Back in 1981 this was yet another Downtown gas station, this one run in conjunction with Dominion U-Drive, and a B F Goodrich Tire dealership. (Gas was 34 cents a litre, and you could collect the free tumblers as well!) Ford dealer Dominion Motors occupied much of the rest of the block, with the Dufferin Hotel (now the Moda Hotel) at the end. Dominion Motors had previously been located further up the same block of Seymour, on the west side, in the former Vancouver Motors building, which they had taken over in 1940, and before that had moved several times since their first West End premises in 1910.
Originally there were houses on this block, all the way to the hotel. By the mid 1940s there were a couple of car sales lots next to the hotel, but the houses on the rest of the block were still occupied through to the 1940s. By 1950 the Vogue Garage and auto sales had been built mid block, but from the corner with Nelson there were still 7 houses; two rooming houses and one occupied as offices by the BC Govt Registrar of Voters. In 1952 just two houses remained, and Vancouver Motors were using the corner as a parking lot. By 1955 the U-Drive operation had been established here, and the company had taken over all but one of the houses – the one housing the Registrar of Voters.
Dominion Motors closed down in 1986, and we think the site was used for parking for several years. In 2002 two new rental towers with 430 units were built here, with retail on the main floor.
Image source: City of Vancouver Archives CVA 779-E06.23
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Changing Vancouver 