriving in 1894, and his brothers joining him in 1898. Meikle Brothers ran the Vancouver Soda Water Works from around 1900 here on Gore at the corner of Barnard (Keefer) Street.

Early soda bottles from the company show ‘Black Bear Brand’ ginger beer in ceramic bottles (that sell today at auction for several thousand dollars). The business prospered, although Douglas Meikle seems to have left the city quite soon after 1900. In 1904 the business became a limited liability company with $25,000 in shares issued, “to purchase or otherwise acquire the business, property and assets of Meikle Brothers, carrying on business in the City of Vancouver, as manufacturers and dealers in mineral and aerated waters”.

The Meikle’s seem to have picked up an earlier business; the Vancouver Soda Water Works had been in business as early as 1888, located a block west of here in the 700 block of Westminster Avenue (Main Street today). Initially it was run by A C Murchison & A F Derraugh, and in 1890 just by Mr Murcheson (who was Archie in the 1891 Census, but listed in the street directory as Colin), who moved the business to this address in 1892. He was from a Scottish family, but had been born in Ontario. Around 1893 the business seems to have closed for a while, and in 1894 it resumed operations, run by Alex Calley, (wrongly altered to Alex Kelley in 1899), partnered with G D Cross. From 1900 to 1905 George D Cross had his own Soda Water company on Pender Street, later run by A D Hossack after G D and J D Cross severed their relationship with Cross & Company in January of 1905, although the company continued in operation under the original name.

By 1908 Meikle Brothers were merged with Cross & Company and had moved to Richards Street, and of the three brothers only John D Meikle was still in Vancouver. Cross & Co continued in business making flavoured soda until the 1960s. These premises were taken over by Bell & Tedsbury, a lumber supplier, and G N Transfer Co. After the first war S Konokogi, a blacksmith occupied this location, with Joseph Robertson, a cooper, who remained here until the 1920s. By 1930 the site had become the Gasoline Alley service station run by Benjamin and Harry Felstein, later renamed to the Gore and Georgia Service Station, owned in 1950 by Joseph Lopez. In 1999 a new 2-storey retail building was completed, designed by Scott Gordon for J & F Investments.

Image source: City of Vancouver Archives CVA Bu P25

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These two hotels are now joined together, but started life as rivals. The Silver, on the left gets its name from the developer, W S Silver. Designed by Grant & Henderson, it was completed in 1914, and was built by J J Disette for $30,000. The Avalon is five years older, and was designed by Parr and Fee for McLennan and Campbell. You can still see the Parr and Fee central pivot windows, in the $35,000 building constructed by Purdy & Lonergan. (Contract Record published the price as $45,000). When it started life it was known as the Savoy Rooms, run by Mrs Lillie Schadt, with a number of commercial tenants: the Mail Publishing Co, the Vancouver & Provincial Brokerage Co, Modern Office Supply Co, Upton & Heighton, real estate agents and Newmarch Cooper & Co, manufacturers agents.

William F Silver was from England, born in 1861, listed as a broker in the 1911 census. He had arrived in Canada in 1903 with wife Isabelle, who was shown as a year younger than her husband and born in Ontario. The Silvers had spent some time in the US, as the 1911 census shows sons William, a 24-year-old plumber, Kenneth, 23, a farmer, Neil, 21, and Hugh, aged only 8, had all been born there. Edith Brand, their 13-year-old niece also lived with them in Burnaby, on the corner of Kingsway and Silver Avenue. In 1900 they had been living in King County, Washington, where William was a life insurance agent.

The US Census for 1900 tells us that Isabelle’s mother was from New York and her father from Scotland. The three oldest sons had been born in Wisconsin, but there was a 1-year old son called Hugh born in Washington. (Either he died, and the family had a subsequent son also called Hugh, or the 1911 Canadian census recorded his age inaccurately). The birth certificate of one of the older sons tells us the family were living in West Superior, Douglas, Wisconsin, and that Isabelle’s maiden name was Isabelle McKinnen. Their marriage certificate from their wedding in 1863 shows that Isabelle was Jane Isabella McKinnon, born in 1860, her father was Laughlin McKinnon, and that she was a year older than her husband. Isabel Silver’s death was recorded in 1937, when her birth was shown as 1858 and her father’s name as Lachlan.  William F Silver died in December 1943, also in Burnaby.

