We looked at this short-lived retail store in an earlier post when it was occupied by Dunlop tire dealer Norman Tullis, about a year before this picture was taken, late in 1918. A year later in this Stuart Thomson image, the Auto Supply Co had replaced the tire store. They sold Dirigo oils and greases, as well as Premium gasoline. We wondered how this was achieved, then we realized that the single gas pump was actually embedded in the sidewalk, as this detail from the image shows. The Rapid Delivery truck is refueling outside the store, and the board on the sidewalk politely requests that other motorists refrain from parking in that spot. H B Nielsen was managing the business, in a modest building that we think was probably developed by D A MacDonald – there’s a 1914 permit for over $3,000 of repairs where Mr MacDonald was owner, architect and builder. The Dirigo Sulphur and Oil Co appears to have been based in Maine, so the oil travelled a long way to Vancouver.

Next door at 429 Howe the Double Tread Tire Co run by William J Bartle was in operation. The next year F C Roberts was running the business, but by 1921, while the Auto Supply Co were still in business, the tire store had become the Mac & Mac Tire Repair Co. Rupert Parkinson was the vulcanizer, and Margaret Barten the clerk, but there’s no mention in the street directory of who either of the Macs were. In 1922 Herman B Neilson was still managing the Auto Supply Co, and next door Auto Electric Co run by E Marshall and V Holman had replaced the tire business.

In our previous post from five years ago, the Stock Exchange block that’s now on the site, designed by Townley and Matheson and completed in 1929, was awaiting the construction of the Exchange Tower – a contemporary office building incorporated into the heritage building. Today it’s completed, and the corner retail unit is now a Swiss chocolate store. (The project was designed by a Swiss architect for a Swiss developer). The remainder of the heritage part of the building is soon to open as the Exchange Hotel.

Image source: City of Vancouver Archives CVA 99-624

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We’ve already seen this corner with its 1899 building, the Alhambra Theatre. Here’s what appeared around 1914, and lasted for less than 15 years; the single storey retail that in our 1918 image was home to Norman Tullis’s tire shop. The most likely builder of these stores was D A MacDonald – there’s a 1914 permit for over $3,000 of repairs where Mr MacDonald was owner, architect and builder.

There are too many MacDonalds in Vancouver to successfully identify anything else about D A MacDonald. There are almost no references to anybody called Norman L Tullis, although a Scottish tanner of that name wound up the company where he was a partner in 1905, so that might be his previous life before embarking for Canada. Our Mr Tullis was manager for Wood Milne Tires operating from 815 W Pender from 1914 to 1915, initially in partnership with W G Sotham. Mr Tullis only appears to have been in the city for four years, by 1919 T M Ramsay was at the Howe and Pender location, described a manufacturer’s agent (as Mr Tullis was).

Today the Stock Exchange tower, designed by Townley and Matheson in 1928 and completed in 1929 at a cost of $600,000 awaits the construction of the Exchange Tower – a contemporary office building that will see the existing heritage office upgraded and incorporated into a much larger building.

Image source: City of Vancouver Archives CVA 99-689

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