McLennan and Campbell appear to be a development partnership of convenience, rather than an established business. Although there were many McLennans in the city, our guess would be that it was R P McLennan, the hardware mogul originally from Nova Scotia. In partnership with Edward McFeely of Ontario he built a huge warehouse on Cordova Street, and another on Water Street. Another company building was also designed by Parr and Fee and built by Purdy and Lonergan a few years earlier. There were hundred of Campbells in the city, so establishing which one developed the building is impossible without a clearer indication of a connection to an individual.

Over the years the upper floors have retained their residential use as the Silver Rooms and Avalon Apartments, (the Savoy name having been dropped by 1920). Retail uses have come and gone on the main floor; in the 1950s Haskins and Elliott sold bicycles and A E Marwell sold artist’s supplies. The cycle shop had been there over a decade.

Today the two buildings operate as a single privately owned SRO Hotel. The Avalon Hotel was purchased by Mario & Mina Angelicola in the late 1970’s. Our image dates from 1981. It was turned into an SRO (single room occupancy) in the late 1990’s and houses approximately 85 low-income tenants today.  Jenny & Josh Konkin, grandchildren of Mario and Mina have managed the hotel since 2010, also establishing Whole Way House in 2013 to provide support to the residents.

Image source: City of Vancouver Archives CVA 779-E16.13

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We’re looking at the north side of the unit block of West Pender Street in 1981. Several buildings have changed, and that will be even more true in future as development is likely to finally develop the corner lots. As we’re looking east, we’re counting down from the former gas station at 99, already closed down and used as a car rental lot when our ‘before’ image was shot 36 years ago. There was a gas station here 80 years ago when it was identified as the Pender Abbott service station – gas and oil, and a century ago in 1917 it was the Central Gas Station, managed by W Noble who lived next door in Patricia Lodge.

Before the gas station opened there’s a 1909 image showing this block; it shows no structures on the corner lot, so ignoring the small gas station kiosk, this must be one of the only never really developed lots in the city. The two storey building was occupied by Stevenson Bros, wholesale boots & shoes, numbered as 83 W Pender. It dates back to the turn of the century, appearing in the street directory around 1901 as the Boyd Burns & Co warehouse, (addressed then as 45 Pender Street). That company, which dealt in plumbing and engineering supplies  including Portland Cement, built a new warehouse on Alexander Street in 1907, and a bigger one on Powell a few years later. The building survived many years, and was only incorporated into the gas station site after the 1950s.

The first building still standing is the Arco Hotel at 81 W Hastings. It was designed by Braunton & Leibert for John Walker, and completed in 1912. When it was built it was called Patricia Lodge and it seems to have a delayed opening until 1914. Then the building was described as a ‘private hotel’, seen in this early image by William Stark. It cost $53,500, and was described as “reinforced concrete stores & rooms”. John Walker was listed as a real estate developer in the Street Directory, living on Bute Street, but we haven’t conclusively linked any of the John Walkers in the 1911 census to this development.

Next to the Arco is a 2-storey building dating from 1927. In the 1950s it was occupied by an advertising company and Regal Greeting Cards. Beyond it is a large warehouse building, either rebuilt or remodeled in 1951. There was a clothing manufacturing company, a wholesale sportswear company and Safeway of Canada’s Training School here when it was first completed. We’re not sure if there are the bones of an earlier building underneath the 1950s warehouse, although the building’s appearance suggests that might be the case. Surprisingly, it appears to continue in use as a warehouse today. Beyond is W T Whiteway’s design for the Palmer Rooms Hotel; completed in 1913 for Storey & Campbell Ltd, and completely rebuilt in 2012 for the Vancouver Native Housing Society with funding from BC Housing and federal funds.

Image sources: City of Vancouver Archives CVA 779-E17.22, Sc P57.3 and LGN 1185.5

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We’re looking east along Alexander with our back to Maple Tree Square. Our image is undated, but that’s a 1980 VW Golf on the right, so initially we estimated this was probably shot around 30 years ago. Today the trees are bigger, there’s a bike rack, and some new housing on the north side of the street completed in 1999, but the south side is almost unchanged.

Off in the distance the yellow building is one a building looked at earlier – but with a ‘before’ image that showed a locomotive instead of the building that’s there today. It’s the Four Sisters Housing Co-op, completed in 1988, so the picture must have been taken a little under 30 years ago. Closer to us, on the west side of Columbia Street is the City Hotel. The brick hotel repalced an earlier wooden one, and was built in 1905 and expanded a couple of times by Sam Kee. Hooper and Watkins designed the initial building, Towsend & Townsend added to it, and in 1910 a third addition was designed by W F Gardiner costing $55,000. More recently it has been called Alexander Court, a 59 unit privately owned SRO. The building has been restored, and now has the original brick façade rather than the painted upper floors in both these images.

Next door is another rooming house, but this one was purpose built. W F Gardiner designed this simple four storey building, three windows across and three storeys high, above a retail unit. The developer was Peter Drost, who also developed Hartney Chambers on West Pender a few years earlier. (At least, we’re reasonably certain of that; the permit is to E G Drost, but there was nobody with those initials in the city, and the architect and builder were the same as for Mr Drost’s earlier project). He was from Ontario, but worked his way westwards with several years as a grocer and flour merchant in Hartney, Manitoba and then Brandon. This rooming house cost him $21,000 to build, and he hired Adkinson and Dill (originally of Seattle) to build it in 1911, with completion the year after. In 1979 it became non-market housing and is owned by the City of Vancouver, known today as the Alexander Residence. When it was first built it was known as the Old City Lodging House.

Next door is the Grand Trunk Rooms, which today is addressed to Powell Street, like several buildings on this block. (The buildings are sandwiched between the two streets, and taper to a point to the right of the picture). The building, which sits on two lots, dates from 1906, and was initially the Grand Trunk Pacific Hotel, addressed to Alexander. In 1908 and 1909 it was run by Fiddes & Thomson – there was no identified proprietor in 1907, the year it first appeared. Both proprietors had run other hotels in the city, and both soon moved on to take over different establishments. In 1910 it was run by Borio & Berto; a year later it was Naismith & Campbell.

There’s no clear record of who built this structure, but there are strong hints. There’s a permit for these lots in the right time frame that was issued to G D McConnell. A 1906 newspaper article describes a four-storey and basement hotel to be built between Powell and Alexander for Mr. Gilbert S McConnell and associates. E Cook was the builder of the $17,000 property, and once ‘rushed to completion’ was to be handed to the management of the Sunnyside Hotel at Carrall and Water. That building was only 20 years old, but wooden, and about to be redeveloped and replaced.

Gilbert McConnell was an early developer in the city, completing buildings in 1889 and 1890. He was an Alderman in 1888 and 1889, and challenged David Oppenheimer for the mayoral position in 1890, but failed to get many votes. He started out in 1887, listed as ‘speculator’ and in 1888 as a builder, and by 1892 had become a clothing wholesaler with a home in the West End. By 1895 he was listed as “boots, shoes and gents clothing”. He continued to live on Haro Street, usually listed as manufacturer’s agent or commission agent until 1912. In 1913 he had moved to Barclay Street, where he was still living in the early 1920s.

Most census records suggest Gilbert Smythe McConnell was born in Quebec around 1857, although his death certificate and the 1891 census said it was 1855. That Census has his name as Guibert, which is probably more accurate, before he changed it for convenience to Gilbert. His wife, Nettie Agnes was from Ontario and ten years younger. They married in Woodstock, Ontario in 1886, and their children were born in British Columbia; William in 1888 and Florence in 1890. Gilbert died in 1934.

The odd thing is that the Contract Record described the building to be designed by Parr and Fee here as a warehouse, but it was clearly a hotel from the day it was opened. The other curious thing is the name – Although it was the Grand Trunk Pacific Hotel, it doesn’t appear to be associated with either the Grand Trunk Pacific Steamship Co, (whose wharf was nearby) or the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. In fact the name didn’t last long; in 1914 the building was vacant, but that year Vancouver Breweries, Ltd. carried out repairs and a year later the Main Junk Co were on the main floor, and the Powell Rooms were upstairs (a name now attached to a building in the 500 block of Powell). In 1916 the retail unit was again vacant. In the 1920s the rooms were still the Powell Rooms, and there were two stores, both with Japanese businesses. They retained that name until 1932 when they were being run by a Japanese proprietor, then the building was vacant for two years before reopening as the Grand Trunk Rooms in 1935 (with a different Japanese operator). The Grand Trunk name has returned again (after briefly becoming The Warwick Hotel), attached to a building that nominally is an SRO Hotel but which offers the rooms at significantly higher rents than welfare rates. In 2013 these were $849 a room, to “students or people with student loans or work visas only,”

The single storey structure started life as a blacksmith’s shop for H Critch & Sons, built and designed by builder G Dunlap. The Crich business had been based here for some years, and in 1908 Kendrick & Dittberner, coppersmiths shared the lot. Improved in 1923, more recently the building has been a restaurant – in the late 1980s it was the Jewel of India, more recently it was a tapas bar called Salida 7 and currently Jack’s Taphouse & Grill.

The building on the right of the picture is the original Europe Hotel, originally built around 1887 with ‘brick additions’ in 1899 to the designs of W T Dalton.

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We looked at the fabulous flatiron Hotel Europe in one of our earliest posts, and another view soon after. Here’s the original Hotel Europe which became the hotel’s annex when the much larger new structure was built next door in 1908. Our 1975 image shows the fire escape that has now been removed, but otherwise it’s still looking as good as ever. Today it’s part of a housing co-op that includes the flatiron building as well.

The Dictionary of Canadian Biography has an entry for Angelo Calori, the hotel’s owner and developer. “A fire in June destroyed every structure in Vancouver with the exception of one wooden building, which Calori purchased and transformed into the European Hotel. Five years later, after the city’s population had increased from approximately 1,000 to over 13,000, the establishment became known as the Hotel Europe. A photograph of Calori taken in 1893 reveals a confident businessman with dark eyes and a neatly trimmed full moustache.”

Some of this is correct. There was a fire in 1886, and only one building, a hotel, survived it. However, that was the Regina Hotel on Water Street, a long way from Powell and Alexander where Mr Calori’s property was located, and it was run by Edmond Cosgrove after the fire. In fact there’s no sign of Angelo Calori in Vancouver until 1888, when he was initially listed as running a restaurant, with the Hotel Europe getting mentioned for the first time a year later (run by Andrew and Joseph Calorae). His early history in North America isn’t documented, but it’s thought that he may have been in San Francisco before heading to Victoria in 1882 and working in the lower mainland building the railway, and in 1887 he was almost certainly the Angelo Calari working in the Nanaimo mines.

There were actually two Calori brothers in Vancouver, Joseph (actually named Guillermo) and Angelo, who were running the hotel in 1890 – the year they were fined for selling liquor on Sunday at the hotel. We can only find Angelo in the 1891 census, a 28-year old hotel-keeper born in Italy. The picture is Angelo in around 1893. In 1897 there was a third Calori Brother, C Calori, living at the hotel.

In 1899 Angelo had W T Dalton design ‘brick additions’ to the hotel. There’s an undated image that shows only the western half of the building, with a wooden structure marked ‘Hotel Europe’ to the east. So there was an original wooden building, a new larger brick building added later (on the left) and a further replacement in matching style replacing the wooden building in 1899, designed by W T Dalton. The first brick addition was completed in October 1893 when the News Advertiser announced “The new premises of the Hotel Europe were opened last night. Mr. Calori, the proprietor, gave a ball, which was largely attended.” Whether the building we see today was all a Dalton design is unclear – he may have just replicated the first part, and we don’t have a confirmed architect for that.

That 1891 census was missing a few people – Joseph Calori (older than Angelo by three years) was involved in running the business, shown in the street directory and still shared an address with Angelo (at the hotel) in 1901. We initially thought that in 1891 Angelo was married to Theresa, another Italian, although there was no Theresa Calori in the city. A daughter, Josephine Lena Calori was registered as having been born in Vancouver in 1889, at the Hotel Europe, with Doctor Mills in attendance. However, her birth wasn’t registered until 1904, with Angelo Calori listed as the father and Theresa Martina the mother. The 1891 census suggests a slightly different story. Therese Martina was a lodger in the Europe Hotel, with her two-year old daughter Josie, born in BC, whose father and mother had both been born in Italy. The biography says Angelo adopted Theresa’s daughter and they had a second daughter, but we think there was only ever one child, Josephine Lena.

The 1901 census said Angelo and Theresa were married, and that both arrived in Canada in 1882, and Joseph Calori in 1883. Joseph and Rosi Martina, aged 17 and 14, described as Angelo’s brother-in-law and sister-in-law also lived with the family. There were six domestics at the Europe Hotel, three of them also from Italy, and then many long-term residents, one described by the census as a ‘roomer’ and the others as ‘boarders’.

In 1907 Angelo nearly lost possession of the hotel after a complex court case involving financier and developer Frederick T Andrews. Mr. Calori eventually prevailed, and Mr. Andrews was required by the Supreme Court of Canada to sell the building (previously optioned to him) after some dubious paperwork generated by a land agent, who pocketed a commission for the sale arrangement.

The 1911 Census didn’t find Angelo or his family, but Guillermo Calori was aged 50, and living at 56 Powell Street (which is across the street from this building). Around this period Angelo and Theresa Calori are absent from the street directories. After 1910 the hotel was managed by Albert Berger, and then F A McKeown. When the Calori’s returned to Vancouver in 1915, Angelo lived in a 25-room house on Burnaby Street and G Calori was shown still living at 56 Powell Street. That’s probably the same building that in 1906 was used as the Hotel Europe Annex, before the larger new flatiron building was completed.

We don’t know where the Calori’s went to for the early 1910s, although Angelo’s biography says it was a trip to Italy. US border records show that in 1912 Angelo immigrated to Vermont and a year later to Seattle. In 1914, in New York, aged 52 and single, he married Theresa Martina who was aged 53, and described as widowed. Both Angelo and Theresa were born in Varese Ligure in Italy. It would appear that Theresa (Teresa in some records) had originally married somebody else, but had lived with Angelo as husband and wife for many years. As catholics, divorce would have been impossible, so they presumably had to wait for Theresa’s husband to die. Whether (Josephine) Lena, whose birth was registered as Angelo’s daughter was actually his daughter is less clear.

Angelo’s family circumstances (if they were known) didn’t seem to have affected his progress in the city. He built one of the finest hotels, acquired a theatre, and was a founding member of the Sons of Italy, a mutual-benefit society founded in 1905. He died in May 1940, and was buried in Mountain View cemetery. He was predeceased by Lena, who died in 1930, and by Theresa, who died in 1934; all three share a prominent headstone. His son-in-law was the only remaining family member to remain able to deal with Angelo’s will. However, with the onset of the war, he and 40 other Italian men from Vancouver were interned at Kananaskis, Alberta, having become members of a Mussolini linked political club.

Image sources City of Vancouver Archives CVA 780-506 and CVA 81-1.

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The building known today as Alexander Court started life as the city’s first purpose-built synagogue. In 1907 a new Orthodox Jewish congregation appeared, named B’nai Yehudah (also known as Sons of Israel). Their first services were held in a small rented home, at 14 West Cordova, but in 1910 the ‘Sons of Israel’ purchased property at Pender and Heatley and by 1911 a Synagogue was built large enough to hold 200 worshipers. W T Whiteway was the architect, and the building was located in the centre of the plot, facing Heatley Avenue.

The congregation was renamed “Schara Tzedeck”, upon being legally incorporated on June 14th 1917, and continued raising funds to build a bigger building. In 1921 a new synagogue opened, designed by Gardiner & Mercer as a Romanesque building that resembles the mission revival style of design. The original building wasn’t replaced, rather it was moved to the back of the lot next to the lane and incorporated into the new structure which had a capacity of 600. The undated but early image (left) shows that part of the building. Our main image dates from the 1920s.

The congregation used the building until the end of 1947, when they moved to a new building in Oakridge, an area where many of the congregation had also moved to. The old building was reused – although the street directory company weren’t exactly sure by whom, as the directory entry for 1948 just says “occupied”. By 1949 it was acknowledged that it was the Vancouver Boys’ Club Association, and it became the Gibbs Boys Club, sponsored by Rufus Gibbs, owner of Gibbs Tool and Stamping Works. This sounds like a heavy industry concern, but actually its main product was fishing lures. Gibbs lived alone, occupying an entire floor of the Patricia Hotel for 42 years, although he never owned a car or a TV. Mr. Gibbs died in 1968, and by the time W A Graham shot this picture in 1977 the building was boarded up, having lost Provincial Government funding. By then the building had some significant structural issues, and it was sold in 1980, and then sat empty for six years. It was converted to condos, designed by Spaceworks, in one of the earliest examples of adaptive reuse of a heritage structure in the city. One additional historical connection is worth noting; the first meeting of SPOTA: (the Strathcona Property Owners and Tenants Association) took place here on December 14, 1968. SPOTA were responsible for limiting the ‘slum clearance’ of the Strathcona area and its subsequent renewal.

Image sources: Vancouver Public Library, Jewish Museum and Archives of BC L-00391, City of Vancouver Archives CVA 1135-20

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